Oh, don’t mistake me preferring Steam (and GOG, for example, who have an actual value proposition to me as a consumer - unlike Epic!) to “Valve worship”. They’re simply the least bad option, but of course they’re all huge corporations. Realistically though Valve has actually surprisingly little bad given the amount of money and market control they have, so eh… for now, I’m happy buying about half my games there (usually ends up that way, though I prefer GOG for games also releasing on that).
DingoBilly@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Eh, they’re all just companies and all just as fallible as one another.
Not sure I get the Valve worship here.
Carighan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
beefcat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
steam is good and egs sucks. it’s not worship, just consumers voicing their preference for a better product.
wicked@programming.dev 1 year ago
Steam is a better product, but you give less money to the developers of the actual game. Unless it has Steam exclusives (e.g. Steam workshop) I would rather buy wherever I give the devs most money.
beefcat@lemmy.world 1 year ago
features like steam input and steam play benefit every me regardless if the developer actively supports them. i use the latter quite frequently.
wicked@programming.dev 1 year ago
Yeah, I understand why people like and buy from Steam. It gives real value.
However, especially for smaller game studios, I believe I get more value if actual game developers get more money than Steam getting it. Let’s say a studio gets $1m in revenue after years of work. Having $180k more ($120k Epic fee vs $300k Steam fee) to spend on artists and developers for their next games/DLCs is a big difference.
Those $300k is literally 0.003409% of Steam’s revenue (estimated 8.8 billion in 2020). Valve could have an army of over 40,000 developers at a yearly $200k compensation and still be profitable just from selling other people’s games.
So I make a big convenience sacrifice when I buy from Epic. I also don’t like to support Tencent. But unless the dev is selling Steam keys directly from their web site, that’s where they get the most money.
sirboozebum@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I remember when Valve and Steam was the great enemy in the early 2000s.
Everyone hated how buggy it was and needing it to play Counterstrike.
echo64@lemmy.world 1 year ago
it’s a big circlejerk, it happens. everyone has the exact same opinion but also wants to feel like they are making a valiant statement in opposition of the bad thing
systemglitch@lemmy.world 1 year ago
What’s not to get? I’m genuinely curious.
DingoBilly@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why do people just want Steam as one store monopoly vs. Having two companies compete where Steam is one of them.
It’s only good for consumers…
Zetta@mander.xyz 1 year ago
I don’t think anyone has a problem with their being two big competitors, it’s just we don’t want it to be epic games. gog games would be a good competitor
systemglitch@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Right? I have no issues buying off gog. Epic will never see a penny though.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s not a hard thing to get. Over the years Valve has had relatively low amount of blunders and for the most part they were of the misjudging customer base kind but ultimately they have been very consumer oriented and have provided great value for the money. From universal refund policy to family sharing and similar. Their service consists of many benefits for the consumer but all of that is charged from the developer. Very hard not to like such approach.
Epic on the other hand did the opposite. They catered to developers and inconvenienced consumers. You get to pay the same price as everywhere but you are forced to get exclusives from them and you don’t get any of the benefits Steam has. Am in fact surprised it gained as much popularity as it did. Goes to show people will sell their own pride for occasional free game you don’t even get to chose.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
This is asinine. You pay higher costs for games, and Valve gets to pretend to give you something for free. That is not something to like or admire.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Am not sure I have ever overpaid a game on Steam. It’s either same price everywhere or I get it at stupid discounts during sales. There’s no pretending. Valve even said it there are things in place should Steam ever disappear you get to keep your games.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Yes, you have, because developers price their games to still making money even after 30% goes to Valve.