Steam Discussion Thread - Discussing Valve's online store (Possibly kept from collapsing into total decadence by a single fat guy)

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At most Steam has a "lite" monopoly
Steam has an obscene first-mover advantage which has compounded into an actual legal natural monopoly by a mean of a superior product.
Calling it a "lite" monopoly is underselling it.
 
Steam has an obscene first-mover advantage which has compounded into an actual legal natural monopoly by a mean of a superior product.
Calling it a "lite" monopoly is underselling it.

I say "lite" because the word "monopoly" makes you think of shit like youtube, Twitch, google and among others that not only underdeliver on quality but put some serious effort in boycotting the attempts at making a competition.

Steam doesnt do any of these and keeps "winning" by simply not screwing over the customer. If Steam was shit on arrival, it would have faded out the moment a better option appeared. You dont see people making competition BECAUSE Steam is awful like the examples I have mentioned, you see competition because corporations want a slice of the pie without understanding WHY and HOW Steam got that far (and being the first one isnt necessarily it as I also have mentioned).

Steam is an extremely rare event where we "like" the monopoly in this case because the ones in charge of it are legit focused on delivering a good service and product while the competition isnt shy about their jealousy and desire to HAVE that but do all the inhuman cargo cultist bullshit that usually comes when they are running things.
 
Two decades of expansion have simply made Steam so massive that it would take significant resources or time to make an equal competitor. So many game companies want the storefront success Valve achieved, but none of them are willing to court consumers into buying like Valve does.
I don’t know who can overtake Steam at this point? Unless Steam completely enshitifies and turns into garbage after Gabe leaves.

Having said that. The only company that can kill Steam is Valve itself.
 
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Valve has announced 3 new pieces of hardware today, an updated Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and a new VR headset called the Steam Frame. No prices yet, they will be available in "early 2026."


My reaction: They all look great. But I really need Valve to take the licensing-not-owning shit out of the TOS before I can comfortably give them any significant amount of money again. Or a regulator to force them to. #StopKillingGames!
 
Valve has announced 3 new pieces of hardware today, an updated Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and a new VR headset called the Steam Frame. No prices yet, they will be available in "early 2026."


My reaction: They all look great. But I really need Valve to take the licensing-not-owning shit out of the TOS before I can comfortably give them any significant amount of money again. Or a regulator to force them to. #StopKillingGames!

The Gabecube is real!!

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PRAISE BE!
 
Steam has an obscene first-mover advantage which has compounded into an actual legal natural monopoly by a mean of a superior product.
Calling it a "lite" monopoly is underselling it.
Back when Epic was about to be released, there was a significant amount of speculation that maybe Epic could have taken less of a percentage than Steam from the devs, and offered games at a lower price in order to stimulate competition...and we all know how that turned out. At this point, I pretty much don't care, so long as they don't decide to enshittify themselves when Gaben steps down.
 
Back when Epic was about to be released, there was a significant amount of speculation that maybe Epic could have taken less of a percentage than Steam from the devs, and offered games at a lower price in order to stimulate competition...and we all know how that turned out.
But they do take less of a percentage from devs?
0% for the first $1,000,000 of revenue, then 12% after that. For indies, it should be a no-brainer given that you don’t sign an exclusivity deal.
 
0% for the first $1,000,000 of revenue, then 12% after that. For indies, it should be a no-brainer given that you don’t sign an exclusivity deal.
They take 0% for the first million dollars in revenue, however if they release on steam, gog, and epic simultaneously that 0% of their revenue would come from epic sales anyway. :)
 
Its impressive how different games that used to run on different platforms with their own in-game shops are now being added to Steam itself. Before it would be the usual oddballs like War Thunder, Heroes and Generals, and Maplestory. Starting 2018, other huge games of such would be added to Steam with mixed results. Here are a couple of notable ones

-Destiny 2 was added October 1, 2019
-World of Tanks was added April 28, 2021
-Honkai Impact 3rd was added October 21, 2021
-Overwatch 2 was added August 10, 2023
-Wuthering Waves was added April 28, 2025 (oh hey WoT and WuWa share a date lol)
-Umamusume: Pretty Derby was added June 26, 2025
-Blue Archive was added July 3, 2025
-Escape from Tarkov 1.0 will be added November 15, 2025
-Girls Frontline (the first one) will be added November 18, 2025

Gee, I wonder what other huge games (hi Fortnite, Roblox and Genshin) will be added to Steam. Gabe remains an almighty god.
 

I doubt it, that game is single handedly keeping Epic as a whole going. The game is GTA Online levels of money making and another example of the "games as a service" mentality that ever corporate cargo cultist golem chases after, no matter how many flops and possible death of the company it takes (its not like they wont fail upwards towards other companies either way).


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At least they're somewhat self-aware.

It kind of sucks anyway because nearly all of my wishlist isnt covered by these "discounts" and they dont see to be any different than the ones they regularly get through other periods and celebrations.

Black Friday has lost its appeal in general, the discounts are barely discounts (and more often than not, they subtly increase the costs right before November and use the B.F discount to bring the price back to what it was temporarly).

As for Steam, this just feels like a "prologue" for the Christmas sales
 
Found this little nugget in the Steam subreddit.

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Christ all fucking mighty, these people arent even good at PRETENDING they know how anything works, are they? Its just more "Tax the rich more and everything will work out just fine" gobbledygook

i dont see how the dude is wrong, over-exaggerating, but i agree with it for the most part.

If you unironically agree with childish nonsense, idk what to tell you. Its not a matter if they are "right" or not, the fact that they speak in such a cartoonish and childish manner that it loses any credibility and seems like just redditism.
 
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Christ all fucking mighty, these people arent even good at PRETENDING they know how anything works, are they? Its just more "Tax the rich more and everything will work out just fine" gobbledygook



If you unironically agree with childish nonsense, idk what to tell you. Its not a matter if they are "right" or not, the fact that they speak in such a cartoonish and childish manner that it loses any credibility and seems like just redditism.
How would letting AAA developers shoulder the cost of infrastructure? If that’s the case, would they not just go back to their own stores and tell Valve to pound sand?
 
How would letting AAA developers shoulder the cost of infrastructure? If that’s the case, would they not just go back to their own stores and tell Valve to pound sand?

Well, they sort of do pay for Steam's infrastructure. Epic doesn't only take a 12% cut compared to Steam's (regressive) starting rate of 30% out of the goodness of Timmy's chink pig heart. If Steam was as piss poor as EGS publishers would tell Valve to fuck off.
 
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