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I really hope that the workers are well compensated.
They are, valve has good wages. Almost all big game studios have good wages. It's the indies who are scummy with their wages regularly.
They really figured out the infinite money glitch.
They've been nothing but fair to me as a customer but the cynic in me thinks they've got an excessive amount of good will to squander since they dominate the PC gaming scene.
Please don't become shitty. And please release new non competitive games.
That's what you can do if you're not publicly traded. The supposedly "wise" market whenever anything goes wrong always seems to insist on burning down decades of good-will to extract a few bucks.
the average person really needs to realize that most businesses are just hilariously incompetent, the only reason things stay together is because of shittily paid workers doing their jobs despite management's best efforts.
They really figured out the infinite money glitch.
Provide a decent service then sit back and watch your would-be competition develop increasingly effective footguns?
Yep that the one
Gaben said it best when he said "piracy is a service issue, not a price issue." There is no other company that even comes close to matching Steam's services, both to consumers and developers. The industry could become a different place when he dies. I don't see any other CEO continuing to spend money to innovate and expand services rather than offer less and charge more to extract record profits.
This is absolutely mad cope, but I want to believe that, as forward thinking as Gabe is, he either will find a worthy successor, or already has one lined up to ensure the company isn't saced for all it's worth when he's gone.
Developers really trying to kill that by having buggy /launchers that run off steam launcher on top
I feel the same, I know that things will likely go downhill if he goes. That's why I also buy GoG games, I want to be able to download them if things go sour with Steam.
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I've been on Steam since 2005, and the only thing that sucks about Valve is that their steam sales are shit now. Other than that I've had no issues with Valve. They seem like a decent company.
Flash sales were great but refunding is better.
While they are worse now, part of the problem is that long time users already have many of the games that get big discounts in the newer sales.
There's also the gambling, and the 30% cut that allows them to make $3.5 million per head.
Steam is pushing the industry forward on Linux support though, so they have my support.
Other thing that is questionable is gambling, apparently lot of people get into online casino through CS.
I think the culture surrounding DoTa to a lesser extend is not good too
genre defining design, literal decades ahead of the rest of the industry
Half-Life? What's that? I'm talking about Team Fortress 2 hats
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Figuring out how to easily port Windows games to Linux was definitely a recipe for profit.
And it was a shitload of work that took a decade plus, even being built on top of pieces that were even older, with absolutely zero guarantee of any kind of a payout.
Very few companies make these kinds of risks anymore.
It's not a coincidence that they are not a publicly traded company...
It's not only goodwill, it's a survival tactic for valve. The worst case scenario for them, is see microsoft expand their monopoly to have all apps and software available only through their Microsoft app store, competing directly with valve, with the unfair advantage of microsoft controlling both windows and the app store. They could (and probably have) tried to get to where apple is with its app store on macos/ios. Though of course this would be an anticompetitive move, but the intentions could still exist making valves life difficult.
The moment they can untie gaming from windows, they have a path forward to keeping themselves not only alive but relevant and probably safe.
i mean they have already untied gaming from windows, the steam deck works fine for most games
They could (and probably have) tried to get to where apple is with its app store on macos/ios.
They did.
The Windows 10/11 "S Mode" only allows installing software through the Windows store. It was mostly relegated to OEM installs for cheap x86 and ARM laptops, thankfully.
Ew. I hate that. I see they offer an option in settings to permanently switch out of S mode, but that seems like it's a crappy excuse. I'm guessing most users are never going to go there, and will stay in S mode, using only Microsoft's awful products. That's their intention, at least.
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Wonder how much of this comes from the gambling business. They don’t own the secondary market where you can sell skins, but they are the gateway into that world.
They do own a big part of the secondary market. For steam marketplace, they get a cut of those sales too.
Like it or hate it, the Steam Marketplace was a pretty fucking brilliant move on their part. Literally just a free money glitch lol
I suspect a fair chunk. Steam for gamers and devs is great and all but its underbelly of opening up the world of gambling to kids is real gross. Its insane how valve has been getting away with it for so long.
Valve is the living proof that you can have great service and still be profitable. Will capitalists learn? No
Theres a lot more good companies that are profitable and pay their employees well than there are not.
Soviet union and other commie nations would regularly kill or send to torture death camps the workers who did not meet the quotas.
Why have great service and be profitable when you can have terrible service and be 1.6% more profitable?
Correction: Be just as profitable but cash out on that profit slightly sooner.
More like far less profitable over years, but far more this quarter. And when it inevitably goes south because you're squeezing too hard? Who cares, on to the next company!
Weird how if you pay the people activly invested in a product things work rather than having to awnser to why line no go up
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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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