Well I mean, proton exists pretty much solely because of the steam deck. I will agree that it's been really nice switching to Linux as a result of proton's existence but they didn't just magically do it out of the goodness of their own heart either. It's basically the nicest version of a monopolistic gaming environment that doesn't really allow you to actually own anything that you buy.

It's kind of funny to watch the news with them; they're like two different companies struggling to coexist. One is just as greedy and evil as every other corporation and the other one fights for the consumer, so you end up with a news story one day saying that they're stifling competition by forcing price cuts on only their platform, but then they also are banning all games that force players to watch advertisements. Make make up your mind Steam 😂

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

Well I mean, proton exists pretty much solely because of the steam deck.

proton existed many years before the steamdeck, and it's evident they intended it to be used WITH the steam deck, but it also exists outside the steamdeck, even then, it's still a huge incurred cost for a console that is actually super cost competitive for what it is. They don't even have that significant of a console market share, it seems like it's been nothing but a pet project to make gaming on linux more accessible, presumably because valve doesn't really like windows. Steam is 100% still WAY in the red on proton, and will probably continue to be for the whole lifetime of the project, it's unlikely they'll ever break even on it.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

How do they not allow you to own anything? Steam has drm free games, and if this is about licensing that wasn't different 30 years ago.

Valve is absolutely not perfect and I buy from gog when possible, but my god do I hate that argument. Using steam's drm is the choice of the publisher.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

How do they not allow you to own anything? Steam has drm free games, and if this is about licensing that wasn’t different 30 years ago.

its the perpetual license thing, every platform that doesnt directly sell you the product does the same thing, it's the industry standard.