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Dusk Developer David Szymanski: I'd rather pay Valve 30% and put up with their de facto monopoly than help Epic work towards their own (very obviously desired) monopoly (twitter.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Carighan@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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If I'm honest, I don't disagree.

I would love for Steam to have **actual competition. Which is difficult, sure, but you could run a slightly less feature-rich store, take less of a cut, and pass the reduction fully on to consumers and you'd be an easy choice for many gamers.

But that's not what Epic is after. They tried to go hard after the sellers, figuring that if they can corner enough fo the market with exclusives the buyers will have to come. But they underestimated that even their nigh-infinite coffers struggle to keep up with the raw amount of games releasing, and also the unpredictability of the indie market where you can't really know what to buy as an exclusive.
Nevermind that buying one is a good way to make it forgotten.

So yeah, fully agreed. Compared to Epic, I vastly prefer Steam's 30% cut. As the consumer I pay the same anyways, and Steam offers lots of stuff for it like forums, a client that boots before the heat death of the universe, in-house streaming, library sharing, cloud sync that sometimes works.

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[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 163 points 11 months ago

I trust a steam monopoly long before I'd trust epic. Epic is run to meet the needs of share holders and valve is run to meet the needs of Gaben.

[-] Varyag@lemm.ee 89 points 11 months ago

Gaben isn't going to last forever. But honestly the only other good games storefront is GoG. I'll continue using Steam for as long as it's still good.

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

I've used GoG once for a game that wasn't on steam but I have done much more. Honestly I acknowledge that this ephemeral moment in time where PC gaming is kept in balance by Gaben can't last. But I really think the lens we should look at PC landscape today is one of appreciation. If EA ran the game in steam's shoes we wouldn't get things like summer sales or games at reduced prices long after their launch.

Don't be sad it will be gone be happy it happened.

[-] Cabrio@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Gaben has been hands off at valve for a decade. He's off breaking world records with research submersibles. Playing with his rubber duckies in the bathtub.

[-] Lolman228@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago

Is that not what you want from him?

[-] Cabrio@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Just saying that trust in Gaben and trust in Valve are two separate things. Valve has been doing fine without Gaben at the wheel.

[-] leftzero@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago

The point is that, other than Gabe, Valve doesn't have any shareholders to put before their customers. A publicly traded company, on the other hand, effectively has no choice but to cause as much harm as possible to their customers and to society in general in order to maximize short term shareholder profits, leading to runaway enshittification.

[-] brawleryukon@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

A publicly traded company, on the other hand, effectively has no choice but to cause as much harm as possible to their customers and to society in general in order to maximize short term shareholder profits

Nobody is talking about public companies here. Both Valve and Epic are private companies.

If you want to complain about profit motives, that's a capitalism problem overall, not an issue with public vs. private corporations.

[-] 520@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

One of those companies is partly owned and heavily influenced by a publicly traded Chinese company.

[-] MiikCheque@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

are you referring to tennacent (likely misspelled)

[-] 520@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

No I am referring to Tencent Holdings Limited

https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=700:HKG

[-] ComradeChairmanKGB@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 11 months ago

Do you think he uses a steam controller to steer the sub?

[-] Cabrio@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

If he is I know someone who could use one. Oh...

[-] Chobbes@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

Both Valve and Epic are private companies. I still trust Valve over Epic, but I think technically Tim Sweeney has pretty much full control over Epic as well (for better or for worse).

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

He does, but not the stake Gaben has. Sweeny sold 40% to tencent. This still gives him control, but thats a very large shareholder that can push and pull when they want.

[-] brawleryukon@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

They can't "push and pull" anything. With Sweeney owning 50%+1, Tencent and anyone else he sold shares to can literally do nothing - he will always have the final say. And since the company is private, there's almost certainly an agreement/contract in place on those share purchases that if someone wants to dump them they have to offer them back to him/the company first. Since it's not a public company they can't just go sell their shares on an open market. The threat of a large shareholder is gone in a case like this - they can't stage a hostile takeover and they can't dump and run.

[-] bighi@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

You’re thinking of technically taking the decisions in the company. But shareholders can do much more. Like influencing the value of stocks by selling too many at once.

[-] brawleryukon@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Tell me you didn't actually read my comment without telling me you didn't read my comment.

[-] stevehobbes@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You’re also assuming there are no other shareholders………..

Sure, maybe those 106 are sharing 10% but I doubt it.

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 2 points 10 months ago

Another point for me at least, I actually put in effort to not getting made in China products where feasible. The same thing applies here, supporting epic is supporting China. I really just prefer not to support China, so no epic games for me.