memes

Private companies are perfectly capable of self sabotage through growth drivers without shareholders unfortunately...

Execs chasing bonuses and chasing w/e 3rd party "consultancy groups" say they need to do.

But what if I want to confirm I am rich for being smart and thinking out the box instead of having rich parents and exploiting people like half of those poors think I am?

Stop giving credence to valve being a monopoly. That's tech bro propaganda. They are literally not a monopoly. There is multiple digital storefronts for PC gaming. There is options. There is choice. Do not further the narrative and get fucking valve antitrusted for no goddamn reason other than Microsoft wants them dead.

I would go further and say that all that they've done are """merely""" sound elements in a strategy to avoid that in the era of always-online remote updateable software, Microsoft successfully uses their position as the provider (and, more importantly, controller of some of what runs in pretty much all consumer instances) of Windows to squeeze out Steam as a games store.

Microsoft slowly transforming for Windows applications into the equivalent of Apple for iOS applications (and their move towards signed applications could be part of that) would be a nightmare scenario for Steam and it's a realistic possibility, especially if you notice that Microsoft is moving towards "everything must be cryptographically signed by Microsoft" to run in Windows.

So it totally makes strategical sense for Steam to invest into getting as many gamers as possible away from the Windows ecosystem, and one path is to get more games to as easily as possible run in the already existing and established alternative to Windows - Linux - the easiest way being to invest in an ever improved Windows-Linux adaptor layer (i.e. Wine/Proton) backed by a Steam store in Linux which just seamlessly uses that layer when needed, whilst another path is to sell their own game machines which do not run Windows and there again using Linux makes sense as the OS, both because it already exists and is mature and because using it on their machines has synergies with their investment in the "make games targeting Windows seamlessly run on Linux without needing changes".

This isn't Valve and Steam being nice guys doing nice things because they love their customers who use Linux, it's just good long term business planning and management of maybe their greatest external risk - Microsoft.

I mean, "Yay for choosing Linux!" and "Respect for their business sense", but lets not deceive ourselves into thinking they're good guys because of doing what just makes sense strategically to manage Microsoft as a risk.

Valve is worker-run and largely worker owned, it's literally 350 people who just work on whatever they think is a good idea

They're technically a corporation, but also an amazing argument for collective ownership

what were you smoking? nintendo has never been the good guy...they successfully patented the "digital representation of water" back in the day

As I wrote elsewhere, their support for Windows-Linux adapter technologies and even their games machines with Linux, are things which make total business sense as part of a strategy to try and move gamers away from Windows to manage the risk that Microsoft might use their control of Windows and ability to remotely update pretty much all consumer Window machines, to squeeze Steam as a games store for Windows games, for example via enforcing a requirement for Microsoft-signed applications and even a for usage of a Microsoft-store (no doubt justified as a consumer protection measure) like Apple does with iOS.

Steam isn't doing this because they're "nice guys", they're doing this because they're managed by competent managers with an outlook which is much longer term than the typical "next quarter" of publicly traded company and if you're looking at a 5 or 10 years period Microsoft doing this kind of thing is a real risk.

This doesn't mean that they're bad guys, it just means that from their support for gaming in Linux alone we cannot deduce that they're good guys since being managed by competent people who are trying to manage the risk of Microsoft turning Windows into what iOS is for Apple is an equally good explanation (probably an even better explanation, since "good guy" actions in business is a rare exception) for their support for Linux.

they popularized gambling mechanics

Probably their biggest sin. Gab's mega-yacht was paid for with neurodivergent teenagers sucked into anime-themed slot machines.

That's before you get into how modern online gaming has become this nightmare of bigotry and misogyny. Not a Valve specific problem, but one they've turned a blind eye to in the name of laissez-faire business.

need i remind you, in the late 2000s/early 2010s, nintendo was the good guy.

Well... tap the brakes there. Nintendo had a very different business model, but their Disney-eque sadistic defense of IP was its own kind of problem.

That scares me. I've been a huge steam fan boy since it was in beta. Lots of nostalgia. When the OGs pass away and valve is sold off to Amazon.. the end

A few years ago? I would have said "oh that's near for laypeople, but I am better off building my own PC".

With the prices of GPU's, RAM, and SSD's.... The Steam Machine might legit be a better value than building it myself.

I am not gonna buy it. But fuck man, I am exited as hell for what is going to happen with PC gaming and OSes. I feel that thanks to Valve we going to finally break MS' iron grip on OS market.