valve does not enforce a monopoly, its just the competition shoots themselves in the foot all the time
Since you’re clearly too young. I’ll give you a history lesson.
Twenty years ago. Valve started paying publishers to change their physical games to use Steam. The Disc (because games came on discs back then) were useless without the Steam code.
They also paid for exclusivity. As there were quite a few digital distribution platforms at the time. IGN even had one.
Since you’re clearly too young. I’ll give you a history lesson.
I am clearly not to young, let me chime in.
20 years ago, publishers had the full Control. Indie publishing was not possible.
The big studios controlled what you can play, and on wahr price. They took a big big share of the profits.
Now, with platform like Steam, self publishing is a thing, and more.
Yes, of course they tried to get some traction on steam. Epic games, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, all do exclusivity deals!
Yes, valve takes 30% of every transaction on Steam. Publishers take up to 60% … And so you play games published by auch publishers? Yes? And you don’t feel bad about yourself?
Cave Story was the year before, Dwarf Fortress was a year out, and Doom was Doom.
Self publishing was a big thing, shareware and early online distribution. Even bigger than it is now. (Because there’s not a monopoly sucking in all the eyes(which includes you it seems as you can’t even imagine a non-Steam world (probably because you’re a young lad trying to act old)))
Downloading capacities where a major issue. Distribution required still discs. Doom was published 1995, not 2005.
Dwarf Fortress and cave story where “small games” considering the total binary size. But, games started to take up multiple hundred megabytes, leading to massiv traffic costs back in the day. I was working my first it job at this time. At a hosting company. Having 100GB of downloads a month was rare, and the price for it was massive.
Dude, I wish I would be under 40 again, but I am not.
twenty years ago…
alright i may have been wrong in that regard, however 20 years are more than enough time to catch up. epic games and basically every publisher tried to do so, also with their own exclusivity and all. but they didnt. cause they suck. steam doesnt suck. it actually provides a good service, maybe not 20 years ago, but today they do.
It’s not at all easy to reverse the market share of a business which benefits from a dominant market position in a market were such effects are strong, even when they turn complete shit (example: Twitter), which Valve hasn’t.
PS: A “20 years made no difference” example: Microsoft and Windows, with which a literally free product - Linux - competes.
if you count a user base of 4-5% a competition then every other launcher is a competition to steam, which i completely disagree with. 4-5% isnt even barely a competition, its a couple of people deviating from the norm.
and to the network effeft:
…depends on the number of users of compatible products
what exactly has to be compatible here? the game will run no matter where i buy it, the only difference is how enjoyable the launcher is
Since you’re clearly too young. I’ll give you a history lesson.
Twenty years ago. Valve started paying publishers to change their physical games to use Steam. The Disc (because games came on discs back then) were useless without the Steam code.
They also paid for exclusivity. As there were quite a few digital distribution platforms at the time. IGN even had one.
Aww dude. There’s no free advertising.
I am clearly not to young, let me chime in.
20 years ago, publishers had the full Control. Indie publishing was not possible.
The big studios controlled what you can play, and on wahr price. They took a big big share of the profits.
Now, with platform like Steam, self publishing is a thing, and more.
Yes, of course they tried to get some traction on steam. Epic games, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, all do exclusivity deals!
Yes, valve takes 30% of every transaction on Steam. Publishers take up to 60% … And so you play games published by auch publishers? Yes? And you don’t feel bad about yourself?
Twenty years ago, was 2005.
Cave Story was the year before, Dwarf Fortress was a year out, and Doom was Doom.
Self publishing was a big thing, shareware and early online distribution. Even bigger than it is now. (Because there’s not a monopoly sucking in all the eyes(which includes you it seems as you can’t even imagine a non-Steam world (probably because you’re a young lad trying to act old)))
Downloading capacities where a major issue. Distribution required still discs. Doom was published 1995, not 2005.
Dwarf Fortress and cave story where “small games” considering the total binary size. But, games started to take up multiple hundred megabytes, leading to massiv traffic costs back in the day. I was working my first it job at this time. At a hosting company. Having 100GB of downloads a month was rare, and the price for it was massive.
Dude, I wish I would be under 40 again, but I am not.
I suggest you read about the Network Effect in markets.
It’s not at all easy to reverse the market share of a business which benefits from a dominant market position in a market were such effects are strong, even when they turn complete shit (example: Twitter), which Valve hasn’t.
PS: A “20 years made no difference” example: Microsoft and Windows, with which a literally free product - Linux - competes.
if you count a user base of 4-5% a competition then every other launcher is a competition to steam, which i completely disagree with. 4-5% isnt even barely a competition, its a couple of people deviating from the norm.
and to the network effeft:
what exactly has to be compatible here? the game will run no matter where i buy it, the only difference is how enjoyable the launcher is