Yet consumers get more value from Steam as a platform where that 30% cut has helped fund a powerful gaming platform, remote game streaming, driven developers to release builds for macOS and Linux and license users for all platforms with a single purchase, an open source handheld gaming device, an input library that enables practically any input device to be used and for controls to be remapped even if the game doesn’t support it, the best VR headsets and room-scale VR, popularising VR and making it mainstream, contributing to upstream to further gaming on Linux, enabling DirectX games to execute natively on Linux, several of the most popular multiplayer games on the internet, enticed PlayStation to release games on PC, putting indie developers on a level playing field with the biggest studios, enabling developers to release games mid development to help them self fund the game’s development, support the modding scene, and so much more.

Epic may charge developers less but that doesn’t offer me, a consumer, any extra value.

Instead their platform and its lack of investment and innovation make the purchases I have made in their store feel less valuable and cumbersome as their competition increase the value of their offerings.

I’m not saying they’re the bad guys but the argument that developers get more money doesn’t really matter if that 30% cut is felt justified to consumers.

And with the upcoming untethered VR offering from Valve on the horizon, which will no doubt be powered by open source with their improvements upstreamed, that 30% cut feels even more justified when Linux becomes fully capable of VR thanks to my purchases.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What extra value do you actually need? Hell, I use a third party launcher so I don't have to deal with the other ones and their bloat and can just launch my games.

Also, that 30% bought Gaben six yachts so let's stop pretending that they need 30% in order to develop the extras you talked about...

[+] masterspace@lemmy.ca -9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, I'll give full Kudos to Valve for investing in Linux gaming, it wasn't exactly a selfless maneuver, but it is still valuable and makes the world a better place.

And I'll give them Kudos for contributing to VR, but they neither popularized it, nor make the best headsets, both of those titles go to Oculus. They do have the hands down best VR game ever made, but even that is not what popularized VR, Beat Saber is.

Ultimately, Valve has made billions and billions in profits on top of all that investment, and on top of paying all their employees $300k+ salaries + stock. I like a lot of what Steam offers, but it's also objectively unquestionable that they could have offered all of what they offer for far less money, but their de facto monopoly means that everyone will buy from them no matter what.

Because, let's be real, gamers aren'tt hating Epic for having to download mods through a third party mod site, they're hating them for having to use a second launcher / store.

[–] fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They could have gone Unix and not contributed upstream like PlayStation did.

Oculus was a device. Valve built SteamVR literally for the Rift (I had the original developer model and using Steam was pretty much essential). Valve also ensured that SteamVR supported other devices too when they came to market, levelling the playing field and enabling consumers to pick and choose hardware without having to buy games across multiple different marketplaces.

Valve pay their employees what they’re worth and share their success with them rather than devaluing them and extracting value from them. That’s pretty good going. And given how much they do with so few, it says a lot about their culture and ethic.

I don’t know about other gamers but I dislike EGS because it’s simply an inferior product and I vote with my wallet. If they offer me more value than a competitor, I’ll gladly use them. I use GOG, itch.io, and Xbox GamePass so it’s not like I’m averse to other platforms. I just don’t see why, if a game is on EGS and Steam (and not on GamePass), what value is there to me as a consumer with going with EGS?

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Valve pay their employees what they’re worth and share their success with them rather than devaluing them and extracting value from them. That’s pretty good going. And given how much they do with so few, it says a lot about their culture and ethic.

Gabe Newell is a literal billionaire. Valve executive are not taking a hit to pay them fairly, Steam just prints so much money that they can pay them more than they have to. Rather than lowering prices for the rest of consumers they decided to pay their staff exorbitant salaries in addition to themselves. It's better than just paying themselves, but it's not noble or good on a broad scale, it's them taking more societal resources than they need to provide a service.

I don’t know about other gamers but I dislike EGS because it’s simply an inferior product and I vote with my wallet. If they offer me more value than a competitor, I’ll gladly use them. I use GOG, itch.io, and Xbox GamePass so it’s not like I’m averse to other platforms. I just don’t see why, if a game is on EGS and Steam (and not on GamePass), what value is there to me as a consumer with going with EGS?

Again, not saying anyone should prefer EGS, but this thread started off because someone said Epic was a bad publisher, which is just based of their hate for EGS, not based on anything to do with their merits as a publishing partner.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

400 people with higher wages than average for their field VS millions of customers keeping more money in their pockets...

Surprisingly most lemmings would choose the former 🤷

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I honestly cannot fathom how gamers don't see how much Valve has fleeced them. Like you said, it's literally just 400 tech workers who would have had $150-200k salaries get to win the lottery and get $300k-500k salaries, at the expense of every single other gamer who just wanted to play a game at the end of their shift.