Some of things I hate like extra launchers and DRM are still kind of good that Valve even gives people who publish there to have the flexibility to do whatever they want. Same goes for publishing of "crap" games. With Valve being the dominant one in the PC space being super draconian would be a bad thing, since just as they could go the good route for consumers they could go the bad route too. So the kind of "hands off " approach is a good one even if it doesn't always work out for us.
Nothing I appreciate more than checking out the reviews and seeing "don't let it go unnoticed that this is an Ubisoft title, and therefore uses their launcher and drm" saved me regretful purchases (before the 2 week/2 hour return window) many times.
Yep and Valve themselves display clear warnings on the store page for 3rd party account requirements, DRM and additional launchers.
With Valve being the dominant one in the PC space
This is a common misconception. Revenue on Steam is around 8.6 Billion out of 45 Billion. The actual heavy hitters (Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite) aren't even on Steam.
Ah yes I often use the Minecraft launcher to buy the latest AAA titles
Apples and oranges
Okay, but if you aren't making a single multi-billion dollar game that doesn't need a storefront because it functionally is one, then Steam is by far the biggest and most dominant player out there.
it is a dominant one if it's by number of game developers.
Some of things I hate like extra launchers and DRM are still kind of good that Valve even gives people who publish there to have the flexibility to do whatever they want. Same goes for publishing of "crap" games. With Valve being the dominant one in the PC space being super draconian would be a bad thing, since just as they could go the good route for consumers they could go the bad route too. So the kind of "hands off " approach is a good one even if it doesn't always work out for us.
Nothing I appreciate more than checking out the reviews and seeing "don't let it go unnoticed that this is an Ubisoft title, and therefore uses their launcher and drm" saved me regretful purchases (before the 2 week/2 hour return window) many times.
Yep and Valve themselves display clear warnings on the store page for 3rd party account requirements, DRM and additional launchers.
This is a common misconception. Revenue on Steam is around 8.6 Billion out of 45 Billion. The actual heavy hitters (Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite) aren't even on Steam.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenues-by-platform/
Ah yes I often use the Minecraft launcher to buy the latest AAA titles
Apples and oranges
Okay, but if you aren't making a single multi-billion dollar game that doesn't need a storefront because it functionally is one, then Steam is by far the biggest and most dominant player out there.
it is a dominant one if it's by number of game developers.
Nice graph tho.