I'm guessing you don't remember what the market was like for indie games before Steam. Valve's platform has done a lot of work to expose small game developers, and made it economically viable to work on and publish games independently. Before this it was very difficult for small titles without the advertising budget of a AAA publisher to get any attention at all, let alone actual sales. There's nothing else like Steam for small studios trying to find buyers for their games, and Valve does deserve credit for that because it's improved the video game market overall to have more people making more games and able to earn a living doing it.
The other major effort that Valve has made is Linux compatibility. Even before their work on Proton, Valve released native Linux versions of their games (they were one of very few publishers to do so at the time). I've been gaming on Linux since 2006, and Wine was great but rarely easy or complete. Proton has made things so straightforward that people have forgotten just how difficult it was before.
Credit where it's due. No other major publisher has contributed to the gaming community the way Valve has, except maybe id Software when they just handed the entire Quake 3 Arena source code to the open source community in 2005 which spawned countless new open source game projects.
Downvote me you bootlickers.
No, you'll enjoy the attention too much.
Indie games came about because of multiple factors, steam only being one of them but they did help a lot. That being said, they are currently having a detrimental effect and I think Gaben has been more than properly rewarded.
It's not the early 2000s, steam is bringing in massive amounts of cash and I'm tired of seeing an other indie company go under because Gaben wants another boat in the 9 figure range.
The government will never do anything if we aren't vocal about it and the community is doing the opposite.
Who's the indie company going under here?
This is an article that was floating on lemmy a few months ago.
25% more of the profit can go a long way, if Steam were to only take 5% for example. And it's not only about bankruptcy, it's budget for more features, dealing with bugs and potential sequels. The quality is affected as well and Steam, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony don't deserve all that money instead of the devs, just for being the middle men.
I'll bite. I hate billionaires. Let's check this out.
Things that hurt indie devs in this article:
Lack of available talent
Burnout
Lack of upfront funding (before a game is ever released)
Generally bad economy post COVID
Actual predatory exclusive tactics from epic or gamepad
The nebulous idea that the entire industry and fans need a culture change
Things not cited in this article as a problem:
Steam in any capacity. Directly or implied
Lack of funding is mentioned every paragraph?
belt-tightening can often mean simply shutting down.
Sheffield says it’s hard not to feel guilty when other studios go under, even as his own struggles. “We're all kind of fighting for a tiny slice of the same pie,”
“When an indie doesn't get funding for its game, you just quietly never see their work again,”
The industry is struggling because steam and the other stores keep them on the brink, they have no leeway. I don't know how steams greed could be seen as unrelated.
Pick a better battle because you're making all of us anti-capitalists look like fucking idiots.
Do you know of any other company that racks in as much cash and gets defended this hard? All I'm seeing is people defending an other billionaire cunt just because they use his product.
Would you tell me to shut up if I was denouncing Elon Musk or Bezos? You can't be anti-capitalism and pro-Steam. The moment you defend a billionaire, you are part of the problem.
I'm not saying I'm pro-steam. I'm saying you're doing a dogshit job of providing compelling arguments and are making us look stupid.
Making 10 billion in a year while having 70 employees isn't a compelling argument to you?
Are you sure you know what anti-capitalism is?
Sure man, keep condescending me, that's really helping you and isn't indicative of anything about you in any way. You're really doing a good job of representing us out here in the internet trenches.
Reread our conversation. You are the one being agressive.
I shouldn't have to be silent in what I believe in because you think it makes you look bad by association. It's a silly reason to begin with and mostly imaginary.
You have basically called me an idiot multiple times and threw colorful language like dogshit at me. I dont mind but it does make your perceived slight seem hypocritical. Stop playing the victim, no one is asking you to respond.
I'm also not here to represent you. Im not part of your club. For one, I can't be because I hate all billionaires, not just the ones that aren't popular.
I don't care about this argument anymore, keep doing what you want, I hope you'll realize that engaging in public humilitation on the behalf of anticapitalist ideals is counterproductive to normalizing them.
And... again... I didn't say I support steam or Gaben. See how you're using strawman tactics on people that agree with you? That's what makes us look like idiots. You're doing a great job, bud.
I'm not playing the victim, I'm pointing out why your rhetoric is counterproductive and bad optics. If you want actual change to occur, you're going to have to fix that. Or you can just keep making things worse, if you really want to. Go for it. It's really worked out for you well so far, hasn't it?
I'm guessing you don't remember what the market was like for indie games before Steam. Valve's platform has done a lot of work to expose small game developers, and made it economically viable to work on and publish games independently. Before this it was very difficult for small titles without the advertising budget of a AAA publisher to get any attention at all, let alone actual sales. There's nothing else like Steam for small studios trying to find buyers for their games, and Valve does deserve credit for that because it's improved the video game market overall to have more people making more games and able to earn a living doing it.
The other major effort that Valve has made is Linux compatibility. Even before their work on Proton, Valve released native Linux versions of their games (they were one of very few publishers to do so at the time). I've been gaming on Linux since 2006, and Wine was great but rarely easy or complete. Proton has made things so straightforward that people have forgotten just how difficult it was before.
Credit where it's due. No other major publisher has contributed to the gaming community the way Valve has, except maybe id Software when they just handed the entire Quake 3 Arena source code to the open source community in 2005 which spawned countless new open source game projects.
No, you'll enjoy the attention too much.
Indie games came about because of multiple factors, steam only being one of them but they did help a lot. That being said, they are currently having a detrimental effect and I think Gaben has been more than properly rewarded.
It's not the early 2000s, steam is bringing in massive amounts of cash and I'm tired of seeing an other indie company go under because Gaben wants another boat in the 9 figure range.
The government will never do anything if we aren't vocal about it and the community is doing the opposite.
Who's the indie company going under here?
This is an article that was floating on lemmy a few months ago.
https://www.wired.com/story/death-occurs-in-the-dark-indie-video-game-devs-are-struggling-to-stay-afloat/
25% more of the profit can go a long way, if Steam were to only take 5% for example. And it's not only about bankruptcy, it's budget for more features, dealing with bugs and potential sequels. The quality is affected as well and Steam, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony don't deserve all that money instead of the devs, just for being the middle men.
I'll bite. I hate billionaires. Let's check this out.
Things that hurt indie devs in this article:
Lack of available talent
Burnout
Lack of upfront funding (before a game is ever released)
Generally bad economy post COVID
Actual predatory exclusive tactics from epic or gamepad
The nebulous idea that the entire industry and fans need a culture change
Things not cited in this article as a problem:
Lack of funding is mentioned every paragraph?
The industry is struggling because steam and the other stores keep them on the brink, they have no leeway. I don't know how steams greed could be seen as unrelated.
Pick a better battle because you're making all of us anti-capitalists look like fucking idiots.
Do you know of any other company that racks in as much cash and gets defended this hard? All I'm seeing is people defending an other billionaire cunt just because they use his product.
Would you tell me to shut up if I was denouncing Elon Musk or Bezos? You can't be anti-capitalism and pro-Steam. The moment you defend a billionaire, you are part of the problem.
I'm not saying I'm pro-steam. I'm saying you're doing a dogshit job of providing compelling arguments and are making us look stupid.
Making 10 billion in a year while having 70 employees isn't a compelling argument to you?
Are you sure you know what anti-capitalism is?
Sure man, keep condescending me, that's really helping you and isn't indicative of anything about you in any way. You're really doing a good job of representing us out here in the internet trenches.
Reread our conversation. You are the one being agressive.
I shouldn't have to be silent in what I believe in because you think it makes you look bad by association. It's a silly reason to begin with and mostly imaginary.
You have basically called me an idiot multiple times and threw colorful language like dogshit at me. I dont mind but it does make your perceived slight seem hypocritical. Stop playing the victim, no one is asking you to respond.
I'm also not here to represent you. Im not part of your club. For one, I can't be because I hate all billionaires, not just the ones that aren't popular.
I don't care about this argument anymore, keep doing what you want, I hope you'll realize that engaging in public humilitation on the behalf of anticapitalist ideals is counterproductive to normalizing them.
And... again... I didn't say I support steam or Gaben. See how you're using strawman tactics on people that agree with you? That's what makes us look like idiots. You're doing a great job, bud.
I'm not playing the victim, I'm pointing out why your rhetoric is counterproductive and bad optics. If you want actual change to occur, you're going to have to fix that. Or you can just keep making things worse, if you really want to. Go for it. It's really worked out for you well so far, hasn't it?