>Be a worthless rent-seeking leech with a near-monopoly on PC gaming
>Make tons of profit
Why is this allowed?

Nobody wants to use your platform, Timmy. We just claim our free games and promptly forget about it.

>>714574458 (OP)
Because they actually pay their employees a fuckton, unlike every other US company.

>>714574458 (OP)
>near-monopoly on PC gaming
Epic store, GOG, Microsoft store, all those publisher stores like EA, Rockstar, etc. How does steam have a monopoly on PC gaming when there's all this competition? No, just because majority of PC gamers use steam (because it's currently the best digital store front) doesn't mean they have a "near monopoly"

>>714574458 (OP)
>SAAR YOU FCKING BLODDY BENCHOD BETCH STOP SUPPROTING THE DESTROYER OF VIDEO GAMES!!!

when are finally going to admit that capitalism is the problem

>>714574458 (OP)
Their Monopoly is due to them being a superior service, not blocking access to competitors.
Thats how

>>714574458 (OP)
Why can't you offer a better service then?

>Cucked Microsoft from forcing GFWL and EA from ever making PCfags pay a subscription just to play their games online using the internet they already pay for

Imagine the seethe Valve has perpetually created just from that alone

>>714574458 (OP)
Gaben might be one of the last people in the industry who simply wants to give people a way to play games. All the other outlets are/were all about invisible wars and control.

>>714574773
first mover also its installed on your pc so its got your wallet on tap 24/7

>>714574458 (OP)
Is this really complaining Steam pays their employees too much? Perhaps but why not talk about how much Apple and Facebook CEO's get compared to their employees, hmmm?

>>714574458 (OP)
Steam isn't different from a physical store in the sense that they charge a markup. That criticism is weak, IMO, because that's just how retail works. Most publishers don't want to sell their games directly because it means they have to provide additional infrastructure that increases operating risk and costs money. They outsource that to retail, pay for it, and are done. The publishers who aren't okay with this or can afford to do it in-house have created their own platforms, though they're not as successful.

And this does indeed lead us to the valid point of criticism: Steam is basically a monopoly. There are cases where monopolies make sense, but video game retailing isn't one of them. But then, we also have to admit that the platforms that competitors offer are just flatout terrible compared to Steam and Valve isn't actively pursuing devious tactics to oust competitors from the market via buyouts, supplier control, etc. - as far as I know. They're even more expensive than other retail platforms, no?

Imagine if Epic paid its staff on commission.

The fault lies with the rest of the market they let Gabe set up shop with no fucking competition. Same shit with youtube by the time competitors decided to challenge they already had an established loyal userbase.

>>714575520
Do you think any of that adds to your argument of steam being a monopoly?

>>714575520
>also its installed on your pc
Weird, Steam didn't come with my PC? I had to go download it. The Microsoft Store was right there however.

>>714574458 (OP)
They have like 1/10,000th the number of employees as Apple and Facebook.

>>714574953
no it's not I'm going to become a millionaire any minute now

Rent are the best thing that happened to the human race

>>714574458 (OP)
Can they lower the 30% if they're making so much money then?

>>714574458 (OP)
They provide best service

I've tried to publish on Timmy store, 0 views, 0 wishlists. Meanwhile ~5-10 a day on steam. They are the best and they deserve all the money in the world

>>714577079
Why? 30% is nothing compared to what game publishers lost on each copy of a game back when your only option was brick and mortar stores.
And clearly publishers are OK with it, or they wouldn't be putting their games on Steam when they have their own launchers or Epic giving them a 12% deal. Steam provides the largest audience for them, making the larger cut worth their while.

>>714574953
No other system capitolizes off off what you want. Nonother system gices a fuck about what you want, or provides it.

Get an education, retarded commie.

>>714577292
good morning saar

>>714577229
>It's ok to exploit people because they used to get exploited harder

>>714577521
You either lick the boot or go back to china.

>>714577521
A storefront is a business. It is entitled to a cut of the revenue as it is shilling and hosting your product for you.
Don't like it? Make your own storefront, but don't come back crying that it costs too much money to run and you don't have enough customers. Hey, at least you'll get 100% of those dozen sales!

>>714577521
>If your company is doing well, you immediately need to kneecap it.
When is Timmy going to start paying his employees as well as Gabe does?

>>714577651
Yes, a cut, not a massive fucking chunk of flesh. 30% is almost 1/3. Steam should be entitled to no more than 2% of the sale.

>>714577693
Will that make game cost less? Will the people actually making the video game get more of the fruit of their labor?
The answer is always no.

>Don't insult my fat daddy gaben

>>714577891
Ok so why won't he do it, then?

>>714574458 (OP)
I get a remote safety guarantee with every purchase, unlike some places.

You are not entitled to a storefront, nor you're forced to use it. If anything, Valve should be charging you extra for polluting their store, call it carbon tax.

>>714577810
Most payment providers take at least 3% and they do literally fuck all other than authorizing the transaction. 30% is gouging I'll agree but at the end of the day its not valves fault the rest of the industry sat back and watch them build an empire, they are merely taking advantage of their foothold on the market.

>>714577229
>Posting a nearly 4 year old article
Meanwhile EGS continues to grow and grow every year. They'll pass Steam by the end of the decade.

>>714574773
Note that - besides GOG - ALL of those digital storefronts tried to get users with consoletranny tactics like exclusives. They wanted actual monopolies. They just couldn't compete with Steam's free, functional, and no jew tactics. Except GOG, who offer something Steam doesn't and don't engage in oy veyery, either.

>>714575763
Steam is more expensive for developers than Epic, but only because Epic is running in the red to try and get a chink-controlled monopoly over the digital retail market. So far they have nothing to show for it. Actual price to customer - it varies.

Really, Valve succeeds because they took the risk, time, and sweat to build the better product. They take a larger cut but no one competes with them even slightly on infrastructure and customer access. They dominate because their product is overwhelmingly superior in all ways to literally everyone except GOG.

>>714574458 (OP)
Nintendo and Sony do the same, so why aren't you complaining about them OP? And they're much more anti-consummer and anti-dev than Valve.
>Nintendo was known to TAX Japanese devs who wanted to publish their games in the west on the 3ds

>>714577521
Valve isn't exploiting them. They are providing a bespoke, effective, extremely stable service. Those publishers who disagree create their own storefronts. But they don't last, because why would you go to an inferior storefront as a customer? You wouldn't.

>>714580281
EGS has never once made a single penny of profit.

>>714581407
Fortnite makes BILLIONS in profits. Epic can go on for decades.

>>714575520
Steam wasn't installed on my computer until I installed it. Also, steam is the only official store client that I can even install cuz the others don't support Linux.
Pretty hard to feel bad for their lack of users when they aren't even trying.

I dont even care about playing AAA slop but these threads are always sobering for revealing how many faggots on this board believe the "capitalism is a meritocracy" delusion. A good reminder to not take what people say on here too seriously when many of them are pathetic bootlickers.

>>714583896
Who's talking about capitalism here beside you and that other guy who doesn't like it, schizo?
You're actually the one who's a licking boots, because your argument, essentially, comes down to "you should use meritless products in order for a big corporation not to have monopoly.
Fuck off, it's not my job to save one big billion dollar corporation corporation from being unable to compete with another.

>>714585945
>You're actually the one who's a licking boots
Nice projection. The current gaming industry can rot for all I care. I have no investment in what flavor of shit you eat, I was making fun of your servile attitude.
>Who's talking about capitalism here
When people talk about steam being a monopoly and its faithful defenders show up to say that this is good or fair actually of course youre talking about capitalism. You think youre not talking about it just because you dont say the word retard? Free market ideologies that serve to morally justify capitalism rely on the market being competitive to incentivize consumer friendly behavior, and monopolies throw a big wrench into that whole framework by enabling anti-competitive behavior, so its very funny when people say steam having a monopoly is good because theyre nice to their customers since it actively contradicts the entire justifying ideology behind the company you worship so much.

>>714574458 (OP)
>Why is this allowed?
Because Microsoft couldn't make a storefront to save their lives and every storefront since amounts to a closed platform where someone is trying to steal Valve's cut because the dumdums counting the beans think they could do better.

>>714574458 (OP)
Because he's the best

>>714575763
Except Valve isn't a monopoly under current laws because we allow much larger monopolies about them. Anti-trust laws should have broken apart google, microsoft, meta, apple, etc. long ago but they never will because our political system is corrupt.

Where as Valve is a niche market, respectively. They are the only one who actually fucking bothered to create a marketplace and content system. Where as every other attempt has been an utterly lazy fucking mess. From an outside perspective Valve looks like a small private company which made an app that some people use. While larger corporations haven't even attempted to compete because they have larger monopolies in game engines and publishing companies.

I browse Steams library for new games and ones that have Overwhelmingly Positive reviews and then go and pirate them.
My Steam account is 20 years old and i've bought about 6 games on it

>>714574458 (OP)
I don't think its justified that they take 30% considering they automate everything and and let communities self moderate, but other than this Steam is just good. Timmy would probably shit its pants if Steam would compete in pricing.

>>714574458 (OP)
Steam is based.
Love me Steam.
'Ate Epic.
'Ate Timmy.

Simple as~

>>714575490
Everybody wants to LARP like they're some deus ex badass when they're an overweight balding office worker that will be replaced by AI in 5 years or less