Small company, huge influence.
    • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      The service they privide to devs and customers is worth it, but valve doesn’t even really take 30% anyway. Watch pirate software’s video on it.

      • erwan@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        I love Steam and I love Gabe, but the system we have that let Steam extract so much money out of the gaming industry is broken.

        And that’s true for software or online services in general, and I’m saying that as someone who benefit from that system as a software engineer.

        • it_depends_man@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          It is broken in the sense that it’s absolutely insane that they can take 30% and nobody can build a competing product that only takes 20%.

          It is not broken in the sense that they keep doing what they are doing and developers and customers consistently choose their offer.

          It’s not a monopoly because they exploit their position.

          It’s a monopoly because nobody else is trying hard enough.

          • erwan@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            It’s a monopoly because gamers go where games are, and developers go where customers are.

            For the same reason Apple App Store / Play Store is a duopoly.

        • Xenny@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          Then why are publishers and customers so loyal then? There has been attempt after attempt to create a competitor but they all fall short. Steam offers so so so much in comparison to the competition it’s not even funny. The 30% is justified.

          • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            Because everyone believes that the competition will be worse in 5 years, but Steam, on the other hand, will be better.