I like Steam, but I am trying to shop at GOG more and more. No DRM has become a big selling feature for me. I remember the days when Google was one of the “cool” companies that made tech better. Now I am suspicious of all tech companies.
Long term that’s possibly wise. Track record being what it is I think steam is broadly ok, but definitely less safe than something you can download and keep forever.
I think as long as Gabe runs the show, it will be fine, but you know that there are venture capitalists and mega-corps all ready to maximize stakeholder value.
At least with GoG, you can at least download your installers if it ever begins the enshittification slide. Steam will take everything with it should it start down that path.
The question is whether or not whoever or whatever Gabe puts into his place when he steps down will act like him.
I see it as a serious likelihood he’ll proof the company against venture capital and going public
And they raised the price on the required subscription service, are closing game studios, and forcing people to only buy games through them. Oh, wait; that’s Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo…
You got me in the first half, no gonna lie.
Aaaallllmost downvoted you then, lol. My apologies.
They are ridiculously profitable though, yet they still maintain their 30% cut.
In the ideal world they’d do it oppositely, low/no cut on the first income and then increase it for the bigger productions.
But capitalism gonna capitalism, and the whales could be legitimate competitions. So they get it cheap, while the fish pay 30% to be on the biggest market
I haven’t purchased anything in months because my job pays badly, and fuck this capitalist hellscape, but if I was going to buy more games steam is the most likely source. Linux support, cloud saves, game recording, remote play, fairly unobtrusive client, drm at the seller’s discretion.
Plus with rare exceptions you will always be able to continue to play all of those games on any hardware you can install steam at no additional cost.
Glares at FF7 Rebirth with an Nvidia GPU
That worked for me fine on Linux (pop!_os). Remake worked on the steam deck, too.
Which GPU? Anything above I think a 10xx has an issue with the shaders the game uses. There’s supposedly a workaround for arch (CachyOS) but I couldn’t get it working.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. Got it before I got laid off and before prices went super crazy.
I’m only playing on a 1k monitor so i wasn’t pushing it very hard, but it ran without issue.
Not the other person, but I’m using a 4090 on Ubuntu 26.04 and haven’t had any issues with Remake or Rebirth.
And solid customer service.
I bought 2 things today, totalling £3.47, and one was a 6 dlc pack for a game I’ve got 1000ish hours in. Honestly should have just saved the £2 on the dlc pack, it’s just a bunch of furniture.
Obviously, releasing an expensive piece of hardware that is in high demand reflects in the numbers.
I’ve had 1500€ put aside for the Steam Frame since January. I expected I’d be waiting till the next spring to get a chance to buy it. To my surprise and absolute delight, I was apparently at the front of the line. I’ve received my unit three days ago and it’s been a blast.
Captain: the figure is gross revenue, profit margin is ~40%
Hardware is more no?
Profit margin is company wide metric, calculated from financial statements. It includes all the products&services company produces
Profit on hardware in this economy?
Somebody is, it’s just not Valve.
In the month after the Sony disc debacle and Microsoft slamming a katana into its own belly?
Absolutely shocking.
Yeah all those fans of physical media immediately switched to PC
You can, with a little effort, back up your steam install files. In the unlikely event that Valve pulls the rug users have the option to insure against it.
Game’s usually don’t work without steam. Try to run game by running the executable directly; 99% will fall to launch. Sorry
Hard drives are physical storage.
If I have to deal with digital media I prefer to do it on one where hardware configurations are open and operating system isn’t locked.
Digital media on a locked hardware platform that doesn’t let you load your OS of choice or even programs makes for a more restrictive digital media experience.
It’s not a “physical media” issue, it’s about monopolizing and raising prices.
I’m sure the steam frame helped a bit. They also have an ever increasing consumer base.
Probably. Wish I could’ve bought one.
