this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
36 points (63.2% liked)
PC Gaming
8767 readers
312 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think their market dominance makes it an uphill battle for a dev to not put their games on steam. I don’t think that’s much of a problem right now because Valve has been reliable, but all it takes is a bad turn of events at Valve leadership for that to change. I think they are a gatekeeper only insofar as they have market dominance and a platform with games with DRM
Some titles have been very popular without steam, Dark and Darker is a good example of this, GTA 5 another.
I'm not going to pretend they don't have the most sales, but they also have objectively the best platform. People love it.
I agree they’re at the top for a good reason, and as it stands they’re not a problem. I’d just love for more of that 30% to go to the devs over expanding Gaben’s knife collection.
As a gamer, there isn't too much I can do about it, except buy games from other stores where the developers offer their games. As a developer, if I'm worried about Valve becoming abusive, it makes sense for me to use more than one marketplace, or a different marketplace than Valve altogether. Since Valve doesn't seem to have a lot of exclusivity deals, this either means it costs more for developers to maintain multiple distribution channels, or they don't think it benefits them to have multiple distribution channels. That said, the continued existence of those other distribution channels leaves the option to leave if they don't like Valve's behavior.
As a gamer, all I can do is support other stores, and I do.