To me, the amount of excusing from the gamer community is incredible. Stuff like “they’re not a monopoly because they’re ethical and I like Steam.”
They are, in fact, a growing pseudo monopoly. They take anticompetitive measures, with their APIs and storefront policies (like dictating pricing on other stores). Set aside the 30% cut, and no, it’s mostly not enshittified on the consumer side…
Yet.
How can people type that out on Reddit + Windows 11, or on their phones, with spam and ads in their face, without seeing the future danger? The irony is tremendous.
Don’t mistake me, I like Valve and the storefront they’ve run so far. I happily use it. But I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, and am waiting for the shoe to drop.
Who said anything resembling “they’re not a monopoly because they’re ethical and I like Steam.”?
Like half the comments on this thread are absolutely in that vein.
No they aren’t.
Wow stunning argument. I was going to sit here and trust my eyes. But the depths of rhetorical Flair you have just expressed have rendered me powerless to argue.
Yeah, it’s about as stunning as yours.
The comment threads above mine?
I typed this out before I saw them, not expecting much of that on Lemmy (being a enshittification refuge and all).
The comment threads above mine?
No they don’t
They have the largest share and can direct the market/development, no question, but they not a monopoly. I think GOG has a good shot to complete as time carries on. At least while Gabe is still alive, they’ve been relatively ethical. If the choice of largest developer platform is between Steam and companies like Epic, EA, or Microsoft, Steam still looks like a better alternative.
There’s a difference between being feature-rich and popular and being a monopoly. Call me when Steam is buying competing stores to shut them down. Now, in terms of PC gaming monopolies, let me introduce you to “Microsoft”.
Seriously. Part of the reason they’re even so popular is because they aren’t actively pursuing profit maxxing/enshittification business practices to corner the market and consolidate market share like every other one of these blood sucking cretins. They really are one of the extremely short list of corporations that ACTUALLY win in the marketplace because their product really is just that good. Running the steam deck with Linux, contributing to the development of Wine/Proton, and telling Microsoft to kick rocks has made me a Gaben fanboy for life. If Steam was the ONLY way you could purchase PC games, I’d honestly be fine with that, as long as Valve remains a private company under the iron fist of Mister Newell.
Not a single one of those are saying anything close to what you claimed…
Who said anything resembling “they’re not a monopoly because they’re ethical and I like Steam.”?
…but they not a monopoly… At least while Gabe is still alive, they’ve been relatively ethical.
Friend, I don’t know what more you could want. That’s… pretty similar.
They didn’t say they don’t have a monopoly because they are ethical. They said they don’t have a monopoly and also that they are ethical.
The fact that you have to cherry pick and misrepresent context to try and save face is pretty pathetic TBH.
