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Bianca_0089 , (edited )

Of course there’s a fee. Do they not realize how expensive it is to fileserve useless videogame data, provide versioning for that, updater systems, workshop storage, curation, promotion etc etc. . . without help?

Is there not a fee for your competing storefront? How would it fund its daily operations?

cordlesslamp ,

The workshop alone is already a godsend (from Lord Gaben).

There are decade old games with hundreds of thousands of mods, who’s paying for all the hosting?

Has anyone tried Epic Store? It has nothing but the most barebone features to purchase a game, literally just a glorified launcher.

TwilightVulpine ,

Right? Steam provides better service and functionality than any other PC storefront. It’s ridiculous that there’s so much whining about them charging for it. So what if it’s a higher percentage? It’s also a better service and a large audience. Whoever doesn’t like it is free to go elsewhere, unlike console games that can only be sold though the manufacturer’s store.

cordlesslamp ,

If any digital game store deserved to be sue, it’s Nintendo hand down. That’s the real monopoly store with a “fuck you because we can” attitude.

szczuroarturo ,

That actually makes a lot of sense given the fact that i havent heard about massive steam data centers. I suppose they just rent their servers from data centers around the world. Which actually is very suprising. I imagine at their scale making their own data centers would save them money.

Actually i just think they must subcontract a lot of their daily operation. I refuse to belive such low numbers are enough to even handle the complaints from stolen shipments and broken devices not to mention all the other complaints. It is more than enough to actually develop the platform but surely not to handle day to day operations.

Excrubulent ,
@Excrubulent@slrpnk.net avatar

I suspect subcontracting is how they get around the lasseiz-faire nature of employment there. There’s a famously open policy where nobody tells anyone what to do.

But I imagine that policy can’t extend to subcontractors. There it’s “here’s money, make the servers happen”.

phx ,

I remember reading that having a version keyword in your user alias would cause issues with steam, and it was actually because it was a blocked word on CloudFlare where they store/pull a bunch of steam data from

chemicalwonka ,
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

That’s how you maximize profit, isn’t it?

knitwitt ,

Valve is profitable because of the reputation they’ve built up over many years as being an incredibly consumer friendly storefront. Avoiding corporate bloat, and focusing their attention on the core aspects of their business consumers care about has allowed them to thrive where many others failed. Valve created and maintained a fantastic product. So yes.

chemicalwonka , (edited )
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

You’re right but missing an important factor

Mwa ,
@Mwa@thelemmy.club avatar

i thought it was a big team

kamenoko ,

I mean that’s awesome.

Ultimately they’re only responsible for the steam client and the servers.

Vespair ,

I genuinely can’t fathom why this number should be bigger. What am I supposed to take away from this knowledge? Far as I’m concerned, Valve is still a rare comparative good guy in the dense-packed field of bad guys in industry

exanime ,

Because we have been led to believe that the “titans” of industry are these super above average smart people. In reality it’s a bunch of nepo babies with no unique skills (other than, perhaps, a good education) which only copy each other.

After covid, all big IT companies started hiring like mad men… Then they all started firing people like crazy. They are driven more by speculation on their stock price and FOMO than any actual business strategy

npz ,

Maybe in the distant pre-cloud past, when sysadmins were still a thing, you’d expect a bigger staff to be needed to manage a bigger datacenter.

But a few devs who know how to spin up a thing with auto-scaling can accomplish a lot

zalgotext ,

But a few devs who know how to spin up a thing with auto-scaling can accomplish a lot

This is true, but I still find it impressive that Valve has seemingly managed to find 80 all in one spot. My company can barely find one or two

Wilzax ,

Failure of larger companies to make a competitive alternative to steam is not anticompetitive behavior on the part of Valve

LodeMike , (edited )

Yeah who TF are their lawyers? Anticompetitive behavior is just that—there have o be actions taken, at least in the United States. And Steam doesn’t have exclusivity agreements so IDK what they’re gonna argue.

Wilzax ,

The closest thing they can argue to any kind of “exclusivity” is that the free steam keys developers can generate for their games may not be resold for a lower amount than the game can be purchased for on steam outright. That says nothing about other means of distributing the game outside of steam, and nothing about alternative platforms the devs might want to use. It’s a tiny and far away straw to grasp at.

skaffi ,

TF2 lawyers, it would seem.
Their legal Offense has evidently been workgrouped by Scout, Soldier and Pyro, judging by this particular legal argument. To think the Mercenaries would turn on their creator… Well, they’re mercenaries!

HauntedCupcake ,

The case seems like such a reach. At worst it’s an effective monopoly for devs, not consumers. Devs have a really hard time selling elsewhere.

That said, I love Steam and think it’s genuinely one of the best companies out there. And whilst it’s not great that they’re so big, they aren’t that big due to anti-competitive behaviour. It’s quite the opposite. You can add non-Steam games to your library and use Steam features. The fucking Steam deck isn’t locked down, and you can install non-Steam games. Just because Uplay wants to log me out every time I reboot doesn’t mean Steam should be sued.

There are so many other companies more deserving of the lawsuit

Wilzax ,

Nintendo for example

Kedly ,

Had me in the first half ngl

6gybf ,

Seems like a good example of how running a company for the shareholders doesn’t produce a a better product after all.

Wilzax ,

B-b-b-bingo

Rakonat ,

Precisely what the share holders don’t want people to know. They worship money and what the public to think more money = more good. If people realize these investor backed products are generally not anything better than someone can make in their garage they’ll stop buying overpriced junk. So here we are about to see how the sausage gets made.

digdilem ,

shareholders … worship money

Well, that literally is the only reason to become a shareholder, right?

I mean, technically you’re participating in the management of the company and can influence decisions such as environmental benefits, but it feels like that only happens when there’s secondary benefits that also improve profit.

Bakkoda ,

Product becomes the byproduct. Dividends and massive returns are the #1 priority.

Kedly ,

These “B-B-BUT STEAMS MONOPOLY CROWD” really do think we have stockholm/boot licker syndrome as if a good 60%+ of steam users didnt know how to Pirate games if we truly didnt like the service

Phegan ,

That’s an insanely efficient machine.

PhAzE ,

80 people who are doing a bang-up job, i might add.

lengau ,

Pretty amazing that years of effort from massive competitors like Epic and Microsoft haven’t managed to crack this. I wonder what they’re doing wrong?

(Ok I lied. I know exactly what they’re doing wrong and there’s zero chance of them changing.)

ByteOnBikes ,

The Microsoft Store and how to redeem games is so mind-numbly stupid. GamePass wowed me with their library and the subscription service. But how they do everything, from DRMing their games in a absolute mindfuckery app folder, to locking it into your Microsoft account and ecosystem, was so frustrating. Modding? Eat a Microdick. Hell, save files don’t even transfer between Steam and Microsoft GamePass games because FUCK YOU PLAYERS.

I’m glad Steam was extremely proactive at moving off of Windows.

Etterra ,

Well large corporations are at least 50% dead weight by volume, weighted overwhelmingly in management and at the executive level. So naturally it’s the ones doing all the ACTUAL work who get terminated whenever the line isn’t going up hard enough. Capitalism folks, it’s doomed us all and there’s no way we can fix it and those who could never will.

GBU_28 ,

Why is this getting posted so often?

TurboHarbinger ,

This is a “they are hoarding all the profits” “they’re not open to stock exchange” “why I can’t have a piece if this cake, it’s unfair” kind of news.

Pure pressure politics.

GBU_28 ,

Who should they share it with?

Agrivar ,

Just me. Don’t worry, I’ll do great things with it. Trust me, bro.

shadowspirit ,

You sound confident. Like a person I can trust.

pyre ,

gives confidence too. like some sort of superhero that has confidence powers. you could name him, uh… let me think…

ysjet ,

Because Epic Games is really hoping to turn people against steam any way they can other than actually improving their service or morals.

jol ,

And how… is this supposed to help that?

HauntedCupcake ,

By making it seem that Steam is raking in money and uh, money bad?

jol ,

This is so silly. Do people think hosting thousands of games and having thousands of users is cheap?

HauntedCupcake ,

tbf, it’s likely significantly cheaper than the 30% margin. I still think it’s silly though

Daveyborn ,
@Daveyborn@lemmy.world avatar

Millions* of users, I guarantee it isn’t cheap.

ByteOnBikes ,

I honestly think it’s a badge of honor.

I worked in a company where we had 1000+ engineers on a SAAS platform for three years. And it barely has the same relevance or reach as Steam.

Rayspekt ,

These numbers keep getting smaller with every headline. Tomorrow it says that Steam runs off of Gabens private NAS.

rovingnothing29 ,
@rovingnothing29@lemmy.world avatar

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_cloud.png

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Because other articles cite about 350 (heh, inb4 three-fiddy) for the whole of Valve. This is just Steam.

T00l_shed ,

Gaben isn’t actually one person. Gaben is a conglomerate.

Rayspekt ,

Gaben is a state of mind

T00l_shed ,

It’s the level beyond zen.

Spacehooks ,

Budda statue is based on Gaben confirmed!

Rayspekt ,

Budda is just a Garry’s Mod asset flip.

franklin ,
@franklin@lemmy.world avatar

Is it like Negan from The Walking Dead? They’re all Gaben.

count_dongulus ,

All i read is “Damn, they’re a super capable team.”

RizzRustbolt ,

Who probably tear ass around the office in camaros.

PythagreousTitties ,

Bitchin’ Camaros!

ulterno ,
@ulterno@lemmy.kde.social avatar

That feels like free advertising to potential job-seekers.

If just a few staff are running the whole thing, it means they are all probably the kind that do more actual work and less politics. That means, if anyone interested in learning fast and getting good at their field were to work there, they would have the time of their life.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Buffalobuffalo ,

I infer from this that they don’t hire fast learners, they hire people who are already well demonstrated experts.

ulterno ,
@ulterno@lemmy.kde.social avatar

Yeah, that’s most probably the case.

Doesn’t stop me from wanting to join though.

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