Ex Valve Developer Lashes out about Steam "Steam Killing PC Gaming"

must be time to dump on steam with all the news of deveoplers wanting to use other launchers. I personal DO NOT want each publisher to have there own launchers tied to there own user account. What is wrong with having one centralized launcher/store like consoles have. Sony has PSN store, MS has the Xbox/MS store, Nintendo has the Nintendo store 1 username account is need to download and buy games there.

all these launchers and user account for every publisher which where it going is inconvenient to the end user. At this point I rather go back Physical disc with CD keys and getting no cd "patches" just to avoid this crap. the publishers that all doing this just want to increase the bottom line buy cutting middle man out all while still charging the customer the same price and inconvenient us cause now we need to have account that needs be remembers for every launcher. and digital content is what started all this.

I have no issue with games needing a launcher to start I have issue when Each game has launchers that I need to remember the account to and login just to play the game. Steam is convenient to me 1 digital store 1 account for all my games.

MMO i expect launchers but all game to have launchers tied to publishers that I need account to just access, no thanks.

This just another reason why I thinking of going back to consoles only.

 

I remember a DOS space exploration game i had as a kid. Can't recall the name. But the copy protection was some sort of a cardboard disc. You had to provide (if i remember correctly) three words. To get the words you had to turn the disc until it matched a key given by the game. Of course as a kid i lost the disc and since there was no internet back then, the game could not be found in a store anymore and nobody i knew had it then i could not play the game anymore.

Great time. Legal customers were rewarded greatly back then.

 

It could have been anyone else who made you think about it. And in any other occasion which is exactly what you admitted by: "Only when some does a 'HL3 confirmed' meme..." Which apparently I did not.

 

Agreed, a platform like GOG could though or at least I hope it will...just ♥ what they're doing for classic games, great library and their stance on DRM

Frustrated by Steams' take on DRM and yeah all the shitty games on there now... omg.. cash grab! What happened to you Steam....

Epic is welcome as long as they behave themselves freebies are nice start and the client is light for now

 

Yup I remember some games still doing this way into the 90's ... the rewards were greater then

 

A few years back I would have called you a heretic for defiling the holiest of holies i.e. Steam / Gaben is God etc. but now I LOL'ed at this... because I saw it evolve and see it getting worse too .... sad meh

 

But why would the PC have only one platform/launcher? It isn't a console, it isn't made by one company that has full dictatorship over it. Why would only one company make money and have monopoly over game distribution? If you don't want freedom of choice maybe you would really be better off with a console.

 

Unfortunately i dont think this will end up in price wars, its essentially based on ( and from Epics strategy ) making more cash for the publishers while charging the consumer the same.
Its one of my main issues with Epics strategy. They are pretty much doing everything to dissuade consumers from buying into their store by focusing on publishers.
Yes they have freebies but at the end of the day "hardcore" gamers want the latest games and it is most expensive on the Epic store and Epic keys are not available on third party stores, this is just jacking up the price vs Steam and keys available on third party stores, so i cannot see this benefiting consumers in any way unfortunately
I have no bias towards Steam, in fact would prefer using GoG to steam, peoples memories are too short, its only a few years ago Steam was going to introduce a charge for mod model.

I think the times of cheap games are long gone, i used to pickup games on steam sales for 1-2 euros back in 2009-2011, some games even if i had physical i bought just to remove all the hassle.

Competition is needed and i would like to see Steam lose its monopoly, but i have a major issue with third party games being exclusive to certain stores, especially when there is no competition on price and im forced to use one store for a period before it becomes available elsewhere, this type of model is best suited to console games and the console manufacturers.

If it pokes Valve to improve things i'm all for it but as is it is just making me ignore all those new games because A) I'm not prepared to pay 50-60 euro for a PC game pretty much ever, B) I wont support and company which is preventing third party games from being available elsewhere and preventing me having a choice

 

Does Epic or any other game store other than steam have a workshop like steam and the ability to keep our game mods up to date, games like Ets2 and Ats would not survive without steam, the same goes for the Arma series, Steam provides the best community facility.

 

It could have, but in fact it was not. You're making the same hindsight mistake again. Are you still thinking about beating your wife? The best part was you got approval from airbag, he's always mad at me, always.

 

Ignorance is bliss.

 

Cause its inconvenient for end user to have multiple launcher need us to remember multiple use pass for game games, and i not the only one that would think this. there are draw back to have only 1 and having dozens it come down to performance, and most people are gona side with what is convenient.

I switch from PC game to Consoles games for convenience of it vs PC but I switch back to PC cause PC always looks better, But I do not enjoy have to have multiple launchers and multiple user name to play my games, it or having to keep up with HW and OS stuff.

They all want to make the launchers fine, but atlest let me choose to have all my game in one launcher digital system. PC is about choice after all.

 

Some people seems to forget, this is about a revenue cut (not profit). The impact for dev/publisher could be huge.
Take a 50$ game with 1 million copy sold -> 50 million, after Steam cut 35 million and after EGS cut 44 million.
Depending of game developing and publishing (advertising) cost, you could be looking at a losing vs making money problem (With a total cost of 40 million for example).
In one case a gaming studio could close, people could lose their job...

 

??? why exactly are you thinking/talking about wife beating on a PC gaming forum?....you need help Dude.

 

You are forgeting the part about transaction costs, if they charge the same price as steam the customer has to pay more, since transaction cost is not included on th epic games store (with the 12% deal) steam includes the transaction cost in the price of the game.

Do not be fooled, they are effectively charging more for games if the prices are not reduced.

I will concede however this is natural, finding a way to get more money per copy for the least amount of work is normal for any company.

 

With a 30% cut, you would expect some significant tweaks or improvement to the client. Didn't they only recently patch a vulnerabilty that was left unchecked for years???? And the client still doesn't have the option to block or choose updates when clients like GoG Galaxy have impemented it without issues. Its good titles are are leaving Steam for other options. Nothing breeds complacence and laziness to innovate like a monopoly.

 

if u think like that probably u need to look more
if the profit already low, why they keep putting the game on sale like almost every week ?
here we are in e-sport era, and look at those sponsor
most game like doing weekly sale, not forget "charity" humblebundle program

just grab a top-title game like witcher 3 : https://steamdb.info/app/292030/
look at that price-history-chart
u can check other top-title game, most of it will have similar price-history

big-game-company(publisher) nowdays not all about make-game and sell-game only
there is investor, product branding, merchandise etc. etc. etc.

yeah good sales probably create most money for game company and make happy investor
but now its different than old-days, good-sales-image worth more than some money from games sales
thats why game-company nowdays keep trying to push their sales

 

This is the key point and reason behind EGS: Use the Unreal Engine, and you get 0% licence carry, plus better support, returns etc etc etc.

 

Just saying, your American friend Sweeny did sell 40% of his company to the Chinese. Where you aware of that?
And again, does that cut really end up with the developer? That's a big question mark for me if there's a publisher involved, not just dev and Epic.

I thought you can as well uncheck the option to keep your games in steam's library up to date...

 

Just want to ask you before you get kicked from these forums forever on the BOLDED part of my quote: "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SUGGEST OR IMPLY IN THAT STATEMENT?"

I caution you in how you respond to the above.

But, back to your other point:

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/about

And, let me cite

Back over to you.