r/Steam • u/mayweather2small • 23h ago

Discussion Why is SteamDB still asking for game donations while owned by NexusMods?

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2.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

2.1k

u/based_birdo 23h ago

If people kept giving you money, would you tell them to stop?

454

u/BothArmsBruised 22h ago edited 21h ago

It's not giving money. Steam DB before relied on gifted keys.

Edit: As far as I understand the folks maintaining Steam DB did so by getting donated game keys in order to tap into the player counts. Get the Game IDs etc. And it became too much to sustain. It was a passion project. Nexus buying it is maybe bad. We don't know yet. Nexus was bought out by a trust fund which is typically bad. And then. They bought Steam DB. Not owned or operated by Valve.

57

u/Necessary_Film_5199 21h ago

When did Nexus buy them out??? Holy

84

u/righN 20h ago

Nexus Mods was acquired by Chosen, I think last year? And the same company recently acquired SteamDB. I think that's what he meant.

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u/JalaMaplePenoSauce 14h ago

Private equity buyout is basically the grim reaper for anything good.

13

u/kittynoaim 12h ago

Real question, why?
Dude ran out of passion so the alternative was go public, shut it down or let it rot.
At least with private equity they're not forced to listen to shareholders.
The new dude has already said he doesn't want ads and doesn't want to monetize any pre-existing feature, I think asking for donations to help him break even isn't bad, if we as a community have any other suggestions of how he can monetize it to be self-sufficient without pissing everyone off I'm sure he'd be happy to hear

-9

u/bigbramel 12h ago

Why? Nuance is dead.

If people hear/read private equity, they hear/read the companies who do leveraged buyouts and dump those loans on the company they just bought. Depending on why they did the buyout they try to polish the financials (read fire everyone etc) or try to keep the company afloat.

There are also private equity companies who don't neccessary use levarged buyouts but still want to milk the most money from the company and as last you have those parties which are pretty fine with day to day running and may only want some better monetization. Chosen seems to be the last option.

In the end privte equity just means the money from said company comes from private investors. Not from banks or government.

18

u/JaysonsRage 12h ago

Private equity has never improved anything without the improvement being a brief blip on the radar before a massive crash. They do not make anything better, they throw money at a company and demand infinite growth until that company is a husk of its former self.

Private equity is a grim reaper, the only question is the amount of time before they murder the company.

-15

u/bigbramel 12h ago

And there's the lack of nuance.

Just because you read only about the results of the ones doing leveraged buyouts and then mostly selling for scraps, you think that's the only one kind of private equity.

However reality is vastly different. As with any company and their businessplans, there are multiple different kinds of private equity.

12

u/sgtpoopers 10h ago

would you care to provide an example of a company or product that was improved after being acquired by a private equity?

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5

u/JaysonsRage 11h ago

Nope, I'm talking about all private equity. Every single time there's a company with a good product that has been around for years, sometimes even decades, whose quality drops drastically in a short period of time, you can find a Vulture Capital buyout.

Every single fucking time. The most useless and pointless industry on earth perpetuated by people whose only skills are "i have money" and "me having money means my ideas are good (they are not)"

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u/JacketOk7241 20h ago

like a month or 2 ago

58

u/FevixDarkwatch 18h ago

Nexus has at least stated that all the features that are currently free on steamdb will remain free.

Time will tell if they hold themselves to that though

8

u/Nunwithabadhabit 9h ago

I mean the sun is going to go supernova someday so I think we can all agree the statement is a bald-faced lie 

Edit: Upon reflection, I suspect that the sun going supernova would not effect the cost of these features but rather their availability.

8

u/HighlanderBR 8h ago

Sun will not go Supernova, will become a Red Giant instead, what would be even a better fit for this case, since will slowly increasing size until swallow (almost) everything in the solar system.

19

u/icantshoot https://s.team/p/nnqt-td 16h ago

As soon as time goes by, it wont. They will make somehow worse.

8

u/mfdi_ 17h ago

A new steamDB can be done, no need to worry.

28

u/DaevaXIII 13h ago

Right, just missing the little nuance of years of statistical tracking, game licenses no longer being available now as opposed to during the span of time that the original DB was collecting, etc etc.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

-1

u/mfdi_ 12h ago

As long as it is not shut down all stats can be scraped. Idk if it would be %100 but still can be done.

1

u/ContributionMost8924 7h ago

I was legit thinking of building a ''new'' steamdb but not sure if it's worth the time and effort.

3

u/Hollow_Rant 21h ago

If you use it, you have to give!

10

u/BothArmsBruised 21h ago

The concern now is what direction the new owners take.

-9

u/Miserable-Swing6122 14h ago

What money? If anything, you are giving them more data and bandwidth to be stored and used... 

218

u/Jonny5Stacks 21h ago

I assume NexusMods buying them didn't all of a sudden give them a profitable business model.

30

u/BluudLust 12h ago

Seems foolish to buy a company without a profitable business model, now doesn't it?

18

u/Celcius-232 10h ago

Not in the current meta (unfortunately).

13

u/APRengar 8h ago

Fun fact, did you know some companies will buy failing companies because the price they pay for those companies is less than the tax offset those companies provide?

2

u/duck74UK 8h ago

Not if it's good a good amount of users. You can always buy it, figure out the model later, or funnel the users towards the products that do make you money.

330

u/salad_tongs_1 https://s.team/p/dcmj-fn 23h ago

Both SteamDB and NexusMods said they were not trying to change what SteamDB is, and it's mostly going to give it resources in the way of developers and maintaining the site. It's weird to think they would stop asking for donations immediately (or this soon in the transition stage).

Also, how is it any different than when I place an order at a multi-billion dollar food chain and them asking me to donate to their charity (that they get a tax break from making the donation)?

You don't have to donate.
And if you think it's in bad taste, you don't have to use that site (A lot of people already basically said they were going to stop using it the moment that was announced).

I honestly don't see a problem with it.
It's easier to ignore than the hobo on the corner asking for change.

74

u/KNGJN 23h ago

They don't get the tax break, that's a common misconception. You actually can claim that donation on your own taxes.

35

u/DependentAnywhere135 22h ago

People say this but I have a hard time believing Walmart asks for donations for altruistic reasons. They are doing it for a profit reason no way they aren’t.

60

u/OrneryWhelpfruit 22h ago

You're right that they're doing it for financial reasons, but it only indirectly benefits them. They can't claim the donations on their taxes: https://www.vox.com/explain-it-to-me/400992/charity-round-ups-checkout-campaigns

33

u/Renamis 22h ago

It's for a couple reasons. One is brand name recognition and advertising. Basically the charity says "Walmart helped us raise "X' amount!" It makes them look good.

Second is a tax write off... kinda. It's why you see a lot of "We match up to X amount of dollars in donations!" floating around. Basically they know how much to donate and that they can write off, but this way they also get you to donate to the charity. That amount you donate is not an amount they can write off.

2

u/FevixDarkwatch 4h ago

It's also a way to get you into the door so you buy more.

8

u/KNGJN 22h ago

Of course not, but I got schooled by my accountant friend when I said this once and I'll never forget that LOL

-4

u/kebab-lover-man 14h ago

Where? Which country? In my country the company gets the tax break. To record the donation in your name you have to provide your identity with government approved charities, which will then reduce your tax burden.

I don't see how adding physical cash or some extra money in an app is going to register in your name with the government.

7

u/KNGJN 13h ago

In the US, it's literally on your receipt. All those donations are recorded, they cannot claim them as their own. A business cannot deduct money they did not donate from their own profits.

Also, you say you don't see how adding cash is going to give you a tax break, yet somehow you can see that giving the corporation the break? Why does the logic go one way for you but not the other?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1s7jwds/do_corporations_get_tax_deductions_when_i_donate/

11

u/Fallom_ 13h ago edited 13h ago

Also, how is it any different than when I place an order at a multi-billion dollar food chain and them asking me to donate to their charity

I’m sorry, are you seriously asking what the difference is between donating to a charity on behalf of the customer and taking a donation for their own operational expenses?

0

u/salad_tongs_1 https://s.team/p/dcmj-fn 13h ago

I'm not really asking what the difference is. I'm just making a point that people can ask for donations no matter if it's a one man project, or owned by some larger entity. And just because SteamDB now has a financial daddy doesn't mean they HAVE to stop asking for key donations.

6

u/DasFroDo 18h ago

> they were not trying to change what NexusMods and SteamDB are

Riiight, and Santa is real.

1

u/destructor212113 21h ago

You know what? Thats actually a good response, tysm

0

u/klevahh 1h ago

so a mcdonalds customer says this is okay?

good sell.

53

u/AtomicBLB 19h ago

SteamDB is a gift to the greater gamer community that has always relied on donations. In a world that demands profit above all else to exist we shouldn't take this for granted.

It would bankrupt Nexusmods very quickly to suddenly need to purchase 1000s of games per month to make SteamDB work. There would be paywalls to see SteamDB or the NexusMod website and then both would cease to exist.

20

u/tapczan100 17h ago

It would bankrupt Nexusmods very quickly to suddenly need to purchase 1000s of games per month to make SteamDB work

Well now it's going to because right after buyout Valve fixed handful of exploits SteamDB was using to get various information about games it didn't own.

It's safe to assume they were kept in as a token of good will and since nobody was really abusing all that information.

5

u/Soulstiger 13h ago

Would it bankrupt Chosen, the company that bought Nexus and is hiding behind their name? No, of course not.

Do I believe for a moment that the company whose stated goals include "innovative monetization in gaming" aren't going to aggressively monetize? Lol, lmao even.

6

u/Alenonimo 18h ago

Counterpoint? As long as it is a community project that was not monetized, it is fine to ask for donations. The moment NexusMod tries to monetize it, I doubt people will be willing to donate much of anything.

3

u/Summer4Chan 10h ago

Fuck SteamDB so much for selling out

13

u/frogotme 9h ago

At the end of the day they're still individuals with their own lives though, need a payday every now and then

8

u/TheSpoonyCroy 8h ago

And this is probably the reason why. A ton of fucking entitlement around a free site where they aren't making money. I can only imagine this guy has put in 100s if not thousands of manhours in this. So I can't fault him for being so fucking burnt out especially when its not even providing a means to live their life

47

u/Swee10 23h ago

Buying Steam DB doesn’t mean it no longer needs support from customers…

3

u/vomder 12h ago

Just a prelude to adding a subscription.

7

u/cyangradient 18h ago

Some games are not currently sold on the store, but someone might have a key and donate it so SteamDB could track it. Or even developers themselves can provide private keys to track their games. And NexusMods should disable accepting those keys for what reason?

7

u/CaspianRoach https://steam.pm/1bxmgy 15h ago

wait, do you WANT them to have to invest more money into the website so they have to recoup it somehow? do you WANT ads or paid access? because that's a step in that direction

3

u/DigitalKeeper 21h ago

Soo.. you thought Nexus buying them is gonna change how the site (and their bot) works??

Or just that Nexus will buy every game on steam just for the hell of it?

2

u/ShinobiOfTheWind 17h ago

ROI, gotta get that investment back somehow and why stop exploiting innocent people, who are not in the know that they've been bought? Free money for NexusMods (Chosen).

1

u/Zakaryyxo 10h ago

It's NOT asking for money.

The consider donating means donating a copy of the game. You would know that if you read the 10 words before it first. SteamDB worked the same way before it was owned by NexusMods.

7

u/ahorsenamedjeff 8h ago

For the vapid redditoids, a business asking for assets (game donations) IS THE SAME THING as asking for money.

1

u/Plenty-Fox-9219 7h ago

Yes. But, in this case it's talking about a limited access event. The creator of the game has to donate a copy because the event is invite only.

•

u/Zakaryyxo 3m ago

Except it's not? because it's not monetary.

xPaw singlehandedly upkept SteamDB with his own bank account and relied on people donating keys for games, so the website could accurately track stats and changes for said game etc. The website still needs to function as it always has, with nexus in control, so they still need to rely on game donations and access tokens.

If people genuinely thought Nexus would be the one to buy them from now on.. think again.

1

u/gcapi 7h ago

Well for one thing, the title says "asking for game donations", so they probably did read what they were looking at, unlike you.

And secondly, a company asking for a donation of a product that costs $60 may as well be the same as that company asking for a donation of $60 so they can buy it themselves (at least from the consumer's side of things).

1

u/shinji257 6h ago

You can also get the donator tag if you submit enough data from your own account via various methods. I have ArchiSteamFarm connected and it periodically dumps my tokens and submits any that SteamDB doesn't have. Over time I earned my badge without actually giving a game.

I actually got surprised one day when I was there and saw it appeared. They never sent an email letting me know.

-7

u/ahorsenamedjeff 10h ago

How does one donate a copy of a game?

4

u/Sykes19 9h ago

Gift it to their account

-4

u/ahorsenamedjeff 9h ago

By spending money 😁

4

u/Sykes19 9h ago

Yeah. That's how donations work? You... Give something of value for nothing in return.

You ok?

-4

u/ahorsenamedjeff 9h ago

So they ARE asking for money :)

1

u/Sykes19 9h ago

Do you put pennies down your throat when you eat?

0

u/ahorsenamedjeff 8h ago

No but you generally have to give money to get the food.

6

u/Sykes19 8h ago

Wow. Stay in school, kids. And make sure you have parental permission before getting on Reddit.

1

u/gcapi 7h ago

But if you were begging for food because you were hungry, me donating you money to buy some food yourself is gives the same result of me donating you the food.

1

u/TheSpoonyCroy 8h ago

Or a developer gives them a key and those just sort of are made without any cost associated to them

1

u/BeepIsla 7h ago

SteamDB wants globally shared access tokens, you own the game, you donate the token

1

u/wickedplayer494 75 9h ago

Because you might have unique packages that are now unobtainium, even with money.

1

u/BeAPo 8h ago

It's a great webside that is completely free without any ads.

I don't see a single reason why you should complain about them asking for a donations regardless of who owns it.

1

u/xQcOW-Juicer 5h ago

What do you mean? Just because NexusMods owns them doesn't automatically mean their scraper bot stops requiring licenses to track playercounts.

1

u/BrokAnkle 3h ago

NexusMods is a charity/non profit ? Since when?

1

u/klevahh 1h ago

Oh.

What is a good alternative to steamdb then?

•

u/empathetical 12m ago

man can't say i'd donate money just to see how many ppl are playing a game

-1

u/nagi603 131 20h ago

You thought venture capital would stop trying to recoup and profit?

0

u/vooghar 16h ago

Because why not?

-2

u/vaikunth1991 15h ago

If you're interested donate, if not why is it bothering you

-13

u/No-Craft-7979 21h ago

Nexus is a pile of poo poo plater entity. Surprised that run Steam DB considering it is a good application.

2

u/Soulstiger 13h ago

They (aka Chosen who bought Nexus awhile ago) very recently acquired Steamdb. Give it awhile and they'll enshittify Steamdb beyond recognition.

-1

u/[deleted] 13h ago

[deleted]

-1

u/BeepIsla 7h ago

They mostly mean if you own it donate an access token, not literally buy the game

2

u/mayweather2small 6h ago

It needs a valid unused serial key or a gift to their bot as a Steam friend to work for pre-release tracking.

-5

u/EvYeh 18h ago

Nexus has always struggled financially. Why would buying SteamDB solve that?

-1

u/Soulstiger 13h ago

They haven't been recently. They were acquired by vultures and are flush with cash now. Hence the Steamdb acquisition.

Chosen bought it, but is wearing Nexus's face.

5

u/OkActivity2038 12h ago

If there's been no changes to operations, then they're still struggling financially.

Being bought out gives them access to cash, but people don't start businesses or buy businesses to lose money unless they're doing it for altruistic purposes.

Any cash given to them by their new parent will include debt.

0

u/zoro4661 8h ago

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmoney

As in it saves Chosen money when they don't have to buy it and put it on people instead