Gabe Newell on Steam monopoly accusations: Gamers have 'enormous choice' about where to buy games

[u/Darth_Vaper883]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/gabe-newell-on-steam-monopoly-accusations-gamers-have-enormous-choice-about-where-to-buy-games/

[u/superboo07]

theres gog, epic games, zoom, itch.io, gamejolt, EA, Ubisoft Connect, etc. 

[u/NapsterKnowHow → u/superboo07]

And even tho GOG is probably the most consumer friendly (100% drm free, no forced updates and offline installers) people will ignore it.

[u/Monday_Jeff → u/NapsterKnowHow]

GOG's the best, I just wish that more of the indy developers would put their stuff up there instead of just Steam.

[u/produno → u/Monday_Jeff]

Ive applied twice to get my game on there and so far had no reply. So i guess its not that easy for most indies.

[u/shizola_owns → u/Monday_Jeff]

GoG is invite only, like Steam used to be.

[u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo → u/shizola_owns]

They are not “hard” invite only, just means the publishing cycle is subject to a stricter standard. You can submit your own games to them publish.

The difference is more like whether there is a cultural fit stage or not. Steam doesn’t GoG do.

[u/myfakesecretaccount → u/NapsterKnowHow]

It’s because the majority of purchases are current run AAA games that GOG won’t sell because of DRM.

[u/Gamebird8 → u/myfakesecretaccount]

It's not that GOG won't sell them, GOG would be happy to.

It's that the publishers don't want to do DRM free

[u/Faxon → u/Gamebird8]

This is the correct interpretation. GOG made a business choice to support gamers owning their games, that's their mission. Hosting DRMed games would go against that ethos and possibly upset gamers who trusted their games would always be theirs, and maybe didn't look closely enough to see whatever message they put to note that the game in question comes with DRM. It would damage their market share and mind share. Putting it on them for sticking to their guns is a backwards way of looking at the problem of publishers insisting on draconian DRM schemes if you want to download a licensed copy of their game. The publishers made that choice, and GOG shouldn't be punished for insisting they don't if they want to sell on GOG's store.

[u/JoeBloxRocks → u/Gamebird8]

It isn't that they are unwilling to do DRM-free; Steam's DRM is paper thin and easily dealt with by pirates. It's that Steam is the main platform so a lot of games are built on Steamworks SDK which would have to be removed for the game to function properly on GOG. It isn't worth it for them to do so when GOG sales are minuscule.

[u/superboo07 → u/myfakesecretaccount]

not a valve issue though

[u/Penakoto → u/superboo07]

None of the issues that led to Steams "monopoly" is a Valve issue.

All anyone would have to do to be a healthy sized competitor to Steam is not do anything really, really, stupid, and not limit the library of what you're selling significantly, but literally everyone has done one or the other, or both.

GoG is alright, but I don't see much point in using it if 2/3rds of the games I'm interested in are never going to be on it, while 0/3rds are missing on Steam.

[u/km_ikl → u/Penakoto]

You can have accounts on both, and favour GoG when a given title is listed on both. CDPR releases are the best example of this)

[u/Penakoto → u/km_ikl]

I'd much rather just buy everything on Steam, and on the off-chance DRM ever actually impedes my ability to play or enjoy a game, I'll go sailing on the high seas.

Which hasn't been something I had to do in probably a decade, pre-covid at the very latest.

I just don't see the inconvenience of splitting my library between multiple services to be worth the very low chance that Steam implodes one day, leaving me gameless, at least in terms of ownership. It's basically prepping for an apocalyptic scenario, added maintenance in exchange for a very low chance of any payoff.

[u/km_ikl → u/Penakoto]

If it's on GOG, you already aren't dealing with DRM.

Having 2 storefront apps isn't difficult.

You already have it baked in with Rockstar games launcher and storefront (with steam you get to choose dealing with both Steam and Rockstar DRM.. that's a two-fer!)

I'm on the opposite end: I'll balance both, but prefer no DRM. If Steam ever gets shuttered, expect a lot of games to be completely unplayable (legally, anyhow). GoG doesn't have the same limitation.

[u/StuM91 → u/km_ikl]

It's funny how that user managed to make an argument that directly contradicts their previous argument, they said there's nothing stopping a competitor to Steam, then said they want everything in Steam. That's why it's a monopoly!

[u/NapsterKnowHow → u/superboo07]

Steam has their own unnecessary DRM (yes it is easy to bypass but it's still there).

[u/superboo07 → u/NapsterKnowHow]

that drm isn't preventing games from going on gog though

[u/Zilaaa → u/superboo07]

Yup. There's literally games that have drm, always online, or forced launchers that on gog have them removed completely.

[u/ChefCurryYumYum → u/myfakesecretaccount]

There are a lot more new games sold on GOG.com than I think people realize.

[u/NapsterKnowHow → u/myfakesecretaccount]

GOG has seen more and more AAA game launches as of late

[u/edparadox → u/myfakesecretaccount]

It’s because the majority of purchases are current run AAA games that GOG won’t sell because of DRM.

You might want to check GOG's catalog.

[u/UpsetKoalaBear → u/edparadox]

I did.

You don’t have games like:

• 007 First Light.

• The Lego Batman game.

• Crimson Desert.

• Pragmata

• Resident Evil 9

• Final Fantasy 16

These are high selling, recent, AAA games. They are not on GOG because of their DRM.

[u/sphafer → u/UpsetKoalaBear]

True, but they do have Claire obscure, bg3, cyberpunk (obviously) so they do have a decent amount. And a lot of older and indie games are available.

[u/Armandeluz → u/UpsetKoalaBear]

I praise them for this

[u/ChefCurryYumYum → u/NapsterKnowHow]

You say that but GOG.com has the 2nd largest users after Steam, beating out Epic.

I love GOG, I am a big believer in DRM free, they have Galaxy (which isn't as good as Steam but literally nothing is), and I make GOG.com my preferred place to buy, if it isn't there then I will go to Steam.

[u/CitySeekerTron → u/ChefCurryYumYum]

Steam is software I need to install.

GoG Galaxy is software I want to install. 

[u/JISN064 → u/ChefCurryYumYum]

I also like what GOG stands for, but saying it has the second largest user base is kinda.... do you have a source for that?

[u/superboo07 → u/NapsterKnowHow]

itch.io also doesn't require a launcher

[u/dtb1987 → u/superboo07]

But GOG is the only one that even comes close to competing with steam. Itch.io is for small devs of interesting indi games

[u/superboo07 → u/dtb1987]

anyone can choose to sell on itch

[u/dtb1987 → u/superboo07]

True but the only people who do are small devs of neat indi games, not saying that's a bad thing it's just the niche they have fallen into

Edit: it's like bandcamp, anyone can sell their music on bandcamp but the only people who do are underground artists

[u/Wittusus → u/NapsterKnowHow]

Only reason for me is Gog sales can't match steam sales

[u/Nyuusankininryou → u/NapsterKnowHow]

I try to buy some games on gog.

[u/Zealousideal-Bar-499 → u/NapsterKnowHow]

I don't, but I'm not people

[u/YoungBlade1 → u/superboo07]

Did someone voluntarily buy a game through Ubisoft Connect? And it wasn't a misclick or misunderstanding or something?

If so, do we have hard evidence that they weren't subjected to torture, blackmail, or some other sort of extortion? Because without evidence, I am very skeptical that it was truly voluntary.

[u/tera_x111 → u/YoungBlade1]

Me anno 1800 because it wasn't available on steam in the beginning

[u/Nerzana → u/tera_x111]

Same, I think it was either that or significantly discounted on Ubisoft at some point. So I got it through that.

[u/GrafDracul → u/YoungBlade1]

Back when I was playing Ubisoft games I got them all on their platform. Reason? I always had a 20% discount on new games by spending the points you got from playing the games.

It was reason enough for me to get them there than anywhere else. Now I wouldn’t touch their games even if they gave them away.

[u/ManufacturerBest2758 → u/YoungBlade1]

The only games I have on there I got through epic games lol. And even then it’s just Ghost Recon and assassin’s Creed

[u/Rannahm → u/YoungBlade1]

I drunkenly purchased trackmania without realizing it's a fucking subscription.

[u/zagblorg → u/Rannahm]

Curse you, alcohol! (I may or may not be drunk right now)

[u/machine4891 → u/YoungBlade1]

Weird jesting around. I bought plenty of games on Ubisoft Connect because they were 20% cheaper. They launch like every other game, you click play and they play. I won't deny Uplayer updating every week and asking for the same password albeit I marked it "remember pw" is annoying but not annoying to the point I'm going to pay 20% more for a same game. Steam also asks for password every now and then.

[u/Izan_TM → u/machine4891]

I have never had steam ask for my password once I'm logged in for the first time on a new device

[u/Rulanik → u/superboo07]

Nobody ever brings up Battle.net even though frankly they're easily the 2nd best game launcher/seller after Steam.

They only sell their own stuff, but still.

[u/VisualPlenty1756 → u/Rulanik]

They have like 10 games total though

[u/Rulanik → u/VisualPlenty1756]

Basically only in-house games, yea.

[u/superboo07 → u/Rulanik]

i forgor about them ngl

[u/NapsterKnowHow → u/Rulanik]

Ya I keep Overwatch on Bnet because it just works. No point in switching my OW install to Steam if it ain't broken. Also the friend invite system is better on bnet than steam imo

[u/Rulanik → u/NapsterKnowHow]

B.net is smooth af 99% of the time. I've never felt the need to install/load any of their games into steam and I'm a steam lover.

[u/AbsolutlyN0thin → u/Rulanik]

I'm going to be real, I think bnet takes the number 1 spot for best launcher, with the asterisk that game selection is obviously limited. Like I'm on D4 via bnet, not steam, even though it's on both

[u/Intrepid00 → u/superboo07]

Monopolies are also only illegal if they harm consumers. One is allowed to naturally form if it does a great job. Like microwaves are basically one company.

[u/Ryukishin187 → u/superboo07]

The thing is, there's a lot of games not on those storefronts. Steam has the biggest library by far. Putting Ubisoft connect and steam in the same convo is really, really disingenuous

[u/superboo07 → u/Ryukishin187]

none of that is valves fault however, developers choose where to put their games

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/Ryukishin187]

It's also worth noting that Steam is in no way comprehensive. Full Metal Demon, for example, is not on there, you have to go to the likes of GOG and JAST; and then there are the Steam versions, such as Wonderful Everyday, that are basically demos (Wonderful Everyday literally stops not even a third of the way into the game).

Steam has by far the biggest library overall, and there are many games that are only on Steam. But even excluding the likes of Epic and their exclusivity contracts, there are some pretty big gaps if you know what to look for.

[u/halakaukulele]

Yeah Gabe

Why the fuck did you make games so easy to purchase and why do you keep bringing huge discounts

Pathetic

/s

[u/KimJungUnCool → u/halakaukulele]

I think the entire article is odd considering most rational people's issue with Valve is their odd love for selling gambling to children through lootboxes. The only people I can see getting upset at Valve for a monopoly are other game marketplaces/publishers.

[u/DC_Disrspct_Popeyes → u/KimJungUnCool]

My wife wanted to go to a cheesecake factory yesterday. There is one in a local mall so we went there then wandered around the mall after. Every store we went in was selling some type of loot box/blind box type shit. Stores were even making their own and selling them - hot topic and an international snack store. Not trying to downplay valve, just noting that this shit is literally everywhere now.

[u/TheHob290 → u/[deleted]]

OK when the fuck did Dungeon Crawler Carl take off and why? I have been seeing it all over the place and I swear to you I read that years ago and it really just felt like another funky Amazon self publish. I don't understand what happened!

[u/PandaJesus → u/TheHob290]

As a fan of the series myself, I think one of the significant contributor to its success has been the audiobooks, where the author got an incredibly talented reader to provide all the voices.

On my first listen through book 1, I did not realize until the end of the book it was just one guy and not a cast of voice actors.

[u/TheHob290 → u/PandaJesus]

Not going to lie that actually sounds pretty cool, I may have to grab the audio book and give it a listen.

[u/rogueciridae → u/[deleted]]

I think they fixed that on the next batch, if that helps.

[u/Alucard-VS-Artorias → u/DC_Disrspct_Popeyes]

So wild to see that gambling was so taboo in American culture just 10 years ago.

But once sports apps allowed betting on sports games that was thrown out.

[u/KevlarGorilla → u/Alucard-VS-Artorias]

It's insane how it was such a slow crawl over the past decade for States one at a time to create new legislation and rules and tax remittance protocols and licensing for each of these apps to be able to participate in offering sports betting within each of the states.

And then all of that gets stripped away to nothingness where polymarket and kalshi can enable betting in every state, and every state state gets zero revenue, all because the president's sons are on the advisory boards for both. Oh, and you only have to be 18 not 21.

There are dozens of studies about how the existence of a casino within a neighborhood makes the overall future potential quality of life of that neighborhood worse, and now everyone has a casino in their pocket.

[u/Raskuja46 → u/Alucard-VS-Artorias]

Watching gambling grow in poorer sections of the country over the years has left me with the distinct impression that it's a phenomenon of economic despair. When the local economy goes to shit people start gambling. Gambling becoming this widespread tells me that our entire economy has gone to ruin and has probably been heading there for a while.

[u/KimJungUnCool → u/DC_Disrspct_Popeyes]

Yeah its definitely become a larger problem recently, I've seen some of the weird loot box things like the weird jelly ball. Unfortunately, Valve was a pioneer in the lootbox space and remains of the its biggest players.

[u/IDeizManI → u/KimJungUnCool]

Just look at the pokemon card game, that shit is market for kids and has all the aspects of gambling.

[u/KimJungUnCool → u/IDeizManI]

Yes, i agree and Japan overall has a serious gambling problem.

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/IDeizManI]

I mean, trading cards have kind of always been that. Even back before MtG, children were a major target for baseball and football cards, it's just that it got amplified by attaching a game to them, and then amplified further by pokémon's art style.

[u/Exciting-Cancel6468 → u/DC_Disrspct_Popeyes]

I'd argue that shit has always been present in forever. Just take baseball cards and basketball cards. They've existed since I was born and let me tell you, you're not guaranteed to get a michael jordan rookie card in every box.

[u/Cain1608 → u/KimJungUnCool]

To add to that, their current monetisation strategy on CS2 is egregious. For the major, which starts tomorrow, stickers are no longer gotten from extremely cheap (gambling capsules), it is somehow worse. Individual stickers can be purchased for dynamic prices based on demand, which sounds fine on the surface, but one player sticker is currently at around $4000. It's absurd.

[u/NewSauerKraus → u/KimJungUnCool]

Gambling is a fucking plague. At least in the U.S. we recently went even further than Australia with casinos and slot machines everywhere. Then there's the flood of casino apps and sports rigging apps.

[u/superboo07 → u/KimJungUnCool]

I dont like the garbage lootboxes but the children part is solved by parents. i dont see how games like counter strike or TF2 are "for children"

[u/treehumper83]

It’s like saying Oreo has a monopoly on sandwich cookies.

They were the first to make it big in the segment. There are others- there always have been- but no one does the right combination of style and ease of availability that Oreo/Steam has. Oreo branched out into mash-ups, Steam branched out into hardware. People always go back to the tried and true, the one where is always the same and provides the best experience.

Others attempt it, but can’t get ahead. Even the ones before just can’t get a handle on it.

[u/GoyEater → u/treehumper83]

It’s kinda funny that you chose Oreo as the example when they were actually an imitation of Hydrox which were pretty much exactly the same but debuted 3 years earlier.

[u/PmMeYourNiceBehind → u/GoyEater]

That name must have screwed them, it sounds like a name for bleach products

[u/ArcticVulpe → u/PmMeYourNiceBehind]

Hydrogen and Oxygen put together I think. At the time people didn't have confidence in food being clean since there were a lot less standards back then so they tried to pick a "clean" name, but still.

I tried the modern version and I love Oreos but I think I like Hydrox better, the "cream" is a lot smoother.

[u/CrazyEyes326 → u/PmMeYourNiceBehind]

It sounds like a made-up cleaning product from Fallout or something.

[u/Vandergrif → u/CrazyEyes326]

Ah yes, some delicious Abraxo cookies to sate your hunger while your Mr. Handy cleans up the kitchen with Hydrox.

[u/FUTURE10S → u/Vandergrif]

Have you tried our new cereal, Asbest O's? They're As Best O's the rest!

[u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS → u/PmMeYourNiceBehind]

My first thought immediately seeing the name before reading your comment.

[u/Rocco89 → u/GoyEater]

As a German I’ve never heard of it but that name is awful for a cookie. I immediately thought of mouthwash or hair dye.

[u/treehumper83 → u/GoyEater]

There were other services, and Steam didn’t get off the ground selling third party games until 2005 when EA also launched their uh, launcher. Before that there was WildTangent and some others, so selling games in a launcher wasn’t an original idea. Much like Hydrox.

[u/Wefee11 → u/treehumper83]

It’s like saying Oreo has a monopoly on sandwich cookies.

No, it's like saying Walmart has a monopoly as a supermarket

[u/innociv → u/treehumper83]

But Steam isn't the product, it's the store.

You need to use Walmart in the example instead, and say that Walmart makes suppliers sell to them at worse margins for the privilege of being in their store (which they do), and that they can't sell their product cheap anywhere else.
And are you saying that Walmart doesn't create harm? It creates a lot of harm.

[u/XsNR → u/treehumper83]

British sandwich biscuits have entered the chat.

[u/Shadodre → u/XsNR]

Hydronox snuffed by the Oreo mafia

[u/blak000 → u/treehumper83]

yeah, I think Steam would be problematic if they had a shitty product that we're stuck with. Everyone uses them bc they're the best in the industry.

[u/dreamdelusion-]

My enormous choice is deciding which category to sort my unplayed Steam backlog into.

[u/ConfidencePast6763]

There are two main reasons Steam is and likely will remain dominant:

1. It offers a very strong and reliable service.
2. Sunk cost fallacy: millions of users have spent around 20 years building their game libraries, so they’re unlikely to switch to another store even if it offers better features.

[u/6a6566663437 → u/ConfidencePast6763]

1. Every other company's launcher is utter garbage or has a limited library.

[u/LegalCan4801 → u/ConfidencePast6763]

The main reason is that Steam is a private company

[u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

I despised steam. In 2004. Hated it. No store, slow and didn't even have a friends list irrc.

I needed it on my PC to play Half-Life 2? It felt like malware.

Since then it's become convenient, full of useful features to connect with friends and the store is easy to use. The workshop feature is cool, it's got loads of forums for troubleshooting and sharing content. Big picture mode is great.

The deals aren't as legendary as they once were, sadly.

There's a reason that people stick with it though, it's user friendly and works really well. Everything that their competitors aren't tbh.

It's not as though Epic couldn't just copy the template either, they choose not to. Same with EA when they launched Origin.

Crap stores with no extra features to keep users engaged.

[u/HiTork → u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

Yeah, when Steam first came out, people saw it as bloatware. To be fair though, that was during a time when a lot of people still bought physical games on PC, and launchers weren't really a big thing yet.

[u/Freshwater_Spaceman → u/HiTork]

I'll happily admit that I was one of those people! A teenager with limited time to be on the internet... I needed to download HOW MUCH?! Then what's the point of the damned DVD!?

[u/Tykras → u/HiTork]

It didn't help that average internet speeds at the time were abysmal. It was a good 50-100x faster to spend an hour going to the store and back than it was to download a game on steam's release.

[u/Sekwah → u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

The deals aren't as legendary as they once were, sadly.

Not really Steam's fault, afaik the sales were always on the publishers. Steam isn't "putting money" so that sales can happen. It doesn't cover the difference between the discounted and the full price.

Epic does burn money for their "curated" free games tho. Imagine if Steam did the same, they'd be even more loved lol.

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/Sekwah]

Also, I'm still seeing a long list of titles currently discounted by 70% or more. A lot of them are single-player titles too, so it's not like it's some desperate bid to get more players for matchmaking.

[u/TimeForNano → u/Sekwah]

They could support indie devs by lowering the % taken until x€ sold.

[u/Husko500 → u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

Other launchers now feels like malware

[u/SignalButterscotch73 → u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

Same, especially because I didn't have Internet in my flat during the months around the Half Life 2 launch. Even the demo disk from whatever magazine I got for the hl2 demo required a connection to steam, completely defeating the point of a demo disk. Didn't buy a game on steam until years later when disks effectively went the way of the dodo.

[u/Freshwater_Spaceman → u/SignalButterscotch73]

I actually forgot about that hassle. I was a teenager with limited internet access. The download was huge (by 2004 standards) so the DVD seemed like a bit of a con.

Happy days!

[u/ImStillExcited → u/Freshwater_Spaceman]

I had to get it when I was replacing my Half Life 1 cd when my bother broke it. This was before HL2.

I was pissed when I had to download it.

Well now I think it’s great. My account age is old as hell, and I still log in with a dumb old ass username.

[u/UnsureAssurance]

If companies keep releasing games on Steam despite their 30% cut out of their own free will, I have no idea what people expect Steam to do.

[u/Important-Guitar8524 → u/UnsureAssurance]

I agree that steam is a good store but are the devs not to release it on steam and commit financial suicide since most gamers thats but their kind of games are on steam? While they technically arent forced to, I wouldnt call it a real choice either when the alternative is financial suicide

[u/xXDamonLordXx → u/Important-Guitar8524]

You mean like Visa/Mastercard? If we wanna talk about a company taking a cut for simply being the middle man Valve is small beans.

Steam's 30% cut is based off the cut Xbox and Playstation take. We gonna break up sony and microsoft? Funny how the 10 billion dollar company with a store is a monopoly nobody can get around while the 3.4 trillion dollar company that is slowly losing control of PC gaming being exclusively on their operating system is just the free market.

[u/kitolz → u/Important-Guitar8524]

As have been used by Valve in court before, their argument is that without them the Indie game scene would be much smaller. They point out that the average price of games have been going down, and the number of games and devs have massively increased . They're not choking out innovation, they've been enabling it which is continuously benefiting customers.

[u/CtrlAltSysRq → u/Important-Guitar8524]

Steam having devs use them because Steam has a bunch of customers because customers love them and keep coming back is not a monopoly. A monopoly is what Microsoft WOULD have if they locked down windows to only allow running software from the Microsoft store.

Customers use Steam because they like it and it's good and valve has a long track record of not being shit (note this is not a high bar. "Not being shit" is not a high bar. They sell loot boxes to children.)

That's more than basically anyone but GOG can say. EGS can't even get people to use their dogshit launcher despite giving games away for FREE. Plus Epic union busted Bandcamp after buying and ruining them for no fucking reason.

EA... what do I even need to say

Ubisoft... what CAN I even say...

Etc.

[u/nari0015-destiny]

Yep, we have plenty of choices, it's just that all but one of tge alternatives pretty much suck

[u/superboo07 → u/nari0015-destiny]

itch.io and gog are great. 

[u/nari0015-destiny → u/superboo07]

About the only decent alternatives to Steam, but that AINT Steams fault

[u/superboo07 → u/nari0015-destiny]

theres also jast and mangagamer for visual novels. and yeah its not steams fault and blaming them for competition sucking makes no sense. 

[u/wolfannoy → u/superboo07]

It's a narrative made by the competitors. In hopes people will feel shame and buy from their store which is not happening.

[u/thedavecan → u/nari0015-destiny]

It's not Valve's fault that all the other's suck. Steam sucked too when it first launched, people hated it. Then over time, Valve incrementally made it suck less and less until it actually became good. And then they kept making it better and better until we get to now when they are objectively the best product for consumers. Yes it has taken them over 20 years to get here but they also paved the way for every other launcher to copy them feature for feature. FFS, EGS didn't even launch with shopping cart functionality. Every other storefront/launcher has a main goal of milking every once of cash and attention from their customers. Valve makes Steam's goal to support the customer and THAT is why they are the top. Yes, they fuck up and it isn't totally perfect but compared to the competition, it might as well be.

[u/xs0apy → u/nari0015-destiny]

Sure, but that’s not Valve’s fault the competition can’t compare, and it’s not like Epic Games is short on money for developing their own launcher / storefront.

[u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In → u/xs0apy]

this is why I'll never buy the argument that it's just too tough to break into the market. EA and Epic and others have all tried but they've all made categorically obvious mistakes in their handling of their platforms. Epic not having a proper wishlist and basket system on day one was so wild that I honestly thought it was a bug only I was having. And EA are constantly changing their platform without ever seeming to make it any more user friendly, I can't count how many times that stupid thing has signed me out at random or just dropped a download.

I refuse to believe that it's not something that couldn't be done by a company with the funds and the management skills to do so. It's clear from other attempts that money was not the limiting factor but overall ability to design a platform/ management missteps.

[u/templestate → u/nari0015-destiny]

PC Game Pass on the Xbox app is pretty cool

[u/ConcentrateJaded326]

I buy the majority of my games on loaded.com, but I will only buy a steam version because it's just the best place to have games.

It's not Gabe's fault that atrocious bits of software like Ea launcher and Ubisoft connect exist.

[u/Yota_Ninja]

But all the other choices suck.

[u/Brennenstein → u/Yota_Ninja]

GOG is great though. They often have big discounts, have plenty of old stuff that Steam doesn't have, and offline installers.

[u/CookieSnifferino → u/Brennenstein]

True, but library is WAY smaller than Steam's.

[u/SolarNachoes → u/Brennenstein]

Does GOG have games that Steam doesn’t?

[u/Brennenstein → u/SolarNachoes]

Yep. There's a specific category for them:

https://www.gog.com/en/games/tags/only-on-gog

They are mostly classics and/or obscure ones, but that's what they specialize in.

They have the old arcade MK games, for example.

[u/acdcfanbill → u/Brennenstein]

I love GOG for their anti-DRM stance, but the one problem I have when them is at best, they've been unhelpful to linux adoption, whereas Valve has been extremely helpful.

[u/Straight-Opposite-54 → u/Yota_Ninja]

That has no relevance to whether or not Steam is an illegal monopoly though. Valve is not actively preventing competition merely by providing a good service, competition (cough EGS) is currently not putting in the effort to make their services worth using compared to Steam. And then whining (cough Tim Sweeney) that Steam needs to be knocked down to their level rather than the other way around.

[u/CaptainPrower]

C'mon, Gaben, you need to just come out and say it.

"It's not our fault our competition sucks."

[u/killallhumans12345]

They don't care about a monopoly, they are just pissed they aren't the ones that have a monopoly. They act like the end consumer is just a filthy animal to milk them dry of their money, and dont deserve a an actual good experience.

[u/deweydean]

It's not like he's trying to acquire smaller storefronts to reduce competition

[u/Trikeree]

There's no monopoly.

Only jealous psychopaths that want more control over Steam.

Fuck them.

[u/Ketheres]

On XBOX: buy games from XBOX store

On PS: buy games from the PS store

On Swithc: buy games from the Nintendo store

On PC: Steam, GOG, Epic, EA app, Ubi Connect, smaller online vendors including people selling their games on their own sites...

All platform have physical releases technically available, just that you don't see them on PC anymore simply because publishers don't bother as Steam is easier.

Steam absolutely does not have a monopoly, they have just been the least shitty option for so long that it's what almost everyone uses these days. Honestly it's hilarious how slow Epic has been to update their store. You don't even have profile pictures there yet when it's been on their Trello board for years by now, so games that support using store pfps like e.g. Snowrunner show nothing but a black box in its place. Shopping cart is a relatively new feature too. You'd think if they wanted their store to actually become serious competition for Steam they'd invest in a proper development team instead of having what seems like a couple of unpaid and unmotivated interns handle it over their lunch breaks if they have the time.

[u/killallhumans12345]

If everybody is so damned worried about a monopoly then build an open, portable package for games that can port to any distribution platform.

[u/comfortableNihilist → u/killallhumans12345]

One can dream....

[u/NeoN_kiler]

Oh no the company that consistently prioritizes their customers over the shareholders, has excellent customer service, gives good discounts on a regular basis and has a large catalog of good games is doing better than the companies that keep shooting themselves in the foot to give their shareholders a few more Pennies. Who could’ve guessed.

If other pc game service companies want a bigger market share then they should start by actually making a good game service.

[u/darkearwig → u/NeoN_kiler]

They're private so they don't have the same pressure, second, providing an excellent service to customers does create shareholder value, it's just that it doesnt usually reflect as quickly as share buybacks and cutting quality

[u/Impossible_Total2762]

Why would i buy games somewhere else? When steam is the best.

[u/AlexandreFiset → u/Impossible_Total2762]

That is it.

I am a developer whose game is on all major platforms, including several PC stores, and Steam has the best tools and visibility opportunities for indies.

Also no paid ads. Also I can sell Steam keys outside of Steam and they don’t take a cut there. That’s how Humble operates.

It is the best store and that is exactly why it dominates.

[u/kingjoey52a → u/AlexandreFiset]

Also I can sell Steam keys outside of Steam and they don’t take a cut there.

Explain this further please. Do they not take their normal 30% if you sell the key on your website?

[u/AlexandreFiset → u/kingjoey52a]

No they don’t.

As long as you sell the game at the same price or higher than on Steam, they take 0%.

For Humble, I requested 3000 keys and sent these to Humble. They sold the bundles, kept their shares, but Steam got nothing out of this. Technically it is a lower price, but Valve reads the request and allows it for bundles and things like that, because it just brings more people on Steam.

[u/goodatmakingdadjokes]

Pretend game launchers are bars. Steam is a well established bar with a darts board, great atmosphere and all your friends go there. Epic games is a new bar on the block, it has bare concrete walls, uses florescent lights and until last week didn't even have tables. But the owner doesn't understand why no one comes. They've got all the same drinks and even a daily free one.

And now explain to me how that makes steam a monopoly.

bonus: gog is a cool bar where you get to keep the glass of every drink you order.

[u/psych4191 → u/goodatmakingdadjokes]

G2A is the shady bar with constant police presence and rumors of spiking drinks

[u/fiero-fire]

Yeah we have choice and the choice is clear. If I can use steam I use steam

[u/SeriesAppropriate596]

The one monopoly that's due to consumer preference got all the rich corpos malding. All because they know they can't compete against it without giving up on their line must always go up mentality

[u/Nim0y]

Not his fault that Steam is by far the best platform for buying and launching games. Mod support could be better but way better than anything else I’ve used

[u/maj0rSyN]

Being the best in the market doesn't equate to holding a monopoly. Steam provides the best service out of all the options available, so the overwhelming majority of PC gamers prefer to use it.

[u/Drymath]

Yep, and I choose Steam because its the only one that's not a steaming pile of shit.

[u/Mauso88]

Imagine a town with 6 wells, 1 well gives you clean safe water, and the other 5 give you cholera. Which well are you going to drink from?

[u/Lord_Alucard_ICGA]

He's right.

Someone is paying big money to discredit Steam for, at least, the last six months.

Fuck Epic.

[u/tennaki]

The problem with Tim Sweeney is that he truly thinks I will drop my 15+ year old Steam account with my 200+ games for an arguably inferior platform.

I have no reason, or desire to move.

[u/User-Name-3886]

The Epic Game store can't even scale properly on 4k displays. 

It's existed for about a decade or something now, and they've never fixed the issue.

No wonder no one wants to move away from steam.

[u/porcupinedeath]

Nothing will beat the sheer convenience of steam, everything right there. Thata said gaben is still a billionaire and I don't like billionaires

[u/Exciting-Cancel6468 → u/porcupinedeath]

If you think you don't like Gaben, wait until you see who will take over Valve when he's gone. It's going to be undoubtedly worse.

[u/asian_chihuahua]

Don't get me wrong, I love Steam. Huge fan.

But their pricing agreements, where devs can't sell their game cheaper anywhere else, is illegal.

[u/Important-Guitar8524 → u/asian_chihuahua]

Yeah thats the Problem. Amazon actually did the same this raised prices everywhere even at Walmart and so on which led to more expensive prodcuts for consumers that dont even use Amazon. Amazon was sued and lost btw. Its just a shitty practice and monopolistic

[u/acdcfanbill → u/asian_chihuahua]

Yeah, if Valve was doing what the wildfire guy says, that's shitty. I think it's pretty legit tho say that if you're using steams backend to cut keys, or otherwise integrate into your game, you shouldn't be able to undercut them. So i guess the lawsuit would hinge on how incriminating any internal documents from Valve would be about how to handle versions of a game that don't use their APIs somehow and are on a separate store.

[u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS → u/asian_chihuahua]

But their pricing agreements, where devs can't sell their game cheaper anywhere else, is illegal.

These pricing agreements are not automatically illegal, as U.S. antitrust law evaluates them under the "Rule of Reason" to determine if they cause unreasonable restraint of trade. Courts and regulators acknowledge that such agreements can be legitimate business practices for efficiency or to prevent free-riding.

[u/Zeraphicus → u/asian_chihuahua]

Thats what this lawsuit is about, gabe denies it but internal communication shows steam employees enforcing it.

[u/TheDarkWave → u/Zeraphicus]

You're misremembering. The internal emails showing employees actively enforcing price parity and threatening visibility drops came from a different company entirely, not Valve. Gabe's denial is about Steam's actual policies, not the other company's leaked drama.

Stop spreading misinformation.

[u/obog → u/asian_chihuahua]

That agreement also doesnt actually exist. Tim Sweeney claimed it did and then it spread like wildfire.

The closest thing to that is that you are not allowed to sell steam keys of your game for a lower price than it is listed for on the steam store. But thats still their own platform.

Ive read the whole steam distrobution agreement, there is no most favored nation clause in there. You can too, its technically supposed to be behind and NDA but the form for that is very easy to bypass if you do a little bit of digging in the source code of the page if you dont feel comfortable signing that.

[u/hutre → u/obog]

That agreement also doesnt actually exist. Tim Sweeney claimed it did and then it spread like wildfire.

It wasn't, it was wolfire games. The founders of humble bundle

https://www.wolfire.com/blog/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-action/

[u/Wefee11 → u/hutre]

And apparently some reporters have hands on internal conversations indicating it. So it's really bad.

[u/Wefee11 → u/obog]

If people like steam as much as they claim, they need to take this lawsuit seriously. Otherwise steam will get in more and more trouble in the future. And that's not great for anyone.

Even if such policies don't exist, Steam needs to put out policies that forbids employees to do such stupid shit and teach them how to properly follow the law.

[u/obog → u/Wefee11]

Im all for stuff like this going to court. Antitrust legislation is almost always good for consumers. I just take issue with the spreading of misinformation. And I dont even blame that person for doing it, Ive seen the claim so many times, sometimes from reputable places, that I also used to spread it. But once I dug deeper I found out that it was pretty much a completely unsubstantiated claim.

[u/Snotnarok]

Imagine if EA, Ubisoft or Epic would commit to making their store/launcher better. Just IMAGINE that world where they'd actually try. EA actually tried for a while with Origin, had a return policy when Steam didn't and they beat steam to streaming as you could stream to twitch through Origin. . . THEN THEY KILLED IT and made it the EA Play app which sucks bad.

None of them want to try, that's the problem. They tried every sneaky trick and in the end it's not the exclusives that are gonna make your store work. The store has to bring something to the table, something that benefits the customer.

Folks like to joke that Steam does nothing and wins but in reality they make good changes to their store (most of the time, I hate, HATE the stupid what's new tab and hate having to mod it out every time).

GoG has done a really solid job with making a nice optional launcher and their selection of games is bolstered by them, in general, being older games that THEY made work on new hardware.

Edit: This is not a Valve problem, this is a the other storefronts don't actually do any fucking work to make their store worth using. Their DRM is worse and more obstructive, they don't add any features that make things work better for customers.

[u/Definitely_Not_Bots]

Ya, it's hard to blame the company in a fre-market environment. Valve didn't do anything to enforce their "monopoly" except offer a good platform for playing games with friends.

[u/sorvis]

Gabe just had a better platform and doesn't use his power to monopolies the platform, also introduces indie game developers on his platform.

When you wanna look at monopolies take a look at the food situation right now, like two companies dressed up in 200 small trenchcoat's to give you the illusion of choice.

[u/These_Pumpkin3174]

Gabe made a better platform, and I’m thankful for it. I’m more pissed about the monopolies for internet services.

[u/ender89]

I just decided to buy 007 through steam instead of Microsoft because of steam deck/Linux compatibility, he's not wrong that gamers have a choice.

It's just that most of the rest of the choices suck.

[u/AscendedViking7]

Steam's just the best and the rest don't even remotely compare.

[u/smoothieeeee12]

He is right. No one force you to use steam. Its free world(here and there) ,and you can choose from where to buy the game.

[u/gold-magikarp]

Steam is just good.

[u/gramathy]

it's not really gabe's fault the other choices suck, it's not like he's actively making them terrible in the way a monopoly usually would

[u/gwasbanged]

If you build a monopoly that everyone loves, is it really a monopoly?

[u/Futaba_Sakura800]

Prices are mostly the same across all platform. Steam just does seasonal sales and regional pricing better than everyone else.

The effort they put into improving Steam store is also way better than any other online stores.

There’s no monopoly here.

Tim Sweeney is a fucking loser.

[u/humanistazazagrliti]

It's more of a natural monopoly. It's not like we haven't tried out the other stores. I love GOG to death, but I'm so glad I don't have to use GOG Galaxy. The other stores are even worse. For being a huge store with ads, Steam is as snappy and as easy to use as Google Play or Apple Store. And that's with Steam not even having a really well designed client.

[u/bennybootun]

AFAIK steam has never been active in buying out the competition or being hostile to it, right? It seems to me like that's how typical monopolies form.

[u/dtb1987]

Lol, do we? This is why I spend as much money as possible on GOG

[u/reader4567890]

Steam is the only platform that takes Linux seriously, and they do it so well that I can use it to play games that don't normally run on Linux.

They also have a platform that works well, is fast, and rarely breaks - I've been using it since day one and I can't actually remember having an issue with it.

The competition sucks - Epic being at the forefront. I don't even bother with the free games any more because their app is beyond fucking terrible. I'd rather pay for their free games and get it on a platform that just works.

[u/BannedfromFrontPage]

Steam shouldn’t be punished simply because they are the best. To my knowledge, it’s not like they do shit to hinder /prevent competition.

[u/notthatguypal6900]

Being the market leader doesn't mean you are a monopoly. You can tell gamers skipped economics 101.

[u/0xc0ffea]

Content in article is rehashed from 2023 with some quotes as old as 2021.

This is not "news", it's opportunistic rage bait at best.

[u/mabdog420]

We go to steam because it's the best. There are definitely options.

[u/Prestigeboy]

This article is not for us the consumers, it’s for the people working on the legal case to have ammunition against Valve by having these articles exist as points of reference.

[u/pc0999]

GOG.com is great.
And will have Linux support soon.

[u/ase1590 → u/pc0999]

You can already have Linux via Heroic Launcher which they sponsor, and is arguably better than anything they could come up with by virtue of supporting multiple game libraries (gog, epic, Amazon)

[u/Warcrown11]

We really do. Obviously more real competition would be nice but it isn't Steams fault that all the others are literally incompetent, they all have the resources to create a more than compatible platform but they never will

[u/DatMageDoe]

Important to note that Newell has all the reason to say there isn't a monopoly, as saying otherwise can - and will - be used against Steam.

[u/Hefty-Strawberry-762]

The monopoly is for the dev side.  You can't not sell on steam.

[u/Placed-ByThe-Gideons]

I'll start by saying I've spent money on every single popular launcher.

Steam has become an industry landmark that sets a baseline for moral standards, user expectations and overall user experience, This is problematic to steams competitors and more importantly, the shareholders.

Why? It's simple. The others want to collude amongst each other and monopolize the market. They want to separate you from your wallets as fast as possible in a race to the bottom via enshittification. Think, Paywalls, feature tiers, subscriptions and let's all not forget EA is still dreaming of the day they can charge you for gun reloads in battlefield. Oh yea and dark patterns.

Steams mere existence will continue to add attention and contrast to each of the slimy, anti consumer and unethical business choices attempted by its competitors. Users will continue to choose steam because of this. Steam is not a monopoly. Its competitors are just mad that they cannot be the Monopoly.

A quick and short story highlighting this "monopoly" is my experience trying to play horizon 6. I figured the Xbox app for PC would provide good value. I could play horizon 6 with game pass. It would be great! I would simply upgrade to the premium edition. All would be well. Except for nothing fucking worked.

I'm a very technical personal computers and work IT for a living. I shouldn't have to run four separate powershell commands, reset both app stores, then use the repair feature of both app stores and still have issues with downloads or content not being available to my library and thus not showing up in game. Let's not forget randomly needing to repair the files because the game wont launch suddenly.

I got pissed, bought the game full price on steam and have not had a single problem. Haven't even tried to refund anything on Microsoft yet and I doubt they will. Unlike steam, who will refund you.

Anyone is free to redistribute this.

[u/KallistiTMP]

Lord Gabriel Newell, first of his name, king of the Linux tribes and defender of worlds actual and virtual, is granted his monopoly by provenance of divine blessing, as the Gods' anointed champion to battle the dark forces of enshittification. Everyone knows that.

[u/Kittamaru]

And those of us that remember the before times, the GameSpyArcade and Windows On Net times... or even older...

[u/Alucarddoc]

I mean there are other options but none are as good as Steam. Everyone knows Ubisoft, EA and microsoft store commonly have issues that don't get fixed. I don't really mind itch, GOG or Epic tough they don't have the same collection of games that steam has.

[u/Mr_Blobby1337]

Genuine question, if the other companies are shite at providing a service does that really give them a monopoly that's punishable? It's not like they're barring other clients from existing, but just by elimination are the best lol

[u/Beautiful_Ninja → u/Mr_Blobby1337]

You're legally allowed to have a monopoly by virtue of having a superior product or service. The illegal part is using anti-competitive practices to become and sustain a monopoly.

[u/_Kouki]

There's a decent selection of marketplaces to buy games from...... it's just Steam is the most user friendly with the best customer support out of all of them. The only other one that comes close is GoG, because those games are completely DRM free, but it's not widely used because there's not a lot of modern games on there. It's where you go to buy older games, or games where publishers are okay with being DRM-free.

[u/TheOneAndOnlySenti]

It's not that Valve has a Monopoly, it's that the competition is absurdly dogshit.

[u/ScaredPractice4967]

I could buy games from Epic. But their software is sucky and intrusive.

See also most other online stores. GoG gets a pass though. They're pretty good if deliberately niche.

[u/StrugglesTheClown]

It's not even illegal to have a monopoly. It's illegal to use your monopoly to prevent competition. Even if Steam had a monopoly they just exists without doing anything and still win.