this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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You can’t possibly believe that (in particular) developers and (to a lesser degree) users aren’t captured by Steam when Steam controls over 90% of the PC market. If a developer doesn’t release on Steam they may as well not release at all unless you want everyone to go to consoles.
You are giving valve a pass because currently their interests align largely with ours.
I don't like Valve. I don't like the non-ownership model of game distribution.
Users aren't captured at all, since none of them need to purchase video games. Game developers may be captured by Valve, but game developers aren't producing anything of importance.
I'm for legal restrictions on industry practice that are predatory towards the users, but there's no need to protect the industry itself from control by Valve, since nothing important is being controlled.
Valve also can't control the gaming industry if they don't control the OS gamers use. They may be trying to control the OS, but they haven't done it yet. Until then, they can't prevent users from installing games outside of Steam. If Developers are locked in to Steam, it's because users buy games in Steam and refuse to buy games outside of Steam. The users behave this way because Steam provides lots of value to them.
If Steam starts to abuse users instead of serving them, there's nothing stopping them from purchasing games some other way.
You can’t argue about this while also saying none of this matters. Again, it’s a massive media industry. You can’t just hand wave it away.
I'm not arguing none of this matters.
This is what I'm arguing: if Valve had control of the gaming industry, which it doesn't yet but might later, it would matter so little that we'd need no public policy to address it. Anyone who isn't in the industry needn't concern themselves about it.
This is some pretty interesting mental gymnastics and I’m kind of tired of spending my weekend unpacking it. Have a good one.