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I really like my Steam Deck, it basically retired my Switch, the last time I saw that it was caked in dust
When can I run Steam OS on my phone? :)
A Steam Phone would be a massive undertaking, but I'm so here for it. I would love if they used one of the actual Linux phone OSs and made it good instead of Android.
Valve slamming the door on ad-rot mechanics? Finally a corp treating gamers like humans, not dopamine piggybanks. Mobile’s ad-infested hellscape stays where it belongs—in the pocket-sized Skinner boxes of despair. But let’s not kid ourselves: this isn’t altruism—it’s market hygiene. Steam’s dominance hinges on not becoming the digital equivalent of a bus station bathroom plastered in NFT billboards.
Meanwhile, Epic’s over there sharpening its shiv, ready to monetize your retinas if it means clawing back relevance. Capitalism’s funniest gag: competition via not being intolerable. Keep the ad-free oasis flowing, GabeN.
It's not entirely altruistic.
Valve doesn't get their 30% taste on ad revenue.
Who even does? Ad rot has diminishing returns
Google and Apple.
This will play into it. But Valve allows stuff that cuts into their immediate profits, like e.g. third party sales. I think ensuring market dominance by ensuring customer satisfaction is the more important part of the decision. Steam is imo meant to stay a quality product with a reliable turnover. They are not aiming to become a bookmaker, like the play store or apple store vasically are nowadays.
valve is at this point basically just the good old "luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing", they just avoid obviously being dickheads and try to be like 5% nicer than is strictly most profitable, and due to the state of the rest of the world this makes them one of the most saintlike companies most people know of.
That is the only reason here. But steam-lovers will always paint anything bad more favouribly.
I'm also strongly invested in steam (sadly so), so it's not just hate.
That is the only reason here.
That's not a bad thing though. It means their profitability is aligned with preferences of their customers rather than a kind of "managed dissatisfaction" business model.
paint anything bad more favouribly.
I disagree in this situation - it is being painted more favourably, but it's not bad. Their motivation may be self-interest, but I see it more as killing two birds with one stone. I will also note that Valve could provide official ad integration through steam APIs, but at least so far they chose not to.
Realistically they're probably doing this mostly because they don't get the 30% cut on ad revenue. They want to force publishers to actually charge money through Steam.
Even when this is true. Adding ads is in my opinion unethical. As you shove the user pictures that can trigger him. You dont know what the neurodivergent Gamer has. OCD? Or smth else?
Ads are made to catch an eye and clickbait. Flush some dopamine or other emotions. Just to break the wall and make the user buy something against his own real motivation.
At the end some ads are even scams and you dont even get what the manipulated motivation directed it towards to. Mostly the motivation is directed, because the user is being told it recieves something valuable for himself, but at the end doesnt even recieve that.
Ads are just scams and destroying the mentallness. I dont feel psychologically well for 3 days after seeing the wrong picture. Obssessive thoughts unrelated to your life but bothering you, while having your own issues is not nice.
Yeah, I agree with you. Banning ads is a good thing. I just wanted to point out that Valve isn't doing this purely for our benefit. Valve also does some anti-competitive or anti-consumer stuff to keep their near-monopolistic status.
Good guy Steam.
Everyone is acting like this is purely for good intentions, but I'll point out they make most of their money from taking a cut of the sale price from games. Ad money probably would not go to them at all. This is almost certainly purely a business decision, not because they fundamentally don't like the concept or want to protect you from it.
Of course everything a company does is in the best interest of the company. Even as simple as "let's make excellent products with lifetime warrantees" benefits them by making people want to shop there.
But that doesn't mean it isn't a good thing when companies realise the customers best interest are also their best interest. We should encourage that, not scoff at it.
Of course everything a company does is in the best interest of the company.
That is not true, but that is part of the problem and also why Steam is at least a little better for us customers. Most companies only do what is good for the stakeholders short term, Valve does what is good for the company/single owner long term. And happy customers are good long-term, but not so important short-term.
It is still capitalism, and thus still terrible. But a tiny bit less terrible.
Yes, when something half good finally happens, let's complain it probably didn't happen for better reasons
Why are we never happy again?
Removing choices to the consumer isn't good. It may sound like they're doing a good thing, but if a racing game can include non-intrusive ads and either make the game cheaper or make more content without harming the experience, that's good for the consumer. If a company makes a shitty ad ladden game, you can always just not buy it. They aren't defending you. They're defending their method of making money and ensuring you can't make money without paying them, while removing options for the consumer.
You can be happy about a decision while still understanding the business rational behind it.
Maybe the look at the shitshow that is mobile gaming and they want to stay away from it. Good intention in my book.
a good thing done for a shitty reason is still a good thing.
Also known as free market capitalism 100% working as it should.
I honestly don't really care about Valve's motivations. It's a good decision. This kind of trash can take over and ruin an entire marketplace if you let it.
Weren’t they the ones introducing forced ads in cs 1.6?
For the orange box?