I like Steam, but I am trying to shop at GOG more and more. No DRM has become a big selling feature for me. I remember the days when Google was one of the “cool” companies that made tech better. Now I am suspicious of all tech companies.
I’d use GoG much more if they caught up on the Linux support side. Even their client doesn’t work on Linux, and last time I downloaded cyberpunk through a third-party launcher, it took hours because they limit the speed of downloads through the API.
When I still used windows, I’d use Steam to search for games and then buy them on Gog if they were available, but the convenience gap is just too large now :(
Just use heroic for gog games. It isn’t that big of an issue. You can launch games using proton through heroic without relying on steam.
Or if you’re really lazy, just add gog games to steam and then play them.
Point is if you actually want to buy more from gog then there’s nothing stopping you from doing that.
But then what will people complain about and give reasons not to use GoG
Heroic works fine, but I like being able to see my friends list.
Heroic has worked well for me so far. I haven’t noticed download speed issues, but I grew up with dial-up…
At least GoG has a good search feature for Linux games. Too bad it’s almost entirely porn.
But I got Silksong on GoG.
I think Steam vs GOG is an actual healthy competition
Long term that’s possibly wise. Track record being what it is I think steam is broadly ok, but definitely less safe than something you can download and keep forever.
I think as long as Gabe runs the show, it will be fine, but you know that there are venture capitalists and mega-corps all ready to maximize stakeholder value.
At least with GoG, you can at least download your installers if it ever begins the enshittification slide. Steam will take everything with it should it start down that path.
The question is whether or not whoever or whatever Gabe puts into his place when he steps down will act like him.
I see it as a serious likelihood he’ll proof the company against venture capital and going public
Gabe is only one step below a venture capitalist on the scale of evil. He only invested in Linux as a hedge against the windows store, and steam only has “good customer service” because they were legally forced to offer refunds.
Gabe intentionally destroyed physical games on PC almost two decades ago. Now you have no guarantee of keeping your library and there’s no used PC game market anymore, which raises prices for all of us. Go look at used console games, they’re always cheaper than PC ports even when the ports are on sale.
Gabe made gaming worse, not better. People moan about not owning things anymore yet praise this billionaire fuck who literally pioneered that concept. His actual good contributions to gaming were HL1 and HL2 but in the end he only ever cared about making money.
What I dislike about Steam is that Valve doesn’t allow you to leave your account to somebody else upon your death.
Neither does GOG
So if I die and I leave my harddrive full of offline installers to my kid, GOG will come delete every installer?
You know, I keep hearing this but I don’t know many GOG users who actually backup their installers or even update their backed up installers. It’s great if you actually do, but I just don’t know enough people who do.
Won’t stop your heir playing the GOG games though
How will steam know if I’ve done that?
That’s irrelevant. It’s the rule itself I don’t like.
Damn right I’ll give my game collection to my kid.
Can you just give them the passwords?
Yeah you can.
But Steam doesn’t want it, according to a support rep:
Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable. Steam Support can’t provide someone else with access to the account or merge its contents with another account. I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will.
This means you can leave your login details in your will, but Steam can block the account. Also, in case the login details in your will are not correct anymore or no login details were shared, Steam will not give access.
eh, idk, I think people worrying about passing down their antique game collections to the younger generation are sorta like all the old people thinking their kids are gonna want their stamp collections or old timey ‘country rose’ antique dish sets. Even worse, because it’s not like you can even re-sell those games to make a tiny profit at a flea market or whatever.
What if a 30 year old dies and their 10 year old kid can’t play the games anymore that they were playing by using family sharing?
An outlier case, which doesn’t justify changing the setup and introducing even bigger issues/abuses to solve.
If accounts allowed transfers, I’d personally have no issue with doing something like:
- Have my own personal “main” steam account
- Use secondary accounts to buy games
- Transfer any game I want to play longer term / figure I’ll revisit over to my main account; sell the secondary account on Facebook Marketplace/similar sites to recoop funds for myself on a quarterly/annual basis (removing that potential revenue from steam)
That sort of abuse would be far more common, than the outlier case you’ve listed for a young parent passing down games to a kid that’s fairly close in age.
Facebook requires a public obituary before an account is put into the RIP mode.
I dunno, I inherited my grandparents’ SNES and my uncle’s PS1 and Sega Dreamcast. I probably played those consoles more than they ever did. Granted, those consoles weren’t that old by the time I got them
I mean, unless I’m physically unable, I’ll be gaming until the day I die. Sure a lot of my steam library will be some ancient games, but there will be plenty of current ones as well.
And they raised the price on the required subscription service, are closing game studios, and forcing people to only buy games through them. Oh, wait; that’s Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo…
You got me in the first half, no gonna lie.
Aaaallllmost downvoted you then, lol. My apologies.
Captain: the figure is gross revenue, profit margin is ~40%
Hardware is more no?
Profit on hardware in this economy?
Somebody is, it’s just not Valve.
TSMC and the memory foundries
Profit margin is company wide metric, calculated from financial statements. It includes all the products&services company produces
They don’t release financial statements, that 40% is entirely fabricated lol. Everything is estimates, it’s stated only about 100 times in the link.
Hardware has higher profit ratio, it’s not 40%. Most is 30% from game sales, but hardware is almost 100%. That average is not even an estimate, it’s completely made up dude. It’s not 40%, I was asking them a question so the would rethink or provide the source, but clearly people believe the fake data they presented.
There’s absolutely no way it’s only 40%. Games alone are 30% for third party, their own games is close to 100%. So those two alone average far over 40% and that’s not including hardware that’s almost solely profit.
Almost 100%? Are you saying it costs, quite literally, basically nothing to make hardware?
Profit margin % means share of revenue you get to keep after all the expenses
Example: Say a game sold for 100€, revenue of valve is 30€, valve expenses on that sale is 18€, so actual profit is 12€.
Data of private companies isn’t required to published regularly but same as in the article, it can be voluntarily shared by the company.
Calling it fabricated implies accounting fraud, which is serious legal offense (equivalent of accusing a person of murder). So, being skeptical of the numbers is a good investor mindset but throwing baseless accusations is punishable offense in itself
Let’s be civil, people
I think they’re saying you came up with that 40% number yourself. Did steam ever reveal that info?
I didn’t do any original sophisticated research since my interest in the story is very low, so i reposted the figure from literally Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation (Search page by “profit margin”)
Huh Steam only accounts for 60% of their revenue? Amazing.
hardware is almost 100%.
Source?
In the month after the Sony disc debacle and Microsoft slamming a katana into its own belly?
Absolutely shocking.
Yeah all those fans of physical media immediately switched to PC
You can, with a little effort, back up your steam install files. In the unlikely event that Valve pulls the rug users have the option to insure against it.
If I have to deal with digital media I prefer to do it on one where hardware configurations are open and operating system isn’t locked.
Digital media on a locked hardware platform that doesn’t let you load your OS of choice or even programs makes for a more restrictive digital media experience.
Hard drives are physical storage.
It’s not a “physical media” issue, it’s about monopolizing and raising prices.
Obviously, releasing an expensive piece of hardware that is in high demand reflects in the numbers.
I’ve had 1500€ put aside for the Steam Frame since January. I expected I’d be waiting till the next spring to get a chance to buy it. To my surprise and absolute delight, I was apparently at the front of the line. I’ve received my unit three days ago and it’s been a blast.
I’m sure the steam frame helped a bit. They also have an ever increasing consumer base.
Probably. Wish I could’ve bought one.
Yet, no Half-life 3 😢
I wish they could spend some of that on a native UI for the Deck. Love the deck, and please don’t flame me, but the Steam HTML interface is so sluggish and janky it makes me want to set myself on fire. Especially the flexbox popups.
They probably don’t because it would introduce technical debt. They want to support multiple platforms with one code base, and this is one way to do it. That being said, there are other alternatives…
The reason behind not wanting to have this debt points to deeper issues at Valve. They’re a multi billion dollar company, but act like some local two location mom and pop store. The 350 employees they have is simply not enough to do what we expect of them.
They should do better, but they probably can’t with the human resources they have. They have financials to expand, but I question what would become of them if they do. Right now and for the past 10+ years, its been status quo with slow changes and improvements.
I hate to say it, but I’m never going to purchase anything on steam. 23 Y/o account with one refund and they’re refusing to refund twenty some dollars for a scam game. Fuck Steam.
What game did you play for two hours without realising it was a scam?
I didn’t even play it for two hours… 48 minutes clocked; between crashing and just sitting there trying to get it to work I roughly played it for 15 minutes. I was 9 days late on requesting a refund, but I have other things to take care of and I had to look up online how to even get a refund now.
The game was BodyCam; probably the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever played. I generally got the gist that more money was spent on advertising than whatever that garbage is. And look it’s not about difficulty or anything, I wanted to play something between and Arma.
What I got was the empty pistachio shell. I had more fun with DeadLock, which is also early access and free and not it’s even my style of game; I played it because a friend wanted to.
The reason I say it’s a scam; I joined their discord sever and of course they announce that they will be doing a collaboration with another game. Like okay, that’s a wtf really? This flaccid garbage isn’t worth the $30 and you’re starting a new project.
Whoever down-voted me; understand that I had steam since the first week of launch. While at this point it’s better than all the other stuff overall, it sure was a shit show. Most of you don’t understand how annoying it was to buy Half-Life 2 only to have to wait weeks before being able to play it–should have bought the CD version. Or to go from playing CS1.5 at 300 FPS to playing CS1.6 at no higher than 40. And it’s not like I’m not going to keep using Steam, those 800 games aren’t going to play themselves, but I’m not spending a dime again.
Your game didn’t play, then you waited nearly a month before asking a refund?
Disregarding the long wait, I’ve heard plenty of people who got a refund even long after buying it. They’re pretty flexible if you explain the issue.
Every single time I hear someone say “fuck steam”, it’s accompanied by something that’s completely the user’s fault…
I made about 8 attempts now. And sorry I get busy between work, classes, and life a week fly’s by.
How is bodycam a scam? I’m enjoying atm. I agree there isn’t much to the game right now in terms of game modes and maps, but it’s not like they’re hiding that lol. I suggest you actually look at some let’s plays before buying a game to see what’s currently in it. You bought an early access game and don’t like that the game is still early in development?
I probably should have watched a streamer instead of their promotional videos. To each his own, but I think the bar for early access has gotten so low I should have expected that I was going to be wasting money on trash.
I have a singular question.
Would your actions (asking for a refund after the window had closed) have resulted in the same outcome at any other retailer?
Probably, most retailers will write it off and move on just so you leave them alone. I would also go as far as saying that 8 days past isn’t oh yeah I waited a year. I had gotten a complete refund for the half-ass–almost killed me alignment job, it only took 5-6 phone calls but hey eventually they gave me my money back. Personally I’ve rarely ran into issues and well there’s always charge backs. I would imagine that part of it was using some “funds” from “selling” skins from CS; which I don’t consider it as selling since you don’t get a check in the mail for the dollar amount.
Steam has reached a point of being big enough not to care.
I mean everyone can defend Steam all they want, but it’s not as if they haven’t done shady practices either. They’re just the lesser evil. And it goes as far as all the battle passes I wasted money on in CSGO, as well as buying the game for it only to become free, all those maps are out of rotation. And then CSGO disappears and magically becomes CS2.
Also 14 days? I don’t know of any refund policy is that short. But it’s okay, I will take the loss and just never spend a cent.
Also 14 days? I don’t know of any refund policy is that short.
So, for the 14 day refund window, both Epic game store and Sony game store only offer 14 day refunds. It looks like Microsoft/Xbox is the same as their software refund policy for their other platforms and that 30 days. GOG’s policy is 30 days.
Itch.io (by far the samllest of these game shops) has a 7 day return window from what I could find.
Probably, most retailers will write it off and move on just so you leave them alone
This is exactly why most retailers don’t do this and why the window exists in the first place. People take advantage of that window and any other favorable terms to the point where we end up where we are now. Your statement also suggests to me that you know what you’re asking might not be reasonable but you’ve decided to be angry about it instead of accepting that your actions lead to this outcome.
But then, here’s another question. Did you ask the developer for a refund? Because if it were important enough to me to be irritated about I’d exhaust all avenues before giving up.
You claim you had to Google how to get a refund. Your email receipt has a hyperlink directly in the text to take you to their refund page making it one of the easiest ways to get a refund in all honesty.
Steam even say they will consider a refund outside the refund window if you contact them (which is probably why other people are asking for more information or if you’ve left anything out). You even admit in another comment that you should have requested a refund at a specific earlier time, which suggests that you had the opportunity and did not.
All of this to say, no retailer is your friend, and every retailer will have tradeoffs. Basing your entire purchasing decision on an irritation that’s at least partially your fault is interesting. Here’s hoping GOG gets your business instead I guess.
“Your statement also suggests to me that you know what you’re asking might not be reasonable but you’ve decided to be angry about it instead of accepting that your actions lead to this outcome.”
I don’t think I was all that unreasonable. I played for 48 minutes. And it’s not like I waited months. But it’s a moot point. And well this is a thread on how much money steam raked in, so 4 gallons of gas I guess isn’t really worth getting all upset about it. I’m just tired of these half ass early access games. I think this is the only one I bought that I was like this is a scam. I’ve played and enjoyed so many but lately
“But then, here’s another question. Did you ask the developer for a refund? Because if it were important enough to me to be irritated about I’d exhaust all avenues before giving up.”
I didn’t. I tried their discord server and there was some issue I ran into and didn’t go further with that.
“You claim you had to Google how to get a refund. Your email receipt has a hyperlink directly in the text to take you to their refund page making it one of the easiest ways to get a refund in all honesty.”
I didn’t even know about that. That’s good to know. Thanks
“Steam even say they will consider a refund outside the refund window if you contact them (which is probably why other people are asking for more information or if you’ve left anything out). You even admit in another comment that you should have requested a refund at a specific earlier time, which suggests that you had the opportunity and did not.”
Well I did leave out stuff. I had a death in the family. Then I got the lettuce fun, hence my user name, so I was sick for a month beforehand. I lost my job, well quiet quit it. My accelerated college classes started, I had to get all my tools from work and my work vehicle, spent time applying for holiday jobs since I’m finally not sleeping 20 hours a day, I’ve been struggling with maintaining place and can barely keep up physically, I lost a lot of weight and I’m having issues with eating now because of how sick I got.
So yeah, I’m irritated, especially when reading how much money they made as if I should be happy about this. I’ll write this here since it’s fairly anonymous but I’m not going to write a sob story to Steam. I’ll leave you with this antique gem for letting me know an easier way to get a refund.
Never had an issue with them refunding stuff. Are you sure there isn’t more to this story?
There isn’t, I guess it’s my fault because I get busy. I should have just gotten a refund the day I got it.
So when you say busy you mean like a month later right because you can refund for quite a while days purchase, as long as you haven’t played the game for more than two hours.
Dude we live in different worlds. A week for me goes by like a flash and I’m constantly behind on things. As I stated, 48 minutes–not even–of play time. That was the only game I played last month a couple days later of buying it because it was on sale. I bought it on the 6th, played it a few days later and decided I want a refund, Tried to get a refund on 28th 29th? Maybe a bit earlier. I didn’t think it would would be such a hassle. I don’t just sit there and play video games all day.
Really there should be an easy refund button right in the library, especially for early access. I shouldn’t have to look up a guide to finding where to initiate a refund either. I did a refund like 7 years ago for one game and I had to look up how to do that then as well. You can call me dumb if you want, but I’ll say the whole process is buried intentionally.
Dude I have a newborn infant and I would have been able to find time in less than a month, it takes like 10 seconds, you just click a button. This is on you, I get the frustration but it’s not steams fault.
I mean I did write that I only had one refund, around 7 years ago. It’s not the end of the world since I don’t need anymore games anyway so it’s not like I’ll purchase anything else. I simply get tired of all the Steam ass-kissing, I have my own opinions on the platform since it was shoved down your throat 23 years ago.
