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From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Happy St. Nicholas Day!
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:56:59 -0500
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On Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:27:30 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 09/12/2024 15:35, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> On Sun, 08 Dec 2024 20:29:40 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
>> 
>>> Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 8 Dec 2024 19:00:04 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
>>>> <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
>>>
>>>>> I still need to actually make a GoG account.. maybe once I read through
>>>>> all my new messages.
>>>
>>>> I consider GOG to be my second most important gaming library behind
>>>> Steam. EPIC is in a distant third.
>>>
>>> Ditto. Origin too which is super rare. Also, Battle.net but that's only
>>> for Diablo games. I used to have Bethesda until they shut it down and
>>> moved to Steam.
>>>
>>>
>>>> You can get free games on GOG from time to time if that matters to you
>>>> at all.
>> 
>>> Ditto.
>> 
>> What, no love for UPlay?
>> (that's a trick question, obviously. Of course nobody loves UPlay)
>> 
>> If you go by numbers, I think my physical media library is in lead by
>> far, but digitally the title goes to my Steam library. It's followed
>> -not too closely- by GOG. Itch.io is in fourth place (thanks to some
>> massive sales where they literally offered hundreds of games for mere
>> dollars). Amazon and Epic are neck and neck, after that The rest -EA,
>> Ubisoft, Blizzard, etc.- are mere rounding errors in comparison.
>> 
>> If you go by games played, that's hard to say. My physical media
>> library gets a lot of use but I don't tend to stick with the any of
>> the individual games for very long (I'll play a DOS game for twenty
>> minutes here, a PS2 game for an hour there). But with the games I play
>> to the end (e.g., the ones I bore you all with my descriptions at the
>> end of the month) are almost all installed digitally. It's probably my
>> Steam library that sees the most use, just because it does have an
>> ease-of-use that's hard to beat. But GOG comes a close second (or
>> third). My other libraries are mostly there for Numerical support.
>> 
>> But even I've gotten to the point where I don't want to accept new
>> digital services into my life. Things like Luna or Legacy Games or
>> Bethesda or whatever Microsoft calls their platform now... I've not
>> bothered with any of them.
>> 
>
>So the vast majority are Steam followed by GoG (a lot of which are from 
>Amazon) and finally Amazon itself. Very much all digital as well now.
>
>The big publishers own launchers have basically made a game a no buy for 
>me due to their history of just stopping you playing the single player 
>component of a game. My only Steam refund was because I just didn't 
>think that Battlefield 1 would have it's own launcher.

I haven't gone quite that far yet, to absolutely blacklist games just
because they use their own launcher, but it's certainly a
consideration when buying. One of the reasons I've cut back on Ubisoft
games (aside from the fact that they're such repetitive shit ;-) is
that I don't want to bother with UPlay. But if the game happens to be
something I'd want to play, I'd endure the client.

But I absolutely won't be BUYING anything through their storefront.
For that I'll stick to Steam or GOG. 

These first-party clients (UPlay, EA, BethNet, etc.) are largely
cost-centers almost entirely dependent on 'whales' to keep them
afloat. (Especially sports-game whales, who buy every FIFA game card
ever made, year after year). Average gamers do not buy games from
them. Even Epic Game Store still isn't profitable, depending almost
entirely on income from Fortnite players. 

Presumably the business case exists to keep these clients running, but
honestly I think a similar case could be made to just transfer all
these sales to Steam and cut out the expense of maintaining all the
servers and staff. Even with Valve's 30% cut (probably 20%, since
Valve discounts companies that rake in the big bucks) they'd still
make profit. Don't C-levels like cutting staff and closing
departments?