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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2024 22:54:45 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: The GOG/Amazon Link
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:54:45 -0500
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On Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:49:54 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:

>On Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:29:50 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>What do you think. Am I jumping at shadows? Would you welcome an
>>Amazon/GOG merger? And is it pronounced Gog or gee-oh-gee, anyway?
>
>My entire GOG library is backed up twice. So, I do not care what
>happens to GOG. I think I have every old game I want from GOG already.
>Get back to me when Steam may be in trouble. Then you will have my
>ear.

Well, Steam may be in trouble too.

Valve is currently being sued by a publisher over its 30% take, with
the publisher (no, not Epic; it's a small Indie dev called "Wolfire")
claiming it can only demand so much because Steam has a monopoly over
PC gaming sales. A judge recently ruled that the case can be broadened
into a class action against Valve, which opens the company up to a lot
more liability, including any US company that's partnered with Valve
since 2017. Worse, new evidence about Valve's agreements doesn't show
Valve in a good light.

Now, I personally think that the 30% cut isn't too bad, considering
what Steam brings to the table. Although a lot of people point to
Epic's and Microsoft's 12% and 20% take on sales, they also offer many
fewer features, ranging from user reviews, built-in workshop,
streaming, and support for popular hardware such as Valve Index and
SteamDeck. Add into that the huge audience Steam attracts, and as a
developer your'e getting a lot more bang for your buck by selling
through Steam than you are elsewhere. 

That said, if the primary reason Steam can demand more money is
because developers don't really have a choice due to its monopoly
status and not because that 30% is going to offset Valve's costs, then
it doesn't matter how good the platform is. And there does seem to be
some evidence that Valve is keeping prices artificially high just
because they can. Which could be quite troublesome for the company -to
the tunes of billions of dollars- if they're forced not only to cut
back on their rates, but also pay back some (or all!) of the partners
they've been gouging since 2017.

And honestly, it's not a good time for this to be happening to Valve.
While Steam may have the vast majority of PC game sales, there are a
lot of compeitors waiting in the wings to take up the slack if Steam
goes down. And it's not just the obvious names like GOG, Epic, UPlay
or EA Origin. Streaming companies are ready to take their place in the
industry, with companies like Amazon and Netflix pushing hard to
become major players. Meanwhile, more and more people are moving to
mobile. Valve, meanwhile, has mostly been treading water for the past
decade, and I'm not sure it's really ready to compete against such
powerful entities.

So Steam isn't in trouble TODAY. But it's future isn't as secure as it
once seemed.

But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. After all, some random
employee at Valve once said that if Steam ever went down, they'd make
it so we could all download and play our games without worrying about
the DRM, and I'm sure they'll honor this statement, despite it never
showing up in any of their license agreements and it being legally and
technically dubious that they could even DO that sort of thing. So who
cares if we have hundreds of games locked behind a Steam paywall and
the company goes under. We'll be fine ;-)