Court documents show that not only is Valve a fraction the size [only 336 employees in 2021] of companies like EA or Ubisoft, it's smaller than a lot of triple-A developers
Court documents show that not only is Valve a fraction the size [only 336 employees in 2021] of companies like EA or Ubisoft, it's smaller than a lot of triple-A developers
According to improperly redacted documents from a recent lawsuit, Valve had 336 employees in 2021.
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Billionaires shouldn't exist. The government should regulate all these stores and force a max of 5%. They are clearly colluding and aren't competing in good faith.
This is having a negative impact on the industry, a lot of indie studios would have an easier time surviving if they weren't bled dry by what essentially is a soft monopoly.
Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Steam are all guilty yet you would never defend any of the other ones. Steam spends a lot of money convincing everyone Gaben is just a really cool dude and not your average billionaire.
Steam spends a lot of money convincing everyone Gaben is just a really cool dude and not your average billionaire.
Or maybe he is a really cool dude...
Gaben owns 6 yatchs and spends between 70 million and 100 million a year maintaining them. He's in the same club as Bezos and the rest.
Stop it with the fucking yatchs already, seriously. Just look at the differences between Vale and the other companys you mention. If you can't see any, you are just a troll.
You can't say anything bad about Valve other than "they make a lot of money". It gets boring.
Billionaires exist because you and me and people like us overpay for stuff, they accumulate wealth by making sure we don't. Gabe's wealth comes from the surplus generated by Valve, if they make that much surplus then they could lower their cut by a fucking lot and so could publishers that also enrich multimillionaire and billionaires.
There are no good rich people.
Then stop simping for Gaben as if him and valve are any different then the other platforms. Putting a limit like 5% on all of them would be a boon to the industry, there's no negatives and Gaben would still get to own his yatchs.
Hoarding wealth is disgusting and It's tiresome to see bootlicking on every steam thread just because valve has a good marketing team.
This is the equivalent of defending Mussolini because Hitler was worse. They all suck, Gaben sucks slightly less, and it's a really slim slightly.
336 employees and 8500 million in revenue. There is simply no defending this. That profit is coming directly out of the industry and it's the product we receive that ends up being gimped because of it. A lot of indie companies would still be around if it wasn't for this clear cut collusion.
A lot of indie companies would still be around if it wasn't for this clear cut collusion
Can you tell me how has Valve affected the indie industry? In a bad way of course. Most of my steam games are indie games that I assure you I have bought thanks to Steam's shop visibility, review system, forums, easy refunds, cloud saves, and basically all the ease of use it gives. They don't buy small teams and extinguish or terminate them, they don't artificially inflate prices, they don't install rootkits in your computer...
How is the indie games industry worse because of Valve?
I was once in the room while a Valve rep told a bunch of indie developers to spend their own money localizing for the Chinese market or risk not getting store placement.
Valve is a big, big corpo and their MO is to make other people work for them. The software they do make is amazing, but please stop thinking they're a charity, they are extremely not.
The margins are thin in indie development, especially when they are usually offered at bargain prices. I'm going with the assumption that if these platforms had been regulated years ago, a good number of indie developers that shut their doors would have survived with the extra profit. It doesn't seem like a wild assumption to make.
Steam doesn't tell developers or publishers how much their games are worth. They only provide the tools for them to sell them, and they obliviously get a cut from it, but only if you sell. They don't ask for money in advance, they don't ask for any contract.
Valve is a store front, not a publisher. I'm thinking you are just confused about how they operate.
Valve is a store front in a soft monopoly with other similar products and colluding with them. We would have more and better quality games if the government did its job and regulated the store front industry.
Instead of regulating, you seem to imply these costs should be passed down to us instead and the indie industry should just bring up it's prices, just so Gaben can keep his six yatchs. I think you are confused about your own self interests.
you seem to imply these costs should be passed down to us instead
They already are.
I really think you know nothing about what you talk or how the market works, this isn't even fun.
I said this was costing us indie studios
You said they chose what price they put up their game for, implying the best solution is us paying more instead of steam getting less
I explained I think this is a bad decision for us the consumers and the industry as a whole and more importantly, that steam can absolutely afford to pay less.
Reread the whole conversation and try to understand what I'm saying if you want me to continue conversing with you. You seem to be ignoring my points and we are going in circles.
Implying I don't know what a store front is or how it works is condescending.