71–80 of 123 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a little optimistic, don't you think?
If it’s an s-curve, then yes: it will never reach 100%. But if it’s an s-curve it will reach 70% much sooner than 891 years. In my opinion 1% of the Earth in 9 years is a triumph. Electric cars are not there yet and people are quite optimistic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably, they were hoping for native Linux support.
Going through a shim is better. It allows you to modify the open-source shim to analyze and patch the closed source game. This is why Proton can release fixes so fast. It also lets each party care about the natural thing for them: gamedevs care about windows and do a good job writing windows code; winedevs care about linux and do a good job writing linux code. Gamedevs don't care about linux so their native linux cod…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting
Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one o…
This past week, I witness Steam/Proton making it possible to play Age of Empires 4 just 4 days after its official release (and 2 of those days were Saturday and Sunday). That is just awesome.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apart from a few games purchased on GoG, everything I buy is on Steam. It’s been a very consistent experience for a long time. My first Steam “purchase” was me plugging in the CD code from a copy of Half-Life purchased ~1999. Everything I’ve purchased since then is playable in minutes—most of it playable on Linux. The killer feature of Valve / Steam for game developers is customer trust. For me, that trust has transl…
Shoutouts to GoG. I'll buy games off of them even if they're on Steam. Making old games compatible and offering DRM free downloads deserves respect.
The main reason was steam's investment into linux gaming and I decided to support that.
Also, GOG have promised a linux client for years that still hasn't materialised.
Steam is a trap though, no? You buy software, but if you leave, you lose it all. Is that correct? there's no way to retain what you've bought?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering all the broken or neglected games on Steam I've lost trust in them. GOG has started slipping in quality as they've grown, but at least they strive to host playable games and without DRM. Competition among stores and hosting is good IMO, even if a modest inconvenience.
Platform loyalty in gaming has always struck me as an odd phenomenon. You don't hear people raving about netflix or hulu being superior, but for some reason there is a huge fanbase for Steam itself. I mean, I don't mind steam, but I'd really prefer to have software that I purchase not check with a gate keeping entity before launching itself.
Every game I’ve purchased on Steam I can play right now with one click. Obviously others offer the same thing now but Steam offered it first. They also have region specific pricing, a huge pull for me at some point.
There are other good store fronts, I’m sure. But the amount of trust they’ve built with me over the last 10+ years can’t be replicated overnight by anyone else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I rarely ever “like” a company but Valve has done so much it’s honestly amazing. The 30% they take is soooo worth it for developers who don’t have natural Linux support.
Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting
This past week, I witness Steam/Proton making it possible to play Age of Empires 4 just 4 days after its official release (and 2 of those days were Saturday and Sunday). That is just awesome.
But the point still stands, for big titles you don't have to wait long for Proton support nowadays.