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Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

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Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#351

Post by smcl »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #123
BbzzbB wrote: post #114

Is there a technical reason why Steam is a such a force in the space? People, myself certainly included, often criticize Apple for taking 30% of developer revenue for merely existing in it's walled garden. Right or wrong, they control the ecosystem, so their ability to monopolize and heavily tax the App Store is unsurprising, they're exercising their pricing power as much as they possibly can. But how is it that on P…

My 100 Croatian Lipa: Steam's value proposition is a single place to conveniently manage all my games, and it works very well as such. It's unobtrusive, comprehensive, manages installs, pre-requisites and updates nicely for me and then gets the heck out of the way. No publisher-oriented launcher has such proposition. In fact, I put forward that no publisher-made launcher has value proposition of any kind for the cons…

I already thought it was cute that the Crotian currency was "kuna", I had no idea it was also subdivided into "lipa" too :D

For others: kuna means "pine marten" and lipa is "linden tree" in many Slavic languages

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#352

Post by account42 »

eulers_secret wrote: post #297
judge2020 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with Epic is the pure lack of features (user profiles, reviews[^1], community forums) , and no Mac/Linux support. ^1: I doubt reviews are ever coming since it would mean bad games would get fewer sales; Imagine how many more sales Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten on the Epic store as no potential buyer sees the negative reviews for the game.

The other issue is Epic's buying exclusivity for certain titles on PC - even after they were announced as available on other online stores. These bribes, especially since Epic wasn't involved during development, upset a lot of folks.

Right, they did that even for some crowd funded games.

And for others it has meant that the Linux version was delayed until after the excusivity deal was over (e.g. Metro Exodus) or removed (Rocket League).

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#353

Post by Macha »

ThatPlayer wrote: post #318
Macha wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user, Steam and Netflix both provided more value to me prior to credible competition. Netflix used to be one €9.99 subscription to watch basically everything, Steam was the one stop shop to manage all my games. Basically all the features I care about on either were already well established before their competitors came around. On the other hand, my Steam account now represents a very expensive point of failure s…

But Netflix wasn't profitable at a €9.99 subscription, and therefore that was never sustainable. Look at how Netflix continues to raises prices just this year already.

That's not the only reason to raise prices, or they wouldn't have raised them this year given they made a profit in 2021. Netflix's net income has been positive for the last decade: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/net-i...

It might be a better business _for the the business owners_ with less licensing fees due to less third party content and higher prices, but that's not the same as being better for the users.

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#354

Post by LinAGKar »

eatsyourtacos wrote: post #174
BbzzbB wrote: post #114

Is there a technical reason why Steam is a such a force in the space? People, myself certainly included, often criticize Apple for taking 30% of developer revenue for merely existing in it's walled garden. Right or wrong, they control the ecosystem, so their ability to monopolize and heavily tax the App Store is unsurprising, they're exercising their pricing power as much as they possibly can. But how is it that on P…

Steam- * Just works * It's simple * Cloud saves all of my games (with a few exceptions when the game developer doesn't enable it for whatever reason, this has only been for a few games so I'm not sure why) * Family sharing - this is HUGE for me. I can't re-buy every single game for my kids, so the fact that they can just play a game I purchased on their own account when I'm not online is an insane life saver. * Steam…

I think Humble Bundles did a lot for Indie Games. And of course phones and web games, and before that Flash Games.

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#355

Post by notafraudster »

BbzzbB wrote: post #298
bastawhiz wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft is throwing the towel and bowing to Steam's cartelish 30% I would be quite surprised to hear that Microsoft didn't cut some sort of Very Good Deal with Valve.

I was late to edit the mistake but I learned there are known tiers, so FWIW a Bethesda would at most be paying 20% (>$50M), if not less with a private deal.

Of course they also pay nowhere near 20% since they also do a significant amount of sales — often around 30% — via Steam keys sold on third party sites (Humble, GMG, Fanatical, etc.) which Valve forgoes all commission on. My guess is most large publishers are paying Valve in the order of 13-15%

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#356

Post by account42 »

Torifyme12 wrote: post #273
1_player wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need dark patterns, they're already making a boatload of money indeed. If the trend continues, that means more paid consultants working on open source Linux desktop libraries [1]. Win-win in my book. It actually feels good that the 30% cut Steam takes out of my purchases partly goes to improve my Linux desktop experience. Better for me as a user than if they were taking a smaller cut and focusing on Window…

For all that the Linux community tried, and god did we try, we didn't make real gaming on Linux progress until Valve started throwing developers are the projects. You can easily attribute real gaming (I love free civ as much as the next person, but it's not the same) coming to Linux Desktops.

Valve have done a lot, but there were commercial games available for Linux before Steam. Even the first Humble Bundle was before Steam for Linux.

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#357

Post by account42 »

uejfiweun wrote: post #135
BbzzbB wrote: post #114

Is there a technical reason why Steam is a such a force in the space? People, myself certainly included, often criticize Apple for taking 30% of developer revenue for merely existing in it's walled garden. Right or wrong, they control the ecosystem, so their ability to monopolize and heavily tax the App Store is unsurprising, they're exercising their pricing power as much as they possibly can. But how is it that on P…

I could totally see Microsoft trying to buy Steam in the near future. Not only are they having Bethesda do pro-Steam moves like this and generally supporting Steam, but they have a personal relationship with Valve, as Microsoft is where Gabe Newell started his career. However Valve is still a private company and I can't imagine Gaben will want to give up his money faucet.

I really hope that Microsoft is not allowed to gobble up any more gaming-related companies. At some point anti-trust regulators need to start giving a shit again.

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#358

Post by account42 »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #251
NikolaNovak wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition. I don't believe in this case that is demonstrably true. What has improved for me as a consumer with either platform since competition came - other then less content? In particular with Steam, I don't believe there has been a single improvement relevant to me. Uplay, ea origin, battle.net are pu…

Steam's refund policy used to be abysmal until Origin added no-hassle refunds. Within about 6 months Steam changed to the policy they have now. Big Picture Mode only came about because they tried developing Steam Machines to compete with Microsoft potentially locking everything into the app store. I don't think UPlay and Battle.net have caused any changes though, lol. Their only attempts at competition have been game…

> Steam's refund policy used to be abysmal until Origin added no-hassle refunds

Didn't the refund policy come after they lost a court case in Australia [0]. Sure they could have made it country-specific but that would a) have been an incredibly bad look and b) promptet similar lawsuits in other countries with a semblance of consumer protection laws and c) probably doesn't actually lose tham that much money as it also means that people are less reluctant to purchase.

[0] https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/valve-australia-fine-12...

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#359

Post by account42 »

wingmanjd wrote: post #229
Danieru wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how are you going to buy games if you've killed all the launchers. No Steam, no Epic, no GOG Galaxy. Are you going to download everything over http from your browser?

Technically, GOG lets you download installers via https, but I agree that it's a pain point vs a game launcher where you can, with minimal effort, queue up multiple downloads/ installs.

I think in an ideal world the program you run to download and launch the games and the service selling and providing those games would be entirely separate.

Re: Sunsetting the Bethesda.net launcher and migrating to Steam

#360

Post by happymellon »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #193
eatsyourtacos wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam- * Just works * It's simple * Cloud saves all of my games (with a few exceptions when the game developer doesn't enable it for whatever reason, this has only been for a few games so I'm not sure why) * Family sharing - this is HUGE for me. I can't re-buy every single game for my kids, so the fact that they can just play a game I purchased on their own account when I'm not online is an insane life saver. * Steam…

> * Just works I don't game very often, but the way Steam "just works" can't be understated enough. It's not perfect. I've run into weird bugs occasionally, though they were likely the fault of a specific game. However, it's miles ahead of other game launchers I've dealt with. I'm a casual gamer, so if I end up fighting the game launcher and update mechanism for more than a few minutes, I'm just going to give up and…

Completely. I remember consoles supposedly being "just works", but then the PS3 required a 20 minute updates whenever I turned it on. I stopped playing as many games during that period. Without Steam I would probably not PC game.
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