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GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

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Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#391

Post by Hammershaft »

chii wrote: post #309
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the cut can't be lower? The rush to defend Valve's monopoly is so weird since HN usually hates fat cat billionaires. Valve is raking in so much money as a middleman that Gabe Newell has ~$1 billion worth of yachts alone, in addition to the rest of his wealth, yet gamers want Valve to keep on bleeding them and game studios?

> And the cut can't be lower? why should it be lower (or higher)? steam's cut should be whatever they set, and the market responds. The natural equilibrium would get reached. The value steam provides, imho, certainly justifies their cut imho. There's plenty of other platforms to release games on - including free ones (such as itch.io, or your own website).

The equilibrium has been reached and it's more studios going bankrupt, less games getting made, gamers spending more for less, and Gabe owning over $1B in yatches

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#392

Post by rhamzeh »

yeputons wrote: post #256
transcriptase wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People said the same thing when Steam launched, yet my profile sits there with a badge saying 20+ years and I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher. At this point the games I “own” on physical media like CDs have theoretically started to degrade before the threat of Valve revoking my ability to install or play has come to pass.

> I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher. Does it really matter if it's developer/publisher removing the game from Steam, not Valve? The end result is the same: one can't play.

AFAIK, even if the developer removes a game from Steam, if you bought it (or rather, a license for it), it remains in your account.

E.g. I have Lord of the Rings: War in the North that is no longer available anywhere, yet I can still download install and play it on my devices through Steam (even on Linux, which it was not intended for)

That of course doesn't help if the game does not have an offline component, e.g. I also still have League of Legends in my Steam account, but that is unusable because the Riot servers don't allow updating/connecting from it.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#393

Post by jirf_dev »

ninth_ant wrote: post #138
georgeecollins wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but the model that Valve pioneered is the model that supports 90% of all commercial PC games made today, a higher percentage if you cut out MMOs and free to play games, which you certainly don't own. I love GoG and I have worked closely with a lot of people there on projects they are great. This announcement seems like good news. No one has to sell games on Steam. No one has to use a model where they "rent licens…

> They don't because too many people pirate games to make that a viable business. This is an opinion, stated as if it’s fact. There are many factors contributing to the ongoing success of steam. Ease of access, a strong network effect, word of mouth from satisfied customers, a strong ecosystem of tools and a modding platform, willingness to work across many platforms and a variety of vendors including competitors, an…

All the factors you listed are a huge component of Steam’s success but are mainly for the benefit of consumers. Lack of offline installers is something that makes the vast majority of suppliers comfortable with putting their game on Steam. A platform ideally wants to capture as many consumers as possible but also needs to capture as many suppliers as possible to create a rich marketplace. Negotiating the balance of consumer vs supplier demands is what makes Steam successful as a platform.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#394

Post by rjzzleep »

shevy-java wrote: post #390
Fiveplus wrote: post #23

> Can I still download offline installers? Yes. This is the only line I was looking for. I stopped buying on Steam sometime ago because I realized I was just renting licenses. GOG is the only major storefront where I feel like I actually own the product. As long as offline installers remain a core tenet, I don't care who owns the company. That said, it helps that it's someone returning to their roots rather than a pr…

My hardcore gaming days are over, but I feel that the gaming industry has in general been abusing the hell out of gamers in the last some years. That also includes the hardware industry, trying to sell overpriced stuff. Granted, it is the gamer's fault for submitting to that mafia, and I am not directly affected nowadays myself (save for RAM prices going up thanks to the AI mafia milking us all), but I would be hugel…

As gamers nexus said, the hardware companies are now post consumer. They are building stuff with investments backstopped by taxpayer money, so if you choose to boycott now it will probably make things worse. People spent a lot of energy laughing at people that were warning that this would happent not too long ago.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#395

Post by BrenBarn »

sokoloff wrote: post #363
BrenBarn wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My source is first and second hand reports from management of game companies having worked in the industry for decades. But, they don’t make numbers like that public. As an aside, I find this kind of behavior on the part of companies rather irritating. It's like, if you want people to believe that something affects your sales, you need to publicly release the sales data (and do so in a way that people will trust).…

Why would they care if you or I believe them or not?

I didn't say you or me, I said anyone. They need someone to believe them, otherwise no one will care when they complain about lost sales.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#396

Post by sylware »

If they can manage to deliver a client which is less technically amok than the steam client... But steam is a worldwide payment system, I can use wallet codes nearly everywhere without inputing my credit card info and that require a lot of international work to match.

The steam client requires linux "user" containers(jez...), the launcher is a 32bits binary hardcoded on x11 and GL, all that because they are unwilling to engage in the significant amount of work (because of their technical debt and poor technical choices) of generating 'correct' ELF64 binaries for broad elf/linux distro support.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#397

Post by 71bw »

vintermann wrote: post #350
murrain wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can share a Steam library with your family. https://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

That's what he does, from the comment about accidentally kicking each other out.

No, the new system allows multiple users to play the same game at the same time (unless the publisher explicitely opted out).

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#398

Post by sylware »

shevy-java wrote: post #390
Fiveplus wrote: post #23

> Can I still download offline installers? Yes. This is the only line I was looking for. I stopped buying on Steam sometime ago because I realized I was just renting licenses. GOG is the only major storefront where I feel like I actually own the product. As long as offline installers remain a core tenet, I don't care who owns the company. That said, it helps that it's someone returning to their roots rather than a pr…

My hardcore gaming days are over, but I feel that the gaming industry has in general been abusing the hell out of gamers in the last some years. That also includes the hardware industry, trying to sell overpriced stuff. Granted, it is the gamer's fault for submitting to that mafia, and I am not directly affected nowadays myself (save for RAM prices going up thanks to the AI mafia milking us all), but I would be hugel…

As gaming nexus said: AI companies seems to be able to _outbid_ the WHOLE consumer market for some hardware companies.

Your money does not matter.

Vertigo...

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#399

Post by chii »

Hammershaft wrote: post #391
chii wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the cut can't be lower? why should it be lower (or higher)? steam's cut should be whatever they set, and the market responds. The natural equilibrium would get reached. The value steam provides, imho, certainly justifies their cut imho. There's plenty of other platforms to release games on - including free ones (such as itch.io, or your own website).

The equilibrium has been reached and it's more studios going bankrupt, less games getting made, gamers spending more for less, and Gabe owning over $1B in yatches

> more studios going bankrupt

studios that don't make good games correctly should bankrupt - ala, those so called AAA studios.

> gamers spending more for less

gamers buying overpriced games from bad publishers/studios that overspend and under-deliver are learning finally.

There has never been more indie games, and the selection has never been more diverse, and those available games has also been cheaper.

If you got time, this video outlines the evidence and the coming trends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XigPD8BCkho

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