Timely news, especially after the exodus from The Escapist the other day.

Steam isn’t a platform any more than the Playstation Store is the platform, or the eShop is Nintendo’s platform. That would be the PS5 and the Switch, respectively. The platform for PC gaming is, obviously I would hope, the PC itself. The box with the hardware and operating system etc etc sitting on people’s desks. Ste…

Steam’s pseudo-monopoly hasn’t hurt consumers because Valve achieved it through pro-consumer practices and continued those practices even after gaining the dominant market share.

Unfortunately, history has shown time and time again that once the golden goose changes hands, it quickly ends up being strangled because it isn’t producing golden eggs fast enough for the new owner’s liking.

I appreciate you’re at least attempting to make a good faith case here, but I’m honestly not sure how you could read that back and not conclude that you’re just carrying water for an obvious de facto monopoly. Like, I just don’t see anywhere we can make ground on this given... your stance. But again, I appreciate the…

But again, as I said, this fantasy people have where every store sells the exact same thing and you just...pick which one has the cutest cashier or something is just that: a fantasy. It’s never existed. Never has, never will. As soon as the World’s Second Store sold things you couldn’t get at the World’s First Store,…

Why would he do that? What about the last decade of Valve has made you think they have any other interest than making as much money as possible?
Even the one game they released recently was made just to sell hardware.

The thing about Epic’s strategy is it’s basically just applying the brick and mortar ‘get people in the door and try to catch their eye with an impulse buy’ tactic but applied to the digital space, but without consideration that customers don’t behave the same way in digital space as they do irl.

If you worked as a tradesman for example (e.g. electrician or plumber) and your employer brought you on board because Wal-Mart made a contract with your employer.

Hopefully Epic sticks around. I’ve only used the store a few times but I use it like an actual STORE—go in, buy your shit, get out—not a weird, “hanging out at Walmart” that kids use with the Steam Store.

tbh to get the kind of market share that they’d need to make it a serious competitor, it’s not surprising they have to bleed cash for a long time — that’s partially why there’s so little competition, only gigantic companies like Epic can afford it!

I hope they stick around. I worry about the dark days after Gabe leaves Valve. His leadership has been super consumer 1st. A money hungry CEO could ruin Steam in no time.

LOL,  there is a good chance their response to your eval was written with ChatGPT so it seems fair

Remedy might be the Bureau of Control, and this game might be an OOP.  

or if we can use it as a tool to help inspire more creation

100% endorse. Remedy doesn’t feel like they should exist, and the fact that they do and keep getting to make weirder and braver stuff makes me endlessly happy.

This is plainly a bad release but I don’t think we can pin it up as an omen of COD’s decline. COD’s decline has been decreed a half dozen times already, and then a few years later innovate on a feature or two (no more than two innovations allowed per title) and drop a 60 fps trailer on nextgen tech and it’s the COD…

Thinking many women make up rape allegations ignores what supposed benefits they expect to get out of it. As prosecuting rapists successfully rarely happens, right?, so a hated man doesn’t really suffer, either in court or really in the public sphere; his reputation isn’t badly damaged. And if the alleged rapist is a…

It’d be funny if this is the beginning of CoD’s decline, right after Microsoft pays $70B in part for it. Very likely not, and this will be a minor blip overall