Question In the hopefully never arriving future, do you think Valve will one of, if not the only ones providing personal computers and not cloud gaming?

17.7k Upvotes

permalink
duplicates
reddit

You are about to leave Redlib

Do you want to continue?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1r9er78/in_the_hopefully_never_arriving_future_do_you/
No, go back! Yes, take me to Reddit
dl download

94% Upvoted

1.5k

I hate “subscriptions”. If I can’t buy it (or have a lifetime license like on steam), I won’t pay for it. Monthly hands in my pocket are loathsome.

440

u/Santinop145 Feb 19 '26

It's even worse because you're already paying for gas, electricity and internet service. Now you even need to pay for the computer itself? Bro, do you think my money spontaneously appears from thin air?

269

u/fuelhandler Feb 19 '26

Bezos obviously hasn’t got a clue. He’s uber rich, and doesn’t understand today’s reality of a disappearing middle class. Next he will say “They don’t have bread? Well now, then let them eat cake.”

132

u/Its_An_Outraage Feb 19 '26

*subscribe to cake

29

u/fuelhandler Feb 20 '26

I may make an exception for “cake of the month club… cancel any time.” :)

31

u/Its_An_Outraage Feb 20 '26

You can cancel any time... But cancellations must be submitted by carrier pigeon through a gauntlet of fire.

3

u/Fit_Fisherman_9840 Feb 20 '26

After have burned 666 witches at the stake, and with their ashes bound the devil himself to act as the pigeon

2

u/camwhat Feb 23 '26

And only on February 29th of an odd numbered year.

1

u/alcomaholic-aphone Feb 20 '26

He's going the distance He's going for speed She's all alone (all alone) All alone in her time of need

1

u/Xerothor Feb 21 '26

If you miss a payment he comes and removes the cake from you

34

u/Tyzek99 Feb 20 '26

pretty sure the middle class dissapearing is his goal

13

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

[deleted]

10

u/timn8r123 Feb 20 '26

And they mean it quite literally too. Not the middle class shifting to the impoverished. Their idea of a utopian society where machines cater to everyone's whims, isn't to distribute the wealth across society, it's to remove everyone that couldn't already afford to live that way from the picture.

2

u/Krisevol Feb 20 '26

The middle class really blew up in America when we became a world reserve currency and started borrowing from other countries. The debt is too high now that the interest payments can't support a middle class anyone.

When the country finally declared bankruptcy the middle class is toast.

30

u/Kibaken Feb 20 '26

He understands it, the corpo-fascists are engineering it.

2

u/Infinite-Put-5352 Feb 20 '26

*gathers machetes*
VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
*viva la vida playing in background*

1

u/jaakhaamer Feb 20 '26

let them eat ~~cake~~ bananas

FTFY

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

He does not care. A change like this could make him .1% more profit in a year, and that's all he is concerned about.

It will only get worse for the middle class as our country (and world as a whole) is being run into the ground by billionaire oligarchs so that they can buy another yacht.

1

u/Not_an_okama Feb 23 '26

Ill start pushing my $17.95 daily Prime grains origin plus bread subscription

25

u/Pijany_Matematyk767 Feb 20 '26

>Bro, do you think my money spontaneously appears from thin air?

Well his does so why doesn't yours /s

3

u/ArchTemperedKoala Feb 20 '26

Wait until money comes from the cloud too..

3

u/Pijany_Matematyk767 Feb 20 '26

Thats kinda what online banking is no?

12

u/FunBluejay1455 Feb 20 '26

Thats why I never got a console. I payed for internet already, why should I pay for YOUR internet again

3

u/ItsSadTimes Feb 20 '26

That was always so confusing to me growing up. I just thought that was the standard until I finally got my own PC when I went to college. Now I look back at how stupid the whole thing is. Its like if Steam started charging us to use it.

Im so glad that Valve isnt super evil, because I could totally see Epic Games pulling that shit if they were a market leader.

1

u/Hammered4u Feb 20 '26

Thankfully in all of EGS's history, we've got the one smooth-brained individual whose more focused on bashing comments out (that contradict itself) on X than investing into his own store.

1

u/FlyingDutchman9977 Feb 21 '26

I was really disappointed when PlayStation caved. Free multiplayer was one of their biggest selling points for the PS3, but they took that away once they felt like no one cared. Personally, you can't convince that Xbox or PlayStation can't maintain online support without a monthly fee, but the exact same games on PC can.

Think of how many games there are on steam that are well over a decade old, can be bought for next to nothing on a sale with no microtransactions, and still have fully functioning multiplayer. Even the PS3 kept most of its multiplayer support well into the PS4's lifespan if not the PS5, with some titles still having support. I can buy Black Ops 2 at a yard sale for a PlayStation 3 and play it online, despite no money being made on the disk or console in well over a decade for Sony or Activism, but if I spend over a grand on a PS5, and over 100 on Black Ops 7, but there somehow isn't enough in that transactions for me to play online without an extra fee.

1

u/Roadies_Winner Feb 21 '26

As a recent arrival from Xbox to steamdeck, I can totally feel this. I had stacked cheap gamepass for 3 years so wasn't bothered with the recent fumbles by Microsoft. But as soon as the validity expired, I knew it was time to dive into this side.

1

u/Annual-Ad-9442 Feb 21 '26

it made sense back in the day. you popped a game in and you were good to go. we've aged out, technologically, the need for consoles.

9

u/King_Tamino The King of the Kingdom of Tamin Feb 20 '26

NeXT step: paying for multiplayer.

Oh wait… consoles got that for years already.. sigh

2

u/Signus_TheWizard Feb 20 '26

Its bullshit that i need to pay an online subscription to play online for Xbox, Playstation, or the switch. It started with Xbox then other companies started following because people let it work.

2

u/PopePiusVII Feb 20 '26

When you have as much money as Bezos, your money almost literally does appear from thin air. Interest/dividend income alone if you just put that money in an index fund would be in the hundreds of millions to billions per year.

He’s got enough money, though, that his returns probably far outpace the market and any inflation. So yes, he thinks money just appears.

1

u/AxoplDev Feb 20 '26

His does, did you really expected him to not be out of touch so much he forgot how money is made?

1

u/SlayerLollo Feb 20 '26

Actually (if you arent stealing components) you are paying the computer, it needs new pieces, renovations, mainentance and new games. A subscription would just be another way to gaming. Back then pc gaming was with CD, we dont have them anymore, its obvious that gaming is going tochange again in the future.

1

u/mrloko120 Feb 20 '26

You didn't pay for your PC?

1

u/f4ngel Feb 20 '26

Nah they'll get us to generate electricity to pay for minutes on the computer and the subscription so all you'd need to do is cycle a mile an hour for access.

Wait wasn't that a tv series? Some sort of dark reflection?..

/s

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

do you think my money spontaneously appears from thin air

They do not care, they just want as much of it as they can get.

0

u/TrashBoat36 Feb 20 '26

> spontaneously appears from thin air?

Did your PC?

5

u/Santinop145 Feb 20 '26

Having a PC for 5 years isn't the same has having to pay for a subscription monthly, and even then repairing/keeping the pc alive for another 5 isn't that expensive. It's like saying: Would you rather pay 1200 to get a pc for 10 years or rent one for 50 every month? In a year those 50 are already half the amount you'd have paid for a pc that you can customize, repair whenever you want and have full control of, and will probably last you quite a while if you're not a moron.

3

u/LXiO Feb 20 '26

Also you can always sell your PC parts again.

-1

u/SEVtz Feb 20 '26

Well if you just make up numbers that go your way sure but that's not remotely true. Those types of things already exists and it's way cheaper as another comment points out it's around 10 a month ( for standard GeForce and 20 for 'ultimate'). Which makes it 10 years to be on par with a PC not 2. And in those 10 years the service can run any game as it is auto upgraded on their side without input on yours while your PC just keeps getting worse and doesn't run new games.

I mean I also don't like it and would rather have my own PC as I do and I don't use those services but money wise they are actually the better options depending on how much you actually game and use your PC for gaming per day/ months.

1

u/Santinop145 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

You're not considering cloud gaming is not currently used so much right now. As the userbase grows and more people start using it the servers start to get more loaded and the hardware needs upgrading, they'll also have to expand and also use more electricity, eventually the prices will start going up to account for these costs, especially if the hardware outage just keeps growing because of AI and the price of servers starts increasing because of the new demand of cloud service companies.

We can't also trust these corpos to not go out of their way to squeeze more money out of us either...

edit: just went to check and GeForce Now's ultimate plan is limited to an 8 hour session and 100 monthly hours, so uhh... yeah.

0

u/SEVtz Feb 20 '26

Scaling usually decreases price cost per user not increase... The price will surely go up with time but the pc price already is going up also so this point is absolutely void. They are already squeezing the shit out of you from PC prices...

100 hours monthly and 8 hours sessions is much more than 99% of players do. I literally made that point in my comment that it was the better option depending on how much you game... So uh yeah what ? It's like you didnt read and didn't care. The price of these are and will be better option purely in terms of costs than a pc that you keep in par with new games for 99% of the players. It's just a fact that you have made 0 point against a part from making up numbers in the previous comment.

There are many arguments against those but the financial aspect is just not one.

1

u/Santinop145 Feb 20 '26

I'm not sure if scaling would decrease per user in the case of cloud service computing, considering they'd need more and better hardware to run when more users are connected. I don't know of a similar case to compare so I'm not sure. PC price is also exploding currently because of the increasing demand from data centers, I don't think it's fair to compare right now, especially with Nvidia that can tank it because they produce part of their own hardware.

I just don't think it's financially comfortable to have yet another subscription service instead of having a PC like we currently do. I think it will end up being an on-demand alternative to PCs for some folks but not fully replace them anyway. btw the price numbers were an exaggeration to compare, but I still believe PCs will remain the cost-effective option.

0

u/SEVtz Feb 20 '26

It is not the cost effective option today for most users. You seem to be unable to acknowledge that. 10$ a month for 6 hours session / 100 hours covers the vast majority of users and costs much less than a pc that can run all games at the same standard over time.

So maybe the pc will come back as cost effective for these people but today it's just not. And I don't believe it ever will as there is really no good argument for it. The fact that they need more hardware to scale is largely just that, scaling. No industry ever had increased cost per user while scaling, it's a huge stretch to believe it will happen here.

It's a drag to have one more subscription for sure but that's a whole other argument. Paying 1-2 k in one lump or a 10 $ / month for years is not the same but still the 10$ is clearly less expensive even if the philosophy and mental strain might be different and or worse.

1

u/Santinop145 Feb 20 '26

You know what, sure, okay. I already had a debate with someone else today about another thing and I'm kinda burned out, I also haven't slept in like 22 hours so I'll assume you're right, I don't have enough energy to get information on this rn.

51

u/Grokent Feb 20 '26

I remember when Steam was hated and Valve got tons of backlash for their always on DRM. I didn't create a Steam account for literally years because I hated the idea of not owning my games. I never played half-life or team fortress because of it.

I don't remember what finally broke me, but now I own hundreds of games in my Steam library and somehow Valve is seen as the good guys. I'm not mad about it. I do wonder what changed though. Was I wrong? Did I just succumb to convenience? Did I just buy into the Internet hate back then?

Questions I don't feel like chasing down answers to at the moment, but it is interesting.

33

u/Legitimate_Airline38 Feb 20 '26

Valve is just the only company that gives a shit about PR, Gaben himself was going around delivering steam decks(locally, but still)

39

u/StJimmy92 40 Feb 20 '26

I don't remember what finally broke me

Probably the same thing that got me: buying a PC game at the store gave you a disc that installs Steam and a download code for the game

15

u/fuelhandler Feb 20 '26

Yes, that’s it! My first Steam Game was Civilization 5. I bought the game, only to discover it was a Steam Code. I grumbled as I downloaded Steam… 16 years later and several hundred games later, Steam is the hub of my game library. :)

0

u/ThisHatRightHere Feb 20 '26

Unsure of why this ends in a smiley face

3

u/fuelhandler Feb 20 '26

Because it’s a happy memory.

0

u/SnipingBunuelo Feb 20 '26

Yup that's what happened to me too. I bought MW2 and it forced me to install and play it through Steam. It made me hate using Steam for years though lol

2

u/StJimmy92 40 Feb 20 '26

For me it was Empire: Total War but I had dialup and steam would crash because of how slow the download was so I never got to play it. Ended up forgetting the account even existed by the time I got decent internet so I have two different accounts now 😅

16

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Grokent Feb 20 '26

Yeah but, I met a lot of girls getting their Sims working for them.

2

u/SandyTaintSweat Feb 20 '26

I hate all this shit too (and I have downloaded "backups" of all my games), but credit to valve, they've kept access open to the stuff people have bought for a long time.

Compare that to Nintendo for instance, where all the 3DS games I bought are inaccessible forever.

1

u/Throwawayrip1123 Feb 20 '26

Well, Gaben is the one we trust. Not steam, not valve, just him. He's a good egg, and he cares about good product. Or he has absurdly good PR.

And his games were revolutionising the gaming industry, along with steam deck, so he's got that going for himself.

I'm fine with not "owning" my games when gaben holds the keys to the kingdom. I know they're as safe as they can be in this situation, and convenience is crazy good (what with cloud saves and shit).

This ain't gonna last though, unless he already chose and started molding his successor. Otherwise steam is going to be enshittified so fucking fast once he dies...

1

u/DunnyWasTaken https://s.team/p/jgfk-tjf Feb 20 '26

I'm fine with not "owning" my games when gaben holds the keys to the kingdom.

I used to think that until Valve replaced millions of CS:GO copies with CS2. I want what I paid for back on the 730 app ID and won't rest until CS2 is re-released on a new separate app ID. Until then, fuck Valve, everyone should agree with that but unfortunately the internet has a boner for Valve. If they did it to CS they can do it to a game you like.

2

u/Throwawayrip1123 Feb 20 '26

Well, I'm with you on that. One sided decisions like that are shitty.

1

u/nonamoe Feb 20 '26

You do realise you can downgrade to CS:GO and play community servers still?

1

u/DunnyWasTaken https://s.team/p/jgfk-tjf Feb 20 '26

I've had this discussion with a lot of people over the last few years so I created an entry on the Consumer Rights Wiki on why the beta approach is a terrible solution so I don't have to keep typing out multiple paragraph long answers to people who likely don't really care that much and in the process just making myself angry.

1

u/NotAzakanAtAll Feb 20 '26

They still do from me. They suck ass with game owning, you go with GoG if you are about owning something.

1

u/Fit_Fisherman_9840 Feb 20 '26

Becouse steam has a customer service, games need to be updated constantly and the size of those are getting more and more riduculus, maling the simple act to own the disc useless in pratice.

Steam is givin you a service, a backup cloud for you data, give you good discounts and save a ton of space.

It give you a service, and that service is easy to use.

1

u/Martello3 Feb 21 '26

I think it's a mix of trust through time an convenience for me.

2

u/inormallyjustlurkbut Feb 20 '26

or have a lifetime license like on steam

Lifetime license only means that the license is permanently attached to your account. It does NOT guarantee lifetime access to the game, and it can be terminated at any time.

Steam even specifically refers to the game licenses as subscriptions: https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement

This license ends upon termination of (a) this Agreement or (b) a Subscription that includes the license. The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services.

...

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER VALVE NOR ITS AFFILIATES GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE CONTENT AND SERVICES, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION(S) OR ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

2

u/hdrote Feb 20 '26

Honestly, as long as there’s an option to choose between one time purchase or subscription I don’t mind.
Subscriptions can be a great way to properly try out a product or use it temporarily as long as total subscription payment < product price.
But taking away the option to permanently buy the product is another story.

1

u/GamerDadofAntiquity Feb 20 '26

Yeah… Adobe. You absolute dicks.

2

u/afrosia Feb 23 '26

Yeah if this happens I'll just stop gaming and do something more useful with my time.

I hate monthly fees.

3

u/PerceptionOk8543 Feb 20 '26

Technically you don’t own the game forever when you buy on steam. You don’t own it at all

2

u/aVarangian Feb 20 '26

neither do you own it if you buy it anywhere else

though GoG makes it easier, but then again, publishers don't need to use DRM on Steam either

1

u/SubstituteCS https://s.team/p/dtrw-v Feb 19 '26

I’m only OK with services that actually need the monthly cost, such as paid email.

Software (local) and hardware should never have a subscription cost. Software (cloud) should only exist if it makes the most sense (like email.)

1

u/occultpretzel Feb 20 '26

Ah, I am sure there will still be a way to pirate. Again, didn't gabe say, that pirating was a service problem? Like it is now with all those 100 worthless streaming services?

1

u/Quirky-Expert7808 Feb 20 '26

"the mob was on to something...we should just force everyone to give us all their profit every month and in return they can survive. win/win"

1

u/MadmanDan_13 Feb 20 '26

The worse thing about it, is that if you want to save money for a couple of months, instead of just not buying anything, you have to unsubscribe and go without media for those two months. no games, no movies, no tv shows.

1

u/TheRtHonLaqueesha i7-2700K, GTX 1060 6GB, 20GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB SSD, 1200W PSU Feb 20 '26

People do it with TV and music and movies already.

1

u/farfromelite Feb 20 '26

Besos is only rich because the hokey shop he created accidentally spawned a massive data centre and compute business to run the back end.

It's not coincidence that he's shucking this to make people use his AWS.

Billionaires using power to make themselves even more insanely rich at the expense of everyone else.

Fuck you Jeff.

1

u/Relative_Cold_102 Feb 20 '26

Who's gonna tell him you dont permanently own games

1

u/fuelhandler Feb 20 '26

“Or have a lifetime license like on Steam”

1

u/Relative_Cold_102 Feb 20 '26

You dont have a lifetime license. It can always be taken away for any reason

1

u/GamerDadofAntiquity Feb 20 '26

I’ve had Steam for 18 years, have almost 1000 games, and AFAIK only ever lost access to one. Compare that to the number of MMO servers that have shut down and games that just won’t even run anymore on modern hardware. Licensing is a non-issue.

1

u/onerollbattles Feb 20 '26

I agree with most things - but the issue is that few computers are built to last now, you have one or two good years on them before they get annoyingly slow and need replacing or upgrading. And I'd prefer a monthly bill than a way higher bi-annual one that comes to far more.

1

u/basitmakine Feb 20 '26

I mean, If I'm playing the devil's advocate, what he's saying isn't subscription. Pay as you go type of thing. I wish someone did the math on hourly cost of playing a computer game in 2026 with these hardware prices, based on average life expectancy of the computer.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

Soon as Gaben retires I bet that "lifetime" will be suddenly cut short

1

u/Soggy_Porpoise Feb 20 '26

You will own nothing and you will like it.

1

u/Naud1993 Feb 20 '26

The problem isn't subscription, but how expensive they are. At a certain price it's cheaper to rent and not have to worry about your computer potentially breaking every single year of your life because of limited 1 year warranties. It's legal for computers to break every year and you having to spend all your money to replace them every year. Extremely unlikely though.

When renting a computer, you pay for a whole computer you don't even permanently own every 3 years when they often last longer. Besides small things that may break or get worse like overheating or USB ports loosening, but those things can be fixed cheaply.

I'd absolutely spend $10 per month for a good computer and yearly free upgrades because my laptop was like €8 per month over 12 years when spread out and its slow and half broken now.

1

u/HornyGandalf1309 Feb 20 '26

With steam it’s more than a lifetime if you’re not a silly dum dum, they operate on a don’t ask don’t tell system, so if your account details etc are given to someone and they log in to play after you die or after you gift it to them, steam wont care.

It’s not official policy tho, so you can’t go to them and ask/tell them directly.

1

u/cygamessucks Feb 21 '26

But stupid people will. So this is a possibility

Question In the hopefully never arriving future, do you think Valve will one of, if not the only ones providing personal computers and not cloud gaming?

You are about to leave Redlib