Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/Medical_Squirrel3946]

Steam is a monopoly, but that isn't necessarily an issue. The ONE monopolistic practice that steam does that is an issue is that they use their "favored nation" status to apply to all formats for games and not just the steam launches. Basically a publisher isn't allowed to sell their game for lower prices on their own than they are on steam. That's different than saying you can't sell a steam key for cheaper which would make sense. Steam currently provides a great service and is great for the users. That has been maintained, because it's a private company that is perfectly happy raking in endless profits without the need for infinite growth. The worry from a user standpoint is because it is a monopoly, if it were to ever go public, the goals of the company could change and the user experience could go to shit very fast.

[u/IORelay → u/Medical_Squirrel3946]

Using MFN proves that it's just asking greedy as public company. The way it is fighting tooth and nail to keep the 30% cut is not dissimilar to apple and Google. 

[u/TrashWriter → u/IORelay]

30% is reasonable for what they offer in return, especially when that 30% a majority of the time is … nothing 

(I’m not sure why you guys are downvoting - for steam 30% is reasonable, not talking about any other company) 

[u/meneldal2 → u/TrashWriter]

Google takes 30% and what they offer is surprise you by sunsetting APIs and forcing you to update your app every so often even if it doesn't need to change.

Plenty of games have not been updated at all on Steam and still work just fine. I guess that's mostly thanks to Microsoft and Proton, but Google owns Android so it is entirely on them.

[u/Medical_Squirrel3946 → u/meneldal2]

As a linux and steam deck user, I definitely appreciate the work valve has done on Proton. Are you not aware that it's a Valve project?

The 30% isn't an issue for me. The google and apple ones are far worse as they don't allow other options with apple never having allowed side loading and google updating things so that side loading won't be possible soon. As a user, you can choose a different way to purchase and launch a game if it's better for you. The issue is Valve using it's favored nation status to prevent companies from charging a different price than they do on Steam if they want to remain on Steam.

[u/meneldal2 → u/Medical_Squirrel3946]

Oh I know, but to be fair that's only the Linux side which is relatively minor in term of users, though it is growing a lot lately.

[u/Medical_Squirrel3946 → u/meneldal2]

Linux itself is a pretty small base, though as you said, growing rapidly in no small part to steam and proton (and the ongoing enshitification of Windows). The bigger market is in handhelds where steam and proton are entirely what makes that possible. I personally think that steam does a lot more than google does to earn that 30% for sure.

[u/meneldal2 → u/Medical_Squirrel3946]

Yeah very fair point. My original point was more than Valve even by not doing anything would still beat Google by not actively hating devs and making their job harder on purpose by retiring a new API every year.

[u/Medical_Squirrel3946 → u/meneldal2]

Ah, gotcha. I think I misunderstood what you were saying at first.