From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin’ back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    11 months ago

    Steam does keep winning and it’s because of convenience for consumers.

    As a Linux user, nothing else comes even close. I can read on ProtonDB if I can expect a Windows game to just work, and more often than not, it does.
    GOG is also a great concept, and somewhat Linux friendly, but it doesn’t have the Steam “click and play” convenience.
    Epic Game Store however, has been decidedly Linux hostile for some reason??? As I see it, Steam and GOG are for gamers, Epic Game Store is for business. It would be a dark day for gamers, if Epic ever became dominant.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      ·
      11 months ago

      The contributions Valve has made to Linux really, really can’t be understated.

      It’s been 20 years of the joke “It’s finally the year of the Linux Desktop” and Valve took the desktop for a miss and made 2023 “the year of the Linux Portable PC Gaming Handheld.”

      • hips_and_nips@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        11 months ago

        Why would they have to open source anything? Just because it’s running on Linux doesn’t mean it’s OSS or even F(L)OSS. Steam isn’t open source either.

        • Rose@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          11 months ago

          Not to mention that open source software can and sometimes does contain spyware.

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            Not to mention that open source software can and sometimes does contain spyware.

            That seems allot more like a one-off, a one time thing.

            Also, anyone can view the source code for the open source product.

          • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            Nobody with two brain cells says foss can’t have spy/malware. What’s true is only that in important projects, it is very likely it will raise flags very soon. For example, see your link

      • Nix@merv.news
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        That makes literally zero sense. If anything Chinese investors would want the open source operating system to be the most popular since the US is becoming more hostile and banning them from stuff more and more. Its why they’re investing in RISC-V development and the US is considering being hostile towards it for “national security reasons”

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        I would think China would be eager to get out of western (USA) dominated Operating Systems.
        I know Russia has attempted it as couple of times, but with very little success.

    • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      Steam and GoG are not just free services for gamers either. At their core they are businesses, and they invest significantly to try and make people spend more/get addicted to their services.

      I hate this whole idea that some companies are your friend. That just shows their marketing and branding is working on people and blinding people.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        11 months ago

        I hate this whole idea that some companies are your friend.

        It’s not a matter of them being your friend or not, it’s a matter of them respecting their customers, and giving their customers what they want, generating a win-win.

        These days most corporations are very happy with the win-lose scenarios, as it maximizes their profits.

      • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Publicly traded companies, which we’ve all learned to hate and not take as our friends, are in no way comparable to Steam which is privately owned. Gabe Newell is in no way forced by shareholders to push for increased profits, the company has no interest in pushing for enshittification unlike VC funded startups.

        • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          Thank goodness Gabe will live forever and Steam will always be a private company then!

          Oh… Shit.

          This is exactly what I mean. It’s like people just have no concept of the future. Point me to any private company that’s been around a long time and is still not shit.