Eventually, the bomb will go off, and the full ‘enshittification’ of Steam will commence. There will be competitors ready to take its place, but the current reluctance to embrace any Steam alternatives right now makes me worry that even a malicious Valve could keep a stranglehold on the PC as a software platform for years.
I didn’t find this conclusion well supported by the evidence presented
Enshitification usually happens because Wall Street demands infinite growth. I don’t see how that applies to Valve as a privately owned enterprise. If anything the complaint with Valve is that they only work on stuff they feel like working on and nothing more. If what you want isn’t something they care about you’re SOL.
I didn’t find this conclusion well supported by the evidence presented
Valve’s faults are very well documented but I don’t understand the ticking time bomb reference at all.
I absolutely appreciate all of Valve’s Linux efforts. Linux wouldn’t be thriving as a gaming platform without them.
Enshitification usually happens because Wall Street demands infinite growth. I don’t see how that applies to Valve as a privately owned enterprise. If anything the complaint with Valve is that they only work on stuff they feel like working on and nothing more. If what you want isn’t something they care about you’re SOL.
Every company enshittifies eventually, it’s a fact of life.
It might take a while but it will happen. Eventually Gabe will step down or die, new leadership will come in and the enshittification will commence.
Or they sell to a competitor who will do big cuts to remove now redundant positions and you guessed it - the enshittification will commence.
Private companies still face pressure to perform from externalities including private funding and board demands.