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this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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Steam
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Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve.
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Steam users are the base everyone desires to get to but no one wants to pay the toll to Valve for building the platform gamers want.
"we've built a platform that at least give piracy a run for its money, and used it to develop a massive user base so conditioned to buying from us that they happily joke about how 50% off a game they won't play is cause for them to buy four times as many. Please, join us all in the baffling orgy of commerce, all we ask is 30% of the treasure.".
"We will, but we're gonna try to get the users to come to our platform with less content and maybe a $500 buy-in so we can have a bigger portion of a smaller pie".
"Lol, go for it".
"...".
"...".
"Why are you being anticompetitive?"
The hilarious thing is that Sony could open their own pc storefront selling steam keys, keep their 30%, and the only restriction would be maintaining price parity with the same game on the Steam storefront.
For a. Company like Sony that already has all the payment processing and customer service knowhow, this would be far easier for them than most.
Yet they can't or won't bother because suits are fucking stupid.
Shit, I assumed that valve somehow got a cut of games from keys as well, but looking it up (briefly), it looks like you're entirely right and they don't.
That makes it even more bonkers that companies keep trying to siphon off the market share, since you could just take your market proceeds as bonus revenue as long as valve got their share of what they sell.
I'm assuming that's a big chunk of how things like humble bundle make their money?
Pretty sure generating buttloads of steam keys for resale on a different platform to keep valve from taking their 30% is a violation of steam's TOS?
Nope. There's rules about pricing parity but you can generate and sell as many of your own keys as you want.
You can't actually, they won't let you generate more keys if you sell fewer units through Steam directly (probably not 1:1, they don't state precise numbers as it's up to their discretion).
Here's the relevant part of their website for reference:
I find it hard to believe Sony would run afoul of these guidelines. I'm not sure what they mean by "if your sole business is selling steam keys". Maybe referring to shovelware 'developers' that use steam for laundering money, if I had to guess.
Parity in this case would likely mean nearly everyone just buys directly from steam. No doubt Sony would infect the gaming process by injecting their launcher no matter what you do, but steam will get their 30%.
I don't know what Sony could offer on their own storefront that plays well with parity rules to make people choose it over steam.
But the thought of them operating their own store front and offering steam keys with every sale won't happen. Valve have stopped that in the past.
When? Who did they stop?
But Sony would run afoul of these guidelines.
How so?
Greedy company choking on itself in every possible way? Sony is known for that.
That's... Not an answer at all.
Can I refer you to this article, that we are commenting under? For an example?
God preach here. "Our storefront works half the time, is clunky, bulky, filled with flashy ads and no substance, allows no customization, you can't add your own games, you can't run it on Linux, and our games will always assume you're trying to pirate or hack even when we know you just bought the game. Switch over now! You'll love it!
You don't even gotta do that much, just be a better platform.
Turns out most people despise rentiers
Sony has been paying that toll and, per the article, plans to continue to do so.
Am I missing something here?
maybe because Steam is kind of a shitty platform and valve an abusive landlord. Shocking, i know.