In defense of the ‘drunken sailors’ of Steam, many of the games they’ve bought are likely to still be playable for a long time, some were bought in half-yearly sales, and some were part of ‘bundles’ that were bought for a different game. The 30% also pays for the Content Delivery Network, marketing, a forum and sometimes moderation, and a genuine customer feedback mechanism. Who wouldn’t want to be part of an un-enshittified system? Fanboy? You bet. I’m not saying they can do no wrong, but they’re doing a lot right.
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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buying a game for 90% off sure sounds responsible to me lol
I've spent ~$1200 and have 227 games to show for it. Plus now works on almost any computer and cloud saves. Steam offers so much gonna be hard to unseat them.
Yup. I bought The Forest for $2 a year ago and I'm sure I'll play it eventually.
Play in VR if you can, amazing experience
Exactly, every game I’ve ever bought is still accessible.
If gaben decides tomorrow to shut it all down, everything is gone. They might have a lot of good will based on past behavior, but in the end it's still a company and you have zero control over what they do. You don't actually own any of those games.
Technically, uh no. Many of the games I haven't loaded onto my PC would no longer be accessible, correct. But I have a copy of Goldberg emulator, in case Valve doesn't hold up their end of the bargain.
Then technically I am correct? If Valve just shuts down, it's all gone. You might find a workaround for some of the stuff you happen to have downloaded right now, but in general, everything you "bought" is gone.
Technically it would be the same case for GOG too if that happened, since the average consimer doesn't back up all the games they pay for.
In the end when it comes to digital most consumers rely on convenience and trust than taking the extra step to back up stuff so they remove the dependency.
That's why the actual back up for lot of people is piracy as the final line of defense and archiving.
"Technically, if your computer breaks and you can't recover those games after Valve decides to close its doors, those games are gone forever." Yeah, and? Is there a storefront that doesn't apply to? Just how long do you think CDs and floppy disks (and the hardware to access them) last, if you haven't lost them already? Is it more or less than Valve's lifespan so far?
If steam shutdown it would probably mean PC gaming itself is dead and the industry is in really big trouble.
When I first got a Steam account, my original plan was to buy every game released on it. But now that’s impossible.
Well, not with that attitude!
I wondered which studio would be bold enough to do blatantly insult an entire marketplace of potential customers, but it's just some guy.
Chris Zukowski.
I am a game marketing consultant and strategist. I have helped Games-as-a-Service companies, indie publishers, and small to single-person teams understand their audience and communicate with them in a more personal way.
Funny way to communicate with your clients audience mate, calling us all "a bunch of drunken sailors"...
I specialize in optimizing your marketing for the Steam algorithm
Ah, so you're part of the reason nothing has a soul any more. Got it.
This just sounds like sour grapes whining paid for by Epic games who actually just want that to be them rather than Steam, despite Steam having provided the same service for free, consistently, for multiple decades now. The real offense here is PC Gamer attacking its primary consumer base (try to tell me the majority of PC gamers aren't Steam users), so you KNOW Epic is paying a shit-ton for this manufactured consent and wish-casting. Counterpoint to this article: having more games that you want to play than you have time for, without breaking the bank, is GOOD actually, and other launch platforms only seek to enshittify YOUR experience for their own gain. Thanks!
Edit: grammar
Will I get around to playing my whole library? God no, but do i want to give this indie Dev my money? God yes!
Barely bought anything this year because I am still finishing Factorio. 1600 hours on steam and countless more from the non steam version of the game.
The factory must grow. My SA deathworld save is up to around 3000 SPM.
Factorio is a game where I'll spend so much time and getting pretty far. Then I'll "refactor" some parts for efficiency. Then I get like a new science and I'll be like, I can't make this work and give up.
Then I'll start again later thinking I'll get it right the next time!
Although, if I had my robo flying stuff set up correctly then this wouldn't be an issue.
I put Factorio down for a bit. I have almost 4,000 hours in Factorio, and almost 3,000 hours in Dyson Sphere Program. Been playing Derail Valley Simulator, Schedule 1, and Vintage Story recently.
Vintage Story is one I have played a lot of, got it a long time ago before they even had seasons or food spoilage.
I do have a lot of games but most of them came from big bundles from Humble Bundle.
Word. It's not hoarding it's "yeah I'd pay $16 dollars for that one game and I'll give a couple of others a go". I didn't just never get around to Kane and Lynch, I never had any interest in it.
Aww man K+L has one of the most surreal co-op experiences ever put into a video game.
It legit gets one player to think the other has gone completely off the rails.
I mean, where is the lie? Gimme cheap games, I'll "buy" all of them!
It's not cheap
As with almost everything. Cheap is subjective. And not even just as in "I have more money so everything is cheaper for me" but also like "The value I derive from this thing for my specific use-case makes the cost feel cheap. To me."
So, you're saying that Steam games are the stuffed animals that're culturally acceptable for adults to display openly.
No, it's that Valve reinvests their cut into improving the platform. Wild that devs can't figure that out.
devs aren't smart people. talented, yes. smart, no.
I worked with many devs making $100-200k a year and could barely afford their apartments because they were so spread thin financially. spending $100+ a day eating 3 meals a day out. "investment" in crypto scams. girlfriends(yes plural). $4k a month rent for apartments that are way too extravagant for someone who spends 80% of their time at the office. driving nice cars with monthly leases in the $2-3k range. living on credit cards.
the only time I saw most of these guys get their shit together was when they got married.
It seems like a ignorant take. It's FOMO but instead of a missing out on a loot box or a silly cosmetic for a high price. It's about missing out on the sale for a low price.
It's like gym membership or books. If everyone with gym membership would go regularly, the business won't be profitable. Or if everyone only buys a new book after they finish what they have bought, the publishing industry would be in shambles.
These businesses play the probability game. They are actually just insurance by a different name.
Giving 30% for Steamworks Multiplayer servers and matchmaking, player inventory and trading, modding support w/ workshop, forums, cloud saves: 🙅
Giving 30% because players 'spend irresponsibly': ✅✅✅
He's right
Some people have huge backlogs of games they will naver be able to play, some games alone will count for hundreds of hours of playtime.
You can't manage all them, and that platform encourages overspending
Guilty.
The perfect south park clip to illustrate this story:
Randy explains how stupid other people are with their money.
WELL, I'll let you know that my GOG collection is larger than my Steam collection!
Respect
I have bought games on steam that I already owned and played on other platforms, just because I wanted to support the dev and have a copy on a reliable platform. But with recent developements I do wonder more and more how long it will stay reliable.
What recent developments?
Probably supporting Linux and open source is now evil or so.
Sorry I wasn't clear, I'm a big fan of Valve's efforts, it's just that they are the only ones right now and I'm wondering how long until they too fall like the rest of the industry.
I was thinking of developments in the industry as a whole. Valve themselves have been the only beacon of hope, but for how long.
It's not any different than getting on the apple app store, they even take 30% too.
Heh as if I wasn't an idiot and bloated my own steam library with fanatical mystery bundles and all those developers didn't walk away with a completely random dollar and a chance to actually have a game get noticed and steam got zilch.
It honestly just sounds like a productive economy that's constantly moving and giving opportunities to developers even if they aren't getting nothing but ravid fans. Like how busking might work in a wealthy thriving city compared to a poor one.
Yeeeeeh Gaben!