Tell me what they do that’s worth one man having a billion dollars worth of boats.

No one deserves a 30% cut for hosting virtual game files, even with the extra features included.

Steam, Epic, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are literally sucking out profit for something that has virtually no expense compared to that profit.

That profit could be going to the actual people making the product and all it needs is a minimum of regulation. We could be getting more and better games right now but instead Gaben and company get big boats.

All of them have fluff like friends lists, multiplayer frameworks and what not. Sure steam is better than the others but they are still part of the same club playing the same game. Even worse, with their small staff, steam probably has the highest cost to revenue ratio.

I’m trying to explain to you that the features don’t matter and certainly aren’t currently enough to justify robbing devs of literal billions.

Nothing you have said about Steam seems to indicate you’re aware of anything Steam does beyond distribute games.

Jfc, tell me the feature you think is worth a billion dollars worth of boats. I’m saying I know the features but they 1. Are a drop in the bucket in terms of profit and cost compared to actually hosting the game files, and 2. It isn’t enough to justify any of it.

Edit: I was being mean but it is a cool boat so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt.

You aren’t actually reading what I’m writing lol.

The 30% cut was always the standard retail cut

It’s the standard because of the collusion not because of the cost. All game stores make bajillions of dollars, not only steam. The only difference is how the profit is shared (stock holders vs a few individuals). Please don’t start talking about the “standard retail cut” as well, as if physical products can be treated the same as digital ones. Steam isn’t running close to it’s cost, even if you pile on everything they do.

I know what steam is, but it’s not enough to make me lick a billionaires boot. Steam being slightly better than other stores does not justify their collusion, soft monopoly and anti consumer businesses (like threatening to delist games if the dev puts it for cheaper somewhere else). Please name the feature you think is worth giving a billion dollars to one guy? Is it having a friends list?

You are nitpicking one thing and ignoring the rest.

The other game stores aren’t the bar, it’s all rotten. And it will stay rotten if everyone keeps thinking the best looking rotting fruit deserves to be defended. Even if you lick Gabens sweaty feet, he still won’t let you own your games.

We need regulations not pathetic billionaire worship.

So yes, steam is better than Xbox but it isn’t good enough. Polished feces are still feces. Quality and price of games is directly affected by these vampiric mega corps taking 1/3 of the profits to buy boats. Grow up and stop being part of the problem.

Reads like Cormac McCarthy a bit. I like it.

Whatever they are doing isn’t worth close to what they are charging if gaben can spend 1 000 000 000 dollars on boats.

But yes, they mostly host downloadable content that they then charge 30% commission fee for whenever someone buys it. That’s the lion share of their business. What are you even getting at?

I mention profits because it is about profits. The profit they are stealing from devs by colluding with other stores and offering a simple service at a massive cost. The profits they make that led to gaben being a billionaire. The disgusting profits clearly show we need regulations. Billionaires shouldn’t exist even if they have a marketing team telling you this one is different.

Defend Bezos and Musk next please. It’s the same arguments. Amazon isn’t only a drop shipping company either, you know.

Yes because it’s nitpicking and ignores the point. Are we going to pretend it isn’t their main product, and that by far?

You see articles like these pop up every few months. The theme is usually along the lines of “he’s not just any billionaire. He is filthy rich but he is also just like you”. It’s transparent pandering imo.

The other stores aren’t the bar though. Epic being shit doesn’t make Steam a saint. I also don’t think giving free games is anti consumer. Exclusives yes but not the free games.

Steam is under multiple lawsuits, including one because they threaten devs with delisting if they put their game up for cheaper on other stores (this is separate from their steam key rule).

I think they have a massive ad campaign not only to make themselves look good but also to make the competition look bad tbh. I see a lot of seo work being done for instance. I’m guessing the budget is massive.

Steam also popularized DRM and not owning your games. It’s a money printing machine tbh. They have like 300 employees lol.

Shame they aren’t doing those things. Steam doesn’t need 30% of the profits just for hosting the downloadable file.

Fact is we need some hard regulations for all digital stores, especially when it comes to gaming but we will never get them because a large number of consumers are dead set on defending one of those stores.

You can’t clamp down on Microsoft for stealing from their customers (both devs and gamers) while steam, who’s making even more profits, gets a free pass.

Gabe has a very good PR team. Don’t you remember all the “Gabe plays video games too” articles? Staying out of the spotlight isn’t the same as being a good person.

If he was a good person, he would be using his wealth to help society instead of owning more than a billion worth of boats. If he was a good person tbh, he’d close the spigot a bit so more profit would go to devs but he takes his fat cut like all the other store owners.

They usually are battery powered, and warn you well in advance when it has to be changed.

Cut my nail in two pieces

Trimmed them way too short

Frustration

No unboxing

Don’t give a damn, but this tape won’t start peeling

The second part of my first paragraph is sarcastic. I realize I worded it weirdly.

That being said, they need us upset so it’s easier to pass laws that make developing AI models impossible for smaller players.

Most are begging for stronger copyright laws. It’s nuts.

The one with Tom Cruise? I always found that one to be some pretty good sci-fi.

Hugging face open sourced a dataset every big AI company already has privately. We need to get mad about this because hugging face is the last target to take down, to finish the regulatory capture started at the behest of openAI and company.

Even if scrapping GitHub was made illegal, does anybody here really think the money would go to them and not Microsoft?

It’s data brokers and the copyright mafia vs open source and you guys are choosing to root for the former?

For big batches to freeze I use oil. For a small meal without oil, I’ve found it works if you spray on the oil during the air frying a few times. I mostly do that for tofu. I toss mushrooms or other veggies in olive oil, herbs and garlic, and toss it in there too with a bit of cheese sometimes.

An air fryer goes a long way, I don’t see much difference in terms of crispyness compared to regular oil frying and it’s a lot less cleanup and work.