Valve
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You are currently reading a thread in /v/ - Video Games
You are currently reading a thread in /v/ - Video Games
>Valve, the behemoth in digital distribution of PC games
>Eats up 30% of profits from all Steam-based digital sales
>Takes back 10-15% from all Steam market transactions
>Net profit estimated around 1 billion US dollars per year (meanwhile GTA 5's spending budget was like 200-300 million incl. marketing expenditure, and all of that spanned across multiple years)
>Employs only 350 people for entire Customer Support, R&D, Gamedev, Server administration, Web development and so on
>SteamOS still in beta
>Vulkan still not released to the public
>Steam client is still clunky and slow piece of shit
>Steam Controller is overpriced and nowhere near revolutionary
>All that money and still no E3 event dedicated to PC
>Abysmal customer support
>Four years since Dota 2 and still no details about new IPs of new games whatsoever
>Gaben pretty much confirmed Half-Life 3 is not happening due to company's inability to meet customers' expectations
>Most of company investments are oriented to build a fucking CONSOLE around Steam and PC architecture
Does anyone else feel that Valve doesn't deserve their 30% cut at all? Fucking where goes all the money they earn? Servers can't cost that much.
We know. The only people who defend Valve in 2016 are resistors and other tourists.
it's either this or paid online? do you want paid online anon?
>>322467474
> Fucking where goes all the money they earn?
Distribution: advertising on the store, a place in the store, selling the product Support: forums developers and their customers can use
Updates: automatic download and install
>>322467718
Where's the logic here?
>1 billion dollar a year
>still makes us weight years to port in the final dota 2 heroes
>still can't churn out 2 heroes, have to do it piecemeal
>still can't hold onto their half life developers who left because everyone else wanted to be busy with other games
its pretty frustrating. gone are the days where we got 3 heroes ported in dota 2, now its if we're lucky, 1 every year. we just got arc warden, and we'll probably get pitlord in 2017.
>yadda yadda valvetime
>>322467474
anon you do know that a console made with actually good parts and an OS totally focused on gaming would be the best thing that could possibly happen don't you?
>>322467474
>Eats up 30% of profits from all Steam-based digital sales
You do realise 30% had been standard cut for digital distribution everything for a decade, right?
Apple basically standarized it off of iTunes and the iOS store.
>>322467814
they need to make cash somehow, if they don't take a cut from developers they will take cash from us
>>322467474
When the alternatives are either Pure Cancer (Uplay), Satan (Origin) and paying for pirated isos (GOG), you are pretty much forced to stay on Steam.
>B-but muh edgy pirate lifestyle
I don't give a fuck about you poorfags.
>>322467474
>Does anyone else feel that Valve doesn't deserve their 30% cut at all? Fucking where goes all the money they earn? Servers can't cost that much.
There's a simple answer to this, just rent your own servers and distribute the game from there, will you get more money than if you sell the game on steam even after the 30% cut Valve takes?
The answer to this question is why Valve can take 30%.
I don't see the argument here unless it's "they make too much money they should make less" which is stupid.
>>322468061
I still don't see how that would work. Valve doesn't necessarily run all the online interactions within games they distribute and while we don't know much about valve as it's a private company I'm pretty sure they also charge developers for extra use of Steam severs beyond distribution. So you already do pay by paying the developer.
are you fucking 10 years old? companies exist to make a profit. they make money and keep it for themselves. They have no obligation to use their money for good or whatever you think they should
pirate singleplayer games
buy multiplayer games
u cant lose
>>322467671
No we dont know
>>322468289
The only correct answer
>>322468252
They should make less because if gamers weren't sheeple they wouldn't celebrate how a private company is slowly taking control over the open platform that is PC, and there'd be competition and more sober profits. The Steam logo is literally the PC gaming logo now and gaming on PC is starting to get pretty similar to the locked down console systems.
>>322468061
>p-poor valve needs to make insane profits just be happy they don't fuck you even more!!
Glad I'm not this servile millennial.
>>322468276
>Valve doesn't necessarily run all the online interactions within games they distribute
most of the time they do
>>322468597
>Glad I'm not this servile millennial.
I have 3 games on steam, projecting much?
you're assuming valve isn't pissing away a good deal of the money they make on projects/teams that wind up producing very little in terms of tangible results. everything i hear about valve at this point paints a story of their studios having very little in the way of structure, direction, or focus
>>322467474
>gamedev
>>322468987
And like I said developers probably pay more if they use more of Valve's services.
>>322468289
I don't know man, i like single more than multi and if we all pirate sp games then devs will stop making them
>>322469118
>probably
that's the key word because we don't even know for sure
why do you care btw?
>>322467474
>>All that money and still no E3 event dedicated to PC
Anon AMD was the one to host a mustard race E3 event.
Steam provides an easy to use, convenient and reliable service to store and play my games while providing plenty of features around them that can aid the experience.
No matter what lies you tell no service even comes close to offering the same level of service that Steam offers.
Don't care about Valve. Don't care about their business. Don't care about their controllers. Play games.
>>322468059
This.
Also Apple do a shit load more to justify their 30%
>>322467474
>Fucking where goes all the money they earn?
They wasted it on stupid shit like steam machines/controllers and Vive.
>>322469132
contrary to popular belief, you as a single person don't matter in the slightest. you won't make a change just because you decide to pirate shit
>b-but if everyone...
not everyone will do it, that's unrealistic
>>322467474
Then make a better Steam you shit. If it's genuinely better for both users and developers then it will kill Steam and force Valve to actually make games again, to be distributed on FaggotNet.
>Fucking where goes all the money they earn?
They have to feed Gabe.
>>322468224
They can take that much because if they tried your idea they wouldn't make anywhere near what they would on steam, thanks to steams advertising.
>>322469034
Vidya development is extremely iterative. Games and features get prototype'd, changed, scrapped on a daily basis.Very little actually gets released the way it was conceptualized. Only sequels with a clear cut formula(EA sports, CoD, AssCreed, FarCry) have a more straight forward development process.
>>322469534
true but at some point devs could just give up thanks to piracy
just look at crysis and how did it turn out
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/110154/Crysis_Developer_Puts_Piracy_Ratio_At_120.php
>>322467474
No company deserves anything. That is putting an emotional determinant on a strictly financial entity. Which is a bad fucking idea.
What companies do and have always done is maximize profit. If Steam charged more devs wouldn't use it. Yes even with Steam being as big as it is. They don't charge less because we buy and devs flock to them at 30%. They don't have to earn that so long as we pay.
And Steam isn't taking up as much of the market as people pretend. The proof is that Uplay and Origin and GMG and others exist. Even when they sell Steam games they are getting their profitable cut. You think EA wouldn't take Valve to court for antitrust if they had any argument at all?
I don't suck Gaben cock but he knows what he's doing. You pretending deserve has anything to do with good business is exactly why he can get away with it.
I can't fathom why their support staff is so bad. It has to be 3 people or something and I guarantee that one is losing them millions a year in frustrated customers.
>>322469326
Every consecutive year Steam and Valve continue to decrease in quality, Origin continues to get better, their support is already miles ahead of Steam's.
All EA has to do now is incentivise developers to release their games on Origin by offering better terms than Steam, which wouldn't be hard to do.
I only buy games from GOG nowadays and don't even connect into Steam that much anymore. The rest of the games I play don't require Steam.
I stopped giving Valve money years ago after they ruined TF2. Be the change you want to see, at least for yourself.
>>322467474
>Employs only 350 people for entire Customer Support, R&D, Gamedev, Server administration, Web development and so on
Not really, customer support and partially server administration is probably outsourced
>>322470410
Customer support partially doesn't exist.
>>322470872
Even for a customer support that partially doesn't exist they would need to employ a number bigger than their whole company.
>>322470929
Only if each automated response counts as its own employee.
If Steam is so bad, why is there no competition to it then?
Checkmate atheists
>>322471146
There is competition but Valve controls a big chunk of the market by virtue of being the first and having the most visibility.
I've actually been liking Origin a lot recently but it's lacking all the bells & whistles of Steam, a community, the huge catalog etc.
>>322471417
>I've been liking Origin a lot recently...
And the true reason behind this thread finally reveals itself.
Fuck off, EA.
Solution: Pirate everything.
>>322467474
The platform is good
The system works
I dunno but I'd wish they'd spend some money bringing the client into the fucking 21st century. 11 years old and still almost as shitty as back in 2004.
>>322468151
cancer cancer more cancer or better free games. clearly the only option here is cancer and you fucking poorfags can fuck off
>>322467474
>Gaben pretty much confirmed Half-Life 3 is not happening due to company's inability to meet customers' expectations
JUST
>>322467474
>Eats up 30% of profits from all Steam-based digital sales
Which was less than any other distributor.
>Takes back 10-15% from all Steam market transactions
So?
>Net profit estimated around 1 billion US dollars per year (meanwhile GTA 5's spending budget was like 200-300 million incl. marketing expenditure, and all of that spanned across multiple years)
They make a profit so they're evil, right?
>Employs only 350 people for entire Customer Support, R&D, Gamedev, Server administration, Web development and so on
They should employ less people. Their size is the reason they don't make videogames anymore.
>SteamOS still in beta
So? It works.
>Vulkan still not released to the public
Valve isn't developing Vulkan.
>Steam client is still clunky and slow piece of shit
Works on my machine (TM)
>Steam Controller is overpriced and nowhere near revolutionary
No one claimed it to be.
>All that money and still no E3 event dedicated to PC
They don't represent PC gaming so I don't see why they should pay for a PC-event.
>Abysmal customer support
yeah
>Four years since Dota 2 and still no details about new IPs of new games whatsoever
Yeah
>Gaben pretty much confirmed Half-Life 3 is not happening due to company's inability to meet customers' expectations
Pretty much a lie.
>Most of company investments are oriented to build a fucking CONSOLE around Steam and PC architecture
False
>>322469838
>blame piracy for lack of sales
>next two games combined wouldn't outsell the first game, despite being on more platforms almost free of piracy
yeah that sure worked out for them
>>322467474
>>Eats up 30% of profits f
Any distributor eats around 30% of the profits
>>322467474
Dont forget.
>Killed physical copies for pc games
>Exclusivity deals with publishers to maintain their monopoly
tldr; PJSalt
No steam = no buy for me
>>322475103
>Exclusivity deals with publishers to maintain their monopoly
Not to say you are wrong but can you provide some links? Can't say I've heard about this.
>Valve has made an industry in making a distribution service for other people's games
>projects into VR and other shit
>their own OS and hardware
>other transaction stuff
>Games are basically sideprojects that are remakes of mods from years old games
>people still refer to them as a games company first and foremost
>>322469841
Underrated post. I think Valve is one of the nicest companies out there, it feels they actually want to work for the benefit of all PC gaming and make a viable business out of it. Nothing wrong in making a few bux in the process, they've earned it by keeping their walled garden called Steam at least somewhat porous and actually a win-win deal for the devs also, not something that has to be forced down the throats of consumers and developers to gain total market dominance (like DirectX).
>>322467474
>Does anyone else feel that Valve doesn't deserve their 30% cut at all? Fucking where goes all the money they earn? Servers can't cost that much.
How much do you think other distributors and retailers get?
>>322468283
>Consumer economy
>Middle class is shrinking
It's not a binary thing you mong, but that's a level of discussion you can't handle.
>>322468061
Or people could just not use Steam.
>>322469713
Jesus you're fucking dumb. Betamax was better than VHS and it lost. I hate underage fags
>>322467474
>Does anyone else feel that Valve doesn't deserve their 30% cut at all?
I mean it's their platform, I don't think the word 'deserve' applies here.
>>322477560
You example actually re-enforces the anon you've replied to's point. Betamax was technically superior except that made it worse for consumers because it cost more and stored less video. If it was better for consumers *and* professsional studios (for which Betamax did maintain a fairly dominant market), then VHS would have died.
>>322467474
A lot of that money is going into video game development. In case you haven't noticed, development costs are rising every day and tons of companies are going out of business due to one bad game. Valve is using profits earned through Steam to fund future titles, some of which are even in development right now.
>>322467882
It's only natural for a game to receive less updates as it approaches the end of its lifespan. Imagine spending a bunch of money on DOTA 2 right before DOTA 3 comes out. You'll be less inclined to make the whole switch to 3 from 2 because of all that money you've put into it recently. We don't want to split out playerbase.
>>322467474
whatever, if it wasn't for valve pc gaming would be dead by now
>>322467882
Kill yourself, weeb.
>Vulkan
>valve
??
>>322478510
>>322478293
Wait, do you not understand how revenue works?
>>322478338
I'm not saying that you're wrong, but what titles is Steam funding?
>>322470307
Buying games from GOG is even worse
>>322480094
How so?
>>322467474
Valve is shit. They lost any credibility as a proper company, fuck them.
>>322467790
this post cant be real
steam costs a fraction of its turnover to keep running, the steam forums do not cost a billion dollars a year to keep online and what the fuck has automatic updates got to do with anything
>>322467474
>make post griping about valve
>fail to mention any of the things valve is actually doing wrong
Early Access, Greenlight, and seasonal 95% off sales are a cancer on the industry.
*Gasp* a company is making money! I think I need to sit down because this is big news..
>>322481337
How does greenlight work?
>>322481682
Are you making the same post repeatedly? Or as your a completely unoriginal Reddit fag?
>>322467882
>weight
heh heh heh
>30% cut
Meaning the publisher selling the game makes 70% revenue off sale price, which is insanely high compared to normal retail.
30% is the standard for digital distribution anyway, Apple, Google, Sony, and a Microsoft all have similar rates.
You can't expect to go to a store, tell them "sell my product and give me all of the revenue", do you?
>>322467474
I don't care about anything else but valve has nothing to do with vulkan development.
Also vulkan is just waiting on lawyers now.
Sincerely- /g/
>>322481784
He's right.
>>322482110
>I have no reading comprehension
>I'm also a samefag
>>322482257
You just asked him something completely irrelevant. He's making the same post until people stop being retards going all like "Valve are fucking jews for taking 30% of the revenue" when that's the normal for any digital distribution.
>>322474674
If you put your product on a store shelf you can expect much, much less revenue per unit sold.
It's why publishers want consoles to go fully digital, it gives an incredible boost to revenue and makes taking risks easier.
You see this with PSN/XBLA games already.
>>322482404
It adds absolutely NOTHING to the conversation, and you've made a post that's already been done at least 5 times already. I know this is /v/, but come the fuck on.
What's the cut XBL and PSN take from independent publishers?
>>322477137
>Or people could just not use Steam.
But many games are steam-exclusive, so if you want to play them on PC you have to use steam.
>Play them on console then
Why would I build a PC to play multiplats on console with paid online?
Does Valve still take the cut from IAPs purchased from the game's own launcher ie. MMOs or Quake Live/Tribes Ascend?
