However, as reported in Vietnam.net, it’s possible Steam has been taken down in Vietnam after local game developers complained about the scope and size of Steam’s vast portfolio of games, claiming Vietnamese devs cannot compete with Steam’s releases given they are subject to government approval and thousands of international games on Steam are not.

Citing it as “an injustice to domestic publishers”, Vietnamese studios reportedly say that local game development “will die” if Steam is able to keep releasing games without the same government scrutiny as domestic games.

Based Vietnam protecting its domestic games industry from American capitalists. :)

TLDR: the online game monopolies of Vietnam complains that they can’t extort the market share our Lord and Savior Gabe Newell rightfully earned," said one unhappy Steam user.

Steam users are so fucking insufferable. They hate all capitalist game companies except this one which they will eagerly lick the boot of.

    • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      This article makes it seem like more of a protectionist move than an anti-monopoly move, which I’m in favor of when China does it so why wouldn’t I support Vietnam doing it shrug-outta-hecks

      It sucks for Vietnamese gamers who will now be forced to use a VPN and change their computer’s locale to play foreign titles, but if in ten or twenty years there’s Vietnamese game devs who wouldn’t have been able to exist otherwise it’ll be worth it.

    • companero [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      A common reason cited by g*mers for only using Steam is that they “want to have all their games in one place”. They will literally never switch to anything else, no matter how good it is, if the majority of their “owned” games can only be accessed through Steam.

      • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        A common reason cited by g*mers for only using Steam is that they “want to have all their games in one place”.

        I really don’t think that sentiment is all that common. People like to use Steam because it’s a good service, and always innovating new ways to be a good service. There’s no reason for family sharing to exist, or for it to have recently been overhauled in such a way that it’s even smoother and more pleasant to use. They just did it because it makes a better consumer experience. There’s no reason for Proton to exist, or for Valve to push into linux gaming at all. Linux was such an insignificant, tiny market. But Valve is making it a significant market single-handedly and that’s fucking awesome.

        Of course Valve, just like any other company in a capitalist society, only wants money. But Valve, unlike most companies in a capitalist society, is guided by the principle that people will fork over their money if the service is good. And they’re goddamn right.

        If Epic made a good service, or if Ubisoft made a good service, or if EA made a good service, or if Rockstar made a good service, or if Blizzard made a good service, or if anyone else made a good service, they’d have no problems getting people to use their service and Steam. The problem is that any time somebody other than Valve makes a game store, the only selling point for it is “you can’t play this game if you don’t download our store.” Nobody ever tries actually making something good.

        • StalinStan [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          I specifically feel that way. Steam is a resource and a convenience and it makes life more difficult to interact with games in a other way. Steam should be nationalized by vietnam.

        • Beetle_O_Rourke@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          There’s no reason for Proton to exist, or for Valve to push into linux gaming at all. Linux was such an insignificant, tiny market. But Valve is making it a significant market single-handedly and that’s fucking awesome.

          Microsoft began making noises about wanting a cut of the Steam gravy train around the time development started on the failed steambox 1.0 project.

          • dachshundwithadesktop [any, they/them]@hexbear.net
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            7 months ago

            Just curious, why? I’m not too into what goes on in the game world, so I don’t know who has been doing what. I just remember the hatred for Microsoft for monopoly, EA for some kind of anti-consumer practice, and Ubisoft for making shitty open world games and the microtransaction lootbox bullshit. What did CDPR and Valve do?

            • piccolo [any]@hexbear.net
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              7 months ago

              EA (and to some extent Valve) is also well known for profiting very heavily off of getting people addicted to gambling in the form of loot boxes. Also EA’s former CEO said that they should capitalize on gamers in the heat of the moment to charge in-app transactions, like pay $1 to reload your magazine mid-combat in Battlefield. They’re also notable for charging tons for DLC. Overall just very money hungry and gross.

              Valve is not very good at censoring profitable fascist games from their marketplace (which goes in line with Gaben and his reddit-logo freedom takes). Valve also takes like 1/3 of the price of the game for themselves, which is pretty high, especially for indie game devs who don’t yet have many sales, and given that they have a de-facto monopoly. They also tried really hard to break EU and Australian law and not allow for refunds on games beyond very limited circumstances. Their work culture is also notoriously sexist and transphobic.

              I think Valve is probably the lesser evil of game companies but I think that their reputation is much much better than it should be given all this shit. That being said, as a tux enjoyer I’m happy they are trying to get gaming on Linux working better, even if it’s just for their own selfish interests.

            • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              7 months ago

              That’s the thing. Valve hasn’t really done anything. They don’t make games anymore. They just sell you shit. They have some controversies but nothing really worth caring (wrt steam) about except that one time they allowed mods to be charged. As such, you don’t get too many reasons to hate it outside of principle, which is fine, but no one else cares enough to make an alternative.

        • Taster_Of_Treats [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          6 months ago

          You also can’t play steam games without downloading their store.

          I don’t think epic games is that bad as a game auto-uploader. I just wish it took less time to launch.

          They also have a better revenue share for game devs, which is good because steam should be pressured to share more revenue.

        • companero [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          I don’t know why a competing service couldn’t do the same with purchased Steam games

          We already kind of see that, albeit in reverse. Many Steam games require third party launchers, almost as a kind of desperate attempt to get them installed on users’ computers.

          They don’t even give me the impression that they’re trying to be serious competition

          I can definitely agree with that. EGS in particular is frankly shameful for a company that constantly rakes in obscene amounts of money.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        These companies don’t want to just sell games to you. They want you to interact with their apps and live in their ecosystem and I have zero interest to learn to use a shittier Steam where I have no games

        If they just sold you no-frills installers like GOG does (with an optional Steam-like ecosystem I never use) I wouldn’t mind, but of course they don’t want to do that

        • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          It’s all just vibes. As long as your government connections aren’t visible and publicly talked about, you’re one of the good ones in liberals’ eyes

        • Default_Defect
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          7 months ago

          the epic app/launcher whatever was just bad to use, all the free games in the world could never make me want to wait for their junk to load and typically fail to load. IDK if its improved, but its too late now, I don;t even care to check in for the free stuff anymore.

        • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          Meanwhile I don’t use it because they had that giant data breach years ago and I don’t want to risk another vector of my credit card getting stolen.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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      7 months ago

      I argue that is the case as well. Personally, I’ve been so dissatisfied with every alternative I have no desire to use a different service.

      Steam also appears to be the only service that tends to do right by the customer so there is no push to seek an alternative.