Last year, they all came crawlin' back to Steam, and this year was another strong one for Valve.

From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin’ back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

  • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
    71·
    10 months ago

    … Because years later, steam got good.

    Epic started out shit, and then used their fortnite money to impro… No, wait, sorry, they used their fortnite money to buy exclusivity of games people had already preordered from other stores.

    Starting out shit and then slowly improving is one thing. Starting out shit and then kicking your customers in the teeth is completely different.

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
        72·
        10 months ago

        No, not exclusivity. Pointedly spending large amounts of money to take already purchased games away from people.

        Exclusivity isnt a new concept. Im still patiently waiting for the next horizon game to come to PC at all. Exclucivity isnt kicking your customers in the teeth.

        Wagging your fortnite cash in peoples faces by showing them you can take away what they already paid for is the kick in the teeth.

        And, more importantly, it showed me how they value me. They will spend extra money to directly inconvenience me in the hopes Im stupid enough to pay them for inconveniencing me. Bad launcher? Thats fine, blizzards launcher is dogshit and I played overwatch for years. Exclusivity again, fine. Ill wait if Im really going to be stubborn, and I wont if I really want the game.

        But going out of their way to antagonize other users of the competition, as if Im supposed to find that cute and rebuy what I already purchased at a store I already chose? Zero respect for your customers means you will do the same or worse to me even if I am stupid enough to pay you, if you think antagonizing me again will wiggle out more of my money.

        Fuck them forever, they cannot rebuild that trust. The only reason they havent done it again is because steam changed their tos. And they will do it to you as soon as they think theyve got a stable userbase

          • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
            22·
            10 months ago

            You really are not listening. You are going off on old grudges that have literally nothing to do with what I am saying to you.

            I get it. Steam kicked your childhood dog. That has nothing to do with epic buying a game out of peoples mouths.

              • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
                1·
                10 months ago

                Show me when steam forced people who had paid for a game from a completely different retailer to rebuy the game on steam, while completely deactivating the copy that was already purchased.

                  • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
                    1·
                    10 months ago

                    They made you re-purchase half life? If you owned half life, you had to rebuy half life again on the steam page?

                    Or they launched a new launcher, and did what every single other game publisher does when they launch a new launcher, and ported all of their own personal titles into the launcher?

                    Because with metro exodus, until mass backlash caused them to revert the decision, everyone who had preordered the game on steam needed to refund the purchase and repurchase it within the epic store. Only after backlash did they honor steam prepurchases.

                    And even then, they struggled with the fact that all the physical orders still had steam codes, despite the game apparently not being allowed to be owned on steam.

                    All of this happening 2 weeks before the game release.