You mean like Epic who takes 12%? Or Itch that let you chose your contribution? Or Humble that takes 25% but give half of that to charity?
BTW steam is not a publisher...

The infrastructure argument is just BS in 2025. Just admit you're an official gamer, meaning you will do anything to protect a soulless capitalist business that make millions everyday but employ like 83 people. Ubisoft bad, Steam good, I know lol.

[–] RandomPrivacyGuy@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The infrastructure argument is just BS in 2025

Why? Do we have free electricity and data centers? Sign me up for my share of both.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

Lol, in 2022 steam had profit margin of 70%. That makes it the most profitable company per employee in the United States, check it out. But obviously, they're not in it for the money, they just want players like you to be happy.

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 0 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Oh please, Sony, Nintendo, Apple, etc all take 30%+. Epic is flailing horribly while running EGS at a deficit held up solely by Fortnige skins and gambling (but it's ok when they do it right?)

Physical publishers take 60%+.

Humble bundle is getting discounted keys because it's for charity.

Steam is a publisher. They'll also finance your game with interest-free loans, you don't even need to publish your game on Steam.

More to the point, Steam offers massive value for that 30%- forums, hosting, security, patching services, hosting, matchmaking, dlc options, the list goes on and on... And more importantly, steam doesnt care if you use those services even while selling keys elsewhere. that means that steam doesn't even get 30% of the take from those keys.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Dude will rip his shirt to protect a billionaire lol. Kind of remind me of a certain cult...

I'll just leave this here and wait for your cognitive dissonance to explain me why it's perfectly ok:

Steam literally invented the "you don't own you games" model. But let's just pretend Ubisoft did.
Valve's have create an ecosystem for underage gambling. The main innovation they ever created is making kids addicted to lootbox and shit. In 2023, they made 1 billion fromthat system, it's FUCKING DISGUSTING. But let's pretend it's just Epic and Ubisoft right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eiDhuvM6Y

I don't care for any of the business you mentioned, they are all dirty, capitalist and soulless but the fact is that steam is almost a monopoly, and the greediest one. It's literally it the most profitable company per employee in the United States, fact. So to see an army of dudes willing to do anything to suck a billionaire's dick is beyond pathetic.

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

No, I'm just tired of chuds parroting astroturfed bullshit from epic game's massive PR campaign against valve that they did instead of improving their service.

Valve did not invent 'you don't own your games', nor did they invent DRM. The entire reason it took off was that it was one of the first PC game DRMs that didn't suck ass.

Valve did not create the gambling systems, they created a trading system and a marketplace that third parties abused to create gambling sites. If they didn't have it, you would complain that you cant trade cards or items or hats.

Steam is hilariously far from "the greediest monopoly" lmao. It's like you've never heard of ma bell, meta, or alphabet lol.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

You're brainwashed dead, sorry to tell you. Ever heard about cognitive dissonance You just keep proving me right, that it's impossible to criticize steam without the gamer cult going off. You actually sound like maga defending their pedo leader. "Epic has started a witch hunt against steam." Pathetic.

Steam is the most profitable company in the US look it up. 70% profit margin is greedy as fuck but at this point you're practically begin them to fuck you.

HAVE YOU WATCH THE VIDEO? I know you won't lol, you're too mentally weak for challenging ideas. They created a system to introduce kid to gambling and ruined thousand of life because they only care about money.

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Dude, you're at like a 9 and this conversation deserves about a 3, calm your tits. Yes, I'm aware of the coffeezilla video- it has numerous holes and issues.

The biggest one, and the one it fails to acknowledge, is that literally every game system with lootboxes could have third parties abuse it with external gambling. The only thing they can do is send cease and desists, which in this case, the companies ignore.

So what are valve's options? There's the nuclear route, of destroying their entire company by removing all loot boxes, hats, and items from steam overnight. Obviously, that isn't happening- they aren't going to put every single of themselves out of jobs.

The other option is taking legal action against these companies, but the entire situation is murky, and a bad result would have MASSIVE consequences. You have to remember these companies aren't in the US, which also complicates things.

At the end of the day, you're demanding that a US company polices foreign companies, and thats way more complicated than you think, and not exactly Valve's place to even do so.

Again, Valve is not condoning gambling- they've sent cease and desists, they're not fans of this, but they don't exactly have a lot of options that don't involve literally destroying the company because EGS decided to fund a PR campaign against them. League has gambling sites, epics own Fortnige has gambling sites, but nobody cares about those.

If you're going to pretend this is about gambling, at least be consistent in hating all gambling.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 minutes ago* (last edited 3 minutes ago)

Yes, I’m aware of the coffeezilla video- it has numerous holes and issues.

But you didn't watch it hahaha!

Seriously defending a billionaire that makes his fortune getiing kids addicted to gambling is a sad hill to die on.

But you're probably american right? You guys have a thing for billionaire, it's hard for others to understand. I'm sure Gabe enjoys very much your current administration, maybe he'll join, he's rich too so surely he can fix all of your social problems. Net idea eh?