alessandroCourt documents show that not only is Valve a fraction the size [only 336 employees in 2021] of companies like EA or Ubisoft, it's smaller than a lot of triple-A developers
KecessaDon’t need that many employees to run a store, programmers/IT and marketing and you’re good to go. Employees wouldn’t count contractors either so they probably have a lot more “employees” than that.
MudManNot only that, Valve has done a TON of work to outsource as much of the process of running Steam off to the users and developers. Self-publishing, a minimum of moderation, automated greenlight processes, automated ratings, database tags, controller configs...
Their entire business model is to make money with as little effort as possible. I've been saying for ages that people vastly underestimate how ruthlessly profitable their business is. We didn't have the numbers, but we roughly knew this is what was going on.
Gabe owns six yachts, people should always keep that in mind when praising him, he’s not the friend of the average Joe, he just realized there’s profit to be made by not pissing people off, but he’s still making enough profit from us to be a billionaire while the majority of people live paycheck to paycheck.
grrgyleHoly shit Gabe Newell is a billionaire (it’s just at the second paragraph). This does change my view of him and steam. So uncool.
The dude’s the CEO of the most successful online gaming platform ever. Yeah, he’s gonna be a billionaire.
He was a billionaire before valve even existed.
He early joined Microsoft and probably had some stock but he left by 1996 so I hardly doubt that made him a real billionaire, (especially given the time).
Afaik his family was always very well off
He was a paperboy and a telegram messenger before college.
That doesn't scream old money boy.
Aren't you confusing him with someone else?
That doesn’t mean he wasn’t well off? Just as an example, there’s a media figure here in Brazil that has a whole ass “self made man” myth is surrounding him because at some point he was selling baubles in the street or other odd jobs like that. And it is indeed true that he did that, but his family owned a media network. So.
Oh and I don’t mean “well off” in the more “old money” sense, you are right. I’m fairly sure I’ve read about his parent for the first time this year, and they had fairly comfortable money, to the point that him opening valve wasn’t a real financial risk for instance.
I’ll try to look for where I’ve read that, I didn’t pick it up immediately because I don’t have a pc at hand till Monday and searching for stuff on the phone is annoying. It’s not impossible that I’m mixing up with someone else, but in fairly sure that isn’t the case.
You can’t just move the burden of proof on to others like this. You’re just spreading misinformation, even if you ultimately turn out to be right what you’re doing is unproductive and harmful.
I didn’t propose to move the burden of proof? I’m just explaining I won’t be able to verify easily before Monday.
I’m unsure if I miscommunicated something, but the I’m confused by the harshness of the reply?
The issue is that you’re constantly asserting your statement without evidence and when people are offering up contradictory ideas you’re asking them to present evidence (“that doesn’t mean that he’s NOT from a billionaire family”) which is shifting the burden of proof. You made the claim, you have to prove it, if people put out other explanations also without evidence then they still don’t have the burden of proof since the point under debate is the claim that you made. As the person making the claim you must prove it.
It’s not meant to be harsh since this is a very low stakes conversation and topic but what you’re doing willingly or unwillingly is exactly how misinformation spreads on more important topics, so it’s important that you be aware and correct your behavior.
I don’t understand what you mean by “constantly”, I made one comment here and clarified when questioned. I prepended my comment with “as far as I know” is exactly because I wasn’t 100% sure on it.
And I only made the “that doesn’t mean he wasn’t” because they literally aren’t exclusionary conditions, and I cited an example as to why I’m stating that that wouldn’t necessarily contradicts my previous comment.
And I also immediately clarified that I messed up and didn’t mean “well off” in the billionaire sense. The example I had in mind wasn’t also a billionaire, but he was still from a rich family.
I’ve made a bunch of conditionals for my statement exactly so that is didn’t pass as you are describing, and made it clear that while I was remembering something about Gaben but I could be misremembering the specifics, which is why I mentioned I would be looking it up later, I just don’t want to do an extensive search on a cellphone. Which is just making me more confused as to your replies to me. Did you read my second comment fully? Are you mixing me up with someone else?
“a bunch of conditionals for my statements” are also known as weasel words. You don’t seem interested in learning from this experience.
How were they weasel words? Honestly.
I’ve commented about something I remember but that I wasn’t completely sure on. I’ve further clarified what I meant and specified the context of it. I also mentioned I intend to verify the information but just can’t right now (I’ll be able to later today, as I mentioned).
I still don’t get why are you so aggro on me. Are you sure you are not mixing me with someone else? I still don’t get what you meant by “constantly”.
What misinformation are you talking about? It's in his ducking Wikipedia buddy:
What did you expect? He owns Valve who has the place to buy video games on PC with Steam.
But you’ll be hard pressed to find a store front that is not owned by a billionaire or some publicly traded corporation.
But you’ll be hard pressed to find a store front that is not owned by a billionaire or some publicly traded corporation.
cough GoG cough
I’m agreeing with you, btw.
GoG
or some publicly traded corporation
CD Projekt is a publicly traded corporation.
Exactly. Even with their DRM-free practices and such and how people want to advertise so much for them here on Lemmy, they’re still a publicly traded multibillion dollar company.
I expected him to be cool, I guess
he just realized there’s profit to be made by not pissing people off
It’s weird that I’m nostalgic for the good old days when the ultra rich understood that
people should always keep that in mind when praising him
Why?? Good for him, stop being so envious. It’s thanks to Valve I started to buy games instead of pirate them anyway. Good prices and good practices.
A billionaire from a game industry is not the same as a billionaire from a real state company or a bank.
Nah, a billionaire is a billionaire. There’s still people being exploited to get that much money. I don’t completely disagree, though - at least Gaben didn’t make Valve completely evil and yeah, it’s better than fucking up the property market for generations of people.
Billionaires shouldn’t exist. The government should regulate all these stores and force a max of 5%. They are clearly colluding and aren’t competing in good faith.
This is having a negative impact on the industry, a lot of indie studios would have an easier time surviving if they weren’t bled dry by what essentially is a soft monopoly.
Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Steam are all guilty yet you would never defend any of the other ones. Steam spends a lot of money convincing everyone Gaben is just a really cool dude and not your average billionaire.
Steam spends a lot of money convincing everyone Gaben is just a really cool dude and not your average billionaire.
Or maybe he is a really cool dude…
Gaben owns 6 yatchs and spends between 70 million and 100 million a year maintaining them. He’s in the same club as Bezos and the rest.
Stop it with the fucking yatchs already, seriously. Just look at the differences between Vale and the other companys you mention. If you can’t see any, you are just a troll.
Then stop simping for Gaben as if him and valve are any different then the other platforms. Putting a limit like 5% would be a boon to the industry, there’s no negatives and Gaben would still get to own his yatchs.
Hoarding wealth is disgusting and It’s tiresome to see bootlicking on every steam thread just because valve has a good marketing team.
This is the equivalent of defending Mussolini because Hitler was worse. They all suck, Gaben sucks slightly less, and it’s a really slim slightly.
336 employees and 8500 million in revenue. There is simply no defending this. That profit is coming directly out of the industry and it’s he product we receive that ends up being gimped because of it. A lot of indie companies would still be around if it wasn’t for this clear cut collusion.
A lot of indie companies would still be around if it wasn’t for this clear cut collusion
Can you tell me how has Valve affected the indie industry? In a bad way of course. Most of my steam games are indie games that I assure you I have bought thanks to Steam’s shop visibility, review system, forums, easy refunds, cloud saves, and basically all the ease of use it gives. They don’t buy small teams and extinguish or terminate them, they don’t artificially inflate prices, they don’t install rootkits in your computer…
How is the indie games industry worse because of Valve?
The margins are thin in indie development, especially when they are usually offered at bargain prices. I’m going with the assumption that if these platforms had been regulated years ago, a good number of indie developers that shut their doors would have survived with the extra profit. It doesn’t seem like a wild assumption to make.
Steam doesn’t tell developers or publishers how much their games are worth. They only provide the tools for them to sell them, and they obliviously get a cut from it, but only if you sell, they don’t ask for money in advance, they don’t ask for any contract.
Valve is a store front, not a publisher. I’m thinking you are just confused about how they operate.
Valve is a store front in a soft monopoly with other similar products and colluding with them. We would have more and better quality games if the government did its job and regulated the store front industry.
Instead of regulating, you seem to imply these costs should be passed down to us instead and the indie industry should just bring up it’s prices, just so Gaben can keep his six yatchs. I think you are confused about your own self interests.
you seem to imply these costs should be passed down to us instead They already are.
I said this was costing us indie studios You said they chose what price they put up their game implying the best solution is us paying more instead of steam getting less I think this is a bad decision for us the consumers and the industry as a whole.
Reread the whole conversation and try to understand what I’m saying if you want me to continue conversing with you. You seem to be ignoring my points and we are going in circles.
It’s disgusting to see people defending the people that are exploiting them and preventing them from being more than average.
It sounds like they are parroting what that guy from Epic Games is saying. While that guy also is a millionaire.
Instead of circle jerking it with your buddy, why don’t you point out where I’m wrong.
To be clear these are my own opinions and I clearly think Epic Games should be regulated just like the other platforms.
I think all the platforms are predatory and taking advantage (except gog), it’s you guys that are giving steam a free pass when they are at best slightly better than the others but still shit. I guess bootlicking is easy if steams marketing team convinces you it’s in your best interest.
I haven’t seen any evidence backing up your claims. And I’m not here to convince you of anything. You’re the one making these bold claims. How about backing them up then?
Less than 400 employees with 8500 million in revenue while the indie industry struggles backs it up.
The fact that Gaben is a multi billionaire backs it up.
No one becomes a billionaire through hard work, it’s stolen wealth. Ask yourself if your arguments can be just as easily applied to bezos, it might give you some perspective on how insane it is to be defending Gaben and his ridiculously fat stack of cash.
“I haven’t seen any evidence”
Buddy, where do you think billionaires’ money comes from?
You think people have it against Gabe only? All multimillionaires billionaires exist at your expense buddy, none of them deserve to exist and their companies don’t deserve the profit that made them billionaires.
I was once in the room while a Valve rep told a bunch of indie developers to spend their own money localizing for the Chinese market or risk not getting store placement.
Valve is a big, big corpo and their MO is to make other people work for them. The software they do make is amazing, but please stop thinking they're a charity, they are extremely not.
Billionaires exist between you and me and people like us overpay for stuff, they accumulate wealth by making sure we don’t.
There are no good billionaires.
he just realized there’s profit to be made by not pissing people off
I’m okay with this. Same deal with Costco’s founders and CEOs. It’d be nice if billionaires didn’t exist, but they do, and most of them made their profits while pissing everyone off.
I’ll praise the ones that at least try to do some “good” for people. Even if their “good” is “Let’s make obscene amounts of money by charging affordable prices and being the ‘good guy’ in the industry”.
That’s the thing though, they’re still overcharging you and 70$+ isn’t affordable prices for a game, you’ve just been brainwashed into thinking that your money is worth less than it is because a big chunk of it goes to enrich a few people.
overcharging you and 70$+ isn’t affordable prices for a game
The last game I bought on Steam was less than $2 after tax.
Most games I buy on Steam are less than $20. The most expensive game I’ve ever bought on Steam was probably about $40. And I’ve done that maybe once.
And even at $70, games are cheaper now than they’ve ever been, adjusting for inflation. They’re also generally much more expensive to produce.
Just because they’re cheaper doesn’t mean you don’t get overcharged at the end of the day, what kind of mentality is that?
I provided numerous reasons why I don’t think I’ve been overcharged.
I really don’t understand what your point is. What do you mean by “overcharged”?
If companies make billions in profit and company owners can spend in a day more than you’ll make in a lifetime without batting an eye that’s because people like you, me and the vast majority of humans on this planet are paying more than things are truly worth.
We might not feel like we’re paying too much for stuff, but in reality if the person at the top has billions to their name, that money comes from somewhere, we’ve just been convinced by them that that’s the cost of things and that’s it.
The truth is the 2$ game that you bought would have been 1$ in a system where wealth is fairly distributed and distributors only get a share of the profit that makes sense. The 40$ game that you bought would have been 20$ and AAA games would cost 35$. The only reason they cost double their value is because a bunch of guys rake in millions or billions a year, they artificially increase the price everything needs to be sold for.
Your see the exact same thing happening at the grocery store, people doing the work can’t afford the food they’re selling while the big boss owns a house on every continent, take them out of the equation and suddenly everything can be sold for much cheaper.
So your definition of overcharged is that we’re being charged more than what we would in an alternate reality where billionaires don’t exist?
I don’t think imagination is a good basis of comparison. If one store is selling the game for $20 and another is selling it for $70 with nothing different between the two, then the one selling it for $70 is overcharging.
But if one real store is selling it for $70, and an imaginary store is selling it for $20, then I don’t think the real store is overcharging…lol
My definition of overcharged is that if someone is able to become a multimillionaire or billionaire from people purchasing their product then their product is sold for more than it’s worth, it’s not real world vs imaginary world, it’s rich people taking advantage of us in the real world and let me guarantee you one thing buddy, you’re not rich enough to be in a position where you should defend that system, you should be angry that you have less than you deserve in your pockets while Gabe and his friends are partying on a yacht.
Why did you go through my comment history? Lol
Because it’s always the same story with you guys, you’re angry at rich people but when people point out why they exist and that a guy you love is rich then it’s ok.
Lmao…“you guys”?
Great reason to go hunting through my comments to find something that you seem to have not quite understood, given its context.
Look, the imaginary world without billionaires that you’re talking about sounds great, but we live in the real world. In the real world, we aren’t going to change anything for the better by whining about rich people on the internet, nor would pirating change anything for the better.
But anyways, since you went through my comments, you might’ve seen my complaints about Steam, and the fact that I prefer to buy most of my games on GOG because they’re DRM-free. But considering that you’ve said a $2 game is overpriced, I don’t imagine that you’re looking for alternatives…lol
GOG is owned by a publicly traded company with a $16B market cap
As I said, you’re just a hypocrite because it just happens to be for a product you like so you become unable to think about it critically.
Lol…Where do you buy your games from, then? Or your groceries for that matter?
I’m not okay with this because it incentivizes companies and influencers to work together to lower people’s standards.
People are proud to accept garbage these days.
I ask genuinely – what alternative do we have?
I mean, in this case, yarrrr. but in other cases, i think, probably also yarrrr. but like, physically.
Steam won our over piracy, as did Netflix when it first came around. And even Uber – people stopped downloading cars for years when Uber was in its heyday!