this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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[–] kn33@lemmy.world 44 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Idk. I don't want Valve to fail. I think that'd overall make things worse for gamers. I just want them to stop operating a casino.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

If Valve fails, we'll have so many great alternatives, though!

  • Epic Games Store, with it's... uh... better fee structure that benefits the publishers.
  • EA's Origin, with direct access to the exact same Origin website but instead presented through an Electron app.
  • Ubisoft Connect, with the latest access to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games and related reskins sold under different IP.
  • Battle.net, with the feature to run partially-downloaded games and stream missing assets in on demand.
  • GOG, with real installers for its games that you can hoard to a hard drive sitting in your closet. (No sarcism. This one isn't terrible)
  • The Microsoft Store, with its incredible ability to revoke your license for the Notepad.exe program that comes installed with Windows.

Who needs a forum, mod portal, user reviews, or Linux support anyways?

[–] MrQuallzin@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

Battle.net, with the feature to run partially- downloaded games and stream missing assets in on demand.

This just brought back a wonderful memory of playing original Overwatch and my hard drive failing in the middle of a match. Out of nowhere character models were being replaced with floating blue orbs and sounds were missing, but I could still finish the match with what was loaded into RAM!

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not sure where I stand there. Steam is a great platform, but for purely capitalistic reasons. The only reason they aren't as bad as other platforms is because they're privately-owned and take the long view because they don't have to worry about the day-to-day fluctuations on stock value.

Gabe isn't your friend. He's a billionaire yacht-collector who makes the vast majority of his money by taking a massive cut from other company's products because of their virtual monopoly that exists because they launched an online marketplace in 2004.

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Grocery stores in my experience take on average 30-50% of the cut of anything they sell.
From working at one and managing orders/invoices.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 points 3 hours ago

It varies depending on the product, the profit margin on soda for example is often over 100%, other products such as milk would be negative (loss leaders), but in general, most non-junk food groceries usually have a single digit profit margin

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 11 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Let’s be a bit fair, your local store selling a physical copy is also taking a cut of the other companies profits. The 30% valve charges would be just the same as GameStop/other store would be marking up the game from wholesale prices. (I still would rather have physical copies, but valve charging a percentage on each sale has always been a bs argument against them)

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The store isn’t also making games.

Like how Apple gets to take 30% of Spotify subscriptions and they operate a competing music service. That’s where it becomes wrong.

Of course, Valve doesn’t make games either now, so maybe it’s a moot point.

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Of course, Valve doesn’t make games either now, so maybe it’s a moot point.

Deadlock would like a word

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world -2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

30% makes sense for a physical store with high overhead, inventory, staffing, and other expenses.

Valve could take a 5% cut and still make a ton more than a retail store for the same product.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Open steam settings > Downloads, click the dropdown at the top. That whole dropdown menu? That's what their cut pays for. Rack space, network capacity, and storage, to deliver ALL games on steam efficiently, across the planet. That ain't cheap. And that's only part of what it pays for.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You know what it costs to run a retail store? And even in 2025 GameStop had 10 times as many retail store locations as Valve had employees.

And it's not like retail has no tech infrastructure expenses.

[–] CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I mean, sure. But I think you might be underestimating the infrastructure costs. They aren't just using a few 10GB switches. They also aren't just using a single data center to store and deliver games. Then, you have to consider all of the redundancies involved, the contractors, the data center contracts, etc. Even if they don't have their own DCs, AWS or Azure at this level is $$$$$$.

Storing, transferring, and hosting at this scale is not cheap by any means. It makes GameStop's tech infrastructure look like peanuts in comparison.

[–] Mwa@thelemmy.club 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Agreed, Steam is the only website I can buy video games from(GOG, i dont like their usage of GenAI and the current people behind it,and they dont have giftcards ),Epic games, subpar features and the company behind it),i appreciate Valve's contributions to Linux,and i like their philosophy of no cutscenes and extensive playtesting.
Though I cannot defend them for: Loot boxes,Tf2 neglect.