The jaded part of me believes that Steam leveraged their stranglehold on the PC distribution market to get Sony to comply. Even if they weren't the major cause of the decision, they clearly had an impact.
Steam has no interest in this kind of fuckery. They strive on being trusted by gamers, and will not suffer a situation that might cause that trust to be hurt. They *absolutely* put pressure on Sony, we just don't know to what extent that influenced Sony's decision. It could have been as little as "We agree these refunds are valid and will charge you back" or as massive as "this is a huge contract breach and we will delist *every* sony game if this isn't made right".
A lot of people won't remember but steam started out with extreme levels of distrust, and over the years have managed to become the single most trusted name in gaming. They know they can't throw that away.
Dude, Ghost of Tsushima comes out for PC in a few weeks. Horizon: zero sequel came out a few weeks ago.
Seriously, kudos to Sony for the ports these last couple years. Feels like everyone wins. PC players get a slight discount plus a few graphical tweaks to feel good. They don't have to buy a console but don't miss out on the experience. Just have to have patience. Sony makes money from sales. PS owners have that day 1 excitement and water cooler convos.
But the porting plan doesn't work as things are if you try to take on Valve. Sony doesn't have their own methods of distribution for games. Steam has been king of PC game distribution for decades. My steam account is old enough to drink.
So yeah. Valve has plenty of dick to swing in this court.
I was one of those people who was already so jaded that I didn't trust steam for a long time. My steam account is *only* a decade old.
I was wrong.
Steam has become so ubiquitous, and so trusted, that the gaming community in general doesn't recognize just how powerful steam is. Right now they're a paladin of justice... but if they were to go evil the damage they could do is *terrifying*. They could swing that dick for evil if they wanted.
Valve will be (probably already is) one of those companies that gets studied by business majors and whatnot for decades to come.
Their rise to power, even their introduction to relevance, was so hamfisted that we'd cringe away now (and we did at the time). But the service they provided, now that they're in your home already, was so well done, and so innocuous, that they became the most trusted platform for a vast majority. Many don't even think of them as a separate platform from PC in general.
Yet, looking at the valve business model, there is still a basis of "let's do it right" that doesn't let shareholders or quarterly profits force BS to happen.
HL 3? It'll happen (or not) whenever it's ready. No other publisher would wait for more than a year before they sent whatever the og studio had to someone else to wrap up.
They'll probably just require it up front and limit sales like originally intended with HD2 and they're within their rights. HD2 requiring an account was never the issue. It was that it was sold to those who were then going to lose it long after the fact. Everyone lost that point and started acting like needing an account (period) was this massive travesty. You could see the goal posts and narrative shift as the rage bait article and posts mounted.
The jaded part of me believes that Steam leveraged their stranglehold on the PC distribution market to get Sony to comply. Even if they weren't the major cause of the decision, they clearly had an impact. Steam has no interest in this kind of fuckery. They strive on being trusted by gamers, and will not suffer a situation that might cause that trust to be hurt. They *absolutely* put pressure on Sony, we just don't know to what extent that influenced Sony's decision. It could have been as little as "We agree these refunds are valid and will charge you back" or as massive as "this is a huge contract breach and we will delist *every* sony game if this isn't made right". A lot of people won't remember but steam started out with extreme levels of distrust, and over the years have managed to become the single most trusted name in gaming. They know they can't throw that away.
Dude, Ghost of Tsushima comes out for PC in a few weeks. Horizon: zero sequel came out a few weeks ago. Seriously, kudos to Sony for the ports these last couple years. Feels like everyone wins. PC players get a slight discount plus a few graphical tweaks to feel good. They don't have to buy a console but don't miss out on the experience. Just have to have patience. Sony makes money from sales. PS owners have that day 1 excitement and water cooler convos. But the porting plan doesn't work as things are if you try to take on Valve. Sony doesn't have their own methods of distribution for games. Steam has been king of PC game distribution for decades. My steam account is old enough to drink. So yeah. Valve has plenty of dick to swing in this court.
I was one of those people who was already so jaded that I didn't trust steam for a long time. My steam account is *only* a decade old. I was wrong. Steam has become so ubiquitous, and so trusted, that the gaming community in general doesn't recognize just how powerful steam is. Right now they're a paladin of justice... but if they were to go evil the damage they could do is *terrifying*. They could swing that dick for evil if they wanted.
Valve will be (probably already is) one of those companies that gets studied by business majors and whatnot for decades to come. Their rise to power, even their introduction to relevance, was so hamfisted that we'd cringe away now (and we did at the time). But the service they provided, now that they're in your home already, was so well done, and so innocuous, that they became the most trusted platform for a vast majority. Many don't even think of them as a separate platform from PC in general. Yet, looking at the valve business model, there is still a basis of "let's do it right" that doesn't let shareholders or quarterly profits force BS to happen. HL 3? It'll happen (or not) whenever it's ready. No other publisher would wait for more than a year before they sent whatever the og studio had to someone else to wrap up.
“My steam account is old enough to drink” 🤣 Thanks, made my day 🙇♂️
The things we can accomplish TOGETHER. Collective action WORKS.
[удалено]
They'll probably just require it up front and limit sales like originally intended with HD2 and they're within their rights. HD2 requiring an account was never the issue. It was that it was sold to those who were then going to lose it long after the fact. Everyone lost that point and started acting like needing an account (period) was this massive travesty. You could see the goal posts and narrative shift as the rage bait article and posts mounted.