Fuck the stupid morons who defend Apple.
Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from installing the software they want on their computer.
Imagine if Microsoft required all software developers to give them 30% of their earning or Microsoft will ban them from Windows
Hating on Apple for their 30% cut is popular.
Hating on Google for their 30% cut is popular.
Hating on Microfot, Sony, and Nintendo for their cuts is popular.
But somehow hating on Steam for their 30% cut is going too far.
Steam gets a pass because they actually offer buyer protection, refunds if it doesn’t work, refunds under certain requirements which can be waved under certain circumstances, removal of day one season passes, refunds for dlc that gets delayed too long for example.
If an actual competitor gave a shit about things that matter to actual players than they have a shot. Epic Game Store is a joke because no one wants a store that only focuses on what corporations want. GOG is good but just doesn’t market itself well, seriously outside of launching CDPR games I don’t see it at all.
Getting companies to offer their games on platforms that offer a higher margin is easy. Getting players over to a platform that offers less protections and features is not going to happen.
I was denied a refund for a broken game on Steam Deck just last winter. I had never played or even installed it, but I had purchased it and let it sit in my backlog too long before trying.
By comparison, I can’t recall a single time I’ve been denied a refund request from the iPhone App Store. They’ve also never sold me software that couldn’t run on the hardware they also sold me.
I understand how it’s my fault according to steam’s ToS, but it still doesn’t seem right to me.
When you ask for a refund under Steam’s 2h/14d policy, it’s Steam offering the refund. Past that, the request is passed on the developer
At least that’s how I’ve heard it described, idk for sure
Yeah I wasn’t entirely familiar and it’s not anything I got upset over (again, my fault). It’s just weird because they know I never installed or played it until I asked for the refund, and by nature of software, 14 days doesn’t mean I could have broken or destroyed it or something.
The game was the Grandia HD Remasters. It didn’t even occur to me to scrutinize compatibility on Deck when I bought it because it’s just a 2D JRPG from the PS1 era that supposed had been modernized.
You get value from Steam for paying that.
What value do you get from Apple for paying the Apple tax? A higher price for a phone that could cost 500€ less?
What exactly is the value that steam provides with its 30% cut that Apple doesn’t provide? Not defending Apple by the way.
Openness of the hardware is a valid point but that isn’t exactly a feature of steam (nor a distinction between the other platforms in OPs comment)
Apple forces me to stay there.
Valve offers me to stay there. The whole market and review system is incredibly important as I can see if it’s even worth it to buy. Where else can you see reviews besides comparing numerous comments under video reviews?
If you delete your steam account or decide you no longer want to ise their login/launcher or Valve decides to ban you, what happens to all your past purchases?
You’re locked in. You just have Stockholm Syndrome for the company that started the online requirement bullshit everything has today by locking Half-Life 2 behind a mandatory online service, then letting other devs force the same bullshit instead of just loading up a disc and playing the game.
I can certainly close my account and install games from other store fronts on my PC.
Valve is neither forcing me on my SteamDeck nor on my PC to use Steam.
I use emulators on my deck and also installed EA Origin and successfully launched titles on it.
And Apple was only recently forced to allow devs outlinks to their respective shopping pages (currently only in the US). Just the priviledge to link users to the subscription page to circumvent apple trying to get a cut.
That is actually lock in.
On Android I can do what I want. And if I so desire I could install an alternative OS on it.
Try that with an iPhone.