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Gabe Newell says no-one in the industry thought Steam would work as a distribution platform—'I'm not talking about 1 or 2 people, I mean like 99%' (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 6 hours ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

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[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 hour ago

I remember Steam's launch and understand completely.

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 points 47 minutes ago

I hated Steam for a long time because of Half-life 2.

[-] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 minutes ago

I mean yeah.

I had to install some program and connect online to PLAY A SINGLE PLAYER GAME? I have the CD already and entered my CD key. Why does it need validation?

This is surely the death of PC gaming.

me in 2005

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 5 minutes ago

That's if Steam was even able to connect so you could enter the key.

[-] gitamar@feddit.org 4 points 52 minutes ago

I remember the uproar when CS 1.6 required steam. It was huge and everyone was angry. It took a lot of pull that CS didn't die because of steam, a lot of players stayed on 1.5 for a long time. But HL2 was too big of an argument to stay off steam.

[-] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 minutes ago* (last edited 4 minutes ago)

I was finally convinced when steam sales were incredibly favorable.

I could either go to Gamespot and buy a used game for $20 + tax and have to deal with some sweat giving me shit about my gaming choices. Or buy that same game digitally for $10.

Around 2011, I remember not buying consoles anymore and continuing to grow my PC collection.

Around 2017, my pirating dropped significantly. I think I had like 1000+ steam games from buying so many bundles.

By 2020, I didn't pirate a single PC game, the games I bought 10 years ago still work, and I bought a game from the Microsoft Store, only to rebuy it on Steam.

[-] SARGE@startrek.website 20 points 3 hours ago

I mean.... It was a gamble. Internet was still young. Speeds weren't keeping up with game sizes outside a few major cities. I was mailed a few large files because it was quicker than downloading them. Not to mention the desire for physical copies over a digital thing you can lose with a bad hard drive was at an all time high.

Then people realized the internet wasn't just nerd shit, ISPs slowly ramped up their DL speeds and suddenly the thing people mocked for not being feasible is doing well because of how convenient it became.

Gabe even admits he had doubts for awhile.

I wonder where gaming would be if he had listened to the doubters. There's no denying valve has had a major impact on modern gaming

[+] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org -16 points 3 hours ago

I still don't feel it's a valid game distribution platform. It's a DRM platform, that's all.

[-] zecg@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago

Nope, DRM is optional. You can install some games (Rayman Origins, for instance), copy the directory to a new computer with no Steam and run the exe. Steam also has Steam Input, but no one says it's just a gamepad driver.

[-] Annoyed_Crabby 8 points 1 hour ago

You might not have know, but Steam game can be without DRM, meaning there's no need for the client to be running for it to be able to run. I'm not sure how up to date this is, but here's a list for some of the game. The client are required only when the dev use the overlay or any steam function. You can even find a list of patchable game to make it drm free.

[-] rdri@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

It's only a little bit more DRM than GOG. It doesn't automatically adds a DRM layer to all games. There are tons of games that you can backup by simply copying their folders. Even if the DRM layer is added, it's very light, can be cracked easily and does not add any measurable overhead.

Steamworks is probably a major thing that makes the games rely on Steam client (and it's not technically a DRM). But that's up to developers to make the game work without client if they want, and the functionality often adds a lot of value. This makes the client a part of the product you get, and its value will degrade if you break the client. Some examples of such valuable functionality are overlay and steam input.

[-] aluminium@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago

Its not that steam is good, its just that everyone else so extremly dumb and incompetent. And GOG only has a very limited catalogue

this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024

101 points (95.5% liked)

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