https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Newell
https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newells-son-thinks-valve-needs-to-try-something-scary/

It's more probably Doug Lombardi or Scott Lynch (COO?) that would take the reigns. Or it would probably turn into a co-op to be honest.

multiplayer company ownership

funny but for reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative

I think that would be best, like bobs red mill.

If it actually got bad - would physical media come back full-force? Or would GOG be the go too?

Just for the young’ns here, the image in the post is from a late 90s cartoon called Recess. Show is about a bunch of elementary schoolers and the one thing they look forward to at school: recess. They basically have roving kid gangs on the playground. Preschoolers are depicted as godless heathen barbarians not to be messed with. It’s a fantastic cartoon.

Probably GoG, itch.io, or just direct sales. A lot of companies aren’t set up for physical distribution, aren’t big enough to get their product into the retail channels, and/or would have a hard time selling internationally. Steam didn’t invent digital game sales, they just made it a little easier. I think the first game I bought online was around 2000 or 2001. It was DX-Ball 2 from Longbow Digital Arts (RIP Seumas McNally), along with a screensaver I loved that they’ve open sourced and I wish I could get it running on macOS and Linux. I was still in high school and didn’t have a credit card, so I paid using a postal money order. If developers were selling directly in the ’90s they can make it work again.

let's hope they won't turn it into an extraction shooter.

GOG is always the go-to. Steam only if you can't wait to play it or its multi-player.

FYI it's "reins", not "reigns".

Oh yeah let me just pull entire factory tooling and logistical supply chains out of my hat.

Rain it in there buddy

Gog feels like it's one step form becoming a enshittified corporate hellscape half the time. And only by virtue of not having a dominant market position keeping it in check enough to not let it self go to shit.

Loved that show back in the day. Your link might be borked, tho

Forgive my ignorance, and I might come off as snobby.

I see itch.io referenced often as an alternate game store but all I see on there are games that are super amateurish like a few notches above 2000s flash games. Am I not looking hard enough or are people happy playing those kinds of games?

My guy.

They already profit on loot boxes

Child gambling

unfinished products

AI slop

Extortionate DLC programs

Pre orders

Season passes

How else has GabeN been funding his son's racing career. Those Aston Martins aren't cheap.

Everyone can upload their game to itch, so there are a lot of bad games, and some very good ones.

I've always pondered what should be the contingencies if, eventually, Steam enshittifies because Gabe is gone. I would need a huge storage data to locally store the installation files.

The point is that it could be worse, considerably worse. Yes, I know, the standards are low nowadays.
I try to stay with GOG where possible but with Linux, you sometimes have better compatibility with Steam versions and you have the steam DB reducing the risks even further, even if that is not from Valve itself.

Would there be a lot of roadblocks to installing them without the steam client?

Support good competitors like GoG

AI slop

I'd like to be clear what you're referring to, because I only know two things Valve is allowing in that regard

1. Games using GenAI are allowed on steam, but disclosure is required, which is a position I appreciate.
2. Steam hosts promotion events organized by third parties, where banners are displayed, a special page is available, and a lot of games go on sale - in those events (and AFAIK, none of Valve's own events) promotional art is displayed that is submitted by those third parties, and sometimes has blatant GenAI use

Is there something else I'm unaware of? Because otherwise I guess it's a matter of where you draw the line, because I'd still consider Steam the best platform available, and have to agree to disagree.

Employee owned (like John Lewis and Richer Sounds) or customer owned (like the supermarket)

Too many customers to be customer owned

Not with a Steam customer lottery democracy. Randomly selecting like 10,000 Steam users transparently (that can be figured out later) and then have them work together to help run the company better than Gabe ever could. Also they would be swapped out yearly.

I seriously doubt his son would not care about gaming. I'd have to hope Gabe has raised his kids to be as non-greedy as he is. He is one of the most ethical billionaires - probably the most ethical billionaire - that I know of 🤣

Edit: also if you're that rich in one industry you should be investing into others or setting up new businesses - no?

Then its back to black jack and hookers, atleast those will be cheaper

There's no such thing as an ethical billionaire. Just because you like his monopoly does not mean he's a good dude.

Yeah... that explanation was helpful to me because I'm... young...

...

So valve have spent their entire time carefully selecting co workers, empowering them to do whatever they want, and your idea is to give it to a random bunch of strangers?

Yes! It worked in Ancient Athens!

Whoops!! I thought I pasted an IMDB link.

Never forget that Valve is single handedly responsible for Lootboxes being a thing having introduced them into TF2 and then CS:GO

I'm Juuuust old enough to remember this cartoon, but was too young to really watch it

I am also super young, fellow kids. 6-7 or whatever, right?

Very wrong.

Love,

TJ Detweiler

I can't prove this post is AI, but if you told me it was I'd believe you.

*dabs mournfully*

SO POOING

paging Chris Hansen

I thought that reply format looked familiar. I swear I've seen a bunch of different accounts describe a meme plainly like this and fuck it all up.

I put my heart and soul into that comment for like 20 mins, and now I am called a bot!?

Accept the impermanence of all things and repurchase your entire steam library like a bitch-ass consumer. Or find a cheaper hobby, like yacht racing

what

As long as it stays private, it really doesn't matter. Enshitification comes from public stockholdership, venture capital or private equity trying to get insane returns on overpriced assets.

They make 30% of the gross sales on their platform... nobody prints money like Valve does.

For reference, stores refuse Amex because they take 1%-2% more than Visa/Mastercard on gross sales. Steam takes 30% and nobody gives a shit. lol

You slut.

So his eldest son is a pro race car driver.

What is paging?