[Financial Times] Valve conquered PC gaming. What comes next? // Deepdive

They have the software platform, but to suggest they could go toe to toe globally with Sony and Nintendo in terms of hardware is ludicrous.

Every time Valve jumps into hardware, it is like a side project that could fail miserably and the company wouldn't miss a beat. That's the benefit of not having to answer to stockholders.
 

Imagine if someone told you in 2002 that in a few years people would start paying for all their PC games.

Man Slapping Couch Laughing GIF
 
I'm not a big PC gamer, but Steam is awesome. I just do Steam and GOG. I dont bother with CD keys or any of those resellers even though I know they can be cheaper. But the kinds of games I like buying (often indie card and board games or weird strategy games, those reseller sites might not even have any special keys that are cheaper. Its' the same price as Steam).

I bounce back and forth between Steam/GOG and pick the one with the lowest price.

And amazingly Steam is still sometimes cheaper. Being so dominant you'd think they edge up the prices, but Gabe keeps prices low.
This is interesting. I thought Steam let devs/publishers set their own prices. Does Valve actually have guidelines for devs/publishers when it comes to pricing?
 
This is interesting. I thought Steam let devs/publishers set their own prices. Does Valve actually have guidelines for devs/publishers when it comes to pricing?
They do let devs/publishers set their prices, only pricing guideline i know of is that steam keys and steam store prices must be the same, same discounts too.
 
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What are the benefits to SteamOS over Windows?

With Windows, I can do a lot more than play games. I can run office applications, do some Python coding, browse the net, pull up Porn hub, play music on Spotify, etc. Can SteamOS do the above?

Serious question as well.
Honestly, no idea - as a console guy looking to possibly move to PC gaming I want something as "console like" on PC for my TV as possible, Steam OS looks like it could do that (and others like Bazzite etc)

Id only be using it for gaming so none of those other bits worry me - I also just dont get how to write and use Python no matter how much I try sadly.
 
What are the benefits to SteamOS over Windows?

With Windows, I can do a lot more than play games. I can run office applications, do some Python coding, browse the net, pull up Porn hub, play music on Spotify, etc. Can SteamOS do the above?

Serious question as well.
SteamOS 3.0 is based on arch linux. Whatever arch linux can do can be done with it.
 
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What are the benefits to SteamOS over Windows?

With Windows, I can do a lot more than play games. I can run office applications, do some Python coding, browse the net, pull up Porn hub, play music on Spotify, etc. Can SteamOS do the above?

Serious question as well.

Yes to all
 
Yeah, either LibreOffice or Office 365 in the browser are the best options, imo. I haven't tried Office via wine.
Yep, there are several Office suites on Linux, and you can always use Google's suite or MS online.

People always confuse "Office Suite" with MS Office specifically.

For vast majority of folks anything decent will suffice unless it's for work where certain formatting is expected.

You could also run a VM if you absolutely need actual Windows.

Edit: And of course you can run Python based code on Linux, lol. Hell, it didn't use to run on Windows at one point at all. You can even use VS Code if you are used to that.
 
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This is interesting. I thought Steam let devs/publishers set their own prices. Does Valve actually have guidelines for devs/publishers when it comes to pricing?
They have guidelines, but also implemented some restrictions around sales. Things like you can't put something on sale within xy number of days that's a lower price from what you just offered. That's to prevent mass refunding and rebuys if a game drops another 5% two weeks after another sales just ended.

They also rolled out clauses for trying to get games on Steam offered for the price of bundles. IE a games in a bundle for $18 on Humble Bundle, it should be available on Steam at some point soon for $18 or less.

Valve lets devs create keys for free and those keys activate on steam to download the game and get benefits like cloud saves etc. Those keys go out to Humble, and 3rd party sites like Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, etc. The guidelines say to match prices on Steam with these other sites. Valve is loosing money on these 3rd party sales as they are supporting the games, at least make it fair so Steam is the same price rather than a dev selling key directly for 15% off to try getting around Valve's cut from sales through Steam.
 
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