FSR4 is available for GPUs that can’t do DLSS. GPUs that can do DLSS transformer model are very expensive. Console gamers will appreciate that next gen won’t look like poop.

If you play games with FSR3 (which is commonly used on consoles) then you know what’s being shown on those screens even when resized into a post stamp. FSR3 dithers and smudges this kind of detail terribly and it’s much worse when seen in motion. There are some examples that capture it better even in a still frame due to consistent nature of motion:

(Yes, this really affects the shape of a waterfall lol)

Hell yeah, dude!

What did you put in? I wrote an essay on how inevitable praise of Dark Souls also applies to Metroid but then deleted it as too pretentious even for BAFTA.

Price was reduced but the value remained the same. Sorry about being pedantic but it’s a pet peeve of mine.

I was under the impression that it was priced competitively for what it was but held down by being locked to PS5 (which is no longer true but the experience on PC is bad).

Yeah, as a resident Valve hater I agree it’s a weird thing to get angry over.

If there was anything to get angry over is that I bought this game in a box (stand alone because I was too broke for Orange Box!) with an understanding that it’s an online multiplayer shooter. Meaning, there are servers you join manually from a list, shoot at other guys for a bit and return to that server or not based on how good time it was. This functionality has been ripped out of the game and replaced with some weird algorithm. Before that Valve broke their own design promises of clear silhouettes which made the game less accessible. The game has been dead, riddled with bots farming in-game items that can be traded for real money that Valve added to the game because they could. If it was any other game I wouldn’t care but TF2 started out as an amazing game that was mangled beyond recognition by Valve greed.

They should have released TF2 source code this way 10 years ago. They’re probably doing this now because income from TF2 related items on Marketplace is laughably small compared to their other titles.

Valve building their own Android for games is not beneficial to Linux. I don’t know how many times do you guys need to be surprised.

If publishers felt they were being ripped off, they could go elsewhere

They must be perfectly happy with those 30% then! It’s not that gamers sit out any non-Steam exclusive.

I’m not going to argue any further because it’s pointless. I wanted you to learn on somebody else’s mistakes but you’re very set on repeating them yourself before that.

Valve sets their cut at 30%. Would it be this high if Valve had competition? Would games cost the same if the cut was 10%? Why is it so high in the first place? What’s being offered in return?

Alan Wake 2 is a great example because it’s a game with both critical and popular acclaim that will be remembered years from now. Despite this, people decided to ignore it - they couldn’t be bothered with alternatives. Most of you claim those games on EGS so you don’t even have to make an account. This means that the platform now has such a high impact on what you consume that you’re going to skip on one of the best games of the year even though all that stops you is that it’s not in Steam. That’s a terrifying amount of power that people aren’t bothered by even though we’re talking about company that’s smug about selling gambling to children.

I sell games, sir, because I’m not made out of money. I buy digital too but it’s impossible with most AAA titles these days.

Anyway, I’d say it was your money to spend how you like, but Steam monopoly means games are more expensive than they need to be and you’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

Valve has an arguably better platform but is more expensive and doesn’t have some exclusives. That would be a great opportunity for a competitor yet nobody broke through despite pouring billions in. Weird, huh?

Valve didn’t figure out how to port Steam to ARM and dragged their feet on x86-64 so I’m not sure where that money goes, probably gambling research.

And Valve gets a cut in all of those scenarios. It’s a convenient monopoly as long as you don’t look into how much Valve benefits from this.

How popular is this other stuff compared to Steam? Existence of alternative doesn’t mean there’s no monopoly.

Private company is not a subject to many regulations and duties that a public company has to adhere to, mostly on external reporting. How much do you know about Valve? What’s their profit for 2023?

Yes, it’s even less transparent and accountable.

No, people don’t buy games outside of Steam, I was just speaking about the numbers - that’s why Alan Wake 2 didn’t break even for a year. It’s just a monopoly that you like because it’s still convenient and don’t mind downsides. Most digital storefronts work like this. At least console players still have an option that allows them to trade/resell their games, which PC players lost ages ago, thanks to Valve.

EGS just published their sales numbers and it’s a fart compared to Steam which has the defacto PC gaming monopoly. It’d be fine if it was some open platform but it’s just another unaccountable company that prints money for being first to monopolise the market, no different from Microsoft.

Isn’t it effectively the same on PC but just voluntary? Nobody buys stuff outside Steam so they can do whatever they want. Long gone are deep discounts and you have to hunt for good deals on key shops.

I want to learn about it either through an independent journalist or from a space dedicated to self promotion. Small developers are not saints and ads are poison, haven’t we all learnt?

You’re mostly here to self promote from what I can tell. It shows in your post history and the fact that you though it’d be more important to link to Steam and not the article itself.

Infrastructure monopolies are the nastiest. This one is so insidious too.

Thanks, I updated the title but will leave the post up so that people who saw the original have a chance to see it.