Every single Amazon product is a half-arsed mess off things that barely function. They're basically just a delivery company that charges a percentage of the package value now.

>> Why should we do a thing that's completely unrelated to the question being asked? Incorrect. What Epic means by "for developers," is... developers keep more of the money. Walk me through how *that, specifically,* is bad for you. I am not interested in general attacks against Epic. I make no general defense of Epic. Fortnite's business model should be illegal. But what you're doing is bad argumentation. You're reaching for ways to say 'Epic bad' as if that's gotta be relevant. As if attacking Epic in general constitutes a defense of one specific thing Valve does. As if promoting Valve in general means this one specific thing can't be wrong. As for indie support - Valve doesn't need to push big games on their store, because *they have a monopoly.* There is no sense telling people 'if you're gonna buy it on PC, buy it on Steam!,' because of course you will. Indie games 'don't make Epic money' because Alan fucking Wake barely makes them money. Their market share is garbage. Steam has the freedom and the incentive to push more game sales, of any kind, and there's a lot more little games than big ones. None of what Valve is doing would suddenly disappear if they took *only* one-quarter of gross revenue. Or a fifth. Or less. They're shaving straight off the top for nearly the entire PC gaming market. Their war-chest is ridiculous. They have such a "petro curse" that they briefly forgot to make games. Yet they treat the studios that make them *all of their money* the same way Nintendo and Sony squeeze console developers. Would criticizing *this specific cut* be easier, if we talked about Apple's iron grip on the App Store? Because it's the same damn policy. Feel free to talk shit about when Apple does it, if you insist on judging whole entities instead of what they do.

>Would criticizing this specific cut be easier, if we talked about Apple’s iron grip on the App Store? Because it’s the same damn policy. Except that it isn't? Apple doesn't let you circumvent their store, while Steam not only allows games to have their own monetization system, it allows off-site sales of the game on Steam. That is significantly more permissive, by a degree of magnitude that makes me wonder about your sincerity.

Two comments ago: >> Their cut is so huge that they can afford to let devs sell keys elsewhere, knowing it makes no difference to their immense profit margin. >> >> Largely because their monopoly is self-reinforcing, and the number of off-site sales is a rounding error. Let's try this again. How is a 30% gross cut worse for consumers than 15%? Because *that* policy, *that specific policy,* is shared by Nintendo, Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft... and Valve.

And yet again, not one of those other vendors are anywhere near as permissive for developers or as good to consumers as Valve is. You lumping them in with the others is deeply unfair. If devs want to get a better cut, Itch.io and GOG are there and they don't steal people's information and fuck consumers the way EGS does. I will not support storefronts owned by psychopaths: I avoid Amazon almost completely, I do not buy from Apple or Google stores, and I'm not going to buy anything from EGS either. Put your game on Itch or GOG. Simple as.

You realize that the cut they're taking ends up being used to pay for a yacht collection, right? They don't need board members and shareholders to enrich the few at the expense of the many and to take anti diversity decisions...

> You realize that the cut they’re taking ends up being used to pay for a yacht collection, right? God forbid a man spend his money however he wants. Get that commie bullshit out of here. Money changes hands consensually and Gaben/Valve have more than earned mine. Treating your customers like they are your priority in running a service will do that. > There’s nothing great about Valve at this point Except their massive contributions to the Open Source/Linux ecosystems with Vulkan and Proton, SteamVR being the only properly supported agnostic VR library, and them basically being the one thing between us and Microsoft becoming a walled garden when it comes to gaming, and more recently the Steam Deck? If you *gotta* be a hater, at least be correct.

Wow, continue defending billionaires like that, I'm sure their wealth will trickle all the way down to you any day now.

Implying I care LMAO I'm more than economically comfortable, by no means a billionaire but I'm not hurting like, at all. I own my own home, I am set to inherit like 2 more houses, I make good money at a stable job, I have time for my hobbies and a family I love. I want for nothing that I can't have, with some patience. Gaben having a Yacht collection makes no difference to me, Steam existing and Valve doing what they do *does,* so I am happy to see them thrive. Not everyone is an envious crab in a bucket who feels the constant need to compare themselves to others and ensure nobody is more well off than they are. What a sad life you must lead that you get this angry over something that doesn't affect you in the least, or did Gabe outbid you on your dream yacht?

Me me me me me My dude, the world isn't only about you. You're much closer to ending up on the street than you are from any billionaire that exists.