A few days ago I wrote about the Junk Store coming to Steam, a special plugin for Steam Deck to bring GOG and Epic Games compatibility unofficially - but it seems to be a short lived idea.
It is already available as a free and open source plugin for the Decky Loader plugin system, but this was going to be completely standalone, and a paid product for the convenience of just having it right on Steam.
Even though Valve had clearly reviewed the Steam page, and so would have seen what it actually was to even allow the page to go live, it seems Valve may have backtracked on that. It's not clear though if this was done by Valve, or by the developer, the Steam page is just gone. Looking on SteamDB the note mentions "This app has been retired and is no longer available on the Steam store."
Pictured - Junk Store
Perhaps not really surprising. While Valve do allow a lot of weird stuff on their store, a launcher that has a primary purpose of launching other games from other stores might have been a bridge too far.
I've reached out to both Valve and the Junk Store developers to find out exactly what happened, and will update if I get any reply from either party.
Update - 16/10/2024 - 07:20 UTC: the Junk Store developers posted on Reddit that it was Valve who took it down. It was taken down not due to the Epic or GOG features, but specifically because it modifies Steam itself.
Here's what Valve support said to them:
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Unsurprising, given the same happened to itch.io steam (greenlight) page.
What is surprising is that they wanted to charge for that...
Last edited by pb on 15 October 2024 at 8:16 am UTC
What is surprising is that they wanted to charge for that...
Last edited by pb on 15 October 2024 at 8:16 am UTC
2 Likes, Who?
GOG/Epic wouldnt like being called "junk stores", nor the access to their stores being SOLD on Steam
15 Likes, Who?
the access to their stores being SOLD on Steam
My point exactly. If it wasn't taken down by Valve, it would have been taken down by someone else. It's was the only right move to nip it in the bud.
10 Likes, Who?
Valve's legal Team probably barged in the office of the Steam admins screaming "Stop this folly."the access to their stores being SOLD on Steam
My point exactly. If it wasn't taken down by Valve, it would have been taken down by someone else. It's was the only right move to nip it in the bud.
6 Likes, Who?
[...] nor the access to their stores being SOLD on SteamBut that is not what's happening. It is not that access to their stores is being sold on Steam, it is that easier access to their stores is being sold on Steam. And I don't think that should be a problem at all, because you can just as well access their stores any other way you see fit. They could even provide their own software to help with that, if they wanted to.
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TheRiddick Oct 15
Not really sure what the issue is since you can add non-steam games to Steam library and also run them with proton.
1 Likes, Who?
Not really sure what the issue is since you can add non-steam games to Steam library and also run them with proton.Convenience. Not having to do it manually through Heroic or so. Sure, it's only one or two extra steps, yet the less you need to do on your own, the easier.
8 Likes, Who?
I mean, its great for a side load app - but their essentially selling access to other platforms stores - that are free - how can anyone be surprised this would be cancelled? I am sure there are terms and conditions and licensing from publishers on those platforms on Epic and GOG that also need to be taken into account in addition to steam. Which now only sells licences. so you are basically buying a licence to install a third parties store. That's not the developers fault, I get they need to be paid for what they do, but its someone else's Intellectual Property they are basically selling through their app
Works great through Decky anyway!
Works great through Decky anyway!
0 Likes
Looks like they submitted it with AI-generated library assets. Not sure what Valve's current stance on AI is but that probably didn't help.
5 Likes, Who?
Looks like they submitted it with AI-generated library assets. Not sure what Valve's current stance on AI is but that probably didn't help.
The current stance is that the dev/pub needs to clearly state the use and scope of use of AI and then it's alright.
Announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3862463747997849619
Example: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2670630/Supermarket_Simulator/
"AI Generated Content Disclosure
The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:
We used AI to create the capsules for the game's store page."
Another one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2928520/Recycling_Center_Simulator/
"AI Generated Content Disclosure
The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:
AI is used for store page capsule art and in-game character portrait art creation..."
Last edited by pb on 15 October 2024 at 1:34 pm UTC
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ProfessorKaos64 Oct 15
Heroic works well for me. I try Junk Store every so often but they can't seem to fix the login process when you don't use a user/password. I use sign in with Google and the popup is lost. I'll have to try this using the prefix of it has one. Shrug
0 Likes
Not really sure what the issue is since you can add non-steam games to Steam library and also run them with proton.Convenience. Not having to do it manually through Heroic or so. Sure, it's only one or two extra steps, yet the less you need to do on your own, the easier.
Or just use PortProton, it does everything in one click including adding to steam.
Last edited by Cato-the-younger on 15 October 2024 at 9:58 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
[...] nor the access to their stores being SOLD on SteamBut that is not what's happening. It is not that access to their stores is being sold on Steam, it is that easier access to their stores is being sold on Steam. And I don't think that should be a problem at all, because you can just as well access their stores any other way you see fit.
That's not how the world works, easier access being sold is still access being sold.
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Mm, put that way I can see Valve's point. What if you had a stack of different ones interacting weirdly, making Steam look bad and massively complicating support?
3 Likes, Who?
Looks like there is a demand, a certain audience (probably mostly us Linux players wanting that one-fits-all solution) that's interested in an easy way to play all games (including from other stores). An idea would now be, that Valves implements modding support for the client. What are the modifications needed for Junk Store? Is it possible to provide these to them in an official way? We know there are officially "altered" steam clients (at least using something that's not obvious to the normal customer), like the one that nVidia's GeForce Now uses.
Last edited by Corben on 16 October 2024 at 9:20 am UTC
Last edited by Corben on 16 October 2024 at 9:20 am UTC
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Valve allows adding non Steam games to Steam. They should allow a tool to add/manage non Steam games. It is less of an issue for people using desktop Steam, but non Steam games/apps on the Steam Deck is clunky.
Fortunately the EU or someone will eventually force them to allow 3rd party game stores to have the same user experience on the Steam Deck. Right after Apple iOS opens up. 😀
Fortunately the EU or someone will eventually force them to allow 3rd party game stores to have the same user experience on the Steam Deck. Right after Apple iOS opens up. 😀
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That's not how the world works, easier access being sold is still access being sold.
It also doesn't work the way you seem to think it does. It's not access that's sold, it's a client. Do you think Google can sue Hey for "selling access" to GMail?
1 Likes, Who?
That's not how the world works, easier access being sold is still access being sold.
It also doesn't work the way you seem to think it does. It's not access that's sold, it's a client. Do you think Google can sue Hey for "selling access" to GMail?
I never cared for these stores, but from what I picked up, a normal user(*) does not have access to Epic store on Steam Deck, and would get access by buying this thingy.
(*) A normal user never goes into a thing called "desktop mode" on a handheld console. And yes, I do think that's the "normal" (usual) behaviour.
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