Valve spends exactly $2.99 on improving Steam. They can't go higher than that because it'd be a sign that HL3 was confirmed.

Given that after all these years I still think it's a mediocre client at best I would say that I hope that they're not spending money on it because if they are they sure aren't getting results.

Given that after all these years I still think it's a mediocre client at best I would say that I hope that they're not spending money on it because if they are they sure aren't getting results.

It's a mediocre client, but the bar is incredibly low. Of all the game clients, I hate Steam the least.

Edit: Unless we're including the likes of Lutris and Heroic. Those clients are good.

Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 21 September 2024 at 2:23 pm UTC

Guys, really? Steam is far from mediocre. The new Big Picture mode is excellent and is a huge improvement over the old one. The classic interface is also gradually being updated to be more consistent with Big Picture. Not to mention Proton integration, standardized Linux runtime, cloud saves, community features, and the entire Steam OS on Steam Deck.

All of that is a lot of work, and they did that all while still being true to PC gaming, not locking down Steam Deck, not shoving draconian DRM down our throats.

That's what Wolfire Games alleged in its antitrust lawsuit against Valve.

Of course they did, in their "Valve is a big bad meanie that needs to be punished and give us money" wild claims. Nothing they say there should be assumed true, or even relevant.

Bad redaction let us know that about a quarter of Valve's employees are tasked with "Steam," but they don't have many employees in total.

Guys, really? Steam is far from mediocre. The new Big Picture mode is excellent and is a huge improvement over the old one. The classic interface is also gradually being updated to be more consistent with Big Picture. Not to mention Proton integration, standardized Linux runtime, cloud saves, community features, and the entire Steam OS on Steam Deck.

All of that is a lot of work, and they did that all while still being true to PC gaming, not locking down Steam Deck, not shoving draconian DRM down our throats.

Yeah, except for the parts where basic shit is still broken ever since the new client released. Like not being able to disable Steam Play in Linux, or if you enable it for all titles and then turn that off, your library acts like all titles is still enabled. Both of these issues have forever been well documented on GitHub, and Valve still sits there with their thumbs up their asses and haven't fixed it. Steam Play is a key feature of the Linux Steam client too.

Users shouldn't be forced to use Steam Play and the settings should work as they're supposed to. I dual-boot and have little use for Proton outside of certain things. I just wanna be able to organize my Steam library by native Linux games, and still can't do something simple as that cause shit is still broken. It's caused me to view Valve far more critically now.

Seriously, it might as well say "Welcome to Valve Software" on the sign, I swear:

Last edited by Linux_Rocks on 21 September 2024 at 6:34 pm UTC

Like not being able to disable Steam Play in Linux, or if you enable it for all titles and then turn that off, your library acts like all titles is still enabled.

This is an inconvenience, far from a critical bug, and hardly warrants the insult.

Like not being able to disable Steam Play in Linux, or if you enable it for all titles and then turn that off, your library acts like all titles is still enabled.

This is an inconvenience, far from a critical bug, and hardly warrants the insult.

Oh please, pardon me while I don't weep for them. I already don't have any sympathy for some engineers and white collars as it is, and absolutely none for evil corporations either. I've also spent thousands on the Steam store. So I'll insult them all I want.

Last edited by Linux_Rocks on 21 September 2024 at 8:48 pm UTC

The new Big Picture mode is excellent and is a huge improvement over the old one.

It runs below 10 frames per second for me, so I couldn't tell you.

Not to mention Proton integration, standardized Linux runtime, cloud saves, community features, and the entire Steam OS on Steam Deck.

Proton is good but it would be very nice to have more granular control over it like Lutris. Needing to enter environment variables into the command line options is annoying. Especially important for games outside of Steam, which is most of the games I play through Wine/Proton.

I don't use community features because I don't like people.

I couldn't tell you about the Steam Deck because I'm Australian

The Steam client also isn't Wayland native yet, and will likely be one of the last notable applications to switch. Can't say the same for Lutris, Heroic, or Bottles.

All of that is a lot of work, and they did that all while still being true to PC gaming, not locking down Steam Deck, not shoving draconian DRM down our throats.

As I said, I hate the Steam client the least, but I much prefer GOG's complete lack of a launcher.

That depends on your definition.
They spend probably very little money on pure software development, but an insane amount on market politics.
Is giving large publishers a discount, so they publish on the Steam client at all spending on steam improvement.
They negotiate with apple to publish the next steam release(even for them this is a long and horrible process).
They pump up Linux gaming to free Steam of the dead grip of Microsoft.
They host old already bought, but not sold anymore games to appease customers.
They build the Steam api, so games using Steam can use the newest and greatest features(making the platform more appealing).
They make all kind of big budget experimental games to show the market what is possible(and appease customers).
They develop their own hardware to stay out of the grip of software companies turned to hardware for control.
They hire tons of lawyers to comply with most to all regulations on the world(implementing "private games" for the gdpr, age requirements, etc.)
They do lots of content moderation to keep the biggest scams of their platform.
They develop Steam drm to offer a cheap drm for small developers afraid of piracy, so they feel more free to publish on their platform.
They spend in 2022 and 2023 $200.000 on lobbyists.

Last edited by LoudTechie on 23 September 2024 at 12:33 pm UTC