Microsoft - keep your filthy hands off Valve, leak shows MSFT would buy Valve (www.gamingonlinux.com)
from mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to games@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 17:31
https://lemmy.ml/post/5337966

#games

threaded - newest

thethirdobject@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 17:42 next collapse

there was an interesting take about that on the wan show (not ms but steam). the emphasis was on steam’s value, which is unknown but actually very high

BURN@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 17:45 next collapse

There’s no chance GabeN sells Steam. It prints money and only looks to increase their profitability over the coming years.

Microsoft can’t buy them anyways at this point I think. The regulatory bodies didn’t like ActiBlizzard, and this would be similar scale, if not larger

CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 2023 17:50 next collapse

I do worry about what might happen when he gets too old/decides to step down though.

If Microsoft did somehow end up buying them I might have to just nope out of gaming altogether. Or just take to the high seas I guess.

BURN@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 17:54 next collapse

I have to imagine he has something planned (inb4 GabeN AI Overlord) for after he’s gone.

He’s a bit crazy about prepping for disaster iirc. He lives in New Zealand now and has since the Covid outbreak. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a very long document that lays out a lot of rules for if he’s gone and Steam is to continue

Sabata11792@kbin.social on 22 Sep 2023 18:30 next collapse

Do we get a free copy of the new Gaben AI wiafu?

TurnItOff_OnAgain@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 01:45 collapse

gAIben

RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 22:55 next collapse

In the immortal words of Cave Johnson:

Brain mapping, artificial inteligence - we should’ve been working on it thirty years ago

bionicjoey@lemmy.ca on 23 Sep 2023 12:34 collapse

Holy shit, what if Cave was based on Gabe

Zetta@mander.xyz on 23 Sep 2023 17:00 collapse

Pretty sure he’s back living in the US, so he can actually work at the valve offices

redcalcium@lemmy.institute on 22 Sep 2023 17:59 next collapse

At that point I’ll probably too old and have lost interest in gaming anyway, so I’ll just let the next generation of gamers figure it out themselves. Kinda like boomers leaving us to deal with high property price problem because it’s no longer their concern anymore.

master5o1@lemmy.nz on 22 Sep 2023 18:56 collapse

Nah it’s still their concern too. They’re mostly just on the beneficial side of it.

HKayn@dormi.zone on 22 Sep 2023 18:05 collapse

You do know that stores other than Steam exist, right?

And no, I’m not talking about the EGS.

BURN@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 18:06 next collapse

GOG is missing a good portion of major games. Outside of that most of the options are much worse

CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 2023 18:10 collapse

Also they seem really averse to Linux for some reason.

brawleryukon@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 19:16 collapse

Probably the miniscule market share coupled with the increased vocality of its userbase.

Supporting Linux will not bring them a significant uptick in revenue but will increase their customer support load.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 18:10 next collapse

Nothing else comes close to steam in terms of market share.

HKayn@dormi.zone on 23 Sep 2023 12:19 collapse

Isn’t that a bad thing?

Neato@kbin.social on 22 Sep 2023 18:15 next collapse

Amazon kinda exists?

CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 2023 18:36 next collapse

Yeah but just the amount of games I own on Steam already (not to mention the Steam Deck), if all that ended up getting enshittified by Microsoft it’d be like having to start over from scratch pretty much.

HKayn@dormi.zone on 23 Sep 2023 12:16 collapse

Which is why I buy as many games as I can from stores like GOG, that actually let me keep them no matter what.

brawleryukon@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 19:14 next collapse

EGS is really the only thing remotely close to what Steam does, though.

GOG will always be an afterthought as long as they have their DRM-free policy in place. They’re super cool, but they’re a niche and will never grow beyond that without losing what makes them cool.

Origin (or whatever EA’s calling their store now) gave up pursuing third-party sales years ago. They still do it, but they clearly have no interest in actually making a go of becoming an actual competitor to Steam.

The Windows Store is terrible for a number of different reasons, even if it’s better than Microsoft’s previous attempts at getting into this space (coughGWFLcough). EGS is more likely to overtake Steam than Windows Store is to even rival EGS.

Uplay (or, again, whatever Ubisoft is calling their store these days) is like Origin - I don’t even know for sure if Ubi is doing third-party sales, but if so, it’s very much an afterthought for them.

And then everyone else just sells Steam keys. They’re not in the same market as the others, so don’t really fit into this conversation. If you’re 100% reliant on the store you’re “competing” with, you’re not competing with them.

HKayn@dormi.zone on 23 Sep 2023 12:18 collapse

A lot of games on Steam are DRM-free, but not (yet) on GOG. GOG isn’t an afterthought just because of their DRM-free policy, it’s also because they’re so small.

paholg@lemm.ee on 23 Sep 2023 01:21 collapse

What else lets me easily play games on Linux, on my couch, without touching a keyboard or mouse?

Neato@kbin.social on 22 Sep 2023 18:18 next collapse

The regulatory bodies didn’t like ActiBlizzard,

But they did allow it, unfortunately. And MS could simply argue that it already has dominance in the PC space as 96% of PC gamers are Windows users. So owning Steam is just buying 1 out of many stores (here they tout Epic, Amazon, etc).
I mean it's a bad argument but MS made a lot of bad arguments to get their way and they seemingly worked.

lorty@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 2023 22:29 collapse

Activision-Blizzard-King isn’t a dominant company in any segment. You can’t say the same for steam. Regulators would have a much easier time blocking such an acquisition.

Buddahriffic@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 23:18 next collapse

Plus, at least from my perspective, Activision-Blizzard was already bad enough that if MS made it worse, it wouldn’t affect me because they were already bad enough that I’d swore off their games. MS owning them was an improvement or at worst more of the same.

That’s absolutely not the case for Valve. They are one of the few large companies that I respect plus they are playing a big role in breaking the windows stranglehold over OSes when you like to play games.

The level of popular opposition to MS acquiring Valve would be on a whole other level than the opposition to the blizzard acquisition. It might even rival the opposition to Nvidia acquiring ARM.

Neato@kbin.social on 22 Sep 2023 23:46 collapse

CoD is dominant fps. It's why they made the concession about it

echo64@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 18:19 collapse

The regulatory bodies hand waved actiblizzard through. Let’s not pretend anything else happened there. Microsoft can do whatever they want and no one is gonna stop them. Same as every other big company.

The only thing stopping Ms. is that valve is a privately owned company. But everyone has a price.

lorty@lemmy.ml on 23 Sep 2023 03:06 collapse

The same regulatory bodies that sued to block the deal without any convincing case “handwaved” it?

echo64@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 2023 06:12 collapse

Yes, that is just how the American system works. The actual body here is the doj. The ftc tried to sue and was slapped back immediately. This was the ftc trying to show claws and the actual ruling body saying no, you have no power and Microsoft can do what they want.

It was a huge loss for the ftc that has been trying, and failing to fight big tech

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 18:42 next collapse

Yeah. This is a giant nothing burger

ANY gaming, or even tech, company looking at possible acquisitions is interested in Valve. In the same way that everyone would be down to clown with Ryan Reynolds if he knocked on their door but we know it won’t happen.

Same with the “rumor” of buying Nintendo.

Stovetop@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 19:03 collapse

Sensationalist media will grab at anything, really.

I mean, the Nintendo thing started with an email Phil Spencer replied to titled “random thought,” and the email was basically a lot of “Yeah that sounds great, but here’s why it’s not going to happen. But sure, though, it would be nice to own Nintendo, and I know a guy who’s been trading some of their stock if you wanted to maybe buy some.”

pory@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 2023 22:16 collapse

Nintendo is at least publicly traded. Valve doesn’t need shareholders.

rab@lemmy.ca on 23 Sep 2023 00:09 next collapse

Who cares valve hasn’t really done anything in years anyway aside from steam deck

MrCaturdayNight@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 2023 00:18 next collapse

Me. I care. I like valve just the way it is.

rab@lemmy.ca on 23 Sep 2023 00:55 collapse

I like the way they used to be, when they made games

MrCaturdayNight@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 2023 01:44 next collapse

Do you have a steam deck?

Zetta@mander.xyz on 23 Sep 2023 17:03 collapse

Have you been plugging your ears the past few years? Valve came out with Alyx, which was an amazing and first of it’s kind game. CS2 is basically in public beta at this point, and they are actively working on at least one new IP.

Also they have been updating TF2 again, which means a lot to me because I like TF2.

Valve is making games again

OswaldBuzzbald@midwest.social on 23 Sep 2023 12:58 collapse

I like what they’re doing with Steam as a platform, the Steam Deck is fantastic, and their contributions and support of Proton is huge.

dingleberry@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Sep 2023 02:05 collapse

Chill. Valve is not a public company, so no risk of an acquisition.

Cheesus@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 2023 04:15 collapse

Private companies get acquired all the time and hostile takeovers haven’t really been a thing since the 1980s