Ok so all of a sudden Gabe is everywhere giving quotable quotes. Is this damage control after the bazillion dollar fleet of yachts news, is he about to retire, is it just because of the HL2 anniversary, or…?
If you read this article you would know that these are quotes from the Half Life 20 year anniversary documentary released a few weeks ago.
Also it’s not damage control for the yachts, he’s literally sitting in a yacht when he says this quote lmao
To be fair, the only people criticising his yachts are some smartasses over Lemmy and Reddit thinking they’re on a moral high ground by doing so, when everyone else doesn’t care
I still don’t feel it’s a valid game distribution platform. It’s a DRM platform, that’s all.
It’s only a little bit more DRM than GOG. It doesn’t automatically adds a DRM layer to all games. There are tons of games that you can backup by simply copying their folders. Even if the DRM layer is added, it’s very light, can be cracked easily and does not add any measurable overhead.
Steamworks is probably a major thing that makes the games rely on Steam client (and it’s not technically a DRM). But that’s up to developers to make the game work without client if they want, and the functionality often adds a lot of value. This makes the client a part of the product you get, and its value will degrade if you break the client. Some examples of such valuable functionality are overlay and steam input.
You might not have know, but Steam game can be without DRM, meaning there’s no need for the client to be running for it to be able to run. I’m not sure how up to date this is, but here’s a list for some of the game. The client are required only when the dev use the overlay or any steam function. You can even find a list of patchable game to make it drm free.
I mean… It was a gamble. Internet was still young. Speeds weren’t keeping up with game sizes outside a few major cities. I was mailed a few large files because it was quicker than downloading them. Not to mention the desire for physical copies over a digital thing you can lose with a bad hard drive was at an all time high.
Then people realized the internet wasn’t just nerd shit, ISPs slowly ramped up their DL speeds and suddenly the thing people mocked for not being feasible is doing well because of how convenient it became.
Gabe even admits he had doubts for awhile.
I wonder where gaming would be if he had listened to the doubters. There’s no denying valve has had a major impact on modern gaming
Yes, someone would have. Eventually.
But valve did it early.
It’s easy to fill a niche once it’s formed. Not so easy to do before, or as it’s forming. Or predict if one will form.
I’m not saying valve or Gabe had some kind of foresight or wisdom, I still think it was a gamble. It just happens to be a gamble that worked.
So what? That’s called survivorship-bias. He can only say that because he got excessively lucky against all odds. Lottery-winners shouldn’t exist either 😉
You think Valve is what it is because of luck?
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read on here for a while.
Every great business idea needs luck too. You just never hear of other incredibly great ideas that just had none. You can’t just calculate success and have it guaranteed. You need money (for marketing at least), a great or even mediocre idea and luck. And be it just the luck of doing it at the right time.
You can write the best book the world ever saw, but it’s worth nothing if you don’t get lucky the right person (with influence/reach) reads it at the right time and happens to like it. Otherwise you would have to persistently throw money at it for an indeterminate time. And the longer that is the less profit is ever to be made. See epic games…
But if you think luck is irrelevant, suit yourself.
Pretty much, I mean I’ve seen amazing things the mainstream will never touch or know about… ultimately they made no money and the creators of them are either bitter or dead.
And I’ve seen absolute shit become a global phenomenon
Luck is sadly a necessary survival skill
Oh and there’s Alone In The Dark which just defies any explanation I have because it had one good game that aged horribly, and people are still trying and failing to reboot it.
I remember Steam’s launch and understand completely.
I mean yeah.
I had to install some program and connect online to PLAY A SINGLE PLAYER GAME? I have the CD already and entered my CD key. Why does it need validation?
This is surely the death of PC gaming.
- me in 2005
Oh MAN. I forgot about those times, hand typing in a 36 character CD key that was spat out by a dot matrix printer with questionable typeset legibility…
To be fair, 2005-2009 felt like a Death of PC Gaming since people stopped making PC Ports of games out of fears that that just invited piracy.
RIP games with no Steam release like Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard and Enchanted Arms
Hope ports happen some day.
