Tim Sweeney emailed Gabe Newell calling Valve 'you assholes' over Steam policies, to which Valve's COO replied internally 'you mad bro?'

Valve could reduce their cut honestly, perhaps some program for independent developers to help them get on their feet. I don't think the top games or big publishers should be getting cut reductions.

Either way, Valve haven't been buying out studios for exclusive games, so Epic and Sweeney can go fuck themselves, they are scum.

If scale is no longer an issue, why can't Epic create a store with similar functionality to steam? Because it's not about that. It's about Tim not being able to pocket as much.

People hated Steam and were very skeptical initially. Respect was earned over time

I am not sympathetic at all to epic, let alone Tim Sweeney, but I do think people are very unwilling to talk about valve’s absolute dominance and how much the current ecosystem is heavily dependent on how magnanimous they are feeling.

We worry about companies that aren’t anywhere near as dominant as valve. Just because their interests align with ours today doesn’t mean they will tomorrow.

The “you mad bro” is found among internal Valve communication (Valve COO Scott Lynch to Erik Johnson and Newell, i.e. in the sense Johnson/Newell being “mad”, not Sweeney). It was particularly not sent out as a response to Sweeney. Another outlet already got tripped over this and had to make a correction: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/03/valve-coo-on-epics-tim-sweeney-you-mad-bro-when-launching-the-epic-store/

This is not quite as sensational as some people are framing it.

Sweeney is a third-rate Carmack

I do wish Steam changed their pricing policy tbh. Make it so you pay smaller % for X amount of purchases, then a higher % on purchases after that and then a yet higher % on purchases after that amount with amounts set to give better terms to small indie game makers, then be less harsh on mid size devs and then get the most operational money out of big games.

Less drama more context would be nice from headlines, but man does it feel like I'm asking too much

Lmao common steam W

Steam community or not, the glib defense of rent-seeking behavior on lemmy.ml is wild.

👑

Sweeney really comes off as an angry guy who sees only enemies. Apple (justified, even though I'm an Apple nerd), Valve… let's find some more persecution-complex targets. Can we be mad at Steam? Let's go!

I dont understand. Doesnt Epic give devs a better cut of the profits? Why is Sweeney mad?

The 30% cut is an obscene standard that needs to be reduced on PC, console, and mobile. Taking an entire third off-the-top as nothing but a middleman and file-server is indefensible. Valve doesn't even control their platform - they shoved their way onto computers via HL2 and now perpetuate an overwhelming market share. Then as now, it is a problem that games require any online DRM launcher.

Tim can still get bent.

EGS by all accounts does fuck-all to attract users or sellers, beyond adjusting that cut, and it is still a project that exists primarily as rent-seeking for that cut.

Same deal for Fortnite on iOS: their excuses are pretense for taking 30% of everything spent on an app or IN an app, on every iPhone. They once strongarmed Facebook out of even mentioning that. Furthermore, people must have software freedom. It is intolerable that Apple ever restricted what you install on your own goddamn phone.

Fortnite should be unavailable because Fortnite should be illegal.

Nothing inside a video game should cost money. Real-money charges make games objectively less enjoyable. Maximum revenue comes from addiction to manufactured discontent. It is infecting every platform, genre, and price point. It is in single-player games. if we allow this to continue there will be nothing else.

people use 'u mad bro' like it's some great insult. people get mad. it's a human emotion. it exists for a reason. it's not a glitch. anger is a motivator, and a damn good one. get mad, folks. use that energy. most people aren't mad enough these days.

Their criticism of Steam seems pretty valid

I'll never understand the absolute cock worship of steam. They're just a huge, near monopolistic gaming store that apparently requires daily fellatio on this platform. Apparently, I'm supposed to agree or get smashed with the typical vitriol one gets with disagreeing with the hive. You Assholes

Steam is just perfect at keeping the gamers behind them as they are only assholes behind doors to the Devs on their platform.

30% is an absurd cut for a store that has such a monopoly that if you don't release there your game is pretty much cancelled even if you release at your own store without DRM and with additional goodies (Looking at GOG and The Witcher - they released the Gwent standalone like a year later on steam because it didn't sell at all on GOG and then it apparently outsold the GOG version without a week)

People are just too lazy and Steam is keeping them happy enough to not bother looking another way.

Epic isn't a good guy in any case but the exclusive deals on AAA Games they do is probably the only way to get someone to buy the game there instead of Steam