YongYea; Execs Stupidly Claim Steam Has A Monopoly And Get Mocked...
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“Comodity controlled by one party”. Except it’s not controlled by one party.
Outsized market power, what left out are the actions taken to make such an outsized market power. Monopolies are not a passive that form all by themselves. They are created through expansion acquisition, and aggressive crushing of competition. Disney and Nintendo do these actions. Valve does basically… Nothing.
A single dominant seller, but again leaving out all the rest I have written above.
There is nothing Valve can stop doing to be less “a monopoly”. All they’ve done is provide a pretty decent service, and nobody else can be arsed to top that, even companies with the resources to do so.
That’s not a monopoly.
By your definition, lets imagine a world where Amazon had 100% of the market and there were no other competitors, even if it happened naturally, without malicious intent, they wouldn’t be a monopoly? Come on.
I dont see ‘has to act a specific way’ in any definitions of monopoly. A monopoly isnt about being evil, or ‘actions taken to make such an outsized market power’ even if thats often part of the result, but just describes their position in the field.
This isn’t about how a company got there, it’s about where they currently are. Steam may not have crushed competitors aggressively like Disney or Nintendo, but its market dominance and control over PC game distribution still fits the textbook definition of a monopoly.
Steam has ~79.5% of the PC gaming market, I’m one of their customers and love their service, but that doesnt change that “monopoly”fits them.
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285m in revenue is not 285m in profits. Their publishing deals with companies probably don’t leave much left for actual income, and i’d be surprised if they operate with profit if you exclude first party titles.
Anywho… Why are you so hyper focused on epic, and not the market as a whole?
They’re one company and everybody hates them. I don’t give a shit about them. GOG is rocking ~40m in 2024 revenue… and they have a bit of a unique offering with 0 DRM and offline installers. Their nature keeps developers away since there’s an assumption that without DRM you won’t sell anything.
What else is there that is even remotely relevant compared to steam? I don’t know of any for PC games (windows/linux/mac) - mobile may make more money but that’s a separate market.
GOG is not a Steam competitor because they’re offering something different from Steam.
A customer that would buy a game from GOG is not a customer that would regularly buy something from Steam.
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By your definition, lets imagine a world where Amazon had 100% of the market and there were no other competitors, even if it happened naturally, without malicious intent, they wouldn’t be a monopoly? Come on.
I dont see ‘has to act a specific way’ in any definitions of monopoly. A monopoly isnt about being evil, or ‘actions taken to make such an outsized market power’ even if thats often part of the result, but just describes their position in the field.
This isn’t about how a company got there, it’s about where they currently are. Steam may not have crushed competitors aggressively like Disney or Nintendo, but its market dominance and control over PC game distribution still fits the textbook definition of a monopoly.
Steam has ~79.5% of the PC gaming market, I’m one of their customers and love their service, but that doesnt change that “monopoly”fits them.
That’s not my definition. That’s just the definition. And you’re using a corporation that is actively monopolising the logistics market, even so far as breaking the law to kill any competition, as an example. Nicely done.
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So you’re saying Steam has a monopoly on the games people choose to buy on Steam?
…?
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That’s not my definition. That’s just the definition. And you’re using a corporation that is actively monopolising the logistics market, even so far as breaking the law to kill any competition, as an example. Nicely done.
Thanks, that was done intentionally, to highlight the absurdity of your argument. I assume we both agree that Amazon is an effective monopoly (though i have had people fight me on that too!)
You say its not your definition, but i linked three different definitions which didn’t use that language. in fact, in all my searching, not a SINGLE definition includes a discussion on how they got there, but on the **CURRENT **state of the market.
Here’s another source:
The exclusive possession or control of the trade in a commodity, product, or service;
This is why I say Steam has an effective monopoly.
So yes, it seems like you’re using your personal definition, but it contradicts the actual, widely accepted definitions.
If you want to call me out and say “you initially said it WAS a monopoly, but its only an EFFECTIVE monopoly”, ill take that egg on my face, its earned and i should be more careful with my words.
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So you’re saying Steam has a monopoly on the games people choose to buy on Steam?
…?
Yes, that is the type of monopoly they have. It’s one that would probably not attract the attention of anti-trust regulators. If you’re not coming from the free software world I guess it looks like that’s the only way things can be.
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Competition like GOG or itch isn’t “piss poor”, they offer exactly the features their customers expect.
The others have been improving for a bit but GOG and itch have been focused on niche markets while Steam has grown broadly using the money from valve’s early successes. If they want to step up to the kind of scale steam operates at, it will take a lot to overcome the innate loyalty of ‘I already have 1000 games worth of time and money invested in the steam system,’ and grow their repertoire outside their niches. Epic and Ubisoft also have tried, but they’re still trying to catch up to where steam has been plugging along for ages. Epic has tried to build out their own version of the ‘1000 games’ moat by giving out constant free games but their moat still isn’t that big, and ubisoft has been relying mostly on having a few exclusives, but that hasn’t really been a winning plan either because it’s not enough to get people to think ‘I want a game,’ means ‘go to origin,’ instead of ‘check to see if i already have it on steam.’
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I ain’t reading all that. I’m happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened.
It’s 6 sentences.
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Lemmy is not a person
Technically, Lemmy was a person.
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Being a sole distributor of a specific product does not make you a monopoly by any stretch.
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Link to youtube video. Tracking removed.
God so many people dont understand what a monopoly actually is. Listen carefully: despite the name MONOPOLY DOESN’T MEAN ONE!
You boot licking capitalist just can’t get past this. God i wish the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt could arise to beat some sense into all of you.
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The common speech of someone willfully ignorant. Get an education
I have 3 degrees
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Steam is 100% a monopoly, they just happen to be a benevolent monopoly… but like all, that can change.
They’re not benevolent in the slightest.
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Lemmy is not a person
And this is not an argument.
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Link to youtube video. Tracking removed.
Another round of bootlicking Lemmy’s favourite megacorp. Good job, guys.
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YongYea has habit of first going over all the opinions and written stuff in articles before giving his own opinions and conclusions. It’s… Just the way he does things. Some people consider that an in-depth overview.
I think it’s… Alright. I usually don’t finish watching his vids when I get the point.
I’m still surprised anyone bothers watching him at all. He’s absurdly grating.
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By your definition, lets imagine a world where Amazon had 100% of the market and there were no other competitors, even if it happened naturally, without malicious intent, they wouldn’t be a monopoly? Come on.
I dont see ‘has to act a specific way’ in any definitions of monopoly. A monopoly isnt about being evil, or ‘actions taken to make such an outsized market power’ even if thats often part of the result, but just describes their position in the field.
This isn’t about how a company got there, it’s about where they currently are. Steam may not have crushed competitors aggressively like Disney or Nintendo, but its market dominance and control over PC game distribution still fits the textbook definition of a monopoly.
Steam has ~79.5% of the PC gaming market, I’m one of their customers and love their service, but that doesnt change that “monopoly”fits them.
Damn never seen a sober man so confidently wrong on something so straight forward.
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Every game iv bought on steam doesn’t require the client to launch expect for one. So not sure how well that point checks out…
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They literally never went a millimeter out of their way to negatively impact another competing storefront.
Valve’s success can be almost summed up as “does nothing, wins” because the competition to steam has been piss poor.
That is not true. Valve requires that you do not sell your games cheaper on other platforms, hindering competition.
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Steam is 100% a monopoly, they just happen to be a benevolent monopoly… but like all, that can change.
They are a monopoly 100%, just believe me bro.
