Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: NeverthelessAnd once it's there, why shouldn't people buy Epic exclusives there? Why not purchase games cheaper on Epic? It will not defeat Steam, but it can hurt it.

Because of principles? :>

I was just thinking of a version of myself that had less principles regarding exclusives and OS. What would that person do?
I certainly would keep all my Steam games, and add at least some exclusives from other stores.
People generally seem to not like many stores, but install them nonetheless, if they think it's worth it.

I won't do that. Steam is my console. One friends list. One ingame overlay. One launcher for everything. One unified experience. I just want to boot my PC and play a game. Fragmentation isn't customer friendly. There are many examples for that.

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Quoting: NeverthelessAnd once it's there, why shouldn't people buy Epic exclusives there? Why not purchase games cheaper on Epic? It will not defeat Steam, but it can hurt it.

Because of principles? :>

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Quoting: GuestI do not get this article.

Even i, whom i consider rather clueless about windows, had heard windows being called an open platform because anyone could develop and sell what he or she wanted on it. It was clear from the start he was thinking mainly about windows and eventually other not so closed down commercial platforms.

But they said they will aim for OTHER open platforms. They are ALREADY on Windows. So that doesn't make any sense.

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Quoting: iiari

Quoting: LeerdeckLet's be real here. Valve doesn't support Linux because they believe that the year of the Linux desktop is coming. Nobody does that. Valve does this because of cloud-streaming gaming that someday in the far future will be a available alternative. Because if you run a big server farm you don't want use Windows licenses. Every major publisher will someday port their games to Linux but only for their own server farms. Valve will not stop supporting Linux infrastructure because they don't really care about Linux desktop end users. That we profit from it is just a really nice side effect and we provide test results + bug reports.

No more calls, we've got a winner! I think this is much closer to the truth than anything else I've read or heard elsewhere. I think Valve has been telegraphing this quite clearly in their focus on Streaming technology, and is one of the reasons I believe the Link went away. Google seems like they are on the verge of a Streaming gaming service themselves. NVIDIA is already in the space. It's the best way Valve maintains their advantage: By having a technology that everyone else will have to spend a fortune to develop, being able to implement that more cheaply than others via their Linux expertise, and leveraging their existing library. We users beta test Proton and win. Quite right. Makes a lot more sense than "new Steam Machines!"

I'm not exactly sure, but didn't Gabe once say something like that he's not a fan of those Streaming plattforms? And the Steam Link didn't go away. The little box, yes. But not the concept. In-Home Streaming is completely different from pure Streaming from a consumer standpoint. One is good, the other isn't.

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Quoting: mylkaexclusive titles work on consoles because you cant crack them as easy as on PC!!!!!!

exclusive titles on PC in just 1 store will lead to piracy and not to changing a store..... if its a SP game of course

i can already hear epic: mimimimi piracy mimimimi

https://twitter.com/flibitijibibo/status/1073377254569320448 [External Link]

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Quoting: Whitewolfe80It would appear nobody is willing to bet on linux with the exception of Valve who are only investing in linux as a long term stratergy in case MS tries to lock down the next version of windows (well even more then now).

I won't say there's no truth to that, because it most certainly is... but I wouldn't say it's the ONLY reason. It's expansion. By going to Linux they reach even more people. More customers. More happy people. And of course more money. I doubt they supported MacOS because it's a way to get away from Windows ;)

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Quoting: jardonYou can't really buy it on anything. You pretty much have to install it yourself unless you wanna pay a premium for something like a system76 machine. You need to have the off of the shelf experience. That is the incentive.

But you brought up the example with grandma, who buys a PC. Why should she buy one? That's been the issue with pre-built PCs forever. Of course they are sold and there's a market... but a Steam Machine wouldn't change that.

Quoting: jardonBut when it comes to the exclusivity I was talking about, no, I do not believe that means you lock everyone out nor did I imply that in any way. I wasnt even talking about exclusivity to a specific box. That wouldn't be an effective strategy at all. You'd just make everyone mad. Clearly I mean't exclusivity to the Linux platform that the preconfigured hardware would run. I mean steam supports multiple platforms so clearly I meant platform exclusivity. Clearly.

Then what kind of exclusivity? Can you please elaborate on this? And what would be the benefit?

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Quoting: jardon

Quoting: kuhpunktWhat would be the point of that?

I think its pretty obvious. If Linux wants ANY meaningful marketshare then there needs to be an affordable, marketable item that can be bought by grandmas at Walmart for their grandkids. Otherwise the future of Linux marketshare would closely resemble someone trying to collect pennies in order to buy a supercar.

But your argument is about an operating system that is literally free. Selling hardware for that... what's the incentive here? I already got a good computer. Many other people do. And they don't need to buy a new one just to use Linux.

Quoting: jardonComing in as a VR console would be interesting. I personally dont believe that VR is the future, but gimmicks sell. You would need to time the market well though.

VR is not THE future, but A future.

Quoting: jardonIf your console was $1000 then youre dead in the water. You would NEED to hit the $400 price point for the base system and offer an affordable VR package thats no more than $400. Valve could do this, but they would have to risk a loss in subsidizing hardware.

But what would the point be? What's the difference to a normal computer now? Consoles are made so that you use their OS/store. Again, what would be the incentive? What could you do with it that you can't do with a PC right now? Exclusivity would be silly and pretty much impossible.

Quoting: jardonI know that they have been against exclusives fundamentally, and I commend them for their principles, but man are we gonna have to chug along for the next 10 years before anything substantial happens. Here's to hoping for some kind of breakthough!

How would that even work? It would run Steam... and then what? Would they lock everybody, who's already using Steam for years, suddenly out to force them to buy a silly "console" when Steam is the console already?

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Quoting: HoriValve should invest in *proper* VR games

They're already are doing that.

Quoting: Horiand then release a new console focused on VR

What would be the point of that?

Quoting: HoriThey should, this way, be able to "annex" the VR gaming market while it's young and easy to do so.
Obviously that console would also be able to play regular games as well - kinda like a Steam machine but it would be focused on VR.

What would be the difference to a regular gaming PC?

Quoting: HoriAnd let me say this again: It should be made by Valve. If other manufacturers also want to make one, fine. But there should always be the option of buying an official, Valve-made unit - which should be used as a reference by the other manufacturers, by defining a standard. Kinda like how we have official Nvidia (Founder's Edition) cards, and we also have ASUS, MSI, etc cards based on it.

That's already kind of happening.

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Quoting: SpykerI'm curious to see if a significant amount of players leave Steam this month in order to play some Epic's exclusives... What will be the effect on the Steam Linux share ?

I highly doubt anybody who's using Steam regularly will actually leave, no matter what Epic does.

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