Open any gaming PC, and chances are the blue icon of Steam is sitting right there on the desktop. Not hidden, not optional, but almost expected. Over time, Steam has gone from being just another launcher to becoming the default storefront for PC gaming, almost like a built-in part of the experience. The Monopoly Nobody […]
30%
You’re a dipshit.
Only on games sold through Steam itself. Unlike any other store out there they don’t charge for keys sold somewhere else, so in practice that 30% is significantly lower if you put in any effort to sell your games elsewhere too. This is why publishers like Paradox have their own store and heavily promote it, they just sell Steam keys there without having to pay the 30%.
How many of you don’t understand that 30 procent is/was the standart like google play or the app store they usually charged 30 procent and guess what steam runs on pcs or something pc like which means that other gaming stores can be run on them, but people usually don’t because well they are enshitified. Steam also provides services to game developers like matchmaking, cloud saves, p2p connections and everything else that’s in steamworks.
App stores are also monopolies who are abusing their positions. There’s been recent/current litigation about exactly that. Those other services are cool but are not just a kind service to gamers. It’s to keep the industry on their platform. It’s to increase market dominance. They could spin those services off as separate if they wanted but that wouldn’t support the market dominance so they won’t.