Valve Just Put Game Publishers On Notice.

[@BellularNews]

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[@ExiMaster]

stop with this

[@AbnormalDehnfeld]

Kinda sad Incogni feel the need to put you through hoops to cancel your subscription having to write an email to them instead of just letting you cancel your sub in your user panel, i have no respect for a company who feels the need to make cancelling your subscription annoying, big L :l

[@3N1StaticGaming]

Valve gave me Christmas early lol

[@xAngoryx]

Is incogni one of those that says "We do this service but you're limited to once every 3 months?"

[@lukearts2954]

There's a consequence you didn't cover, that is definitely going to play in the minds of C:S2 players. Fans may not care that they have to wait another year. But if the items get refunded, that means they will have to repurchase at the time it _does_ come out, and you can bet on it that will be at a higher price. So imho valve should leave refund optional, at the customer's discretion during the entire period of delay.

[@StreetSurfersAlex]

Steam actually is pro players - I lately bought a game a few minutes after release, a few minutes later the discount started and steam AUTOMATICALLY refunded me the difference of the missed discount

[@steveguacamole3098]

@StreetSurfersAlex I had a full price game that I had for a week, played longer than 2 hours, when it went on sale for 50% off. I asked them if they could refund the difference to my steam wallet knowing they are well within their rights and policies to say no, but to my surprise, i had it refunded within an hour. This is why I've been a customer for many years, and why I will continue to be.

[@gamerscomplete]

never had that happen myself, but thats really awesome valve is doing that. Their customer centric focus is the reason I no longer will purchase any games that arnt on steam

[@RadomirTM]

@@gamerscomplete GoG is cool too.

[@Shadow-bk1im]

if the discount takes hold a few minutes later just refund the game and buy it again valve has a specific section that talks about this and it is acceptable use of the refund policy.

[@Rich_Lich]

Yeah, price for Hades 2 changed and they gave me back price difference :D

[@gary4014]

Gabe: does one thing every couple years, competition shoots themselves in the foot *profit*

[@sinisterplank3113]

@@gary4014 reminds me of the old saying, never interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake

[@tgnm9615]

They also doing the same thing with tf2 Never update the game while overwatch becoming shit

[@DONKEYKONG260]

@@tgnm9615 Imagine if they did the heavy update shortly after the OW2 debacle.

[@badcatgames783]

@@DONKEYKONG260 They already showed us proof that the last tf2 comic is being worked, albeit with a very small team and no release date yet, but the script has been finished for years now that it's good to know they are finally acting on it.

[@tzsaint9113]

@@tgnm9615 tf2 is old be glad it’s even around still

[@mrfawkes9110]

"A company that can't keep to their promises, should go under." Damn right.

[@ndh06]

​@@mrfawkes9110 Was half life 3 promised?

[@FnD4212]

@@ndh06 Never released in the first place.

[@PlebNC]

EA, Ubisoft, Activision: "WOAHWOAHWOAAAAH! Let's not do anything crazy."

[@nananooknak]

That's true capitalism

[@RSpracticalshooting]

​@ndh06 half-life 3 was never a thing. Episode 3 was pseudo promised but since they never sold anything they really didn't break any promise.

[@megan00b8]

I find it funny that Valve is winning over the entire industry by just doing basic market practices and not scamming the customers. Like it's so funny to me how many of their competitors failed without Gabe moving a finger against them.

[@Baddaby]

​@@megan00b8 this is more about consumer rights than market practices. For example, hiding prices and profuct details is also a basic market practice

[@Faethorne]

It’s almost like treating your customers with respect leads to business success LOL it’s so good to see!!

[@SenWithA3]

@@megan00b8 these are the best companies and ones I would love to invest in but valve is private which is even more impressive

[@homerman76]

@@Baddaby I think what is meant by "basic market practices" is that Steam behaves has the basics of business tells you should be done to establish a good business. Standard business and market practices have a tendency to, ironically, contradict what the basics of business, marketing and competition tells us should be done to be successful. The problem is that many businesses have come to define things in a "us vs them" mindset, which is a horribly flawed perspective, the only reason it works at present is because it has become standard practice, but that doesn't mean it is backed up by what the basics tell us should be done 🤔

[@Baddaby]

@homerman76 the most basic and fundamental thing about a business venture is profit. That by itself defines that "us vs them", it's in the DNA of market practices my man

[@BlueShellshock]

Steam: "Season passes have to state what future DLCs are included in the pass. I don't know why we even have to say this." Most Publishers: "Okay, makes sense." Escape From Tarkov Publishers: "OH, BULLS*!"

[@libertusprimus]

"CYKA YOBANA!"

[@nguyen-vuluu3150]

@@BlueShellshock thats why EFT isn't ever on steam

[@MrEricmopar]

The Slavic game companies can not be trusted. I know from dealing with Wargaming, who is originally out of St Petersburg, Russia and Belarus. Many believe Wargaming is from Cyprus, but they moved the address of their head office there, to avoid the Ukraine war sanctions.

[@krissalkond]

@@nguyen-vuluu3150 Who/what is EFT?

[@Herobrine10]

@@krissalkond Escape from Tarkov

[@CErra310]

The fact that Valve is leveraging their position in the games industry to move away from just being a distributor and closer towards becoming a mediator between publishers and players, because they understand that publishers have made "get an inch, take a mile" their doctrine, and that this can only be pushed so far before consumers lose faith in the industry and stop purchasing, is why I love this company. They understand how to do business and how decisions like this benefit them in the long run. Something that shareholders will never get.

[@AsaelTheBeast]

Share holders get it. They just don't care because their investments are all relatively short term. If the industry burns down after they make their profits? Why should they care?

[@DamnedSilly]

@@AsaelTheBeast That's the real difference with Valve and the companies like them. Valve is not publicly traded. The controlling interest is focused on the long term success of the company, not short term share prices. Valve also has a big financial interest in making these changes because much of their business model is based on being trusted by the customers. Shady operators make buyers less likely to risk their money next time but Valve profits most when the market is healthy and happy.

[@Pecetos]

Sooner or later Gabe is going to step down, can you imagine what this company could do in hands of some feaclmater human like some of the CEOs out there ? I think every company that is beaing courently hated ware once considered inflatable but none had as much power as valve

[@Foun_D_OnePiece]

@@Pecetos damn people still talking smack about Gabe son before he takes over is crazy. We're good until we die my dude.

[@adamwebster1666]

The -esteemed- -respected- _revered_ gentleman, Saint Newell of Gabe and VALVe understand how their bread gets buttered. There is no governmental or regulatory force maintaining the Steam monopoly on PC gaming, it is the gamer's loyalty that keeps them afloat and they know it.

[@MSlocum669]

Telling people what they are buying seems pretty fair to me.

[@rylaninstead]

fr

[@TheOneGreat]

@@MSlocum669 The AAA industry isn't used to being fair.

[@quineloe]

next: tell people what they're going to pay when ordering. Restaurant industry in shambles

[@Atypical-0]

It's not just pretty fair it's literal how it should be. It should not be any other way, anyone who suggests that is a corporate shill dirtbag

[@live4in2the0moment]

@@quineloewhat restaurants are you going to 😂

[@Tom-H1]

Google when they have a monopoly: Yeah erm you gotta watch ads selling scams and follow our very clear 47942 page policy Steam when they have a monopoly:

[@da703]

@@Tom-H1 They also show ads advertising alcohol and sexual gacha games to minors, despite not allowing ad customisation when they know you’re a minor.

[@lizardperson445]

Google got in trouble for not providing a superior product to support their domination of the market, but instead preventing competitors from getting a foothold in the market. Steam just provides a better service and lets competition shoot itself in the foot

[@Tom-H1]

@@da703 I got one yesterday. It's disgusting what YT (Google) has come to

[@Gungho73]

@@lizardperson445 I love the idea of Gabe Newell on one of his many yachts, tilts his sunglasses to look at a competitors fresh gunshot wound to his foot, says "man you should probably get that checked out" and sits back in his seat enjoying the sun.

[@abyssmage6979]

@@da703 especially genshit garbagepact and honkai trash rail and their Chinese spyware

[@nateisgreat8]

Good guy VALVe forcing the gaming industry to change its monetization practices? It's the holidays indeed.

[@thomaskrogh1244]

Yeah good guy valve that started loot boxes in the west, that cleafied that they are selling you the license of the games, and made the pc gaming environment into a walled garden. And takes 30% person of the game revenue. And their full name is Valve Corporation. Yes is a private company but it is still a corporation. Also the only reason it has refunds cause it lost a legal battle in Australia. In 2016.

[@xdarthpool6463]

Yeah, like how overwatch charged ppl for ow2 single player... then changed the game to free to play... only to cut development on the single player and add it back in as a paid add-on. 😡TF

[@Ondude389]

To quote Blackrock: "Forced behaviours."

[@ni9274]

Change monetization practices ? this doesn't change anything about monetization, also seasons pass and deluxe editions were never much of a problem

[@hdaviator9181]

Good guy valve? if Valve was the good guy, they wouldn't be renting out games at full price. If you aren't using the GOG model you are not the good guy.

[@chefref5027]

Gabe? Yes... that was what they used to call me. Gabe the Gray. That was my name. *I* am Gabe the White. And I come back to you now - at the turn of the tide.

[@Greyshirk]

@@chefref5027 HIS NAME is GFAT

[@alphagoose9964]

@@chefref5027 dude I hate that everyone’s getting older so much older now😔

[@djzl05l]

2:49 very apt for whats happened this year with all the dei flops 😄

[@LuisSierra42]

The lord of Valves

[@WillemDafuq69]

Gabe The Gambling Promoter (To children)

[@Crow_Rising]

It often gets pointed out that when you buy a game on Steam, you technically don't own a copy of the game but rather a digital license giving you permission to download and play the game. From a legal standpoint, this is true. From Valve's perspective however, there's no distinction. They consider their customers to be purchasing copies of games, and provide support in-line with this idea. They even have a failsafe policy that in the event they are unable to continue keeping Steam online, they will roll out a final version of Steam that only has one online function that allows it to connect to their servers to download whatever games you own on your account. In their eyes, the product keys assigned to your account are indistinguishable from owning a copy of the game and they take that idea very seriously. If your account gets hacked, they also take that very seriously and will do everything they can to get your account back to you once you provide proof of your identity.

[@PugilistCactus]

This has always been the case even with games on hard disk. Read the small text if you don't believe me.

[@SpiffoGaming]

@@Crow_Rising i never knew about steams plan if they can't keep it up. That's so cool

[@CzarnyBonek]

No they won't. You do realize that valve going under is synomous with their servers being taken down right? And keeping a massive library to every customer is not free? What was actually implied is that Valve would release the keys to their DRM, which is still a very bad legal idea.

[@maxx075_]

If valve bans your steam account you lose access to all of your "owned" games that you spent money on and they will not refund it. Sounds like a pretty big difference between owning and having a "Digital License" to me.

[@spectralstriker]

@@maxx075_Valve has no type of account ban that deletes your games/removes access to games. They do have bans that ban you from playing online if you’ve been cheating, but none that will delete/remove data from your account.

[@Beer_Wolf]

Valve should get involved and lobby in Video Game preservation. 80+% of games pre2010 are no longer commercially available physically, and sleazy people are keeping it that way proclaiming "piracy" when the fact they're no longer commercially sold...

[@chickencurry420]

My steam library is full of old PS2/360-era games that I can't buy anywhere else. But since they're available on steam, I don't have to emulate them. Jade Empire, the original Ghost Recons, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and pretty much the entire Red Faction series, these are games where I haven't even *tried* to look for an emulated version because Steam allows me to just buy the game legally. My emulator folders are full of games where I simply can't do that.

[@Beer_Wolf]

@chickencurry420 i was talking about physical copies. Steam isn't going to be around indefinitely... once it's gone that's your entire library gone, hence the reason for a video game preservation.

[@yanczy.21]

​@@Beer_Wolf i think Steam has plans for if they eventually cant be kept online anymore, pretty sure all games in your library will be downloaded before a hypothetical shutdown of the platform

[@itsmenatika]

​@@yanczy.21steam has plans to make every game DRM free in case they go down. They have a lot of these type of ppans

[@ovencake523]

crow_rising made this comment: "It often gets pointed out that when you buy a game on Steam, you technically don't own a copy of the game but rather a digital license giving you permission to download and play the game. From a legal standpoint, this is true. From Valve's perspective however, there's no distinction. They consider their customers to be purchasing copies of games, and provide support in-line with this idea. They even have a failsafe policy that in the event they are unable to continue keeping Steam online, they will roll out a final version of Steam that only has one online function that allows it to connect to their servers to download whatever games you own on your account. In their eyes, the product keys assigned to your account are indistinguishable from owning a copy of the game and they take that idea very seriously." so it looks like steam has got our back in that department. they have a contingency in place in case they go down - people can hopefully still play what they bought

[@oikoj7869]

Valve has so much power on the videogame scene, its really lucky that they are the ones responsible for it and not a company like EA

[@ingrudmessenger1193]

It's not like EA didn't try. They do (did?) have their own store. It's just that nobody cares about it. Valve isn't lucky, they earned that power by doing the right things.

[@TakarieZan]

I don't like sucking off a corpo. Anything can happen, and plenty of times corpos/businesses have lied. Just like real people. Damn it though I gotta admit I love Valve. It's why I bought a steam deck at full retail DESPITE the ROG Ally being half the price due to Black Friday. I want Proton OS to succeed, I want Valve to Succeed. I want their legacy of doing whats best for both businesses and consumers (especially the latter) to continue.

[@chikkin.salad.sandwich]

​@@systemcheck2769begone bot

[@Necro-the-Pyro]

If EA ran steam, we'd all have gone back to playing board games and having poker night in the garage by now.

[@widmo206]

@@Necro-the-Pyro If EA owned Steam, we'd all be sailing the high seas :)

[@Clowreed48]

Anyone else remember the Gabe Newell meme, 'does nothing - wins', what kind of jimmies gotta be rustled for this giant of power to DO something, and whats gonna happen when that great power gets used? Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft,Square, even bloody Microsoft came crawling back, and even Sony put their games on PC cause of em. Competitor had to make layoffs......Is it true that the gaming industry is being supported by JUST this one Man

[@VimyGlide]

gabe is the modern atlas, hoisting the world of gaming on his shoulders

[@crimsonwizahd2358]

Atlas shrugged, and the gaming world noticed...

[@loganmiles7836]

He’s not even using both hands. He’s just twirling it on his index finger

[@derrickbiedermann9802]

Its basically a monopoly, but not from strong arming other retailers (atleast any more than Amazon or Walmart get away with), it's other retailers sucking eggs.

[@haydentravis3348]

With great power comes great responsibility.

[@tomsawyer19890]

Knowing what is actually in a season pass instead of vague 'future content we may or may not make' is going to be amazing. Thanks for the video!

[@SimuLord]

As Michael points out, publishers do this because buyers tolerate it. One reason I don't buy AAA games anymore (unless it's years after the fact and at a very deep discount) is because I refuse to play the big players' game by their rules. There are too many other, better games without the predatory practices.

[@gamerscomplete]

@@SimuLord I also have stopped buying AAA titles, theyre no longer made by people that love games, just people that are interested in what money they can extract. Independent and small studios have greatly increased the game quality over the years and are actually making games that people want to buy rather than games that will just succeed off name recognition. At least things are headed int he right direction, AAA studios hemoraging money while the good game studios are making big successful games

[@quademasters249]

I never buy for the future. That means no pre-orders and no season passes.

[@sola4393]

Simple never buy pre order, never buy anything that is being vague about their contents and release date. The rules valve putting out are to protect those who are susceptible and who can't see things clearly. Of course to protect valve from people using his platform for fraud which in turn will hurt his platform. He knows who are his audience, unlike some other companies got it wrong on who is paying their bills.

[@cjyoung5635]

​@@sola4393 monster hunter has always been vague on what's coming sometimes trolling other times doubling down giving extra but always delivered. Anyone who says don't pre order anything are people who regularly buy into crap games like cod.

[@xcw4934]

What's interesting is that pro-consumer policies sometimes is profit maximising. As an Australian, I'm aware I have a lot of consumer protections when I purchase something from my local hardware store or electronic goods retailer. If the product simply doesn't work as intended the retailer must offer me a refund. I can choose to accept store credit etc but the law requires a refund to be on the table. I'm more willing to spend because I know I'm protected. Can you imagine how much less online shopping there'd be if no one could ever return any purchase made online?

[@crazyhans]

A nitpick: Australian consumer law entitles you to a refund, repair, or replacement, and typically the retailer/manufacturer is the one who decides which of the three you get. You only get the option to force a refund (iirc) in cases of major failure, e.g. the front falls off.

[@xcw4934]

@@crazyhans As the article was talking about DLCs either never happening or being far short of what was promised, I was talking about situations where the product even if working doesn't do what's advertised. In that case a replacement or a repair isn't going to fix the situation.

[@queotzcatl3980]

Yet we can not RESELL any game bought on Steam.

[@xcw4934]

@@queotzcatl3980 Yes I remember when Xbox first made games non-transferrable when PS had no such restriction and there was community outcry. I pointed out that people's willingness to pay full price for a newly released Xbox game might fall if they know there's no resale market. I mean would you pay the same price for a car if it literally was worth $0 the moment after you bought it?

[@101TDA]

People forgot when steam refused refunds and the Australian Governement sued and fined Steam.

[@the_free_mike]

the striking difference between a publicly traded and a privately owned company

[@blarghblargh]

there's a lot of really bad privately owned companies, too. but yeah, publicly owned companies are awful by default.

[@paddycakes6244]

A very unfortunate side-effect of the way our economic system works is that public companies literally by law have to do things that make more money. This is a gross oversimplification; but basically if it's *legal* they literally HAVE to do something that makes more money. Regardless of morality, sketchiness, even just plain human decency. If it's technically legal; or even legally grey, it's all but illegal to not do it. That's really fucked up when you think about it conceptually.

[@the_free_mike]

@@blarghblargh totally agree! I meant more when it comes to gaming.

[@Entropy67]

​@@paddycakes6244and then it becomes the governments job to set boundaries, they are the ones that decide what's illegal. The more a capitalist democratic society degenerates the more control corporations have over government, the more the average person suffers to forward the greed that is mandated by the current system. The state and future of such a society is so clearly predictable lol. The only thing you can do is try to position yourself in a way that it won't kill you when everything else crashes. You would need to figure out everything, remake everything, since its all on you once no one else is left.

[@jaelee1996]

The biggest issue for public company is that the ones running the company have no inherent interest in the future of the company for the long term. Quarterly growth is all that matters so that they can sell.

[@yossarian00]

I swear I am the last person that'd ever be loyal to a company, but I've had a steam account since 2009, and Valve truly and honestly has been the only company that I can (at least personally) say didn't make me feel utterly fucked over in some way or another in those long years. (maybe a little when it stopped being green.) Their support of gaming on linux on it's own has been a blessing.

[@FrankSpank-y6t]

My steam acc is 21 years old, it's been in my life longer than it hasn't

[@Terraqueo22]

​@@LV9_xwhat are you yapping about? I dont have multiple accounts on various other game platforms because its a goddamn hassle remembering passwords and shit. Also less shit to manage or drain memory usage on my pc

[@Valcuda]

@@yossarian00 I think it's safe to be loyal to a company, so long as they aren't publicly traded. Once they go public, it's all about profits! But if they're privately owned, they're able to do stuff for the sake of the customer instead of profits.

[@ZeallustImmortal]

Yeah I'd say Valve is the only large company that has never done me bad. I think the worst thing Valve has ever done to me is give me an accidentally triggered VAC ban. I had cheat engine open when playing CS1.6, I had forgotten to close it after goofing off in a single player game. But that one is entirely my fault and it's not like I expect them to unban me for MY mistake. Though I wish they could've given me special treatment hahaha. On the bright side, it was so long ago that it doesnt show on my profile anymore, and I dont play cs1.6 anymore so it doesn't matter much.

[@Gjalfr]

Had my steam account for 15 years, haven't been duped yet. I swear by valve.

[@ragingthunder3299]

Be gabe Accidently create a pc gaming monopoly Never put other companies down, is just better Uses their power to enforce consumer friendly policy

[@Spectacular_Insanity]

It wouldn’t be a monopoly if every other option wasn’t shit. Epic had their chance but squandered it by screwing over gamers instead of actually making a good service.

[@v01d_r34l1ty]

@@Spectacular_Insanity yeah it's not like other corporations can't compete. they just get too greedy too fast.

[@HoundOfGod]

The reason it's not regulated by goverment, with the amount of lobbying money in some publishers hands, is because it's technically, not a monopoly. They has been competition, still is sort of, they just all sucked and died out. You can't penalize a company that does 0 slander, price gouging, predatory buisness etc, just because others try and fail and you're the only one left standing.

[@CorrosiveCitrus]

​@@Spectacular_InsanityGOG is pretty decent, just the publishers let it down sometimes

[@demivideos8887]

@@CorrosiveCitrus yes, but most codes on GOG are stolen, not by GOG obviously, but they know they are stolen.

[@sevsev4078]

A company which cannot keep its promises shouldn't exist. Thanks for being so plain and simple, and for covering this story and discussing it. Good job! Keep up the good work. Consumer rights education is soo necessary these days.

[@W0lfenstrike]

For a decade, AAA publishers have pushed out Season Pass pre-orders 9 to 6 months before the damned thing even comes out and they even have the gall to push out "3 day Early Access" incentives in that time frame. I'm glad that Steam is finally pushing these scummy companies to ACTUALLY deliver the shit they promise instead of just asking MONEY NOW PLZ.

[@holyheretic3185]

Expect a season pass when a game is announced

[@33mavboy]

season passes are just fken gay man, i'm glad some games are removing them. If the person isn't already a dopamine smoothbrain, enticed by it, it will turn them into one overtime, there is a agenda in nearly everything and a reason for nearly all of it.

[@frag8476]

​@@33mavboygay isn't a very descriptive nor damaging word, use a better one like "stupid" or "useless"

[@sakesaurus]

​@@frag8476 descriptive terms aren't what he's looking for. It's a normative statement he needs words that have moral value to them (like u said stupid or useless)

[@Kaycee_Ace]

Something else valve needs to do is make sure that if a lawful refund happens the publisher CANNOT punish the customer for getting a refund, example Gajin entertainment who will ban players from the market in their games if you refund something, they don't try to stop you from refunding and they don't even warn you of the consequences, in games like crossout the market is vital to the game so being banned from it means the game is barely playable. Lost an account with allot of money spent on it because of it.

[@GojiraTX]

Thats absolutely disgusting. My condolences bro.

[@gorgofdoom]

I wouldn't interact with Gaijn with a 10 foot pole. Their "games" (singular game engine using mostly the same assets) are designed in such a way that makes me think they're using it to develop security instead. They've finagled the pricing such that real time spent playing can turn into real money, especially if you somehow magically play with perfect skill. Selling accounts is one way to earn. At the end of this very logical road we could use cheats to earn real money. Why else would they design their game to encourage this?

[@Eclipse-lw4vf]

You’re simply wrong about gaijin. You can refund the item. As long as you don’t use it or any of the ge it gives you. 99% of people banned tried initiating refunds after using said item which is against tos lol. I don’t even like WT etc anymore but it’s just plain wrong. And it is warned in the TOS

[@Kaycee_Ace]

@@Eclipse-lw4vf even if it is in the TOS first, they can and should disabled refunds for things like this its really easy to do, secondly they know no one reads the TOS, its the reason why you have "Do no eat the wrapper" lable on things, more direct warnings should be put in the store page.

[@HR91360]

thats already illegal, it's considered destroying/ruining the product out of malice/retaliation for consumer rights. "intentional destruction of a consumers product"

[@TarsonTalon]

The digital storefront equivalent of a retail store realizing they're stocking empty boxes, and that the customers are going to be angry with them, rather than the supplier...

[@ODBHero1]

We are F'd when Gabe passes... Slack Jaws will ruin it. 😢😢

[@mattnewcomb_official]

Hopefully they're working on an AI model of Gabe that can take over when he's gone, and it'd be like he never left. Folks worried about Skynet, when Steamnet will be there for us.

[@SegmentW]

​@@mattnewcomb_official GabeNet 😂

[@Janzer_]

Correct

[@B.L.U.S]

Bro is gonna become GABLOS

[@duckonaroll1913]

isnt his son lined up to own valve when he passes

[@ebhaenger8246]

High key, huge W from Valve here. I love 9:32 . It’s basically saying, "If you don’t have any content to deliver nor you are able to say what it is, don’t even think about milking the cow."

[@-ZeroRed-]

I don't think any publisher or developer has the right to be mad about a policy like that. They are selling you a product which you buy on good faith because at that point it is just a promise. If they break that promise again and again but keep your money, in any other situation that would be fraud. But for some reason, it has gotten to the point where this is okay in the gaming industry. I hope this way more publishers/devs get a wakeup call because like you said: The only thing they fear is losing money, losing reputation or public outcry are not a factor as long as it doesn't impact their bottom line. Indi developers are safe as well since they are still interested in building a community to boost sales, small chance for them to even consider effing over customers. I hope Valve will stay this way even after leadership changes, we'll see...

[@Chocoholiclady66]

Yes, but ... why are such policies even necessary? Customers only have to close their wallets. Fool me once then shame on you (the company), but fool me (the customer) twice then shame on me. Not even an enormous monopoly can survive without customers -- they only survive due to customers who willingly forfeit their right to just say no and close their wallets to tyranny.

[@-ZeroRed-]

@@Chocoholiclady66 That is absolutely right, but many people buy seasonpasses and such purely on good faith. Maybe the company had a good reputation up to that point or the game in question is a long awaited sequel so it becomes a no brainer to some. Logically speaking, if everyone just waited for the content to actually release and then decide to buy it, this policy wouldn't be necessary. But as we all know, people are anything but logical and/or rational most of the time. Long story short, in a perfect world, where people would agree on what should be common sense, you would be right.

[@ihavenoson3384]

There are easy ways to avoid this practice. Buying into this "season pass" stuff is literally paying more for less. 1. Do not buy stuff that you cannot assess yet based on footage and credible consumer reviews. 2. Buy it from a sale. The cheapest way to buy games is get them from bundles like the Humble Bundle stuff. You cannot do that if you pre-order. A Season Pass = a re-branded pre-order.

[@Chocoholiclady66]

@@-ZeroRed- They want support and fund it, then that is their choice, but they must bear the weight of the consequences and accept responsibility for their own choices. It isn't the government's job to protect them from their own choice of what to buy or who to buy it from. If a product is a threat to physically to life, limb and health, then yes the government does tend to such as that. However, you can't knowingly choose to keep buying green apples then expect the government to force the the apple grower (plus all other apple growers) to grow and sell red apples instead. To say there is no other choice is buying into the propaganda of tyrants. If nobody wants green apples, and stops buying them, they go away. If there is demand for red apples, but none to be had then someone is going to jump on that opportunity and start supplying them. Its basic supply and demand. You demand what is or isn't wanted by what you choose to buy. If you buy it, then you are actively and willingly choosing to support and fund it and are giving it your personal seal of approval.

[@ToreDL87]

It's gotten okay in the gaming industry because most gamers are socially inept (no, not having fun saying that) and simply haven't got the common sense/mental capacity to put the foot down. "I'm contributing to the game" a.k.a belongingness at play, and when the few gamers chime in and actually say "hey this is wrong, 2/10", those that bought it take that as a statement about them personally being 2/10, a personal affront. Shoddy devs/publishers know thiis and are making a fortune on it.

[@spence6195]

I hope that free-to-play monetizations get banned from $70 premium games. Those greedy corporations always want to have their cake and f*ck it too

[@Kultus1337]

@@spence6195 ahh those nasty ubisoft time economy system which helps players to grind less in a single player game

[@googlsux6305]

you gotta get the sense of pride and accomplishment, that's why it exists

[@masterbasher9542]

Best you can get is a blatant tag warning. Or failing that, a built in curator warning of micro transactions.

[@Ghostel3591]

​@@Kultus1337in good ol' days you just had cheat codes for that. Free cheat codes. You're literally paying for "greedisgood 10000" cheatcode activation.

[@BillyOnYouTube]

Yeah. "That nickel and dime shit is for the birds."

[@GravitasZero]

Let’s just hope and pray that Gabe is immortal for our sake… though I wouldn’t wish that curse on anyone, Gabe is just that instrumental

[@mariuszszewczyk2277]

Valve and steam are actually amazing for us. Never take it for granted. You need look no further then PlayStation or Xbox stores, or even epic, to realize how good we have it.

[@rattlehead999]

They already took our ownership of games so it's the least they can do.

[@soundbuug]

@@rattlehead999 🤦‍♂️

[@rattlehead999]

@@soundbuug you can facepalm all you want, but it's true, you don't own the games you purchase on steam, you don't own your account either.

[@TheLifeLaVita]

@@rattlehead999 yes you do

[@rattlehead999]

@@TheLifeLaVita They now even officially state that you don't, because a new law was passed where companies must state if you do NOT own the product you purchase.

[@DiegoMorales-wn1jp]

Amazing how "You're not allowed to sell a product you won't deliver" is somehow an amazing act of consumer protection. How did it come to this?

[@meepfanmeepster8620]

Maximizing Shareholder Value

[@ishipcrimsonandcerluean]

@@meepfanmeepster8620valve don’t have shareholders, though I might be misreading your comment

[@randomdude6446]

@@ishipcrimsonandcerluean Its maximizing shareholder value for the companies pulling those kinds of promises for their games not valve

[@meepfanmeepster8620]

@@ishipcrimsonandcerluean /\ It's as Randomdude says the reason that "You're not allowed to sell a product you won't deliver" is an amazing act is that companies are prioritizing their shareholders over their customers. Hence "Maximizing Shareholder Value"

[@z2ei]

Yet it's just for season passes, and not for Early Access..

[@nlmod]

I'm actually glad that Steam is this big with the right mindset behind their company. Couple years ago there was this whole war against Steam's monopoly on games by Epic Games Store, and what did Epic Games Store do with their power? - Right away if you also had Steam installed, they went into your Steam files, go through your Steam cloud, search history, play history, and friend list, they collected all this data for use in their own launcher, maybe even sell it. Tencent is behind it after all. - They also straight up buy out publishers and developers to brute force a monopoly themselves, even going after crowdfunded games that were set to release on Steam. - They bribe publishers and developers with 100% sales share, if they make their games exclusive to the Epic Games Store for at least 6 months, or if they brought their old games to Epic Games Store instead. They basically did everything to block people from buying games on Steam. - And to cover the cost for all this lunacy, they raised prices on Fortnite V-bucks and their Unreal Engine. - They also claim to be pro-developer with their lower margins than Steam has, but that extra money from game sales goes to the publisher instead if they have one, not to mention Epic Games Store being one of the worst launchers out there and their anti-consumer practices. I'd rather have Steam as an absolute monopoly with the mindset they have now, than Epic Games Store continuing to exist with theirs.

[@jackthatmonkey8994]

@@nlmod Nobody cares about a monopoly when it has a societal benefit and is a monopoly due to superiority of product / service, not because of anti-competitive practices

[@SapphireSouls]

Can't even tell Epic launcher to move a game from one drive to another. It's appalling how dogwater their platform is when they're backed by the money printer that is Fortnite.

[@DyslecticAttack]

​@@jackthatmonkey8994 to be fair, monopolies are bad because it gives too much power to one entity, and thus makes it dependable on the one entity. Thus the entity misusing that power, or failing, will cripple the entire industry before the gap can be filled. Steam so far has proven to be responsible with the power they hold, and friendly to competition for the sake of the industry. Yet a monopoly is still bad simply because there is no guarantee that it'll stay that way. However it's definitely worth noting and praising how steam has been doing amazingly so far. And I hope they can continue to do so for the future.

[@1vaultdweller]

Steam did wonders for gaming community. Epic didnt do shit

[@sadflix8754]

@@SapphireSouls and controllers wont even connect on any games on their crappy launcher, which is a problem when some of the games they sell are console ports.. the only game off there i was able to use a controller with was arkham knight, and that was only thanks for steams "add a non-steam game to library" feature. its insane that a platform can be so bad that i still end up having to rely on their competitor to use it

[@AverageCanadianContent]

3:49 to skip the advertisement :D

[@Lambdatories]

@@AverageCanadianContent Thank you!! 🙏

[@emily1]

@@AverageCanadianContent based

[@hollow7465]

Absolute legend

[@skyera1n]

ReVanced exists

[@squishian8431]

Chad

[@Loctorak]

Gabe Newell - not the hero that gamers deserve, but one we've always needed. When all things in this ridiculous, chaotic world are misleading and exploitative, the following core truths have remained true in my life for the last 20+ years: 1) Food tastes best when it's free. 2) When raising/lowering blinds, the cord that you don't want to pull is always the one you pull first. 3) When GabeN does game things, he bloody well does them right.

[@n16r3d0]

... or doesn't do them at all *cough* HL Ep3 *cough*

[@chefref5027]

God Newell

[@CalgarGTX]

4) USB ports always the wrong side

[@nerdiusmaximus7312]

he charges 30% and hes your hero. dumb as hell

[@CalgarGTX]

@@nerdiusmaximus7312 u drank the epicfailstore coolaid bro, he charges devs that, not us, we get bundles and -75% off games left and right

[@FeniksGaming]

Paradox is absolutely sweating right now. Next thing I would love to see for this to also apply to early access if you promise things to happen and they don't people should get refund. Example Kerbal Space Program 2. Everyone who got this game should get refund. If we bankrupt bad developers I wouldn't be too upset.

[@Nikola_M]

Islands of Insight: Hyped as a giant open world mmo puzzle game, it didn't actually have any meaningful player interactions and the servers had awful rubberbanding. They later added an offline mode while making the servers even worse. Said offline mode saves the entire save file EVERY SECOND, making it unplayable while burning your SSD. By now they completely got rid of multiplayer (still advertising as such). They said they fixed the offline saving issue but i'm not trusting them on that

[@mx2000]

You mean KSP2?

[@bettysteve322716]

"Paradox is absolutely sweating right now" CS2 is still the best ever city builder to date, even as janky as it is, the delay's, the, the, the, the, I will forgive them pretty much anything for giving me this, but then, without the modding community, l probably have turned my back on it ages ago, so there is that.

[@fransmith3255]

@@bettysteve322716 It's definitely not the best city builder. Workers and Resources far, FAR outdoes CS1, let alone CSII. So much so that it's not even a competition.

[@bkane573]

Their Stellaris team is amazing.

[@StiffAftermath]

9:32 - You know what this will do? Devs will cut already existing content from the base game so they can make their DLC commitment dates deadline. I called it here. The first to be caught due to datamines: Ubisoft.

[@morelstrike]

They already do that. If they want to make their games even shitter, it's on them. Let's see how it will work for them.

[@Zenturio331]

Thats why their Stock Price is in the gutter

[@mistrkill]

@@StiffAftermath brother this has already been happening for over a decade

[@krodmandoon3479]

Do you not remember the big Street Fighter x Tekken kerfuffle from TWELVE YEARS ago? When people cracked the disc they found out *DLC characters were already on there* even though they hadn't been announced yet.

[@TheDiner50]

What? The hole season-pass and horse DLC... Do not forget that Steam and Bethesda began selling mods. Before mods became something you paid for? It was already cut-content being sold as DLC 100% of the time. At least when selling mods you are by definition not selling cut content from the base game. At least that is true with launch DLC or special/deluxe editions taking part in this cosmetic/item/mission cutting for profits. No. Instead we are going to get minimum viable product sold first. Then after the base game is made? With all the money hungry micro-transactions and season-passes all put in there? We might see actual DLC and content be made. The Sims 4. At launch, toddlers where not even in the base game. It was 100% expected to be a DLC expansion. That game came out in 2014! The first ones being caught due to dataminers where the games with DLC content on the main disk... So much for Downloadable content. It was coined as "premium features" at that time. Because it was ridiculous how the game was cut up to be sold as DLC.

[@rarecommunistpepe225]

Watching Gabe navigate the game industry and come out on top is like watching one of those "Luigi wins by doing nothing" videos.

[@Unknown_Genius]

That's what happens if you got a gamer in charge and they never open up their company for public trading. I certainly hope Gabe did teach his son well in how important those things are and that he also takes over once Gabe can no longer lead the company. Like man, gotta love Gabe, when BCIs are being talked about people are either oblivious to the issues that arrive or foreshadow the negative sides of it that can be abused easily and showcase them as a must happen - and Gabe just sits there "Can you imagine playing games on it/with it, how cool would that be?". Valve moves slow, but whenever they change something it often is just plain improvements.

[@TheAnonLee]

This is why i still exclusively use steam on pc, because only them and Gog actually care about their consumers

[@damaskusseraph6046]

I dont use GoG but i respect it

[@rhindlethered]

Well, they fooled you into thinking so, anyway. And that's about as good as it gets.

[@TheDragonfriday]

​@@rhindletheredis there any other better option then valve? Yeah they are still a business, but they are the only one who push for pro customer.

[@GoodChimkin]

@@TheAnonLee pls explain to me because i'm stupid, but what is DRM free exactly? i heard that it was the main feature of GOG but for my limited understanding of it, most or at least a lot of games on steam is already kind of DRM free anyways? again ,pls correct me if i'm wrong because i swear, on steam i have re-downloaded some unlisted games, i have moved some game folder to another computer and played it no problem without steam, but of course i only tried it on limited amount of games so, i don't know if it's not the case for most games on steam.

[@thisguy3500]

@@GoodChimkin Steam is in itself a DRM, having to open the app just to download a game. Some games/apps can be start without Steam opened but in order to obtain the game in the first place, you must log into the Steam app. This is very rare however and especially with online games which require Steam to be open AND online. Unlike GoG where you can purchase a game and download the installers, never having to use their launcher.

[@Sleeman0980]

Totalbiscuit would be proud, I'm still not gonna pre-order or buy deluxe anything

[@SimuLord]

There are exactly two developers on my Shut Up And Take My Money list. One is SCS Software. New map DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2? Buying it on day one. American Truck Simulator? I plan my work vacations around those (seriously, I took a week off work to do the Cruising Arkansas event on World of Trucks.) The other is Pathea Games. I bought My Time at Sandrock on Day 1 of Early Access and I backed the Kickstarter for My Time at Evershine. Everyone else? I wait for the release date, a couple of Let's Plays on KZbin, good reviews, and a sale before I buy.

[@alridan90]

For me it is capcom for Monster hunter games

[@MikeSharpeWriter]

I only consider buying Deluxe versions years later!

[@SimuLord]

@@MikeSharpeWriter I picked up the PC version of RDR2 in 2021 for...I think it was 15 bucks? Something like that. Knew what I was getting and wasn't disappointed. Also got the deluxe edition of Witcher 3 in 2020 (great lockdown game, as it turned out!) for something like $2.50 USD. THAT was a steal.

[@Benzona]

@@SimuLord for me it’s Konami, anything they put out I’m buying on release. Used to be Bethesda too but I feel like I should have waited and gotten Star field after modding

[@ThatGuyKazz]

And stuff like this is exactly the sort of thing that makes players unwilling to buy games on other PC storefronts like Epic Games Store. Like god damn I'd love for Steam to have some actual competition but no other store front even comes close to respecting the players and consumers as much as Valve does and that's why they dominate 90% of the PC gaming market.

[@bayanzabihiyan7465]

The only one that could rival is microsoft and X-box gamepass. Because some users prefer subscription gaming over purchasing every game to only play it for a few 10s of hours.

[@nicholasholloway8743]

Lets just hope Microsoft doesn't pull a Sony and release a console with little to no upgrades for 700-1200$. If that happens then ppl would do themselves a service and switch to PC. ​@@bayanzabihiyan7465

[@BohCrafter-w2d]

Thats true and most games i finished under 2-3 days​@@bayanzabihiyan7465

[@TNH91]

What about GOG?

[@Stagmuffins]

Yep, Steam's customers are the players. EGS' customers are the publishers.

[@opallise]

I don't even pre-order. I can't imagine spending money on a game that hasn't been made yet.

[@thuynder]

I'm a gamedev with a couple released games on Steam... and this is a great change to see. The big, shitty, AAA studios NEED to collapse so that games are made for players once again.

[@childofnewlight]

Also, players need to STOP paying for this crap. They only continue to do it because players keep giving them money.

[@deadspline3252]

What games :)

[@xypherath]

What games have you made?

[@kaof1958]

@@xypherath whataboutism, please apply critical thinking

[@xypherath]

@@kaof1958 wtf are you talking about?

[@lastofthestarmakers]

I really hope this is the start of an upward tick in quality. As someone who has been a PC gamer since the early 2000s, I'm so tired of the over-promising and under-delivering that has become rampant in the industry.

[@bloomleaf8310]

@@lastofthestarmakers it won’t nothing in this system states that the content has to be good or meaningful. I firmly believe it will drive quality down since all the companies have to do is deliver what the description says. 2 new weapons can literally just be something in the game already and just paint it 2 different colors, and there you go 2 weapons. New zone? There is now a walkway that leads to 4 generic rooms linked together with some trash mobs and has a transition screen from the base game.

[@Commodore22345]

@@bloomleaf8310 It's still forcing companies to be somewhat honest about what they are providing, which is a step in the right direction. Stop being such a depressing doomer.

[@bloomleaf8310]

@@Commodore22345 I'm not being a doomer I'm being realistic about the way this industry has consistently acted for decades. everyone is acting like this is going to force subpar games to suddenly make good content, what is realistically going to happen in a redfall situation, is a small group is going to get tasked with meeting the technical stuff that was promised in the most bare bones way possible.

[@azahel542]

I look forward to seeing which developer or publisher will be the first to weasel their way around this.

[@AlexanTheMan]

It's going to be a toss up between Activision and EA.

[@code_renard]

@@AlexanTheMan Normally just cuz I like some EA's games like Dead Space, Apex (when it was good), Need For Speed, and Jedi Fallen Order, I would've put the bet on Activision, but honestly, I'm very confident that EA will be the first one.

[@Sas-ym4gg]

Ubisoft with their Star Wars outlaw approved roadmap - they won’t deliver because the game was trash and flopped.

[@t3arki113r]

I can already see them trying to turn this on Valve “We feel untrusted by Steam and refuse this as it means Valve is rushing us to put out our content without it being completely done. This will result in us not being able to promise future content without the prepaid support of our consumers.” or some bs like that.

[@slyseal2091]

@@t3arki113r as has been pointed out, they can just refuse them any presence on the platform. There already was a time where half of these companies tried to split off from steam, and me talking in past tense is more than informative enough on how that went. They're also too rich to be gridlocked by lawyers.

[@W00JDA]

4:19 Valve solved the stupid dlc vs expansion nonsense .

[@Lightscribe225]

So EA can't cancel deluxe editions with impunity anymore.

[@GLynham]

Saints Row IV DLC: Enter the Dominatrix was supposed to be part of the season pass but was cut and added to the next game, they didn't even offer a discount to those that paid for the season pass .

[@635574]

Wow never knew there was such a thing as season pass preorder.

[@kaof1958]

@@635574 That's why this is happening, this will shine light on a lot of studios which means a bright day for gamers

[@micheljolicoeur6094]

PRIME EXAMPLE - Warcraft III Reforged, took preorders at Blizzcon with the game NOT even under development.

[@NTelling]

As much of a shit show as W3R was, that's not a good example here because it's not a battlepass. This video specifically states that pre-orders are exempt from these rules. Also, there were existing laws in Europe that protected customers from pre-ordering digital goods that weren't delivered in an appropriate time. This is actually the reason why W3R was so garbage: Blizzard had to choose between publishing an incomplete game or refunding some of the pre-orders.

[@ant3641]

@@micheljolicoeur6094 should teach peopke not to preorder. Everybody crying about game industry this and that, but in the end only voting with your wallets counts. If people didnt preorder and buy microtransactions, there would be none of it.

[@quineloe]

@@NTelling What's the appropriate time? I'm not aware of the EU regulation you are referring to.

[@crazydude5825]

​@@NTellingSeason Pass, not Battle Pass please. There's enough confusion with those terms as it is. Battle Pass is the Fortnite garbage every live service has to have now.

[@NTelling]

@@crazydude5825 Sorry, force of habit. First iteration of this monetisation method was from Dota and is where the term Battle Pass originates iirc, so it's what I've always called it.

[@jonathancrew5811]

In a world where you DO NOT OWN digital content. The way steam treats its customers is what you should be looking for when choosing where to put your money and digital ownership. Valve does it right.

[@Label07]

Valve should extend this policy to early access games that are abandoned/scams as well...

[@MarionetteKazuko]

To be fair there is a large warning for early access games that they may not progress beyond the point it is, essentially buy at your own risk.

[@epgamer1145]

If you do not see the warning that comes with the early access title, that is ultimately on you for falling for those scams. If someone starts an early access project, they should be capable to work on it until it is in it’s finished state or have private keys handed to content creators to cover the current state of the game without taking the time of players. Pretty straight forward dedication and marketing for any beginner dev team.

[@KingTUMMAN]

EA game is support at your own risk I still prefer paying for these indy to see them improving a game bit by bit for 5-6 years instead of paying for unfinished full release game tbh

[@wakaneut]

There's a loophole of that, the dev can just release the latest build as "version 1.0" and claimed it's no longer in early access.

[@PlushieMaxxing]

@@wakaneut *cough* 7D2D *cough*

[@Valoric]

This is shocking it wasn’t standard before. Good guy gaben. Now everyone else needs to catch up with updated store policy

[@TheTrueMilery]

@15:20 its not soon, it's now, people have already stopped trusting most publishers. Everyone has a couple companies they trust still, but the expectation is that games will launch broken, and be filled with overpriced microtransactions

[@GTSW1FT]

Yeah, like the only real developer that most still have hope for is fromsoftware.

[@Evan-hm7tz]

As someone who mostly sticks on the wayside and sees the reviews by like... Charlie and stuff, yeah no, it's happening NOW. I expect games to be launched broken, I expect people to be ripped off by the devs. I understand that AAA games take a lot of time to produce, there's a lot of different options and such, along with modeling times and especially scripting. But Rockstar has it correct, giant waits on games, but when they release it, it's a slam dunk on the entire gaming market because they actually take their time.

[@RedlineVulpine]

The game development industry has a real problem with rushing products to meet deadlines. This means employees, the individual people trying to create actual ART, can be under immense pressure to finish and they have to sacrifice demonstrating the full breadth of their talents and the full scope of their vision. May Valve continue to be magnanimous. May the source of these deadline violations always investigated and responsibly mediated to protect not only the consumer, but also the artists that strive to give us the best of themselves and are often restrained.

[@Unknown_Genius]

The whole point of it is to force publishers and dev companies to get it done proper. It doesn't create any new issue, companies that will pressure them pressured them previously either way to do the same. Not to say it's a response to pushing out unfinished products and/or canceling stuff/changing stuff last minute.

[@JakeBake2113]

After all these years valve still seems to care about its customers unlike every other large company (and still makes fire games)

[@bluebull852]

care is makes them so OP

[@B.L.U.S]

What games?

[@B.L.U.S]

I think you typed Consoles as games

[@JoshuaGraves113]

@@B.L.U.S Everything outside of Artifact. Even they admitted Artifact was a failure and apologized. Everything else they make is awesome... except for shit like HL:Alyx because it was locked to VR only for so long.

[@B.L.U.S]

@@JoshuaGraves113 I was joking about how valve is more into consoles nowadays than making games Also HL:Alxy was good You can't say it's bad just because you couldn't play it

[@chrisg8989]

"Prey I don't alter the deal further." - Gabe Probably

[@BoisegangGaming]

*Pray

[@teddychu1177]

@@BoisegangGaming Both work :P

[@nebs6888]

@@teddychu1177 No. No they don't. Only one of them work like that. Why would you say something so wrong? (These definitions are in fact not definite;) Pray is to, well. Y'know, pray, to try commune to a higher entity in the hopes of a specific outcome usually. Or just hope with a more spiritual undertone. Prey meanwhile is part of the Predator and Prey dynamic in nature. Now even if you make the assumption that Gabe is calling the Publishers Prey (which wouldn't fit and would be weird) the rest of the sentance is still absolutely broken : "Prey, I don't alter the deal further." What does that mean? Why is Gabe telling this so called prey he won't(?) alter the deal further? What sense does that make? That's the kicker. It doesn't, cause Prey doesn't work in place of Pray. So why did you say that exactly? So confidently with that tongue sticking out emoticon and everything? Did you think this was a colors versus colours situation? Did you never hear of the word "Prey" before this? Or did you assume it was a minute (time) versus minute (size) thing? I'm really intrigued on how you got so much confidence that upon seeing someone correct something your first instinct was to dismiss their correction despite lacking the competence to see that they were right? Do you do this often in your life? As a hypothetical if you saw someone saying "Man I want to deep fry this chicken but I'm out of peanut oil" would you confidently tell them to use butter instead? Even if someone else there who knew better advised better? Would you just say "Oh both work?" Why did you say something so offensively incorrect?

[@lilplague4857]

Why prey?

[@Dragoninja833]

@@nebs6888 You told him! I prey he won't make that mistake again! You stopped him right than and their! That will have a lasting affect for sure! He won't make that mistake for the wrest of thyme! He's probably taking a back by your comment, but he will get over it. I wish eye could bee they're when his I's finally reed and sea you're comment! It hurt me to do this more than it hurt you; I want you to know this. This is your fault, though. YOU made me do this. Have a good day. I SAID, HAVE A GOOD DAY!

[@TheDuckMan2523]

Not only do steam have the best controller support on PC, not only do they allow you to use them as a launcher for anything you want, not only can you sell steam keys wherever you like, but they regularly push to make the industry better for their customers, I don’t like their monopoly in theory but in practice I can’t see any better way

[@Unknown_Genius]

They don't have a monopoly. Or did I miss something and all the alternatives where you can buy games suddenly disappeared, making them the absolute sole provider?

[@999Lucas]

You had me at full policy document. This is games journalism! Consumer advocacy is key to making sure that we don't get taxed bit by bit for empty promises or where plans change so to speak.

[@RedMageGaming]

This is gold. because these companies need the fear of loss put back into them. They have become to reliant on selling things they have not made yet, to gain the capitol to justify making them. And that's just been such a shite way to do business and invites failure that harms only the consumer. But as a consequence, harms the platforms. And in this case, Valve have taken steps to protect their platform. It's a consumer positive move, but it's not a move made altruistically. It's a move made to protect steam as a platform, because if people lose faith in steam because developers/publishers keep doing bad things like this and can just get away with it, then people will slowly move away from not just those developers but the platforms that facilitate that behavior. And I see this is going to overall be a positive for us the consumers, but it's going to take a few mishaps before it really settles in. There are going to be companies that don't take it seriously enough and screw up hard enough to make valve act on their new terms. And these refunds are going to shut someone down. That's when companies will start paying real attention. After one flies too close to the sun and pays the price.

[@lw8882]

Valve got taken to court in Australia by our consumer protection agency for not offering proper refunds, and lost millions. This looks like a pre-emptive strike against that happening again.

[@lw8882]

Well you covered that at the end I guess.

[@handson4580]

at least they are LEARNING unlike everyone else

[@bionicgeekgrrl]

They are currently being sued in the uk iirc and have some potential legal cases pending.

[@Etheral101]

I wonder if those millions went to players or the governments back pocket

[@MrMoon-hy6pn]

@@Etheral101 that’s not how governments work. Usually money the government makes or raises goes back into projects or helps funds government programs like Medicare or Centrelink. So in a way it does go back to us.

[@Xdgvy]

Well, I guess that means Star Citizen won't be on Steam anytime soon.

[@alridan90]

That hurts man... mostly cuase i know its true

[@seasn5553]

That beta should stay away

[@piersM]

It was never going to be on Steam anyways. As money hungry as they are, why would they let Valve take part of their revenue? They have no reason to try and publish there.

[@jimmythecrow]

@@alridan90 good.

[@DamnedSilly]

You think Star Citizen will be _anywhere_ anytime soon?

[@Zedvais]

This is what you get when the CEO, the person who runs the company is also a gamer and a game developer before he is also a businessman. He understands the perspective for us the consumer, the developer as the vendor and his viewpoint as the publisher who connects us and the developers. Gabe also known to read and even reply most emails that comes to his public email address. He’s just a gift to us gamers man. I wish many game related companies would understand that the CEO has to understand what he was doing and not just focusing on the number.

[@AlexanTheMan]

Next step: Prohibit third party launchers.

[@Sgt_Glory]

@@AlexanTheMan that would be a day to enshrine in history.

[@TheDragonfriday]

Including third party login

[@madmax2069]

​@@TheDragonfriday especially for a single play game

[@megaman37456]

Next Step: Ban PSN.

[@PragmaticTornado]

The number one thing I want. I tolerate it when it's just a splash screen with an optional login feature, like Cyberpunk and Baldurs Gate 3, but forced logins means it's far less likely I buy the game.

[@pedrojustice]

9:40 THAT that is what needed to be said to all DEVS and publishers stop being politicians and promissing things in the future while asking for money

[@andariel654789]

When Persona 3 Reload was available for pre-order, the Steam page described the 100$ edition as containing "ALL purchasable content for the game". What's important about that is the director of the project announcing in interviews that the game would not include a bonus story campaign which was in the PS 2 edition of the game. Then in May, Atlus released the trailer for the "Expansion Pass" which consisted of 3 "waves" of content: 1. Additional Costumes 2. Additional OST 3. The previously "not included" bonus story campaign. The kicker about it being, the first two items were available for free while the gameplay aspect demanded another 35$. After this Expansion Pass was announced, Atlus went and changed the Steam page to say that the 100$ edition would include ONLY the costumes and OST.

[@yesianyeha7479]

And the DLC was even worse than it's PS2 counter part lmao

[@sirzane5779]

@@yesianyeha7479 is it worth buying to experience as a new player. Still on Royal but was planning to play Reload after Strikers

[@yesianyeha7479]

@@sirzane5779 my favorite game of ALL time is Persona 3 and i can't stress enough that you should play P3FES over reload, at least as fist playtrough. Reload is fine, but that's it, it lost so much of the charm and i guess you could say magic the og ps2 (had even tho it still has some problems), and this does not come from nostalgia, as i only played P3 on last year summer. If you have the chance please emulate FES, but if you can only play reload it's fine still. As for it's DLC, nah, don't buy it, not only was it an extremely scummy move from atlus, but now the message is objectivly worse, so no, episode Aigis is a No buy

[@sirzane5779]

@ Your asking a PC player to emulate of course I will try it.

[@yesianyeha7479]

@@sirzane5779 haha true, try the og ps2 FES, only thing i can advice you is that the game takes it sweet time to really open up all it offers, but my god once it does... Hope you enjoy it, and Also enjoy strikers, great ass game

[@recludereburn8662]

You're probably the most healthy youtuber that I've heard of lately, and I appreciate your media.

[@ShuckleII]

Policy like this is so needed in this industry, I'm glad Valve is taking action. One game that doesn't pass the rules (afaik) is Persona 3 Reload. In the beginning, the offered a season pass, it said "future DLC". Now, that season pass doesn't include either of the two biggest DLCs we expected from them, the "The Answer" chapter OR the female main protagonist version (which I'm not confident if it's even gonna release considering Atlus' shadiness). Now the game lists an "expansion pass", which only contains "The Answer". Awful.

[@watchdoge6464]

That one was the worst offender. Literally a scam

[@Aleuvian]

Remnant II only just recently released the 3 DLCs they promised with a purchase bundle on launch. They missed their deadline by almost half a year.

[@EdgeLie]

not to mention their price.....

[@GriffinHuntress]

Yup, I was really hoping it would be a definitive edition since I'm a big FeMC fan, and this is why I'm not getting Reload. The producer has confirmed that adding her route would have delayed the remake too long and cost too much to convince Atlas to greenlight the remake, so we're not getting her. There's some fan projects going, but I strongly suspect we're never going to see her again officially, because that would require Atlas to create a ton of assets they never made for her and Atlas is too cheap for that :|

[@soulsolis3096]

Things like these makes me FEAR for Steam for when Gabe Newell himself eventually Passes Away. I sincerely hope anyone who replaces him won't be bad or worse...! 😭

[@tymondabrowski12]

If praying worked, Gabe Newell would be immortal judging by the amount of times I've seen similar comments.

[@mahmoodalmahmood7014]

​@@soulsolis3096 if the company becomes publicly traded. Its cooked.

[@somewhereelse1235]

Gabe has explicitly gone on record stating that his son is his chosen successor. If even half his morals and teachings have been passed on, the company is in good hands.

[@Don69420]

Gaben himself has said he doesnt plan on dying, ill take his word

[@soulsolis3096]

@@somewhereelse1235 That's somewhat reassuring...

[@arbitervildred8999]

video starts at 3:50

[@creoleninja58]

Thank you kindly

[@Ann_QwQ]

The goat

[@1k_Sassy]

BTW if the channel doesn't make money, no video will start.

[@TheMultiTasker3]

@@1k_Sassy It's not like the Ads that KZbin inserts into the video. You don't have to watch a sponsored segment for the creator to be paid. I recommend the SponsorBlock extension, for that purpose.

[@Slaraffus2750]

@@1k_Sassy Cool, don't care, though.

[@59Klicks]

Great news for us gamer's! Well done! well said, hooked and subbed!

[@Hyatice]

I can see "A new area and two new weapons" literally being released as a tiny room with a single chest in it behind a formerly locked door in a hub. I wonder if Valve will eventually put rules in place for unsatisfactory delivery. I also wonder if companies will fudge their delivery timelines on purpose to give themselves as much of a window as possible. E.g. 'Releasing q4 2025, q4 2026, q4 2027, q4 2028' and then they release them all within the first 2 years since that was their original plan.

[@victor-ling]

14:56 "It's not a slap on the wrist, it's a clear financial punishment" ... I know you're just using this as a casual phrase but boy doesn't this phrase really show the problem with the current publisher culture. Not getting the money for something you promised on but failed to deliver isn't actually a punishment at all! That's just normal behaviour. It would be a punishment if they were fined additionally (which I am not advocating for) ... I mean if I were hired by a games publisher and I promised to deliver them an amazing website for $X and they will get it in 6 months ... and then I just don't deliver it. You think I'm going to be able to be like "whoops sorry ... anyways here is your money back better luck next time" and just walk away, no they will be coming after me for breach of contract and suing me for MORE money to cover things like damages.

[@MrMozkoZrout]

The whole gaming industry still has pretty weird predatory practices in it that came from the era of physical media and that make much less sense today. And that is mostly pre-orders. Like what are you even preordering it for ? it's a digital content, there is unlimited amount of copies. They actually invented fake limitations just to validate preorders and special editions which are like more toxic evolution of pre-orders. Like why. And DLCs are another thing. Yeah additional content is nice but damn the whole concept of DLCs could get modernised a bit today as well since it's not a literal datadisk anymore.

[@quintonellis4378]

There are a few things I liked about your video today. Well I liked the whole thing. But first I thought it was cool that you had a leather jacket on when you spoke about your sponsor. I was naughty and skipped to when you were back in your t-shirt. But I thought that was a cool idea. Next I love your passion for justice! You can see this subject is very close to your heart. You always make things easier to understand too. Oh and another cool thing I have noticed from watching a few of your videos. They are like a story, where one video can lead into another. Like how in school we are taught to make the end of one paragraph lead into the next. So cool man! Keep up the amazing work! Good honest feedback about what's going on out there in the community, without all the slow annoying fluff. =D

[@CyanDumBell_MC]

Publishers definitely gonna abuse Early Access next

[@zimriel]

next?

[@balsalmalberto8086]

Warner Bros already did that with Lego Worlds. A complete massive waste of potential. It's a clunky incomplete shell of what it promised. They designed it to sell DLC packs but later abandoned it completely.

[@raizors1331]

Wait this hadn't already happened for ages???

[@nicholasholloway8743]

Yea they HAVE been already lol

[@terulien]

@CyanDumBell_MC Next. They've been abusing it from the beginning. I mean selling dlc before the game is out of early access.

[@Jim-x1i]

Gabe runs a tight honest ship. Gabe truly is a good hearted person.

[@MR0KITTY]

I wonder if Valve will order refunds for KSP2, since the dev no longer exists.

[@yodaman8015]

kerballing

[@Besend522]

No. You can't enforce rules retrospectively. And ksp2 was an early access game, not a season pass. Usual ea rules still apply

[@LordofFullmetal]

This is why I can never stay mad at Valve. They’re the only platform who actually care about their customers. And because they’re so big, they’re good at bullying the entire industry into more consumer-friendly practices. They can make changes where even the law fails to, because no studio wants to be banned from Steam. I love it when companies use their power for good.

[@TheAzazzExperience]

Now they need to do something about abandoned early access projects by major publishers without saying anything about the state of the game. KSP 2

[@B0neTV]

@@TheAzazzExperience Indeed, they way they treated the supporters should be illegal, everyone who purchased KSP2 should have a full refund.

[@balsalmalberto8086]

Lego Worlds

[@Turamwdd]

Unfortunately, those don't break the conditions of Early Access UNLESS it can be proven that the publisher never intended to release the game. That is the risk of buying EA.

[@Unknown_Genius]

@@Turamwdd Depends, if they promised something to come which didn't get implemented that's against Steams Early Access rules. "2. Do not make specific promises about future events. For example, there is no way you can know exactly when the game will be finished, that the game will be finished, or that planned future additions will definitely happen. Do not ask your customers to bet on the future of your game. Customers should be buying your game based on its current state, not on promises of a future that may or may not be realized."

[@SliceLeedice]

That's actually good, when a game offers an item, content or a feature in a bundle or season pass then label it as "future" DLC then people buy that game because they see something in that game to look forward to, it should have an estimated deadline alongside what it contains. The moment a developer team even shows whatever "teaser" for future release or DLC they should already be confident that they can deliver that product even if it's delayed for a bit. Promises of future content or DLC's are broken in a lot of games due to many vague "future content" included in season pass or bundles and when those "future content" finally arrives, the players have already moved on to a different game because there was no clear indication time table as to when it will be added or worse, it never arrives.

[@MisanThrope-cu1mw7fj3p]

Wish they added mandated refund policies for "confiscated" games ("licenses to use games" that have "expired"), to answer the new, degenerate publisher policies who choose to reserve the right to withdraw previously-bought digital products.

[@Unknown_Genius]

1) That's not "new" policies, revocable licensing is 15 years old at this point, no one gave a damn back then tho. 2) Games always were licensed (you know, because the copyright for it would be quite expensive), it's just that they found the legal loophole that they can revoke licenses for the things they hold copyright for if it's on a 1:1 basis (both can cancel the agreement at any time). 3) That's not solely digital. As said previously, software is pretty much ALWAYS licensed as they're copyrighted, the same things apply to discs or any other "physical" media, if it's revocable and they decide to revoke it using the discs to play that content is just using what's legally "pirated" copies (or copyright infringement for that matter). Fun fact: The entire firmware of the Switch is revocably licensed, so if you have one and they revoke it: Booting it up is no longer legally allowed - Since the PS4 you also have to update that one if you're technically able to, as at that point you loose the right to use any older version of the firmware. Especially the PS case is the funny one, as people were so blinded by the outrage of the XBox going digital that they bought the "This is how you share games on the PS4" marketing stunt instead without reading the fine print of "jokes on you, this option is actually way worse than digital games but no revocable licensing".

[@ragmana]

Nice to see Valve take aim at the Peter Molyneux/Quantic Dream business model.

[@gravity00x]

I absolutely love how passionate you are about this. Finally someone saying it how it is. Publishers have been able to get away with incredibly unethical behavior towards their customers for way too long. Valve too, they invented the battlepass and manipulated customers in dota2 for so long, that eventually those customers didn't want to buy it anymore.... the aftermath was so bad that valve was forced to abandon the battlepass.

[@simrock_]

Thinking about it, there might actually be a case where Valve might be found theoretically liable. In a few EU countries the seller is on the hook if the product sold is not as promised. I don't think this has actually been tested in court for games, but if they sell you a season pack with X features and the developer/publisher does not deliver, it's still valve that might be on the hook for the unfulfilled promise, though they could of course pass it on to the developer.

[@Psydvckthefirst]

Game descriptions and “promises” are written on steam pages by the publishers hr team, not by steam employees or even if they do they are probably just given what to write from the publisher, if they didn’t develop the game how they can write descriptions? You can’t expect them to check every promise but a fair refund sounds nice.

[@branch7628]

@@Psydvckthefirst I don't care what you think or feel. The LAW says the SELLER is liable

[@relwaretep]

​​@@Psydvckthefirstunder some country's consumer laws, I'd expect a refund from the vendor - in fact any official vendor of the product in that country as long as I have proof of purchase - and it's up to the vendor to argue it out with the manufacturer.

[@Psydvckthefirst]

​@@relwaretep I don't expect existing "vendor" laws to be applicable in this scenario. Even looking at this like any typical vendor is kinda weird. I do realize that this works with shops selling shi from ali but it kinda is different when the manufacturer has it's own pr department that's out of steam control. If they promised a feature in yt promo video but not on the product page, does it makes yt liable, does steam, or manufacturer? This reeks of grey stuff

[@BeastGamingHD]

Anyone who purchases season pass versions of a game or season pass bundles that are unreleased, Valve should hold those funds and not payout the developer or publishing company until the content is released. This way companies will realize the importance of what they're selling and promising and actually commit to it.

[@bruh-ux1ns]

I can't say I agree, it's essentially preordering in that you are providing the devs the funds they may need to continue functioning and actually get the content released, whether they actually NEED those funds now is another question. This solution is just as good, as it's a guarantee that you get your money back if you aren't provided the content you paid for

[@lem2004]

The whole point of Kickstarter and season pass, is to give developer an initial loan or a budget to work on something, like commissioning arts, hiring developer, feeding solo developer so they can focus workIng on the game and not finding a second job to earn money. Basically, you can't create something out of nothing.

[@BeastGamingHD]

@@lem2004 Kickstarter isn't Valve

[@rdrrr]

Consumers should _stop pre-purchasing._ Every time you touch the stove while it's hot you get burned. Children understand that, but apparently gamers don't. "The last three times I pre-purchased a game it shipped broken and devoid of content. But you know what? Fourth time's the charm! And if it ain't, I can always complain on Reddit. THAT'LL really show the shareholders who've already profited off of my inability to delay gratification for one whole day!"

[@DominoPivot]

Very interesting. The requirements and punitive measures make sense when you take into consideration what motivates players to buy season passes: - The lower price compared to the sum of individual prices for the DLC they are interested in. - The fear of missing out when a future DLC releases and they can't afford it. - The peace of mind that comes from knowing your copy of the game is always up to date. By forcing developers to be specific about the included content, Valve prevents developers from relying on the fear of missing out, and forces them to deliver on their promises. If someone bought a season pass because of something you promised and you can't deliver, then you have to offer a full refund. A season pass is not crowdfunding, and players shouldn't have to pay for what you can't deliver, or for the hope of getting future content that may never come. That said, I really hope this will lead to fewer season passes, and not more crunch time because the producers can't afford to break their promises. It would be silly to blame Valve for that one though.

[@Pladderkasse]

Thank you for saving TF2 from the bots, Gabe. And for this. You're a stand up dude.

[@glenndoiron9317]

Wait. What? I gave up on TF2 probably more than 10 years ago, tried it again about 2 years ago and it was a botfest. What happened?

[@dr.stonks2422]

@@glenndoiron9317they had a massive banwave a few months ago, with casual now being in a playable state

[@barrysmithers5816]

That was an interesting point at the end. If the publishers force devs into pushing out half-baked parts of a season pass, Valve will need to start allowing refunds for that. Which I can imagine is (for them) going to get very complicated, very quickly...

[@kayurn3669]

Is it possible it might even self regulate? If people own a season pass with garbage DLCs, the reviews of the season pass itself would be pretty negative and would end up pushing players away from buying it? I’m just guessing on that, but it would maybe still incentivise half decent DLCs to be released if they actually wanted players to buy it?

[@BasilBard]

I do like how this still gives some breathing room for devs, so long as they are honest in their practices and transparent with their audiences, that way no one's fucked over by external circumstances forcing a delay. Plus, having room for negotiation with Valve lets them avoid penalties due to loss of infrastructure to shit like natural disasters, since Valve will probably be a lot more lenient to a smaller company that lost their shit to a flood or anything like that.

[@julianmillen1207]

I can only hope this is the beginning of a bigger process that finally puts a tight leash on shady companies

[@michaelmaguire4147]

2:14 I'm now imagining a system where the battlepass is a dlc and then you unlock things by getting achievements.

[@akakaptin6382]

Dude those were good times they ment something

[@ogre7699]

Valve might not get everything right, but when they do? Mother of god, do they get it right. Now we just need them to tell third party launchers and requiring accounts for single player games to piss off.

[@pcdeltalink036]

No PSN required either. Stupid as hell to require that on PC

[@GamerNym]

"Such that soon, people will just expect shit" Soon? That's the expectation now. We already know we're going to get treated like subhuman garbage, and it's already too late to change that.

[@sillyking1991]

its not too late to change that. it *will* take time to change that though, and a committed effort by gamers.

[@omgpickle]

This is why I buy games 1-5 years after release. It's finally done developing. Servers might shut down soon then though lol.

[@TDAdvocate]

It's all about the small victories and this one is a good one. Only problem is that I think this could possibly lead to companies rebranding or entirely doing away with season passes. Which then hurts the customers as they won't be able to get DLC bundle deals any longer. Granted season passes don't typically give much of a discount anymore, they could still make our break a consumers ability to purchase the dlc at all.

[@RhondaFizzleflint]

Please Gabe, you need to take care of yourself! Eat healthy, do sports! We gamers need you for years to come.

[@ImNotSimon_totally]

he already lost a lot of weight recently afaik

[@WastedCarnage]

This is a positive restriction to the companies and hopefully brings good dlcs coming to light. Can we trust those companies? Since steam is a big platform for majority of gamers on pc we have a help of father Gabe. Also, valve working on their own games "does" help. Let us hope it's not only Deadlock they are working on.

[@Cointelpronoun]

Do you keep in mind there is some ass covering going on here. Steam could be on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit and could have joint and severalable liability with a PC publisher who pulls shenanigans with the season pass and doesn't give people refunds. In which case both steam and the publisher would be liable and if the publisher couldn't pay, such as if they went bankrupt, it would all be on steam. Publishers doing season passes and then going out of business is a liability for steam. This will disincentivize them from doing that and also if they do do that, they have to put their money with their mouth is sooner rather than later.

[@jamesbaron8387]

@Cointelpronoun to be fair most companies dont bother doing this abd just do it till they can take the pathetically snsll fine for it. So even then valve is still doing goodcompared to mist companies

[@astro-pufferfish]

no, this isn't true at all and doesn't actually make sense if you consider there are and have been other distributors who haven't gone under because of a product they sold being the subject of a class action. It also doesnt make sense in general because it's not as if other places don't sell these games so blaming one distributor doesn't make sense unless the distributor themselves are the problem. this is akin to saying target is going to go bankrupt because of the class action against nintendo for defective switch consoles, as if you cant buy a switch on amazon, walmart, gamespot, etc. class action lawsuits happen all the time. way, way more than you think. let alone, this is an industry that pre-sales are the norm, is widely understood that what you bought might never be delivered, is very often defective upon sale, and even then the product typically isn't refundable. no, a case against steam as distributor to assume the weight of the publisher would never get off the ground considering how it would make the market so volatile that no one would act as a distributor for any games and the entire industry would bottom out (imagine if distributors were sued after cyberpunk was released with the mass returns they faced across most platforms) it seems to me this is an attempt future-proof the industry after a year of some of the lowest sales in a while. the law has, historically, ruled as long as you promise you will eventually deliver a product, you dont need to refund people even when you havent released the product in such a long time that the consumer presumes the product will not be released (this has been the court ruling for a few kickstarter initiatives). by putting in conditions on release dates and restrictions with season passes, they are circumventing rulings like those. pre-orders are used as sales projections by industry execs to coerce investors to throw money in the trash and public trading means having an obligation to shareholders for yoy increases in company valuation (which some have been failing). when a dev/publisher says "we cancelled the rest of the dlc bc the game sold poorly, hey season pass people thanks for your free money", it is perfectly fine currently under the law. the more common this becomes especially with lower sales in general and people gripping their wallet tighter, plus lessening trustworthiness of the industry is overall, it is in valve's best interests to put in place some pro-consumer agreements with their storefront that will increase consumer trust. i'd imagine this will actually bolster sales which will help everyone in particular games struggling due to weariness of players after being burned since they can have confidence valve will have their back (whether that's true is yet to be seen but that shouldnt need to be said)

[@scottwiggins1410]

A friend recently bought me Black Ops 6 on steam. We checked and double checked the specs on my pc to make sure it could handle the software/ hardware requirements. It did, even far exceeding what is needed. I can't even get the game to boot up long enough to navigate menus, much less get a match in. When it does work, which is extremely rare, it runs without issue or any lag/latency. I've tried every trouble shoot I can find, and since I spent more than 2 hours trying to tweak settings, a refund is not happening. Same thing happened when I bought Starfield.

[@StayAtHomeGamer9000]

As a deluxe ultimate super whatever purchaser of CS2, its about damn time we get compensated

[@Besend522]

You won't be. You can't force anything retroactively. Only the season passes made after this rule was made will apply

[@shawnlanphear3588]

"a company that cant keep to its promises should go under" 🙌

[@lordbertox4056]

"Valve is a game development company" uhm, do they know that?

[@unknownsample4801]

I mean they did make half-Life so that technically makes them game developers

[@daviddebroux4708]

@@unknownsample4801 And Counter-Strike games, and TF2, and Half-Life 2, and Portal, and Portal 2, and Dota. They have made quite a number of games.

[@bertimusprime7900]

Beta access to Deadlock came out this year...

[@RC-nl8il]

@@daviddebroux4708 So what you're saying is that they used to be a game development company.

[@CorvusCorone68]

@@RC-nl8il Counter-Strike 2 was released in '23