> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

i'm having a hard time describing the feelings this makes me feel. like i've been stressed, bedraggled and worn down, and suddenly there's a moment where i can just rest

it's nice to be excited about something for once instead of the baseline expectation of a horrible adversarial experience, which is the case for most tech in 2025

it is somewhat depressing that it's this novel to expect a piece of hardware to actually exist to make my life nicer vs the default of being an abomination that tries constantly to extract money and information from me like a fucking vampire

(and i guess, not having used this yet, this also speaks to valve being one of the last companies that i have any trust in to be capable of making a business decision that makes them less money in the short run in order to deliver a better product)

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engeljohnb 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Valve earned a lot of goodwill from me when I set up my docked steam deck as my main media player & gaming device. It required me to do a lot of little hacks. I was doing stuff the device wasn't meant to do, but it never put up road blocks just because I wasn't allowed to do it. Not like when I want to do simple things on my wife's macbook.

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keyringlight 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

An ongoing 'background noise' concern I've had for a while is how PC gaming seems to be centralizing around steam. There's reasons why that happened, but it'd be real nice if 'infrastructure' was able to decouple from their store. It feels like practically requiring steam for PC gaming on windows and certainly on linux isn't a mile away from requiring MS windows, is it much freedom to pick which Seattle based company you run software from?

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thot_experiment 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think there's NO reason to be concerned, but I think it's pretty different considering the decades of history of how Valve acts vs how M$FT acts. Also, many games available on Steam are DRM free or available from other sources and Proton itself is open source.

Valve is also not publicly traded and they have a succession plan of some sort in the event that gaben kicks it, I can only assume whatever he's come up with is sound, he's done a great job of running the place so far.

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Sohcahtoa82 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> There's reasons why that happened

Steam's near-monopoly was earned by simply being the best store. Other stores like Epic don't even include basic features like a shopping cart to buy multiple games at once.

I could go on and on about why Steam is so much better than any other store, but this isn't the place.

That said, I can understand being nervous. Steam is great because it's privately owned and GabeN is happy with the money he makes from it and doesn't feel the need to enshittify it in order to get more money. But eventually he will die or retire, and someone else will be given control. Supposedly, he's already vetted some people to take the job, but what's to say they weren't merely playing the part and will take it public as soon as they can?

	▲	ZeWaka 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Epic actually got a shopping cart last year. Still has terrible UX, however.

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daedrdev 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are plenty of competing stores, they just aren't good. I require a game to be on steam because I like the store and features, but many games are also sold elsewhere.

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fngjdflmdflg 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The built in Steam DRM is very weak. Of course that can change at any time, but at least the current catalog of Steam DRM-only games are not really tied down to steam except via law/licensing.

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12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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SchemaLoad 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Steam Deck has been my dream computer for this reason. It just works, literally all of the hardware is 100% supported on linux. And it's also not locked down in any way. You are completely free to install anything you want. I'm just so glad at least one tech company has the resources and will to create something that is a fully polished consumer ready product which also isn't completely restricted.

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ranger207 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A couple weeks ago Amazon said something about "we were trying to compete with Steam and even with all our resources nobody noticed" and that made me realize something: ideally, companies with similar products and services compete on features and cost, but nowadays the big tech providers compete more on lock in than anything else. But in the market of video game retail stores the competition _is_ on features and price, because Steam competes on those terms (ref gaben's famous quote "piracy is a service problem"; they're even competing and succeeding against free products)

	▲	PeaceTed 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I definitely didn't notice, I had no idea they were trying anything like that.

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butlike 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Plot twist, Valve AI will syphon all your user metrics into Valve's new model. J/k and all joking aside, I feel the same way. Feels like a love letter to gamers

	▲	happosai 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Valve being the only company in 2025 launching something that isn't a AI glowing AI button. Coincidentally also the only launch in 2025 people appear genuinely excited about.

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Lapra 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Steam is a service that's been running for >20 years and somehow hasn't been enshittified (although, I suppose when it first appeared it was seen as enshittification). It's worth celebrating, to be honest.