> They don't because too many people pirate games to make that a viable business.

This is an opinion, stated as if it’s fact.

There are many factors contributing to the ongoing success of steam. Ease of access, a strong network effect, word of mouth from satisfied customers, a strong ecosystem of tools and a modding platform, willingness to work across many platforms and a variety of vendors including competitors, and more.

Boiling this down to one factor of “too many people pirate” is dramatic oversimplification.

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cogogo 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I grew up playing pirated games on the Apple II 35 years ago. The fact that many people pirate is not an opinion.

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dmantis 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It doesn't prove that DRM free is not a viable business.

I also grew up pirating, but I haven't been pirating games for more than 10 years now.

A few bucks costs much less to me these days than a headache with finding a cracked version and installing potential malware on my computer. Not even talking about supporting the artists and developers.

Gabe is right that piracy is a service problem. If you have proper easy installers, easy buying, easy refunds and you are from a middle class and higher - it doesn't make sense to download random executables from the internet. And if you have low-income, you won't buy stuff regardless of DRM and just wait someone to crack it.

	▲	djtango an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah this - people who grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s now have significant disposable income and are time poor. A game that offers tens or hundreds of hours of entertainment is seriously cost effective when a movie ticket costs half a videogame or a round of drinks. Malware is potentially very expensive if you have any capital (tradfi or defi) that is anywhere near your gaming rig. Even a brokerage of 5 figures isn't worth touching something that could have malware. Most the games young players play are all service oriented games anyway
	▲	2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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Sayrus 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

People pirate Steam Games anyway. Stating that people pirate too much to make it viable is purely opinion and not based on numbers. Sure, for AAA games you get 2 to 3 months without a cracked version, but this stops afterward. For non-AAA games, the steam version is usually crackable from day-1.

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CDRdude 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

“Many people pirate” is a different statement than “too many people pirate games to make that a viable business”.

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nalekberov an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Games are cracked at day one, sometimes hours after. Apparently DRM is not a solution here. If pirates know that, people at Valve certainly do.

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ekianjo 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Piracy is much less endemic nowadays.

	▲	Ygg2 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, because rather than pirating from cracxxxed.warez I can buy the game on Steam/GoG sale for $1.4.