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PC-Gaming came really far in the last 10 years with the help of Steam
- Thread starter Chairmanchuck (另一个我)
- Start date
Thank you for obliging my request. Personally, while I wouldn't go as far as to say that Valve saved PC gaming, they deserve all the credit for shaping PC gaming to what it is today. Digital distribution was inevitable, someone else would have figured it out eventually, but only Valve was willing to act as a steward of PC gaming.
For every other big company in the space, PC gaming was of secondary or tertiary importance. In the late 00s Valve devoted itself fully to PC gaming and it started transforming Steam from a store to a platform. There were plenty of other digital distributors around but Valve is unique in that they went to great lengths to expand the audience and improve the customer experience. So I would say that while PC gaming would still exist in 2022 had Valve never existed, it wouldn't be as big, as feature rich, as easy to use, as diverse and as expansive as it is today.
Now, if you want some interesting numbers, here's a chart of console gaming's growth each year from 2014 to today:
Global: video game consoles revenue growth 2028 | Statista
In 2023, the global video gaming console market is projected to increase by 4.3 percent compared to the previous year.www.statista.com
As you can see, the typical growth rates are between 5-10%, with 2020 at 19% due to the pandemic. This is a Forbes article back from 2011 discussing Steam's growth:
Valve And Steam Worth Billions
The digital distributor and videogame publisher remains private, and "tremendously profitable".www.forbes.com
So as you can see, Steam's growth rate far, far outpaced typical console growth rates. A clear indication that Valve basically created a new market.
I can't access the Statista chart, so would be great if you have some alternate link or DM if possible. That growth number (with no metric mentioned, profit/renevue/ARPU?) is from 2011, and I am quite sure its nowhere near that in recent years.
That said, Steam obviously has great consumer experience. My point is, replace Steam with Amazon in your comment (and from pc gaming to online shopping) and it would make almost exact sense. So, did Amazon benefit from online shopping boom or was it one of the causal agents for that boom? I would say Amazon benefited from an eventuality (people moving towards online shopping) and being in the right place at the right time, just like Steam. People can credit Amazon, in that case we can just agree to disagree.
Edit - That said, the sheer amount of features that Steam has bought to PC users do deserve credit. I would agree that without Steam, while the market would be similarly sized, the PC users may not have a store that is as feature rich as Steam. But personally I would have preferred having multiple competing storefronts on an open platform. It's not a knock on Steam, but rather the sorry state of competition in PC space.
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Here's one for the console industry starting in 2011:
Global console & PC gaming market value worldwide by format 2025 | Statista
In 2022, total console gaming market sales amounted to 28.6 billion U.S.
www.statista.com
You can believe what you want and the people that lived through it know what they know.
If someone cares enough they might provide you with data.
That is quite the twist of whatever was being said.
I remember working for the company that was hosting 4 of the 7 european Steam content servers and the masterserver for gameserver authentifications around 2004/2005 in our single datacenter.
We had a power outage and basically half of europe lost access to all Steam downloads for a day and most Counterstrike servers were inaccessable. Fun times when Steam was relatively small.
We had a power outage and basically half of europe lost access to all Steam downloads for a day and most Counterstrike servers were inaccessable. Fun times when Steam was relatively small.
do I sound really old when I mention that games on discs would frequently not include all of the runtime dependencies? and they either didn't tell you, or I was too dumb as a kid to figure it out for a while. iirc steam really standardized this in the late 00s by installing all of that shit with every game, and imo that was a critical turning point in getting more people to play PC.
but yea, if its not on steam in any capacity, I'll probably pass. if its on steam but I also need your launcher, I'll play ball. EA has me on Origin and Ubi has me on uplay only because they were needed in addition to steam. as a result, ive bought shit on their stores, which in a roundabout way has Valve contributing to the overall market.
microsoft also deserves some credit overall, despite all of their mistakes. committing all of their xbox titles to PC, on steam and gamepass, is huge within the past ~5 or so years now. with win11 and my comfy couch setup, its almost indiscernible from my series x, outside of the obvious windows desktop vs xbox dashboard.
but yea, if its not on steam in any capacity, I'll probably pass. if its on steam but I also need your launcher, I'll play ball. EA has me on Origin and Ubi has me on uplay only because they were needed in addition to steam. as a result, ive bought shit on their stores, which in a roundabout way has Valve contributing to the overall market.
microsoft also deserves some credit overall, despite all of their mistakes. committing all of their xbox titles to PC, on steam and gamepass, is huge within the past ~5 or so years now. with win11 and my comfy couch setup, its almost indiscernible from my series x, outside of the obvious windows desktop vs xbox dashboard.
Clearly. People have brought up articles and charts meanwhile the poster dismisses them cuz apparently they had a crystal ball this entire time where the PC marketplace would completely undeniably stay the exact same currently if Steam never existed and any ol' company was in its place.
Truly living up to the username.
This thread is rehashing a lot of the debate about the Great Man theory of history vs a more structuralist/materialist view of it. Suffice it to say history is often inevitable, but the details depend a lot on the people in charge. By all accounts, Valve have been able stewards of history.
Hopefully soon, but they haven't updated their "after Deck" time table at all.
I remember the early Steam days/HL2 launch, but back then I was a kid and I didn't own my own computer, so I'd ride my bike to a local PC gaming cafe and play there. That's where I first learned of games like CounterStrike and Unreal Tournament. And also where my energy drink addiction started lol
I was mainly a console gamer because of the lower cost of entry, but I was always envious of PC gamers and their ability to toggle settings, add mods, etc. Once Japanese games like Final Fantasy, Valkyria Chronicles and Dark Souls started showing up on Steam, that's when I knew I had to make the switch. I started with a budget gaming laptop until 2020 when I finally built my first desktop gaming PC.
I was mainly a console gamer because of the lower cost of entry, but I was always envious of PC gamers and their ability to toggle settings, add mods, etc. Once Japanese games like Final Fantasy, Valkyria Chronicles and Dark Souls started showing up on Steam, that's when I knew I had to make the switch. I started with a budget gaming laptop until 2020 when I finally built my first desktop gaming PC.
Yep, same here. Consoles are still for exclusives though, but yeah.
Here's one for the console industry starting in 2011:
Global console & PC gaming market value worldwide by format 2025 | Statista
In 2022, total console gaming market sales amounted to 28.6 billion U.S.
Thanks! Do you know Steam and PC revenue growth on the same timeframe? I am not sure if there are Steam revenue, or Steam as a per percentage of PC revenue numbers right?
In any case, I would say we would roughly agree that PC would have been a big upward trajectory regardless of storefront, and disagree on Steam's importance on that.
Why, when people have more disposable income they spend more on luxury stuff (that is what gaming is for most of the world).That, unlike the arguments professing Steam's importance, is backed by decades of social research. I am still waiting for data that actually shows PC growth is not secular but dependent on Steam.
I assume I don't have to respond to you again since you are only interested in bandwagoning instead of actually showing some data. The OP (and Alexandros for console data) actually showed some data, which while inconsistent for Chinese market, actually shows a geniune attempt at dialogue. Unlike you.
I gave you Steam revenue growth numbers for that time period. Steam was experiencing 200% growth at a time when the console industry experienced a drop in revenue. I don't have specific numbers for PC gaming but here are some statistics for gaming in general.
Video Game Industry Statistics, Trends and Data In 2024
Looking for statistics on the video game industry? Check out our video game statistics in 2024 including breakdowns for mobile, esports, and much more.
www.wepc.com
Every data point is showing Steam growing at a disproportionately large rate compared to anyone else on the market.
No, I wouldn't say I agree with that and none of the available data supports it. PC gaming's explosive growth should be attributed directly to Valve. Without Valve PC gaming still exists but it is nowhere near as big as it is today and most certainly not as diverse in terms of the types of games being offered. Without Valve, PC gaming would likely be an almost exclusively F2P and indie market.
yeah but if steam didnt exist, this hypothetical company in my head would've done exactly what steam did, so checkmate
I like when threads are dominated by one person who is clearly way too deluded and has a massive bone to pick and everyone is debating with them. Person keeps making inane points and providing no data whatsoever, then debatelording everyone else who actually provide data for their claims. Shit like this is why there is no PC community left on this site btw. PC threads would constantly get derailed by delusional concern trolls with no moderation in sight whereas the same behavior would swiftly eat a ban in console threads.
Without the dual influences of Steam and the indie explosion brought on by the XBLA most games I enjoy probably wouldn't exist except for like my weird map staring games
I gave you Steam revenue growth numbers for that time period. Steam was experiencing 200% growth at a time when the console industry experienced a drop in revenue. I don't have specific numbers for PC gaming but here are some statistics for gaming in general.
Video Game Industry Statistics, Trends and Data In 2024
Looking for statistics on the video game industry? Check out our video game statistics in 2024 including breakdowns for mobile, esports, and much more.
Every data point is showing Steam growing at a disproportionately large rate compared to anyone else on the market.
No, I wouldn't say I agree with that and none of the available data supports it. PC gaming's explosive growth should be attributed directly to Valve. Without Valve PC gaming still exists but it is nowhere near as big as it is today and most certainly not as diverse in terms of the types of games being offered. Without Valve, PC gaming would likely be an almost exclusively F2P and indie market.
The quote from Gabe you shared wrt 200% growth is from 2011. I am not sure how are you extrapolating that to 11 more years. It's not surprising that data regarding Steam is hard to come by since it is a privately held company (before anyone mentions, Epic too is). Chinese data that was shared by OP countered itself and growth numbers shared here are from 11 years ago. We can probably agree to disagree on this then.
As I said in many comments earlier, this isn't an opinion just regarding Steam, but like similarly placed companies in many diverse fields like Google for search, Amazon for shopping, and so on.A single company dominating a space never works out in the long run, but credit to Steam they have been as customer oriented as Amazon has been. This thread kind of proves that point too.
Finally, its obvious to see lack of factual data on PC market size due to companies like Valve and Epic being privately owned.
Please do report and tell me exactly how exact you felt offended. I am a new user here so I am not sure what made you so hyper when it's just a different way of thinking of first mover advantage. And as I said multiple times, same argument works for many different companies in far more important fields of tech, like Google and Amazon, and I hold same opinions on them too.
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No, that's not at all true. When replying to another user, you specifically asked for data that showed Steam's growth being bigger than gaming's overall normal growth. I gave you exactly that, from the period of time that Steam started becoming the behemoth it is today. This Is why I asked you if you have a PC gaming background: That specific time period of the late 00s to early 10s is by far the most indicative of Steam's enormous impact. PC gaming was at its lowest point and Valve completely turned that around.
So I would say it is time for you to stop asking for data and present your own. I gave you a lot of numbers and stats that support my position. Do you have anything that backs yours?
Please tell me in which country the economy is so much better right now, because in mine people certainly had more disposable income before
I don't know where you live, but it's impossible to dismiss Steam impact on poor countries. I have never owned or saw a original game before it exploded, now I have a 2000+ games library.
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Watching VNs go from having to buy the JP version and wait on a fan-translation group to being inundated with them on Steam has been great. I remember the start with groups like Sekai Project having to do kickstarters for localizations and also having to go through Steam Greenlight at the same time. Those doing well really kicked off Japanese publishers starting to take an interest in getting their VNs on Steam.
Maybe a bit too well with how many trashy VNs are on there now though.
Where did I say that? Please highlight that. The goal post has been moved from China (wrong numbers wrt Steam), piracy (no data because it is a complex issue), and their cut (where I already said its difficult to say for sure one way or another without Steam's margin which no one outside the company knows).
So let me ask this, do you credit Google for growth in internet search and Amazon for online shopping? If you do then its the exact same argument and we can just disagree on that.
Here you go:
I'd be happy to oblige as doon as you present data that supports your position. Do you have any?
I'd be happy to oblige as doon as you present data that supports your position. Do you have any?
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User Banned (Permanent): Troll account, abuse of the report system.
Total console market comes to roughly $57bn in 2021. As per Statista PC gaming as a whole is $44.6bn. Now, tencent and NetEase have significant PC business too. That means Valve's revenue is less than $8bn, which would correspond to less than 1/5th of entire PC market.
Valve Corporation - Wikipedia
Now, how does a company that doesn't even have 1/5th of PC market revenue be majorly responsible for a secular growth of PC market?
Owning a pc just makes sense, there are so many things you can do besides just game on Steam but Valve definitely made the best store to purchase and play video games and also never budged to ask for online fees for their games. It's crazy to me how much worse the other stores are in comparison. It's like they're not even trying.
And nowadays pc games evolved even further, all Xbox games are day 1 pc releases (including Steam and gamepass), Sony bringing their hits too (slowly but with a lot of care in a quality port) and Switch games run games day 1 better on pc and with ultra high resolution.
It's a damn good platform.
And nowadays pc games evolved even further, all Xbox games are day 1 pc releases (including Steam and gamepass), Sony bringing their hits too (slowly but with a lot of care in a quality port) and Switch games run games day 1 better on pc and with ultra high resolution.
It's a damn good platform.
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But you said Steam is a monopoly, now they're small...
OP
OP
Apparently you did not read the other ones like console makers releasing games on Steam, devs from Africa, Asia, South Asia etc. releasing games on Steam or the revival of old dead genres.
There is literally only one paragraph about adult games.
Of course we were. It's why I refused to reply back to that dork. Having folks around scrummaging around for data and proof all in a meanwhile for them to just say "nah that aint it" while not submitting their own...
so, did you just stop reading the OP after the first point they made?
Tbf Steam can be small or large all in one cycle, depending on certain factors like temperature or pressure. So I understand the confusion.
Lord Gaben and Godd Howard rezzed a dead PC gaming industry. Anti-consumer DRM nearly killed off the PC market as surely as it almost killed off Xbox one. Steam fwiw manages DRM better but also gives the consumers the benefit of keeping your game ownership in the "cloud" so you don't have to rebuy games.
Using logic of those troll arguments...
Most liked sportsperson: What did they do? If not them, someone (imaginary) would have done same thing.
Book loved by millions: Why should author of that book get any credit? If not them, other imaginary authors would have wrote same book.
One of the most popular songs: Why give credit to creator? Any other non-existent person could have created that song instead.
Outcome in alternate timeline would have been same. I know it because I have superpowers.
Most liked sportsperson: What did they do? If not them, someone (imaginary) would have done same thing.
Book loved by millions: Why should author of that book get any credit? If not them, other imaginary authors would have wrote same book.
One of the most popular songs: Why give credit to creator? Any other non-existent person could have created that song instead.
Outcome in alternate timeline would have been same. I know it because I have superpowers.
It's funny, PC was hardly even a viable platform for me for the longest time. Now it's slowly becoming my preferred platform for gaming. Times, and I, have changed, indeed.