Most updates takes years? What are you referring to here?
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Why nobody bothers to improve their game platforms, while Steam improves despite being THE leading platform (Valve revamped soundtrack feature)
- Thread starter Arthands
- Start date
I just wish they put as much effort into SteamOS. One of the big stumbling blocks for me getting back into PC Gaming is the upfront cost and hassle of Windows. If someone made a Gaming-focused operating system and made it either free or less than $50 that would be stellar. Streamline everything like the console experience and remove all the complications that PC Gaming brings.
As much as I do appreciate Steam having no fault refunds (and I am super digging the soundtrack additions to the store), wasn't that something that effectively had to be forced onto the service due to...I think it was the EU getting really mad at Valve over Steam not having refunds?
Or was that Australia?
Or was that Australia?
I'm familiar with this, of course, but I'm not seeing the whole idea behind "we have to wait years before this service gets updates". We're seeing constant updates and changes we don't see on any other platform, so I don't really see the relevant critique here.Valve Time - Valve Developer Community
developer.valvesoftware.com
It would feel weird if this was applied only to Steam and not to other platforms selling downloadable games, so I assume it's not true. Surely this would be the case with Ubisoft, Sony etcetera otherwise too. I think they just might have followed the lead of Origin and GoG that started offering refunds before them and made their own version of it.
Edit: Actually, I found an article mentioning "On the surface this change brings Steam up to code in many European countries that require this by law". Curious how this isn't the case with everyone then. I'd appreciate additional info if anyone has it.
Big changes to UI, Big screen UI took 20+ months after first reveal to have its first beta.
From 2003 to 2020 most larger updates and additions to the store took YEARS between, chat between users was the same for about 10 years and only had it first real update last year.
It took about 15 years to take off the "do you have a 56K modem" option when you installed steam.
I was just saying that in hint sight saying that Valve has a solid store is fine and all but it took 17 years to get there.
If you played games in 2003 on steam you hated it as much as I did every day in that time period.
I'm sure you probably mean huge, enormous updates or something but Steam is by far the most frequently updated PC platform that exists (https://store.steampowered.com/news/?feed=steam_client). Many of the updates with the biggest downstream impact would not be noticed by the consumer as they are often focused on providing value for developers. Valve has arguably done more good for PC gaming than any other company ever.
Yeah. Honestly I'd love to talk about Steam (or EGS, or Steam and EGS) but by the time I get on Era and see these threads, interesting and measured posts have already been drowned by the noise and passive-aggressive posts deriding any adverse opinion. It's a bit sad.
There are pretty interesting discussions to have on these subjects, but they could really do without all the partisan bullshit, internet hyperbole and drive-by posts.
I couldn't disagree more. EGS's "cleaner" because there's literally nothing to show.
Scroll down the page as outdated info still sits around. Not even a sales page. Just pictures of full priced games that you need to go to another site to learn about.
It's no effort garbage. If that's "modern" then I'll happily take the old fashioned style that divulges information instead of a big picture surrounded by nothing.
User Banned (5 Days): Platform Warring; Prior Bans for Similar Behavior
PC Master race Fanboys are THE worst🌚 I mean really? Adding a worse Soundtrack Feature is that amazing to you, that you arrogantly have to trash other Plattforms?
And to the topic, yeah I agree with the majority here Spotify is way better.
And to the topic, yeah I agree with the majority here Spotify is way better.
Yes the things that most users would notice indeed big updates.
And I totally agree that Valve did more for pc gaming then any other company is its history.
MS only contribution since 2000 is making the 360 pad the "gold standaard" for pc gaming and that is about it when it comes to big shifts for the platform.
I would prefer to decide for myself if I want to buy a "shit game", or Early Access, or not.
To be honest Valve is probably the only company whose scale is large enough that trying to expand into digital audio sales like this is actually feasible, so obviously it benefits them to decouple it from games sales. If they can sell fucking fake trading cards they can sell music.
Big UI changes do take time though. Where can we see these things taking less time?
And I really don't see how an 56K option is an issue; it's rather harmless and not a thing that required 15 years of active development.
What if other platforms are trash and OP is pointing that out? Not saying that every other platform is trash. There are one or two which are, though.
To be fair, thread title is somewhat polemic because I don't think they simply "don't bother". I guess OP's point is that they really take their time on improving their platforms in such small steps that it feels like they don't bother.
Green man Gaming tried that and it didn't work out
Green Man Gaming exec explains how digital trade-ins work
Ever since Green Man Gaming announced its plans for digital trade-ins last week, we've been scratching our heads and spinning the ol' think meat trying to understand how it's gonna work. Lucky for us then that GamesIndustry.biz got a couple of execs from the company to break down how it all...
www.engadget.com
I'm not sure why they stopped though i'd guess it was the lack of publisher support
Nope. It was basically a rule of the Australian board which they adopted (it is sad it took that for them to put a good refund policy). The sad thing is that most of these ruling are against PC distribution platform and not on consoles (for fucks sakes, Nintendo technically won a case in a lower court in Europe not to refund PREORDERS).
Seriously it is annoying how all the console platforms just dont listen to those rulings and just roll on their own.
It was an example.
Agreed was just pointing out that it was not all made in a day and that Valve does take very long time and EGS in just over a year old it takes time to build and make it better that is all :)
Yeah that's really confusing to me then, I really don't understand how that stuff works at all. One would think that same laws would apply to all.
Not the first time similar happens in a PC related thread here, lol.
Back in 2010 too. And I never even heard of it. How long did it exist?Green man Gaming tried that and it didn't work out
Green Man Gaming exec explains how digital trade-ins work
Ever since Green Man Gaming announced its plans for digital trade-ins last week, we've been scratching our heads and spinning the ol' think meat trying to understand how it's gonna work. Lucky for us then that GamesIndustry.biz got a couple of execs from the company to break down how it all...
I'm not sure why they stopped though i'd guess it was the lack of publisher support
IMO your pos is extremely disegenious.
Valve in 2003 was a pioneer in the steam store. Nowdays EGS has a template they could just copy. The fact that that EGS doesn't even have a shopping basket, imo, shows how much effort/budget EPIC invested in their store.
IMo saying that EGS (or other platforms) will eventually reach steam features seems dishonest, maybe irrialistic at best.
Look at most other platforsm, such as uplay, origin, GFWL and microsft store. None of those are following steam.
Even GOG which is the more consumer friendly store hasn't followed steam features (through they do make their games as compatible as possible)
What evidence is there that EGS will reach steam feature set? they fail their own roadmap...
I didn't know that existed at some point, interesting.Green man Gaming tried that and it didn't work out
Green Man Gaming exec explains how digital trade-ins work
Ever since Green Man Gaming announced its plans for digital trade-ins last week, we've been scratching our heads and spinning the ol' think meat trying to understand how it's gonna work. Lucky for us then that GamesIndustry.biz got a couple of execs from the company to break down how it all...
I'm not sure why they stopped though i'd guess it was the lack of publisher support
I do think it would need to have to work without the store trying to sell the idea to publishers and rather just accepting the costs themselves.
OP must not remember when Uplay forced you to launch a game to patch it. I want to say even within this generation.
The short answer though is, largely, most of them want to be the vehicle for their 5-8 games a year, while Steam wants to be a general PC hub (and often is, even if things like videos failed).
The soundtrack / music stuff is hardly what I'd be using as an example though. It's still basic and a mess, and offers little incentive over the various music industry focused apps out there. EA isn't selling you Battlefield 1 OST on Origin because it knows nobody is going to buy it there.
The short answer though is, largely, most of them want to be the vehicle for their 5-8 games a year, while Steam wants to be a general PC hub (and often is, even if things like videos failed).
The soundtrack / music stuff is hardly what I'd be using as an example though. It's still basic and a mess, and offers little incentive over the various music industry focused apps out there. EA isn't selling you Battlefield 1 OST on Origin because it knows nobody is going to buy it there.
We can't talking about other platforms without turning Valve into an evil force.
I'm not sure, it's surprisingly difficult to find any articles or discussion about them closing the program.
I remember they got some attention when they launched the program with free games that could be traded in but after that I stopped paying attention
If the publisher doesn't agree to it they could just stop business with them and not give them keys to sell to begin with
And the keys would need to be deactivated, I think, to be re sold as "used"
maybe, I still don't understand it
Here's an article explaining it
Green Man's Gian Luzio & Paul Sulyok
As a new digital games retail business, Green Man Gaming might not have received as much attention as it did last week …
www.gamesindustry.biz
It's kinda interesting that people are saying Spotify is better, when artist literally get jack shit from your plays (numbers used to be between $0.006 and $0.0084 per play, and that's before record label etc.). Just buy the soundtrack from Steam or Bandcamp, thus you're supporting the artist way more than you would via Spotify.
But really happy that Steam did the soundtrack update, especially now that you don't have to download the game to get the music. Now just the long wait for devs/pubs to make the edit for their soundtracks to be apps, same as the new art for the library. But now those bundle packages with soundtracks are so much better, especially if they offer more than just plain mp3 files.
But really happy that Steam did the soundtrack update, especially now that you don't have to download the game to get the music. Now just the long wait for devs/pubs to make the edit for their soundtracks to be apps, same as the new art for the library. But now those bundle packages with soundtracks are so much better, especially if they offer more than just plain mp3 files.
You can download the soundtrack via the client and transfer the files (mp3's or flac's) to your phone.
Wait, when is uPlay supposed to not do this anymore? It just did that again when I wanted to just update The Division 2 when I reinstalled it.
How 2004 of them. I hope Valve updates their mobile app at some point this decade to support this feature. It's too good to waste it like that.
Judging by a quick google it was probably fixed in 2015 (all the complaints / questions about it are from around 2014).
Granted, it might be timing based / dependent on how often you run Uplay (similar to how Steam schedules updates sometimes rather than forces them all right away). I know I've been annoyed by my disck space running empty because of an auto patch of AC Odyssey taking up a million gigs before, so it should be on most of their modern titles.
You can refund any DLC as long as you havent played more than 2 hours since buying it... so yes? There might be restrictions on other stuff such as download tho.
How often do you stare at the UI? I use it to select a game I own or download a game. Sometimes i use the in game overlay.
to me they're all just different. Except for the epic launcher that is shite.
to me they're all just different. Except for the epic launcher that is shite.
No luck finding anything either. I guess they just shut down the service without anyone even noticing.
I don't really use Origin or Uplay, but GOG and EGS continue to improve. GOG 2.0 is quite enlightening for me from a library organization perspective across PC and console, even though I don't use it as an intermediary launcher.
I mean, when dismissive language like "nobody bothers" is used, it's easy to see why it would.
Why do you think that's the only reason why people would listen to the music? Why can't soundtracks be enjoyed on their own?
Hm, that sounds kind of judgy tbh. Not very fair to the artists writing and producing those soundtracks.
EGS isn't competing with 2003 steam, it's competing with 2019 steam. There's a difference when it's lacking basic features than it's not acceptable and should be called out accordingly. They don't get a pass for having a half assed store.
I have nothing against buying soundtracks on Steam, though I'm almost certain I never have. Nonetheless I still own dozens of them through Humble bundles or special editions or Kickstarter rewards. So I guess anything that makes them easier for me to listen to is welcome.
Because there's at least one OST (I assume there's more than that) that isn't on Bandcamp or have physical copies out there, and come with lossless audio. Like case in point, the RE7 soundtrack in Steam, gives FLAC (and AAC) files also.
And as I much as I do love buying music from Bandcamp, I do wonder how long it will be on. I still remember the loss of Loudr.FM and the albums I had there. Though, this issues is easily fixed with backing my shit up.
In my particular case, I can buy stuff on Steam a lot more easily than I can on Amazon, Bandcamp, etc. Steam supports payment methods from my region, those other sites do not.
Honestly this has been my only gripe with other storefronts. Valve despite being the leader is still adding, updating, trying to improve features. While everyone else seems to be coasting and content with where their platform is at which is why I don't see them as proper competition to Steam. In any other industry the newcomers would be doing rapid iteration and feature adding to get to semi-parity and adding features not found on the leading platform. That's kind of how you overtake the leading platform.
EGS has just been stagnant, Epic complained that discoverability on Steam is absolutely terrible but they haven't make it any better on EGS. People might think it's fine now but that's only because of how small EGS's library is at the moment. Can anyone here truly say if EGS had Steam's sheer amount of products that the way EGS is set up would be better for discoverability? Like can you truly make that argument?
Hell what was the last update to EGS? I literally hop on EGS to get the free games that I then add to Steam. And I'm not even on Steam because of friends, or my library, or anything like that. I'm on it purely because of the features is has that are missing in other platforms, as I don't want to download a bunch of third party apps and the like to mimic them. Kind of like people using Discord, Slack, Facebook Groups, Twitter Group Chats just to do online gaming and voice chat with one another on Switch because Switch's OS doesn't really handle any of that well. I personally don't care about having a bunch of launchers on my machine so new storefronts popping up isn't too too annoying to me, but I feel like many of these other companies are doing just that, making a basic storefront and not a platform like Valve and Steam.
EGS has just been stagnant, Epic complained that discoverability on Steam is absolutely terrible but they haven't make it any better on EGS. People might think it's fine now but that's only because of how small EGS's library is at the moment. Can anyone here truly say if EGS had Steam's sheer amount of products that the way EGS is set up would be better for discoverability? Like can you truly make that argument?
Hell what was the last update to EGS? I literally hop on EGS to get the free games that I then add to Steam. And I'm not even on Steam because of friends, or my library, or anything like that. I'm on it purely because of the features is has that are missing in other platforms, as I don't want to download a bunch of third party apps and the like to mimic them. Kind of like people using Discord, Slack, Facebook Groups, Twitter Group Chats just to do online gaming and voice chat with one another on Switch because Switch's OS doesn't really handle any of that well. I personally don't care about having a bunch of launchers on my machine so new storefronts popping up isn't too too annoying to me, but I feel like many of these other companies are doing just that, making a basic storefront and not a platform like Valve and Steam.
