Last year, they all came crawlin' back to Steam, and this year was another strong one for Valve.

From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin’ back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

  • Nommer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1583·
    11 months ago

    Epic bought rocket league and promptly tanked it in favor of their stupid fortniteverse. Maybe steam keeps winning because they’re not actively screwing over their customers.

    • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      201·
      11 months ago

      Or Pheonix Point, where Epic bought an kickstarter game that was funded under the promise of releasing on Steam, GOG and potentially other stores and promptly made it exclusive - and this was in the early days when their launcher/store was in a much worse state too.

    • dumpsterlid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      11 months ago

      Rocket League is such an easy slam dunk of a game. The mechanics are so good there should be a family of game modes (like Turbo Golf Racing) that surround the core game mode that have spawned entirely new genres of car games by now. Almost no other video game has a core gamefeel as locked in as Rocket League and honestly Epic should be ashamed Rocket League isnt a household name like minecraft by now.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      11 months ago

      Epic bought rocket league and promptly tanked it in favor of their stupid fortniteverse.

      Sadly Valve is guilty of a similar thing. Valve bought Campo Santo and (at least that’s the public statement) the developers were free to work on whatever projects and chose HL Alyx instead of that new game after Firewatch. Game development gets cancelled all the time and perhaps the new game just wasn’t that good.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
      915·
      11 months ago

      There must be more to success than that, because Valve likewise bought Campo Santo, the developer of Firewatch, and now their next game is all but canceled. These companies can’t help but focus on their big money makers at the expense of all else.

      • Nommer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        341·
        11 months ago

        All I can find about their next game is called “In the Valley of Gods” which looks like it is still being developed. What game was cancelled? Also how is that the same as buying an IP then running it into the ground so their main IP can get a mildly popular game mode that will likely be forgotten about in a couple months? I’m already bored of rocket racing and I only installed it because a friend kept begging me to play fortnite zero build which I also don’t enjoy.

        • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
          83·
          11 months ago

          It is on indefinite hold. It is still being “developed” in the same way Valve won’t confirm or deny the existence or cancelation of Half-Life 2 Episode 3/Half Life 3, but articles I’ve read previously essentially confirm that no one has been working on it for years.

          I’ll happily eat my words if the game does come out because Firewatch was a beautiful game that left me wanting more, but Valve’s internal development structure doesn’t really encourage passion projects.

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
            51·
            11 months ago

            but Valve’s internal development structure doesn’t really encourage passion projects.

            Could you elaborate?

    • Bazoogle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      718·
      11 months ago

      Maybe steam keeps winning because they’re not actively screwing over their customers

      Idk, they are kinda screwing over the publishers. But that doesn’t impact the users buying the game, so they don’t care. Which I guess the percentage they take is worth the value they bring, given so many keep selling on steam.