this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Gabe Newell says no-one in the industry thought Steam would work as a distribution platform—'I'm not talking about 1 or 2 people, I mean like 99%' (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 1 month ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 57 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (38 children)

He's right. Everyone hated the idea of any always online DRM to play the disc you bought in a store. Steam backed off with options for a game to sometimes work offline and a pinky promise to free your games if Gaben died and the new owner decided you own nothing.

It's weird, people hate the current DRM system for games and love Steam. Yet it was Steam that pioneered it. If Steam failed, there's a chance we would still own games instead of them being tied to online DRM verification.

Steam is the benevolent dictator but that's not going to last forever.

[–] usrtrv@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, that's what consumers like you are thinking in hindsight and unrelated.

The context Gabe is talking about is when he was approaching publishers. They were just being anti tech and believing in traditional brick and mortar. They were definently pro-DRM. They just couldn't fathom a digital marketplace.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Maybe you weren't old enough to remember it, but people were pissed and swore they would forever boycott Steam when it released

[–] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 month ago

I indeed was one of them. Managed to boycott until left4dead2. Then i caved in. The war was lost anyway. And now i have easily put 5 figures into steam and own nothing.

[–] usrtrv@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

But it's not what the quote is talking about. You're just correlating different things.

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