this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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It’s probably the refund.
You're likely right. If I recall correctly, the decision to do a refund is entirely steam's and the publisher has no choice but to foot the bill because of steam's tos. To add to that, refunds don't include the 30% cut steam makes on the sale, so the publisher actually loses that money if they have to cover a refund.
Say the game costs $50. Steam takes $15 of that and the other $35 goes to the publisher. If steam decides a refund is in order, the publisher must pay back all $50.
So yeah, Sony was losing money for every copy that got refunded due to a reason steam found justified. Given the sheer publicity of this whole thing, someone up top probably realized that if they carried through with it it'd cost way more than the pennies they'd squeeze per player by force linking their accounts.
People shit talk steam being a tyrannical monopoly all the time, but they are pretty consistent when it comes to treating their users fairly. This is a prime example of steam using its leverage to stop something really shitty.
I love steam. I'm okay with the monopoly until it stops protectecting its users.
The reason steam has managed to remain consistently relevant and beloved by its users is for sure the fact that it is not a public company, but owned by nerds and the people working there. Makes for a great employee retention, and without being hounded by shareholders they can operate properly and with long term plans.
Yep. If they ever go public, we're all fucked. Shareholders and quarterly reports ruin everything.
Was thinking the same thing. If steam goes public and gaben moves on to whatever, enshittification will begin.
God, hopefully someone else can take up the torch if that ever happens.
Yeah. Part of me is uneasy with the monopoly, but unless they start abusing it I don't think there's really a problem. Besides, they're not the same as a railway: nothing's stopping a game company from directly providing executable downloads, and some do.
I watched a few videos of some indie dev team as they released a game. It basically boiled down to wishlisting is a huge plus, and issuing refunds is the biggest thing you can do to hurt a company.
So what you are saying is... refund the game. Then buy it again? ;)
Steam might not have considered refunds if it wasn't for the tidal wave of negative feedback. So users' collective action is worth something.
Honestly if steam did not start issuing refunds, I dont think that Sony would have changed their mind.
What was the plan exactly? Force gamers into the Sony ecosystem, overload their email with advertising, make them switch to playstation and profit? Sounds like something the marketing guys would dream up.
The plan is to make some number go up.
Some completely random number, that we have no chance to guess from the outside. It probably did go up, because those people are very competent on making random numbers go up.