Kinda sad Incogni feel the need to put you through hoops to cancel your subscription having to write an email to them instead of just letting you cancel your sub in your user panel, i have no respect for a company who feels the need to make cancelling your subscription annoying, big L :l
There's a consequence you didn't cover, that is definitely going to play in the minds of C:S2 players. Fans may not care that they have to wait another year. But if the items get refunded, that means they will have to repurchase at the time it _does_ come out, and you can bet on it that will be at a higher price. So imho valve should leave refund optional, at the customer's discretion during the entire period of delay.
Pray that valve maintains its ethos after GabeN ascends to heaven God Willing. Too few corporations can even come close to being called ethical, valve is certainly one of them
His son is likely to take up the mantle, and from what I've heard, his son takes after Gabe pretty well. So I have optimism that we'll have Valve as the good guy for a while at least.
Yeah good guy valve that started loot boxes in the west, that cleafied that they are selling you the license of the games, and made the pc gaming environment into a walled garden. And takes 30% person of the game revenue. And their full name is Valve Corporation. Yes is a private company but it is still a corporation. Also the only reason it has refunds cause it lost a legal battle in Australia. In 2016.
Yeah, like how overwatch charged ppl for ow2 single player... then changed the game to free to play... only to cut development on the single player and add it back in as a paid add-on. 😡TF
Good guy valve? if Valve was the good guy, they wouldn't be renting out games at full price. If you aren't using the GOG model you are not the good guy.
Steam actually is pro players - I lately bought a game a few minutes after release, a few minutes later the discount started and steam AUTOMATICALLY refunded me the difference of the missed discount
@StreetSurfersAlex I had a full price game that I had for a week, played longer than 2 hours, when it went on sale for 50% off. I asked them if they could refund the difference to my steam wallet knowing they are well within their rights and policies to say no, but to my surprise, i had it refunded within an hour. This is why I've been a customer for many years, and why I will continue to be.
never had that happen myself, but thats really awesome valve is doing that. Their customer centric focus is the reason I no longer will purchase any games that arnt on steam
if the discount takes hold a few minutes later just refund the game and buy it again valve has a specific section that talks about this and it is acceptable use of the refund policy.
The fact that Valve is leveraging their position in the games industry to move away from just being a distributor and closer towards becoming a mediator between publishers and players, because they understand that publishers have made "get an inch, take a mile" their doctrine, and that this can only be pushed so far before consumers lose faith in the industry and stop purchasing, is why I love this company. They understand how to do business and how decisions like this benefit them in the long run. Something that shareholders will never get.
Share holders get it. They just don't care because their investments are all relatively short term. If the industry burns down after they make their profits? Why should they care?
@@AsaelTheBeast That's the real difference with Valve and the companies like them. Valve is not publicly traded. The controlling interest is focused on the long term success of the company, not short term share prices. Valve also has a big financial interest in making these changes because much of their business model is based on being trusted by the customers. Shady operators make buyers less likely to risk their money next time but Valve profits most when the market is healthy and happy.
Sooner or later Gabe is going to step down, can you imagine what this company could do in hands of some feaclmater human like some of the CEOs out there ? I think every company that is beaing courently hated ware once considered inflatable but none had as much power as valve
The -esteemed- -respected- _revered_ gentleman, Saint Newell of Gabe and VALVe understand how their bread gets buttered. There is no governmental or regulatory force maintaining the Steam monopoly on PC gaming, it is the gamer's loyalty that keeps them afloat and they know it.
A very unfortunate side-effect of the way our economic system works is that public companies literally by law have to do things that make more money. This is a gross oversimplification; but basically if it's *legal* they literally HAVE to do something that makes more money. Regardless of morality, sketchiness, even just plain human decency. If it's technically legal; or even legally grey, it's all but illegal to not do it. That's really fucked up when you think about it conceptually.
@@paddycakes6244and then it becomes the governments job to set boundaries, they are the ones that decide what's illegal. The more a capitalist democratic society degenerates the more control corporations have over government, the more the average person suffers to forward the greed that is mandated by the current system. The state and future of such a society is so clearly predictable lol. The only thing you can do is try to position yourself in a way that it won't kill you when everything else crashes. You would need to figure out everything, remake everything, since its all on you once no one else is left.
The biggest issue for public company is that the ones running the company have no inherent interest in the future of the company for the long term. Quarterly growth is all that matters so that they can sell.
As Michael points out, publishers do this because buyers tolerate it. One reason I don't buy AAA games anymore (unless it's years after the fact and at a very deep discount) is because I refuse to play the big players' game by their rules. There are too many other, better games without the predatory practices.
@@SimuLord I also have stopped buying AAA titles, theyre no longer made by people that love games, just people that are interested in what money they can extract. Independent and small studios have greatly increased the game quality over the years and are actually making games that people want to buy rather than games that will just succeed off name recognition. At least things are headed int he right direction, AAA studios hemoraging money while the good game studios are making big successful games
Simple never buy pre order, never buy anything that is being vague about their contents and release date. The rules valve putting out are to protect those who are susceptible and who can't see things clearly. Of course to protect valve from people using his platform for fraud which in turn will hurt his platform. He knows who are his audience, unlike some other companies got it wrong on who is paying their bills.
There are exactly two developers on my Shut Up And Take My Money list. One is SCS Software. New map DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2? Buying it on day one. American Truck Simulator? I plan my work vacations around those (seriously, I took a week off work to do the Cruising Arkansas event on World of Trucks.) The other is Pathea Games. I bought My Time at Sandrock on Day 1 of Early Access and I backed the Kickstarter for My Time at Evershine. Everyone else? I wait for the release date, a couple of Let's Plays on UA-cam, good reviews, and a sale before I buy.
@@MikeSharpeWriter I picked up the PC version of RDR2 in 2021 for...I think it was 15 bucks? Something like that. Knew what I was getting and wasn't disappointed. Also got the deluxe edition of Witcher 3 in 2020 (great lockdown game, as it turned out!) for something like $2.50 USD. THAT was a steal.
@@SimuLord for me it’s Konami, anything they put out I’m buying on release. Used to be Bethesda too but I feel like I should have waited and gotten Star field after modding
@@Kultus1337in good ol' days you just had cheat codes for that. Free cheat codes. You're literally paying for "greedisgood 10000" cheatcode activation.
Steam: "Season passes have to state what future DLCs are included in the pass. I don't know why we even have to say this." Most Publishers: "Okay, makes sense." Escape From Tarkov Publishers: "OH, BULLS*!"
@@TheAnonLee pls explain to me because i'm stupid, but what is DRM free exactly? i heard that it was the main feature of GOG but for my limited understanding of it, most or at least a lot of games on steam is already kind of DRM free anyways? again ,pls correct me if i'm wrong because i swear, on steam i have re-downloaded some unlisted games, i have moved some game folder to another computer and played it no problem without steam, but of course i only tried it on limited amount of games so, i don't know if it's not the case for most games on steam.
@@GoodChimkin Steam is in itself a DRM, having to open the app just to download a game. Some games/apps can be start without Steam opened but in order to obtain the game in the first place, you must log into the Steam app. This is very rare however and especially with online games which require Steam to be open AND online. Unlike GoG where you can purchase a game and download the installers, never having to use their launcher.
Paradox is absolutely sweating right now. Next thing I would love to see for this to also apply to early access if you promise things to happen and they don't people should get refund. Example Kerbal Space Program. Everyone who got this game should get refund. If we bankrupt bad developers I wouldn't be too upset.
Islands of Insight: Hyped as a giant open world mmo puzzle game, it didn't actually have any meaningful player interactions and the servers had awful rubberbanding. They later added an offline mode while making the servers even worse. Said offline mode saves the entire save file EVERY SECOND, making it unplayable while burning your SSD. By now they completely got rid of multiplayer (still advertising as such). They said they fixed the offline saving issue but i'm not trusting them on that
"Paradox is absolutely sweating right now" CS2 is still the best ever city builder to date, even as janky as it is, the delay's, the, the, the, the, I will forgive them pretty much anything for giving me this, but then, without the modding community, l probably have turned my back on it ages ago, so there is that.
@@AlexanTheMan Normally just cuz I like some EA's games like Dead Space, Apex (when it was good), Need For Speed, and Jedi Fallen Order, I would've put the bet on Activision, but honestly, I'm very confident that EA will be the first one.
I can already see them trying to turn this on Valve “We feel untrusted by Steam and refuse this as it means Valve is rushing us to put out our content without it being completely done. This will result in us not being able to promise future content without the prepaid support of our consumers.” or some bs like that.
@@t3arki113r as has been pointed out, they can just refuse them any presence on the platform. There already was a time where half of these companies tried to split off from steam, and me talking in past tense is more than informative enough on how that went. They're also too rich to be gridlocked by lawyers.
Valve got taken to court in Australia by our consumer protection agency for not offering proper refunds, and lost millions. This looks like a pre-emptive strike against that happening again.
Things like these makes me FEAR for Steam for when Gabe Newell himself eventually Passes Away. I sincerely hope anyone who replaces him won't be bad or worse...! 😭
It was never going to be on Steam anyways. As money hungry as they are, why would they let Valve take part of their revenue? They have no reason to try and publish there.
Saints Row IV DLC: Enter the Dominatrix was supposed to be part of the season pass but was cut and added to the next game, they didn't even offer a discount to those that paid for the season pass .
For a decade, AAA publishers have pushed out Season Pass pre-orders 9 to 6 months before the damned thing even comes out and they even have the gall to push out "3 day Early Access" incentives in that time frame. I'm glad that Steam is finally pushing these scummy companies to ACTUALLY deliver the shit they promise instead of just asking MONEY NOW PLZ.
If you do not see the warning that comes with the early access title, that is ultimately on you for falling for those scams. If someone starts an early access project, they should be capable to work on it until it is in it’s finished state or have private keys handed to content creators to cover the current state of the game without taking the time of players. Pretty straight forward dedication and marketing for any beginner dev team.
The number one thing I want. I tolerate it when it's just a splash screen with an optional login feature, like Cyberpunk and Baldurs Gate 3, but forced logins means it's far less likely I buy the game.
"Such that soon, people will just expect shit" Soon? That's the expectation now. We already know we're going to get treated like subhuman garbage, and it's already too late to change that.
Take Two, Private Division and Kerbal Space Program 2 would definitely pass the new test right,?can't believe they weren't mentioned but that would probably be a whole extra video on the s-show
Unfortunately, those don't break the conditions of Early Access UNLESS it can be proven that the publisher never intended to release the game. That is the risk of buying EA.
isn't early access technically also a promise for future content? I hope they do offer refunds on these because I got a bone to pick with T2 interactive.
@@KOBKStreak Considering how many E.A. games never get finished because they're initially released as glorified proof-of-concept demos rather than games actually with a real, genuine roadmap to a clear vision of a 1.0 release (and beyond), shutting down Early Access may not be such a bad thing. Unless it's reformed and would-be devs are held accountable. You want to sell the promise of a future game to people? You better be ready to put your mouth where other people's money is.
@@SimuLord Then don't buy Early Access. There has to be some responsibility with the buyers AND the sellers. THAT has always been the known risk with E.A; it might not hit 1.0.
This seems like something that should have been in place a while ago. The fact that you could just not deliver on a sold good is a dereliction of duty. This is why they make more money than the developers, to be incredibly late to do anything and then be cheered as the good guys… I wouldn’t give any publisher a pat on the back for doing what they should’ve been doing all along, but Gabe be different I guess
This is gold. because these companies need the fear of loss put back into them. They have become to reliant on selling things they have not made yet, to gain the capitol to justify making them. And that's just been such a shite way to do business and invites failure that harms only the consumer. But as a consequence, harms the platforms. And in this case, Valve have taken steps to protect their platform. It's a consumer positive move, but it's not a move made altruistically. It's a move made to protect steam as a platform, because if people lose faith in steam because developers/publishers keep doing bad things like this and can just get away with it, then people will slowly move away from not just those developers but the platforms that facilitate that behavior. And I see this is going to overall be a positive for us the consumers, but it's going to take a few mishaps before it really settles in. There are going to be companies that don't take it seriously enough and screw up hard enough to make valve act on their new terms. And these refunds are going to shut someone down. That's when companies will start paying real attention. After one flies too close to the sun and pays the price.
This is a positive restriction to the companies and hopefully brings good dlcs coming to light. Can we trust those companies? Since steam is a big platform for majority of gamers on pc we have a help of father Gabe. Also, valve working on their own games "does" help. Let us hope it's not only Deadlock they are working on.
Do you keep in mind there is some ass covering going on here. Steam could be on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit and could have joint and severalable liability with a PC publisher who pulls shenanigans with the season pass and doesn't give people refunds. In which case both steam and the publisher would be liable and if the publisher couldn't pay, such as if they went bankrupt, it would all be on steam. Publishers doing season passes and then going out of business is a liability for steam. This will disincentivize them from doing that and also if they do do that, they have to put their money with their mouth is sooner rather than later.
Warner Bros already did that with Lego Worlds. A complete massive waste of potential. It's a clunky incomplete shell of what it promised. They designed it to sell DLC packs but later abandoned it completely.
Valve might not get everything right, but when they do? Mother of god, do they get it right. Now we just need them to tell third party launchers and requiring accounts for single player games to piss off.
Can you say.... 'Kerbal 2'.... Even to this day, their store page is massively misleading... To the point where at least in the UK, legal action could be taken...
That's actually good, when a game offers an item, content or a feature in a bundle or season pass then label it as "future" DLC then people buy that game because they see something in that game to look forward to, it should have an estimated deadline alongside what it contains. The moment a developer team even shows whatever "teaser" for future release or DLC they should already be confident that they can deliver that product even if it's delayed for a bit. Promises of future content or DLC's are broken in a lot of games due to many vague "future content" included in season pass or bundles and when those "future content" finally arrives, the players have already moved on to a different game because there was no clear indication time table as to when it will be added or worse, it never arrives.
Thinking about it, there might actually be a case where Valve might be found theoretically liable. In a few EU countries the seller is on the hook if the product sold is not as promised. I don't think this has actually been tested in court for games, but if they sell you a season pack with X features and the developer/publisher does not deliver, it's still valve that might be on the hook for the unfulfilled promise, though they could of course pass it on to the developer.
The digital storefront equivalent of a retail store realizing they're stocking empty boxes, and that the customers are going to be angry with them, rather than the supplier...
14:56 "It's not a slap on the wrist, it's a clear financial punishment" ... I know you're just using this as a casual phrase but boy doesn't this phrase really show the problem with the current publisher culture. Not getting the money for something you promised on but failed to deliver isn't actually a punishment at all! That's just normal behaviour. It would be a punishment if they were fined additionally (which I am not advocating for) ... I mean if I were hired by a games publisher and I promised to deliver them an amazing website for $X and they will get it in 6 months ... and then I just don't deliver it. You think I'm going to be able to be like "whoops sorry ... anyways here is your money back better luck next time" and just walk away, no they will be coming after me for breach of contract and suing me for MORE money to cover things like damages.
Gabe Newell - not the hero that gamers deserve, but one we've always needed. When all things in this ridiculous, chaotic world are misleading and exploitative, the following core truths have remained true in my life for the last 20+ years: 1) Food tastes best when it's free. 2) When raising/lowering blinds, the cord that you don't want to pull is always the one you pull first. 3) When GabeN does game things, he bloody well does them right.
They enforce that rule to protect themselves, but good thing is that it also benefits customers against publishers, who take money for the content that may never get made. And then Valve would be left to deal with refund requests. Making a clear system and setting down the rules means that publishers will be made responsible for it and if they fail to deliver, it's their breach and their backsides on the line.
"Rent-seeking" and "unpriced negative externalities" need to become common parlance, because of how perfectly they describe bad and toxic behaviors. I love it.
Remember when Bethesda released Fallout 4 & it's season pass at $30, released 1 wave of DLC, upped the price of the season pass to $50 and promissed more dlc than originally promissed, released wave 2 then cancalled wave 3 to make F76? I member.
Microsoft said I should try loading it again, as they had fixed the problems, and burn the last three minutes available to request a no question refund... so I couldn't request a refund. See the problem there? They had an hour to show me their game was worth the money and they failed.
@@gallendugall8913 no question refunds actually are 2 hours on steam, not 1 hour. So you would've been fine regardless. Less you're talking about Microsoft's policies being 1hr
I think we want to be a little careful here. Valve is not your friend. They're not fighting the big greedy corporations for the little guy. They _are_ the big greedy corporation. They make the rules, and are incentivized to make them such that they get more money. That doesn't mean this change is somehow designed to be bad for consumers, just that the reason it's good for consumers is that it's aligned with what's good for Valve. If they're not responding to external pressures here, I fully believe that it's because they see the writing on the wall, that eventually a large publisher will catastrophically fail to deliver on something that was promised in a season pass. And Valve don't want to be caught in the middle of players demanding refunds because they didn't get what they paid for, and publishers who try to back out and hide behind the vagueness of their descriptions. If Valve codifies what a season pass is, they can pass the buck to the publisher instead of being forced to choose between eating that publisher's losses for them or implicitly defending that publisher.
I never payed attention to season passes before because what I would be buying was always vague. Valve just very clearly defined what a season pass is and what the consumer should expect from them. So now I WILL pay attention to season passes because I understand what to expect from them. *Thus sales of season passes will increase.* It's not just pro-consumer. It's also a very smart business move.
So from what it looks like, as long as you don't try to sell something before it's finished then you don't have any issues. I'm sure people will be just as happy to pay for a DLC when it's ready compared to preordering it. and honestly I think this serves really well to keep companies in line. If you aren't prepared to meet a deadline, then don't put a preorder on the line
Obviously I don't want Colossal Order to go under since I do love Cities Skylines 1, their decision to push back additional content while they fix the base game IS good, but the problem is that the issues were their fault to begin with (or more likely Paradox's fault). So yeah they should have given and should give people their money back. Sad thing for them is that I don't think they will earn the money back from most players. Many feel let down by Colossal Order and some of them have straight up moved on or moved back to CS1 and aren't ready to give CO and CS2 another chance for the moment and it will take quite a while for them to change their minds, I'm thinking 2-3 years of good content and good base game improvements.
I’d imagine all devs with Season passes before this new policy started would be grandfathered out of it. But going forward this is good for us gamers. I hope other platforms decide to do a similar thing. This is good.
I love this, this is how it should have worked. There should be leeway for special cases like stalker 2 because of war, but all the greedy publishers that just are promising something that doesn't exist they deserve these punishments
I feel the key word here is Accountability. This holds developers and publishers alike accountable to the promises they make and give a clear punishment when they fail.
Valve continues to stand up against these guys to support us, it's what we need more of. I mean; *Valve won by doing nothing* *Valve won by supplying demand* *Valve won by supporting community* *Valve won by taking a loss as a learning experience* *Valve won by making long-term games* *Valve won by not making games P2W* Valve *wins* at everything, and has the long record to show it.
I agree with many companies releasing garbage to comply with "the letter of the law", still I wish there was a way to get a good spirit release the same way consumers put good faith on them delivering what they promise, otherwise it's still a biased system with companies dumping on consumers while still protected with technicalities.
Man... I still remember my first encounter with Steam. I bought a physical copy of the game RUSE and was pissed I was forced to install Steam just to play the game. Now im glad they're around and using their so-called "monopoly" to single handedly hold an entire industry to a higher standard.
No slack whatsoever. Developer's personal problems are their own, not the consumer's. I couldn't care less how messy my chef's life is, I paid for a proper meal, I expect a timely, quality product, period.
I think they should make it that if you miss your release date the players get a third of the price back per month, but still own the content. I also think that any content released that is extremely buggy should automatically allow refunds or the option to keep the game but get half the price back.
No idea how this got in my feed but hey! Belfast dude making a living on UA-cam! Bout ye! Re: Stalker 2, I bought the Ultimate Edition because I want to help the devs, who deserve it for many reasons, meanwhile I've been low key sniping at the Starfield expansion for what is a basically unengaging, grey game and just realised today I already own it because I bought the Starfield Premium edition. I am the user that Steam needs to save myself from. You're really good at this! I'm into too many game genres to follow many people manning the ramparts against the depredations of evil game devs, maybe some of the Sega/Total War ones but hardly any others, but I'll stick around to see what you come up with. I, heart-felt, wish you all the best!
Sometimes I wonder what's going on over there, sometimes they do things that make me go, eww, what a corporation. Then they do things like this, and I go, man, they really are the only gatekeeper for what customers want, and being able to enforce it.
It's stuff like this that helps valve keep their position in the market. They could easily make more money short term by screwing over their customers, but that would considerably weaken them long term.
Lord Gabe has gave us all the tools to know how the game is, we have charts to see how many people are playing, friendlist to see if someone is playing it and can ask them about the game and of course, the reviews from others players and mentors, if we don't use them happens what is happening. Developers like ubisoft/ea/microsoft/sonny should have feel the angry for force their user to use their "login"/"launcher" long time ago.
I mean, games companies are already doing that now with their main releases. Selling them on pre-order, then releasing rubbish to hit a deadline. So them releasing a half-baked DLC would be no different to the status quo. I think we just have to stop pre-ordering things and only buy things that have been released, and have been reviewed. So if they prevent proper reviews in advance, then our only option as gamers is to wait a couple of weeks after release for the reviews to catch up. As to Valve self-regulating there is another good reason besides reputation and money. While governments are slow to react, when they are pushed to regulate because things have become untenable no one is happy. So it's normally better all around to avoid things getting that far.
Good to see but personally i never really liked the idea of a season pass (even if the company is known to follow through on it), because you're effectively paying what would be the full price of another game for things that aren't even out yet and have no guarantee that it'll be out. Then it cuts off at some point and surprise: Season 2 with the price tag of another game. I much rather wait for the pass to complete before i consider getting it and i usually don't because its just a bunch of cosmetics that i don't want to pay that exorbitant price for.
I used to buy 50+ games per year on steam, many of them new releases. I haven't even bought a dozen in the last 4 years because of bad gaming industry practices making new release games risky and the need to play what I already bought.
honestly i've only been willing to buy indie titles for years at this point because i just, expect any big corporate studio to either not deliver or massively under-deliver. this is a great move on valve's part.
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stop with this
Kinda sad Incogni feel the need to put you through hoops to cancel your subscription having to write an email to them instead of just letting you cancel your sub in your user panel, i have no respect for a company who feels the need to make cancelling your subscription annoying, big L :l
Valve gave me Christmas early lol
Is incogni one of those that says "We do this service but you're limited to once every 3 months?"
There's a consequence you didn't cover, that is definitely going to play in the minds of C:S2 players. Fans may not care that they have to wait another year. But if the items get refunded, that means they will have to repurchase at the time it _does_ come out, and you can bet on it that will be at a higher price. So imho valve should leave refund optional, at the customer's discretion during the entire period of delay.
Pray that valve maintains its ethos after GabeN ascends to heaven God Willing. Too few corporations can even come close to being called ethical, valve is certainly one of them
GabeN is a latter-day Marcus Aurelius. Let us hope his eventual successor isn't Commodus.
lol were they ethical when CS skins were a money laundering platform?
His son is likely to take up the mantle, and from what I've heard, his son takes after Gabe pretty well. So I have optimism that we'll have Valve as the good guy for a while at least.
Gaben isn't going to heaven. He's becoming a god damn deity.
@@gasstationjunkfoodie “come close to being called ethical” still a corp ofc, I didn’t say they were perfect
Good guy VALVe forcing the gaming industry to change its monetization practices? It's the holidays indeed.
Yeah good guy valve that started loot boxes in the west, that cleafied that they are selling you the license of the games, and made the pc gaming environment into a walled garden. And takes 30% person of the game revenue. And their full name is Valve Corporation. Yes is a private company but it is still a corporation. Also the only reason it has refunds cause it lost a legal battle in Australia. In 2016.
Yeah, like how overwatch charged ppl for ow2 single player... then changed the game to free to play... only to cut development on the single player and add it back in as a paid add-on. 😡TF
To quote Blackrock:
"Forced behaviours."
Change monetization practices ? this doesn't change anything about monetization, also seasons pass and deluxe editions were never much of a problem
Good guy valve? if Valve was the good guy, they wouldn't be renting out games at full price. If you aren't using the GOG model you are not the good guy.
Steam actually is pro players - I lately bought a game a few minutes after release, a few minutes later the discount started and steam AUTOMATICALLY refunded me the difference of the missed discount
@StreetSurfersAlex I had a full price game that I had for a week, played longer than 2 hours, when it went on sale for 50% off. I asked them if they could refund the difference to my steam wallet knowing they are well within their rights and policies to say no, but to my surprise, i had it refunded within an hour. This is why I've been a customer for many years, and why I will continue to be.
never had that happen myself, but thats really awesome valve is doing that. Their customer centric focus is the reason I no longer will purchase any games that arnt on steam
@@gamerscomplete GoG is cool too.
if the discount takes hold a few minutes later just refund the game and buy it again valve has a specific section that talks about this and it is acceptable use of the refund policy.
Yeah, price for Hades 2 changed and they gave me back price difference :D
The fact that Valve is leveraging their position in the games industry to move away from just being a distributor and closer towards becoming a mediator between publishers and players, because they understand that publishers have made "get an inch, take a mile" their doctrine, and that this can only be pushed so far before consumers lose faith in the industry and stop purchasing, is why I love this company. They understand how to do business and how decisions like this benefit them in the long run. Something that shareholders will never get.
Share holders get it. They just don't care because their investments are all relatively short term. If the industry burns down after they make their profits? Why should they care?
@@AsaelTheBeast That's the real difference with Valve and the companies like them. Valve is not publicly traded. The controlling interest is focused on the long term success of the company, not short term share prices. Valve also has a big financial interest in making these changes because much of their business model is based on being trusted by the customers. Shady operators make buyers less likely to risk their money next time but Valve profits most when the market is healthy and happy.
Sooner or later Gabe is going to step down, can you imagine what this company could do in hands of some feaclmater human like some of the CEOs out there ? I think every company that is beaing courently hated ware once considered inflatable but none had as much power as valve
@@Pecetos damn people still talking smack about Gabe son before he takes over is crazy. We're good until we die my dude.
The -esteemed- -respected- _revered_ gentleman, Saint Newell of Gabe and VALVe understand how their bread gets buttered. There is no governmental or regulatory force maintaining the Steam monopoly on PC gaming, it is the gamer's loyalty that keeps them afloat and they know it.
the striking difference between a publicly traded and a privately owned company
there's a lot of really bad privately owned companies, too.
but yeah, publicly owned companies are awful by default.
A very unfortunate side-effect of the way our economic system works is that public companies literally by law have to do things that make more money. This is a gross oversimplification; but basically if it's *legal* they literally HAVE to do something that makes more money. Regardless of morality, sketchiness, even just plain human decency. If it's technically legal; or even legally grey, it's all but illegal to not do it. That's really fucked up when you think about it conceptually.
@@blarghblargh totally agree! I meant more when it comes to gaming.
@@paddycakes6244and then it becomes the governments job to set boundaries, they are the ones that decide what's illegal. The more a capitalist democratic society degenerates the more control corporations have over government, the more the average person suffers to forward the greed that is mandated by the current system. The state and future of such a society is so clearly predictable lol. The only thing you can do is try to position yourself in a way that it won't kill you when everything else crashes. You would need to figure out everything, remake everything, since its all on you once no one else is left.
The biggest issue for public company is that the ones running the company have no inherent interest in the future of the company for the long term. Quarterly growth is all that matters so that they can sell.
Knowing what is actually in a season pass instead of vague 'future content we may or may not make' is going to be amazing. Thanks for the video!
As Michael points out, publishers do this because buyers tolerate it. One reason I don't buy AAA games anymore (unless it's years after the fact and at a very deep discount) is because I refuse to play the big players' game by their rules. There are too many other, better games without the predatory practices.
@@SimuLord I also have stopped buying AAA titles, theyre no longer made by people that love games, just people that are interested in what money they can extract. Independent and small studios have greatly increased the game quality over the years and are actually making games that people want to buy rather than games that will just succeed off name recognition. At least things are headed int he right direction, AAA studios hemoraging money while the good game studios are making big successful games
I never buy for the future. That means no pre-orders and no season passes.
Simple never buy pre order, never buy anything that is being vague about their contents and release date. The rules valve putting out are to protect those who are susceptible and who can't see things clearly. Of course to protect valve from people using his platform for fraud which in turn will hurt his platform. He knows who are his audience, unlike some other companies got it wrong on who is paying their bills.
Totalbiscuit would be proud, I'm still not gonna pre-order or buy deluxe anything
There are exactly two developers on my Shut Up And Take My Money list.
One is SCS Software. New map DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2? Buying it on day one. American Truck Simulator? I plan my work vacations around those (seriously, I took a week off work to do the Cruising Arkansas event on World of Trucks.)
The other is Pathea Games. I bought My Time at Sandrock on Day 1 of Early Access and I backed the Kickstarter for My Time at Evershine.
Everyone else? I wait for the release date, a couple of Let's Plays on UA-cam, good reviews, and a sale before I buy.
For me it is capcom for Monster hunter games
I only consider buying Deluxe versions years later!
@@MikeSharpeWriter I picked up the PC version of RDR2 in 2021 for...I think it was 15 bucks? Something like that. Knew what I was getting and wasn't disappointed. Also got the deluxe edition of Witcher 3 in 2020 (great lockdown game, as it turned out!) for something like $2.50 USD. THAT was a steal.
@@SimuLord for me it’s Konami, anything they put out I’m buying on release. Used to be Bethesda too but I feel like I should have waited and gotten Star field after modding
I hope that free-to-play monetizations get banned from $70 premium games. Those greedy corporations always want to have their cake and f*ck it too
@@spence6195 ahh those nasty ubisoft time economy system which helps players to grind less in a single player game
you gotta get the sense of pride and accomplishment, that's why it exists
Best you can get is a blatant tag warning. Or failing that, a built in curator warning of micro transactions.
@@Kultus1337in good ol' days you just had cheat codes for that. Free cheat codes.
You're literally paying for "greedisgood 10000" cheatcode activation.
Yeah. "That nickel and dime shit is for the birds."
Steam: "Season passes have to state what future DLCs are included in the pass. I don't know why we even have to say this."
Most Publishers: "Okay, makes sense."
Escape From Tarkov Publishers: "OH, BULLS*!"
This is why i still exclusively use steam on pc, because only them and Gog actually care about their consumers
I dont use GoG but i respect it
Well, they fooled you into thinking so, anyway. And that's about as good as it gets.
@@rhindletheredis there any other better option then valve? Yeah they are still a business, but they are the only one who push for pro customer.
@@TheAnonLee pls explain to me because i'm stupid, but what is DRM free exactly? i heard that it was the main feature of GOG but for my limited understanding of it, most or at least a lot of games on steam is already kind of DRM free anyways?
again ,pls correct me if i'm wrong because i swear, on steam i have re-downloaded some unlisted games, i have moved some game folder to another computer and played it no problem without steam, but of course i only tried it on limited amount of games so, i don't know if it's not the case for most games on steam.
@@GoodChimkin Steam is in itself a DRM, having to open the app just to download a game. Some games/apps can be start without Steam opened but in order to obtain the game in the first place, you must log into the Steam app. This is very rare however and especially with online games which require Steam to be open AND online. Unlike GoG where you can purchase a game and download the installers, never having to use their launcher.
Paradox is absolutely sweating right now.
Next thing I would love to see for this to also apply to early access if you promise things to happen and they don't people should get refund. Example Kerbal Space Program. Everyone who got this game should get refund. If we bankrupt bad developers I wouldn't be too upset.
Islands of Insight: Hyped as a giant open world mmo puzzle game, it didn't actually have any meaningful player interactions and the servers had awful rubberbanding.
They later added an offline mode while making the servers even worse. Said offline mode saves the entire save file EVERY SECOND, making it unplayable while burning your SSD.
By now they completely got rid of multiplayer (still advertising as such). They said they fixed the offline saving issue but i'm not trusting them on that
You mean KSP2?
"Paradox is absolutely sweating right now"
CS2 is still the best ever city builder to date, even as janky as it is, the delay's, the, the, the, the, I will forgive them pretty much anything for giving me this, but then, without the modding community, l probably have turned my back on it ages ago, so there is that.
I look forward to seeing which developer or publisher will be the first to weasel their way around this.
It's going to be a toss up between Activision and EA.
@@AlexanTheMan Normally just cuz I like some EA's games like Dead Space, Apex (when it was good), Need For Speed, and Jedi Fallen Order, I would've put the bet on Activision, but honestly, I'm very confident that EA will be the first one.
Ubisoft with their Star Wars outlaw approved roadmap - they won’t deliver because the game was trash and flopped.
I can already see them trying to turn this on Valve “We feel untrusted by Steam and refuse this as it means Valve is rushing us to put out our content without it being completely done. This will result in us not being able to promise future content without the prepaid support of our consumers.”
or some bs like that.
@@t3arki113r as has been pointed out, they can just refuse them any presence on the platform. There already was a time where half of these companies tried to split off from steam, and me talking in past tense is more than informative enough on how that went. They're also too rich to be gridlocked by lawyers.
Valve got taken to court in Australia by our consumer protection agency for not offering proper refunds, and lost millions.
This looks like a pre-emptive strike against that happening again.
Well you covered that at the end I guess.
Things like these makes me FEAR for Steam for when Gabe Newell himself eventually Passes Away. I sincerely hope anyone who replaces him won't be bad or worse...! 😭
Well, I guess that means Star Citizen won't be on Steam anytime soon.
That hurts man... mostly cuase i know its true
That beta should stay away
It was never going to be on Steam anyways. As money hungry as they are, why would they let Valve take part of their revenue? They have no reason to try and publish there.
@@alridan90 good.
You think Star Citizen will be _anywhere_ anytime soon?
PRIME EXAMPLE - Warcraft III Reforged, took preorders at Blizzcon with the game NOT even under development.
Saints Row IV DLC: Enter the Dominatrix was supposed to be part of the season pass but was cut and added to the next game, they didn't even offer a discount to those that paid for the season pass .
Wow never knew there was such a thing as season pass preorder.
For a decade, AAA publishers have pushed out Season Pass pre-orders 9 to 6 months before the damned thing even comes out and they even have the gall to push out "3 day Early Access" incentives in that time frame. I'm glad that Steam is finally pushing these scummy companies to ACTUALLY deliver the shit they promise instead of just asking MONEY NOW PLZ.
Expect a season pass when a game is announced
Valve should extend this policy to early access games that are abandoned/scams as well...
To be fair there is a large warning for early access games that they may not progress beyond the point it is, essentially buy at your own risk.
If you do not see the warning that comes with the early access title, that is ultimately on you for falling for those scams.
If someone starts an early access project, they should be capable to work on it until it is in it’s finished state or have private keys handed to content creators to cover the current state of the game without taking the time of players.
Pretty straight forward dedication and marketing for any beginner dev team.
"Prey I don't alter the deal further."
- Gabe Probably
*Pray
@@BoisegangGaming Both work :P
Next step: Prohibit third party launchers.
@@AlexanTheMan that would be a day to enshrine in history.
Including third party login
@@TheDragonfriday especially for a single play game
Next Step: Ban PSN.
The number one thing I want. I tolerate it when it's just a splash screen with an optional login feature, like Cyberpunk and Baldurs Gate 3, but forced logins means it's far less likely I buy the game.
Telling people what they are buying seems pretty fair to me.
fr
@@MSlocum669 The AAA industry isn't used to being fair.
This is shocking it wasn’t standard before. Good guy gaben. Now everyone else needs to catch up with updated store policy
"Such that soon, people will just expect shit"
Soon? That's the expectation now. We already know we're going to get treated like subhuman garbage, and it's already too late to change that.
I cant wait for the "Includes 1 additional item" DLCs
I wonder if Valve will order refunds for KSP2, since the dev no longer exists.
kerballing
I just bought astroneers and found out they put mtx. I asked for a refund on that alone and valve was kind enough to help. 🎉
Take Two, Private Division and Kerbal Space Program 2 would definitely pass the new test right,?can't believe they weren't mentioned but that would probably be a whole extra video on the s-show
So EA can't cancel deluxe editions with impunity anymore.
Now they need to do something about abandoned early access projects by major publishers without saying anything about the state of the game.
KSP 2
@@TheAzazzExperience Indeed, they way they treated the supporters should be illegal, everyone who purchased KSP2 should have a full refund.
Lego Worlds
Unfortunately, those don't break the conditions of Early Access UNLESS it can be proven that the publisher never intended to release the game. That is the risk of buying EA.
As a deluxe ultimate super whatever purchaser of CS2, its about damn time we get compensated
That's great. Now do the same thing for Early Access games.
because they may just all go the early access route now...
Well you do get access to a game and play it, so in your take, it'll be shutting E.A down completely
isn't early access technically also a promise for future content? I hope they do offer refunds on these because I got a bone to pick with T2 interactive.
@@KOBKStreak Considering how many E.A. games never get finished because they're initially released as glorified proof-of-concept demos rather than games actually with a real, genuine roadmap to a clear vision of a 1.0 release (and beyond), shutting down Early Access may not be such a bad thing.
Unless it's reformed and would-be devs are held accountable. You want to sell the promise of a future game to people? You better be ready to put your mouth where other people's money is.
@@SimuLord Then don't buy Early Access. There has to be some responsibility with the buyers AND the sellers.
THAT has always been the known risk with E.A; it might not hit 1.0.
This seems like something that should have been in place a while ago. The fact that you could just not deliver on a sold good is a dereliction of duty. This is why they make more money than the developers, to be incredibly late to do anything and then be cheered as the good guys…
I wouldn’t give any publisher a pat on the back for doing what they should’ve been doing all along, but Gabe be different I guess
This is gold. because these companies need the fear of loss put back into them. They have become to reliant on selling things they have not made yet, to gain the capitol to justify making them. And that's just been such a shite way to do business and invites failure that harms only the consumer. But as a consequence, harms the platforms. And in this case, Valve have taken steps to protect their platform. It's a consumer positive move, but it's not a move made altruistically. It's a move made to protect steam as a platform, because if people lose faith in steam because developers/publishers keep doing bad things like this and can just get away with it, then people will slowly move away from not just those developers but the platforms that facilitate that behavior.
And I see this is going to overall be a positive for us the consumers, but it's going to take a few mishaps before it really settles in. There are going to be companies that don't take it seriously enough and screw up hard enough to make valve act on their new terms. And these refunds are going to shut someone down. That's when companies will start paying real attention. After one flies too close to the sun and pays the price.
This is a positive restriction to the companies and hopefully brings good dlcs coming to light.
Can we trust those companies? Since steam is a big platform for majority of gamers on pc we have a help of father Gabe.
Also, valve working on their own games "does" help. Let us hope it's not only Deadlock they are working on.
Do you keep in mind there is some ass covering going on here. Steam could be on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit and could have joint and severalable liability with a PC publisher who pulls shenanigans with the season pass and doesn't give people refunds. In which case both steam and the publisher would be liable and if the publisher couldn't pay, such as if they went bankrupt, it would all be on steam. Publishers doing season passes and then going out of business is a liability for steam. This will disincentivize them from doing that and also if they do do that, they have to put their money with their mouth is sooner rather than later.
This is a major win. Now if we can actually, you know, OWN OUR GAMES.
Thank you for saving TF2 from the bots, Gabe. And for this. You're a stand up dude.
In gaben we trust
Publishers definitely gonna abuse Early Access next
next?
Warner Bros already did that with Lego Worlds. A complete massive waste of potential. It's a clunky incomplete shell of what it promised. They designed it to sell DLC packs but later abandoned it completely.
Then Steam needs to stop allowing Game Developers that release EARLY ACCESS Games, and Abandoning them before they're finished.
Valve might not get everything right, but when they do? Mother of god, do they get it right.
Now we just need them to tell third party launchers and requiring accounts for single player games to piss off.
Please Gabe, you need to take care of yourself! Eat healthy, do sports! We gamers need you for years to come.
Can you say.... 'Kerbal 2'.... Even to this day, their store page is massively misleading... To the point where at least in the UK, legal action could be taken...
That's actually good, when a game offers an item, content or a feature in a bundle or season pass then label it as "future" DLC then people buy that game because they see something in that game to look forward to, it should have an estimated deadline alongside what it contains. The moment a developer team even shows whatever "teaser" for future release or DLC they should already be confident that they can deliver that product even if it's delayed for a bit. Promises of future content or DLC's are broken in a lot of games due to many vague "future content" included in season pass or bundles and when those "future content" finally arrives, the players have already moved on to a different game because there was no clear indication time table as to when it will be added or worse, it never arrives.
Praise the Gaben!
Praise him.
Praise be Saint Gabe, the giver of refunds and dispenser of discounts!
Thinking about it, there might actually be a case where Valve might be found theoretically liable. In a few EU countries the seller is on the hook if the product sold is not as promised. I don't think this has actually been tested in court for games, but if they sell you a season pack with X features and the developer/publisher does not deliver, it's still valve that might be on the hook for the unfulfilled promise, though they could of course pass it on to the developer.
"And a company that can't keep its promises should go under" Damn right.
The digital storefront equivalent of a retail store realizing they're stocking empty boxes, and that the customers are going to be angry with them, rather than the supplier...
Valve has so much power on the videogame scene, its really lucky that they are the ones responsible for it and not a company like EA
Publishers may think they can do what they want, but Gaben will not be taken for a fool. Lord Gaben remains based.
14:56 "It's not a slap on the wrist, it's a clear financial punishment" ... I know you're just using this as a casual phrase but boy doesn't this phrase really show the problem with the current publisher culture. Not getting the money for something you promised on but failed to deliver isn't actually a punishment at all! That's just normal behaviour. It would be a punishment if they were fined additionally (which I am not advocating for) ... I mean if I were hired by a games publisher and I promised to deliver them an amazing website for $X and they will get it in 6 months ... and then I just don't deliver it. You think I'm going to be able to be like "whoops sorry ... anyways here is your money back better luck next time" and just walk away, no they will be coming after me for breach of contract and suing me for MORE money to cover things like damages.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has no upgrade path from a standard edition and that ABSOLUTELY needs to change ASAP.
Self Published -> Copies AAA anti-consumer practices.
They have said that they are planning for that
This is so awesome!!!
Someday Valve will turn tyrannical, but right now they are saving gaming. 😅
video starts at 3:50
Gabe Newell - not the hero that gamers deserve, but one we've always needed. When all things in this ridiculous, chaotic world are misleading and exploitative, the following core truths have remained true in my life for the last 20+ years:
1) Food tastes best when it's free.
2) When raising/lowering blinds, the cord that you don't want to pull is always the one you pull first.
3) When GabeN does game things, he bloody well does them right.
"a company that cant keep to its promises should go under" 🙌
Sounds like we need to avoid games that sell season passes like the plague...
I am a steam publisher but I choose to always do the right thing. I’m happy to take any questions people may have
They enforce that rule to protect themselves, but good thing is that it also benefits customers against publishers, who take money for the content that may never get made. And then Valve would be left to deal with refund requests. Making a clear system and setting down the rules means that publishers will be made responsible for it and if they fail to deliver, it's their breach and their backsides on the line.
"Rent-seeking" and "unpriced negative externalities" need to become common parlance, because of how perfectly they describe bad and toxic behaviors.
I love it.
When the "Father of Capitalism" warned against it, today's capitalists should probably take notice. So should governments.
Remember when Bethesda released Fallout 4 & it's season pass at $30, released 1 wave of DLC, upped the price of the season pass to $50 and promissed more dlc than originally promissed, released wave 2 then cancalled wave 3 to make F76? I member.
Still waiting for the canvas bag
Awesome video, thanks for the info. Completely agree with the points you make. Thanks Valve, now just make HL3 please before I die.
Bought MSFS 24 off Steam. It was loading at 0% for 57min. Requested a refund. Steam approved. Microsoft rejected. Steam refunded.
Microsoft said I should try loading it again, as they had fixed the problems, and burn the last three minutes available to request a no question refund... so I couldn't request a refund. See the problem there? They had an hour to show me their game was worth the money and they failed.
@@gallendugall8913 no question refunds actually are 2 hours on steam, not 1 hour.
So you would've been fine regardless.
Less you're talking about Microsoft's policies being 1hr
I think we want to be a little careful here. Valve is not your friend. They're not fighting the big greedy corporations for the little guy. They _are_ the big greedy corporation. They make the rules, and are incentivized to make them such that they get more money.
That doesn't mean this change is somehow designed to be bad for consumers, just that the reason it's good for consumers is that it's aligned with what's good for Valve. If they're not responding to external pressures here, I fully believe that it's because they see the writing on the wall, that eventually a large publisher will catastrophically fail to deliver on something that was promised in a season pass. And Valve don't want to be caught in the middle of players demanding refunds because they didn't get what they paid for, and publishers who try to back out and hide behind the vagueness of their descriptions. If Valve codifies what a season pass is, they can pass the buck to the publisher instead of being forced to choose between eating that publisher's losses for them or implicitly defending that publisher.
I love how you described an Irish idiom with a few other Irish idioms.
Bethesda would've HATED THIS. Especially with Fallout 4.
I never payed attention to season passes before because what I would be buying was always vague. Valve just very clearly defined what a season pass is and what the consumer should expect from them. So now I WILL pay attention to season passes because I understand what to expect from them.
*Thus sales of season passes will increase.*
It's not just pro-consumer. It's also a very smart business move.
Okay, wasn't expecting to hear someone being called a chancer while browsing youtube tonight.
So from what it looks like, as long as you don't try to sell something before it's finished then you don't have any issues. I'm sure people will be just as happy to pay for a DLC when it's ready compared to preordering it. and honestly I think this serves really well to keep companies in line. If you aren't prepared to meet a deadline, then don't put a preorder on the line
It is good that we as consumer get some insurance on subscription (including "season pass") stuff.
Obviously I don't want Colossal Order to go under since I do love Cities Skylines 1, their decision to push back additional content while they fix the base game IS good, but the problem is that the issues were their fault to begin with (or more likely Paradox's fault). So yeah they should have given and should give people their money back. Sad thing for them is that I don't think they will earn the money back from most players. Many feel let down by Colossal Order and some of them have straight up moved on or moved back to CS1 and aren't ready to give CO and CS2 another chance for the moment and it will take quite a while for them to change their minds, I'm thinking 2-3 years of good content and good base game improvements.
I’d imagine all devs with Season passes before this new policy started would be grandfathered out of it. But going forward this is good for us gamers. I hope other platforms decide to do a similar thing. This is good.
I love this, this is how it should have worked. There should be leeway for special cases like stalker 2 because of war, but all the greedy publishers that just are promising something that doesn't exist they deserve these punishments
I wonder if this applies to Early Access games changing genres or even mediums entirely.
I feel the key word here is Accountability. This holds developers and publishers alike accountable to the promises they make and give a clear punishment when they fail.
Hahahaha! A chancer being a wee bit cheeky. As a Norn Ireland ex-pat that made me laugh loudly. The phrase has never been used better.
Valve continues to stand up against these guys to support us, it's what we need more of.
I mean;
*Valve won by doing nothing*
*Valve won by supplying demand*
*Valve won by supporting community*
*Valve won by taking a loss as a learning experience*
*Valve won by making long-term games*
*Valve won by not making games P2W*
Valve *wins* at everything, and has the long record to show it.
I agree with many companies releasing garbage to comply with "the letter of the law", still I wish there was a way to get a good spirit release the same way consumers put good faith on them delivering what they promise, otherwise it's still a biased system with companies dumping on consumers while still protected with technicalities.
Finally a Valve promotion that doesn't end up with loads of games I will never actually play cluttering up my games library.
sounds neato, lets see if they can actually enforce this.
Good on Gaben! This is what helps the gaming industry and customers.
Escape for Tarkov Devs are trembling.
To quote Blooragard Q. Kazoo, "It's a Christmas miracle!!"
Man... I still remember my first encounter with Steam. I bought a physical copy of the game RUSE and was pissed I was forced to install Steam just to play the game. Now im glad they're around and using their so-called "monopoly" to single handedly hold an entire industry to a higher standard.
Ruse... my first Eugen Systems game. I was the arty spammer type of player. Glad to hear that there are more people playing that gem.
i still remember when i bought the Borderlands 2 season pass thinking i would get all the DLC they will release, when it was really just a handful.
what I can see is that this will breed further releases of unfinished content that will be "patched"
No slack whatsoever. Developer's personal problems are their own, not the consumer's. I couldn't care less how messy my chef's life is, I paid for a proper meal, I expect a timely, quality product, period.
I think they should make it that if you miss your release date the players get a third of the price back per month, but still own the content. I also think that any content released that is extremely buggy should automatically allow refunds or the option to keep the game but get half the price back.
No idea how this got in my feed but hey! Belfast dude making a living on UA-cam! Bout ye!
Re: Stalker 2, I bought the Ultimate Edition because I want to help the devs, who deserve it for many reasons, meanwhile I've been low key sniping at the Starfield expansion for what is a basically unengaging, grey game and just realised today I already own it because I bought the Starfield Premium edition. I am the user that Steam needs to save myself from.
You're really good at this! I'm into too many game genres to follow many people manning the ramparts against the depredations of evil game devs, maybe some of the Sega/Total War ones but hardly any others, but I'll stick around to see what you come up with. I, heart-felt, wish you all the best!
Sometimes I wonder what's going on over there, sometimes they do things that make me go, eww, what a corporation. Then they do things like this, and I go, man, they really are the only gatekeeper for what customers want, and being able to enforce it.
It's stuff like this that helps valve keep their position in the market. They could easily make more money short term by screwing over their customers, but that would considerably weaken them long term.
Lord Gabe has gave us all the tools to know how the game is, we have charts to see how many people are playing, friendlist to see if someone is playing it and can ask them about the game and of course, the reviews from others players and mentors, if we don't use them happens what is happening.
Developers like ubisoft/ea/microsoft/sonny should have feel the angry for force their user to use their "login"/"launcher" long time ago.
I wonder if game companies will use this to say valve is doing an anti-trust
I mean, games companies are already doing that now with their main releases. Selling them on pre-order, then releasing rubbish to hit a deadline. So them releasing a half-baked DLC would be no different to the status quo.
I think we just have to stop pre-ordering things and only buy things that have been released, and have been reviewed. So if they prevent proper reviews in advance, then our only option as gamers is to wait a couple of weeks after release for the reviews to catch up.
As to Valve self-regulating there is another good reason besides reputation and money. While governments are slow to react, when they are pushed to regulate because things have become untenable no one is happy. So it's normally better all around to avoid things getting that far.
Good to see but personally i never really liked the idea of a season pass (even if the company is known to follow through on it), because you're effectively paying what would be the full price of another game for things that aren't even out yet and have no guarantee that it'll be out. Then it cuts off at some point and surprise: Season 2 with the price tag of another game.
I much rather wait for the pass to complete before i consider getting it and i usually don't because its just a bunch of cosmetics that i don't want to pay that exorbitant price for.
Wish it came in before what Randy did with Homeworld 3
I used to buy 50+ games per year on steam, many of them new releases. I haven't even bought a dozen in the last 4 years because of bad gaming industry practices making new release games risky and the need to play what I already bought.
honestly i've only been willing to buy indie titles for years at this point because i just, expect any big corporate studio to either not deliver or massively under-deliver. this is a great move on valve's part.