The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Kev Inkline]

The moment Micro$oft bought Valve I'd torrent each game in my library worth it. Maybe even those not worth it. That'd be also 0 purchases in the future.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is there easy way to find out which games don't need Steam client to run?

 

[ind33d]

if proton keeps getting updated there is zero reason to use Windows

 

[Hobknobling]

Is there easy way to find out which games don't need Steam client to run?

https://af.gog.com/forum/general/steam_games_you_can_play_without_the_steam_client?as=1649904300
https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

The GOG forums had this effort of cataloging them, but the thread got locked and it is hosted on Fandom (yuck). DRM is never really forced on Steam and it is up to the developer to decide so that means that there is this constant on-going flood of new (indie) games that would have to be manually tested for the DRM status.

 

[Lutte]

The moment Micro$oft bought Valve I'd torrent each game in my library worth it. Maybe even those not worth it. That'd be also 0 purchases in the future.

Just keep this in a corner of your drive, no need to redownload every single thing :
https://github.com/BigBoiCJ/SteamAutoCracker

A lot of games either have no DRM, but won't launch without steam because they haven't implemented things like achievement support as an "optional" feature (use Goldberg Emulator to replace the steam api library when games have a hard dependency on steam for its features), or have the basic steam DRM which has been cracked to death in a generic way (the same tool, Steamless, will remove that DRM on any and all steam games which is far more convenient than hunting for individual game cracks).

SAC will automatically setup both goldberg and steamless for your games. Try it and only bother with downloading torrents if it doesn't work. SAC will manage to keep most of your steam library alive even in the event of Steam going down.

It won't work for games that haven't patched Denuvo or Enigma out, and some old times games with Securom or Starforce though. Personally, this would mainly affect me through Capcom's games, and frankly, fuck Capcom. They're so hostile to their users they add DRM to very old games on Steam because they're butthurt about the idea that people can install a mod to their game.
You know what? I don't even support the ideal some pirates talk about when they mention "game preservation". I don't want to preserve games made by an asshole company. Even pirating their games is a form of support, keeps their brand in people minds (why do you think well known brands still buy TV advertisement?). What user hostile companies need to suffer is obscurity, not support. So, Capcom's games? Don't even crack them. Don't pirate their future games either. For the games you own on Steam : Uninstall, make private, hide from library and never talk about them ever again.

I've come to accept some light form of DRM that exists just to prevent "crime of opportunity" like a casual making a copy to give away to friends, without DRMs there would certainly be a lot more CTRL-C CTRL-V from normies, it's like having locks on your door, locks don't stop your hardened burglar but they sure work on preventing a random neighbor from thinking "hmm, guy's not at home right now, let's have a look and take a few things". But I won't take the sort of bullshit companies like Capcom pull on us anymore.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Does anyone else have difficulties viewing Steam forums?

 

[ds]

Lol they managed to fuck up the DNS entries for steamcommunity.com - the name severs for .com think it doesn't exist. Perhaps they forgot to renew the domain? Absolute amateur hour either way.

 

[Fargus]

First world multibillion $ company problems

 

[Alienman]

Been going on for hours now. So something must be truly fucked over at Valve.

 

[Fargus]

For at least 6 hours according faggit user posts.

 

[Alienman]

Funny. It started to work now after my post. At least inside of Steam.

 

[ds]

Been going on for hours now. So something must be truly fucked over at Valve.

WHOIS already showed the domain as active hours ago so Valve were probably just waiting for for the .com DNS servers to update, which is not something they can control.

 

[ferratilis]

A general increase in revenue spending across the board during major Steam sales.

35% of Steam users use English. 28% on Simplified Chinese. A whopping 65% of all Steam users have selected non-English languages as their primary language.

Key Growth Countries the past 5 years.

Steam has continued to show excellent growth long after the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID Pandemic.

 

[Alienman]

The reds are coming.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

Apex Legends, Minecraft and Skyrim

 

[Squidhead]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

People are starting to realize there's no difference between current gen consoles and PCs.

 

[Kev Inkline]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

Apex Legends, Minecraft and Skyrim

Minecraft is not on Steam. Maybe that was a joke, never relax/know around here.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

Apex Legends, Minecraft and Skyrim

Minecraft is not on Steam. Maybe that was a joke, never relax/know around here.

Oh yeah, but those three are like the outliers that explain why people might want a PC and as a consequence start buying games on Steam.

 

[ferratilis]

What's with growth in Japan?
Isn't that Sony or Nintendo territory?

This is from two years ago, it has increased more since then. It's a combination of factors that led to this increase, however mobile is still king over there.

https://www.serkantoto.com/2022/11/06/japan-pc-gaming-market/

Japan’s PC Gaming Market Doubles In Size In 3 Years​

By Dr. Serkan Toto
November 6, 2022

Mobile is king in Japan’s gaming market, there can be no doubt about that.
In terms of market size, mobile gaming has become about 3x bigger than console gaming in Japan over the last decade.
But what about Japan’s PC gaming market, long considered a niche?

Japan’s PC Game Market Is Becoming Bigger​

For the longest time, the leading industry data providers in Japan either didn’t bother to release numbers on the size of the Japanese PC game market or buried them at the end of their reports somewhere.
This is now changing.
According to Japanese think tank KADOKAWA ASCII Research Laboratories, Japan’s overall gaming market was worth around 2 trillion yen in 2021 (console hardware and software, smartphone and PC games combined).
The sum currently translates to just US$13.7 billion – but note the yen has been falling drastically in 2021.
KADOKAWA ASCII says that Japan’s PC gaming market in particular was worth 131.3 billion yen (US$896 million) that year.
Now, what’s interesting is that the size of the PC gaming market in 2021 roughly doubled versus 2018 – so there is definitely significant growth here.

Gamers In Japan Are More Accepting Of The PC Than Ever​

KADOKAWA ASCII also says there were 16 million PC game users in Japan in 2021 – among a total gamer base of 55.4 million people (Japan’s population was around 126 million last year).
Here, too, a comparison provides more context: in 2015, the same company identified just 11 million PC gamers in Japan – so the number grew a whopping 45% by 2021 (the total gamer population back then was just 45 million – so it grew by just 22%).
Going back to 2021, KADOKAWA ASCII says of those 16 million PC gamers in Japan, 4.5 million played exclusively on that platform (while the others also played on consoles or smartphones).
That number is up an incredible 100% up from 2.2 million PC-exclusive Japanese gamers in 2015.

Multiple Factors Behind The PC Gaming Boom In Japan​

So what happened?
Japan actually has a rich history of early PC games that started on home-grown computers around the early 1980s.
It is correct that soon after, consoles and later smartphones took over, but PC gaming was really never dead in Japan and its niche character has always been a bit exaggerated in my view.
As just one example, DeNA (2432) was successful in scaling a PC-based social gaming platform in Japan to over 10 million users around 10 years ago.
The main factors behind the current boom are:

• Corona effects (enlarging the user base of gamers in Japan overall, with the tide also spilling over to the PC)
• The continued lack of availability of the PS5 in Japan, leading some hardcore users to turn to PCs to play high-fidelity games
• A growing acceptance of foreign and indie games, which are more accessible and often cheaper on Steam or the Epic store (PUBG was a particularly big driver for Japan’s PC gaming scene around 2017/2018)
• Improved local PC gaming platforms, i.e. that of DMM that wisely took PUBG to Japan early on (the game moved from DMM to Japan’s Steam store in 2021)
• Simply more availability of Japan-made PC games, driven by new insight of Japan’s studios such as Capcom (9697) that this platform can be actually very lucrative (Steam in particular is among the standard launch platforms for many Japanese studios nowadays, something very rare just a few years ago)
• Rare but existing home-grown PC-first hits like Final Fantasy 14 or Kantai Collection
• The rise of blockchain gaming in Japan (most such games are still computer-only, and Japan has a healthy community of blockchain enthusiasts)
• Steam has a drastically improved store front for the Japanese audience and expanded its presence (the first iterations several years ago were terrible and didn’t even offer prices in yen, for example – but the usability is now much better, physical Steam top-up cards are available everywhere in Japan etc.)
• Smartphone hits like Uma Musume from CyberAgent (4751), Memento Mori from Bank Of Innovation (4393) or Heaven Burns Red from GREE (3632) are increasingly present on the PC as well, in some cases on day one
• etc.

The list above is not complete, and I am fully aware not every point set the PC gaming market in Japan on fire by itself – but the individual factors combined certainly have been and still are self-reinforcing themselves over time.
I believe the trend to a bigger PC game industry in Japan will continue in the next several years.
For example, Valve says that Japan not only finally entered Steam’s top 10 country ranking but currently boasts one of the highest growth rates worldwide.
As another interesting factoid, 40 of the 60 games showcased by Japan’s big 6 video game studios at this year’s Tokyo Game Show were compatible with Steam – as opposed to just 38 for PS5 (according to a check by The Nikkei).
For foreign PC game makers specifically, there can be no doubt it has never been simpler to enter the Japanese market than today.

 

[Catacombs]

The reds Microsoft acqusition are is coming.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Valve being sued for £656m in UK amid accusations of Steam market rigging​

Backed by law firm behind PlayStation suit.

https://www.eurogamer.net/valve-bei...d-accusations-of-market-rigging-through-steam

Valve is being sued for £656m by a UK digital rights campaigner, who claims the company is rigging the PC games market and deliberately "shutting out" competition through Steam.

The accusations have been made in a collective action claim filed with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal by digital rights activist Vicki Shotbolt. As per an accompanying website encouraging people to join the claim, the suit alleges Valve's conduct "amounts to an abuse of its dominant position which is in breach of UK competition law". It also argues 14m people in the UK have been overcharged for PC games as a result, and is seeking compensation of between £22 and £44 for each one.

 

[Rahdulan]

So this is happening? Is Cream API next? What everyone is wondering is what this means for Paradox DLC.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

We have been made aware that steam is now blocking this tool, if you don’t have anything constructive to add (bypasses or fixes) please refrain from posting about it.
If you have the same error & can provide more information (method of using Smoke, Game etc) feel free to share that as well.

From 3 days ago so. On cream API nothing so far.