And it was a shitload of work that took a decade plus, even being built on top of pieces that were even older, with absolutely zero guarantee of any kind of a payout.
Very few companies make these kinds of risks anymore.
It’s not only goodwill, it’s a survival tactic for valve. The worst case scenario for them, is see microsoft expand their monopoly to have all apps and software available only through their Microsoft app store, competing directly with valve, with the unfair advantage of microsoft controlling both windows and the app store. They could (and probably have) tried to get to where apple is with its app store on macos/ios. Though of course this would be an anticompetitive move, but the intentions could still exist making valves life difficult.
The moment they can untie gaming from windows, they have a path forward to keeping themselves not only alive but relevant and probably safe.
They could (and probably have) tried to get to where apple is with its app store on macos/ios.
They did.
The Windows 10/11 “S Mode” only allows installing software through the Windows store. It was mostly relegated to OEM installs for cheap x86 and ARM laptops, thankfully.
Ew. I hate that. I see they offer an option in settings to permanently switch out of S mode, but that seems like it’s a crappy excuse. I’m guessing most users are never going to go there, and will stay in S mode, using only Microsoft’s awful products. That’s their intention, at least.
Seems like Cromebook mode to me. There’s a niche of super light interchangeable tablets or notebooks I could see that working on, but nothing MS makes is light except the theme.
Figuring out how to easily port Windows games to Linux was definitely a recipe for profit.
And it was a shitload of work that took a decade plus, even being built on top of pieces that were even older, with absolutely zero guarantee of any kind of a payout.
Very few companies make these kinds of risks anymore.
It’s not only goodwill, it’s a survival tactic for valve. The worst case scenario for them, is see microsoft expand their monopoly to have all apps and software available only through their Microsoft app store, competing directly with valve, with the unfair advantage of microsoft controlling both windows and the app store. They could (and probably have) tried to get to where apple is with its app store on macos/ios. Though of course this would be an anticompetitive move, but the intentions could still exist making valves life difficult.
The moment they can untie gaming from windows, they have a path forward to keeping themselves not only alive but relevant and probably safe.
i mean they have already untied gaming from windows, the steam deck works fine for most games
They did.
The Windows 10/11 “S Mode” only allows installing software through the Windows store. It was mostly relegated to OEM installs for cheap x86 and ARM laptops, thankfully.
Ew. I hate that. I see they offer an option in settings to permanently switch out of S mode, but that seems like it’s a crappy excuse. I’m guessing most users are never going to go there, and will stay in S mode, using only Microsoft’s awful products. That’s their intention, at least.
Seems like Cromebook mode to me. There’s a niche of super light interchangeable tablets or notebooks I could see that working on, but nothing MS makes is light except the theme.
Yet other store platforms like epic, gog, blizzard, origin, and uplay don’t bother supporting Linux and are content with Microsoft.
So as much of a survival tactic it might be it would seem any other company wouldn’t bother and still aren’t.
Yet Valve has demonstrated it’s smarter than any of them, we’re literally commenting on an article saying they’re making 3.5 million $ per employee
It’s not a coincidence that they are not a publicly traded company…