Makes sense, except for “one model”. I think it would be better to have two options.
One low cost, thinking mini pc with integrated gpu (like steamdeck) for casual gamers, 2d gaming, old game®s, etc. Would also be perfect as “home office” PC or media consumption device.
Second one would be bigger and stronger with dedicated GPU capable of “real” gaming and running all the modern games. Yes, powerful hardware is expensive, but serious gaming is no cheap thing…
Still, with 30% cut, it was never easier for indie devs to release their game before. Now it’s basically like “you made your own game in your garage or basement in your free time, then you log in to steam, fill some paperwork, set price, upload, and you can start selling copies already as you have link you can share on your social media and everywhere”. Some 20 years ago you’d need to find publisher that would like the game, be willing to invest in pressing CD/DVD and distribute this across the city/state/country/world/whatever. Then you had to market the game in paper magazines, online ads or wherever and hope people will see the ad/review and go to store to buy the game. Then wait for money to run the circle back to you. With much greater cut than current 30%, especially with indie titles. Even like 10 years ago, you’d have to be “green lit” for steam to actually sell your game, meaning you had to beg for a lot of clicks, to be able to put your game on steam.
Sure, Larian is big (400?), but compared to some of the gaming industry behemots, it’s still small(ish). Arrowhead (Helldivers) should be like 100 people which is not that much. And wasn’t Palword developers studio like 30 people? I’d call that pretty damn small. Especially in contrast with the sales.
And of course not everything is fine and dandy in gaming industry. But where is?
Why not? It’s the magic of % that with huge sales you’ll throw money at steam, but with few copies sold you’ll pay steam next to nothing.
I would not say game industry is doing bad. It’s jist many big corpos thought too mich about themselves and now they face the reality. Shitty recycled games and another 1000th successor to your once-famous series with juat shiny graphics but nothing interesting is simply not enough now. Greedy CEOs realized it too late so now they have to lay off people so they can keep their $$ for themself.
But there are examples like Palworld or Helldivers or BG3 or others where smaller/independent studios release absolute smash game because they either 1) were bold enough to do something fresh, inovative and/or 2) absolutely love what they do and put so much more than “now the usual bare minimum” in their game it simply shows.
Just deliver good product and people will buy it.
And it’s the advice for Tim Swepic too. Steam is just better in every aspect, so maybe if you delivered better experience instead of just bitching about unfairness, people would actually buy in your store.
Wrong with what? 30% cut? It seems a lot, but from the greater distance I don’t think it’s that much.
Developers do get great benefits from this. The game is downloadable at any time with great speeds everywhere in the world. They get steam workshop for mods, free forums, reviews, steamplay, proton, friendlists with super easy game invites, … and all this is basically free advertisment for developer.
Now what does Epic offer in this regard? Nothing.
I use Bottles launcher for things like Battle.net, works great, even has simple one click install for it. It’s available and maintained as flatpak.
Are you me? I used to play some online multiplayer games, but switching to linux (some 3 years ago?) and being less competitive came hand in hand. Now I enjoy single players only (with sprinkle of Path of Exile and World of Tanks (well, not really anymore)) and can’t understand why should I even consider going back to those toxic waters of competitive play… Am I officially old?