Steam revenue estimated 2024: $10.8B
Google Play Store gaming revenue 2024: ~$31B
Why doesn’t Valve want a part of that? I mean they already have an Android app. Several, actually. I realize there’s some amount of investment but surely the payoff is worth it, and they have the necessary funds and skills? I mean if F-Droid can do it with nothing but volunteers and grants…?
Certainly plenty of games won’t lend themselves well to the mobile experience but also plenty of them do.
From a personal perspective: I don’t really care a whole lot for mobile games but I do like Balatro and want to play it on my phone, but if I want to do that I have to buy another license, which I can’t even do because I don’t run Google Play Services.
Epic got in on this already. Where’s Valve?
Edit: my reflections on this conversation:
Valve could distribute their own app like Epic but they’d also probably have to remove it from the Play Store because now a cross-platform game would give them an Android version, thus breaking Google’s ToS. So would doing such a thing outweigh lost sales from the Google version, and would it impact customer satisfaction? I wonder how many people are actually purchasing PC games in the Steam Android app…?
I don’t understand what that has to do with the discussion.
Google has made quite some effort making android a mess for anything but themselves. If I were valve/steam I would not want to maintain a store on there
Seems to work just fine for me and all of my 3rd party apps and stores 🤷
Android is probably the least consistent os out there. And that every phone manufacturer has to have their own spin on it doesn’t help. You got lucky, or some bog standard big brand thing
It’s called diversity. It has its drawbacks but for the most part it works just fine. That’s why it’s the most popular mobile OS in the world.
No, it’s the most popular because it’s free and can be stuffed onto basically anything while being pushed by the largest advertising company on the planet. Diversity has nothing to do with this
It can also be delivered with said advertising company completely removed from the system. Because it’s open source.
Did you notice how the alternative wasn’t even involved in this discussion? Why do you think that is?
They were? Because steam already is on windows and linux?
As for Apple products: Apple does not like 3rd party app stores or allowing other companies to take payments. It took a legislative fight with the eu and quite a few fines before they decided to stop being ass much of a bunch of assholes.
If I had a good running market I wouldnt bother with apple either
Really? You’re really going to pretend Windows and Linux are alternatives to Android? Can we just have an honest conversation, please?
You’re mistaken. They’re still a bunch of assholes. If you specifically live in the EU you might be able to distribute your own apps but they still require Apple’s rubber stamp and Apple still gets to collect the vast majority of their tax. Not the case for Android (anywhere). And it’s been this way from the beginning.
Yes, I imagine you don’t. Which is probably why you asked the question in the first place.
…would you like to explain?
They’re implying that the entire android software ecosystem is shit and should be avoided
Not Android specifically, I’m talking mobile games in general. I’m on iOS, and it’s not any better here. Mobile games are usually free for a reason, and that reason is that they are loaded with spyware, ads, and shitty monetization practices that I very highly doubt the majority of PC gamers on Windows, Linux, or MacOS would like to see become more prevalent on their platform.
And I while I don’t think Valve is some benevolent corporate overlord that’s looking out for what’s best for us, I do think they know how to extract a lot of value out of PC gamers for many years, and that’s by generally giving us what we want.
I mean that’s already the case with PC games…? Only slightly better because they are not Google and don’t allow straight-up ads for third-party products and services, which is what most of these “free” mobile games run on anyway. Valve has the potential to make a much better experience.
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
I won’t, because it isn’t a thing and never will be.
Excellent, so you agree it’s not the problem you made it out to be?
That’s the argument you decided to go with? Really?
Yeah, it’s not a problem in the same way that you having a cohesive thought happen to wander through your barren mind is not a problem.
You won’t get a notification unless I reply directly to you, so see my reply to the other person.