I don’t really know how I feel about steam or valve. I’m kind of nervous about how dominant they are… like it would really suck if they suddenly disappeared or started acting more maliciously. I get why people like the promises from GOG and stuff. But that said… Valve and Steam do so much good stuff and I really respect all of the Linux work they’ve done. I don’t really trust them long term, but they seem to currently be in the position where open platforms benefit them and they’re leaning into that… and that’s actually really cool.
Honestly, the fact that the steam deck isn’t locked down and you can install games from other sources, or even blow away the operating system and put windows on it is kind of incredible and I’m really glad they’ve done things like that. I’m not sure how relevant it would be to these lawsuits, but I feel like the lack of a walled garden gives them a significant brownie point for me. I hope they keep doing awesome stuff like this and don’t completely squander any good will I have towards them.
Regardless, I hope small developers can get a better cut on steam in the future… 30% seems pretty steep. It’s probably worth it for the value that steam adds, but I could see it being juuuust enough that some small game developers can’t quite eek out a living on a niche game.