Monopolized a market by offer good services to both end users and buisness clients.
Lets not forget the evil though : helped set the 30% cut for apps/games that became the standard across all digital spaces, arguably started online gambling and microtranactions in gaming.
Selling loot boxes, where you pay 2-3 currency units to “unlock” a box that definitely won’t have something of value the vast majority of the time. TF2 cosmetics, CS:GO gun/knife/glove/player model skins
same. But to a lot of people, those pixels are valuable. So valuable an entire secondary market opened up outside of Steam. And the lootbox mechanic is literally gambling-- No different than a slot machine. When opening a box, it even gins it up with graphics and fanfare, just like a video slot machine.
Multiple billions of currency units in “value” all situated around virtual gambling. Valve created the most successful, valuable digital casino, ever.
Also platformed independent game developers.
Monopolized a market by offer good services to both end users and buisness clients.
Lets not forget the evil though : helped set the 30% cut for apps/games that became the standard across all digital spaces, arguably started online gambling and microtranactions in gaming.
Online gambling existed well before Steam.
How did they start microtransactions?
Selling loot boxes, where you pay 2-3 currency units to “unlock” a box that definitely won’t have something of value the vast majority of the time. TF2 cosmetics, CS:GO gun/knife/glove/player model skins
To be fair those are cosmetic only items. I’ve played a ton of those games and didn’t spend s dime, because I don’t care about how cool my gun looks.
same. But to a lot of people, those pixels are valuable. So valuable an entire secondary market opened up outside of Steam. And the lootbox mechanic is literally gambling-- No different than a slot machine. When opening a box, it even gins it up with graphics and fanfare, just like a video slot machine.
Multiple billions of currency units in “value” all situated around virtual gambling. Valve created the most successful, valuable digital casino, ever.
And is still effectively DRM even if it’s fairly non-invasive