Shamanic Rhythm said:
Therumancer said:
Huh? By "Go After Gabe" I didn't mean commandoes, I meant trying to get him extradited or made to face charges/pay fines if he decided to say run STEAM as a sort of illegal service after officially leaving.
I was making a joke.
At the end of the day all of those other companies that backed down that you mentioned are not worth STEAM in the one area it caters to: distributing games.
I'm sorry, did you just suggest the App Store isn't comparable to Steam in terms of market worth as a digital distribution platform? Because they've been made to bend over by the ACCC before.
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/apple-australia-gives-undertaking-to-accc-to-improve-its-consumer-guarantees-policies-and-practices
Shamanic Rhythm said:
Therumancer said:
Huh? By "Go After Gabe" I didn't mean commandoes, I meant trying to get him extradited or made to face charges/pay fines if he decided to say run STEAM as a sort of illegal service after officially leaving.
I was making a joke.
At the end of the day all of those other companies that backed down that you mentioned are not worth STEAM in the one area it caters to: distributing games.
I'm sorry, did you just suggest the App Store isn't comparable to Steam in terms of market worth as a digital distribution platform? Because they've been made to bend over by the ACCC before.
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/apple-australia-gives-undertaking-to-accc-to-improve-its-consumer-guarantees-policies-and-practices
But that's Apple, Apple is a more diverse business that sells products across a larger spectrum, laptops, computers, notepads, phones, digital distribution... their App store, is just part of it's product portfolio. Taking losses due to refunds on the app store is compensated by doing business across the rest of the spectrum. Valve does not do other kinds of business, so it's entirely about the digital distribution, if they are going to potentially take a big enough loss, there is no reason to continue to sell in The Australian market. What's more Apple has viable competition from other app marketplaces, Steam does not, if Steam leaves Australia PC gaming as a whole suffers. See the thing is that even if Apple didn't make a cent off of the app store due to Australian returns policies, it would make money through selling it's other products, thus it's worth it for them.
Now don't get me wrong, I'd actually like to see Australia succeed here, as I do not like the digital marketplace and agree with their principles, and I do not disagree that they have gotten other businesses to comply, however Steam is in a different position that a lot of these other companies even if it's not as big, since it's not really the size or power that matters here, it's being more or less the only game in town at their level when it comes to PC gaming, and the simple fact that it doesn't do anything else besides distribute games digitally, so one can't say that it's worth their while to comply with something like this due to the other aspects of their business. As I said in another response had Australia decided to wait until Valve went into other areas like it's been talking about doing, manufacturing hardware and the like, then it would arguably have a bit more leverage, because Valve would weigh those losses against the overall gains across their various products, and it would come out as being far more worthwhile.
I'm a pessimist though, that's why I think this might be the way things are going. Right now Valve holds something close to a monopoly on digital PC game distribution, and Australia as a market has always had problems getting games (according to the complaints I've read), that puts them in a rather unique position. Remember even though bigger companies, guys like Apple and Microsoft also compete with each other, if say Apple leaves the Australian market, everyone will just buy other products of the same type. If STEAM leaves, who else will Australians buy games from? Sure there are digital distributors, but none as good as STEAM either in terms of selection or prices, it's literally in a class by itself.... and again since Digital Distribution is all Valve does, if Australia cuts into Gabe's profits, and/or he thinks it represents a risk due to these policies, what's in it for him to keep dealing with Australia and help them establish precedents? If he packs up and go home, a lot of people are going to be very upset, and odds are if he threatens to do it, I'd imagine a lot of Australians would probably start pushing for Valve to get some kind of exemption, even if they disagree in principle, there is probably a very high demand for the service he provides, especially given that people are probably already heavily invested in Valve due to having bought games on their
platform and if Gabe leaves, they lose everything.
I actually hope I'm wrong, but the bottom line is if Valve pushes, I think it's actually got Australia by the nads. That's one of the advantages to a virtual monopoly and why you try and stop people from establishing them (or Cartels if you can help it)... and of course one of the reasons I've always hated digital distribution is that if a company goes down or loses everything and is forced to go out of business, they take all your virtual property with them. I only do it because I have to, but as a general rule I do not like the idea of giving someone real money for a product I do not have control over myself.
