Somebody left a ps4 game on the bus one time. I brought it home only to realize it was someone’s mixtape left in an old game case so somebody would pick it up. That’s guerilla marketing.
App stores are also monopolies who are abusing their positions. There’s been recent/current litigation about exactly that. Those other services are cool but are not just a kind service to gamers. It’s to keep the industry on their platform. It’s to increase market dominance. They could spin those services off as separate if they wanted but that wouldn’t support the market dominance so they won’t.
I’m not saying they for sure will get worse. I’m saying that a market dominance gives them the incentive and ability to do it. In general, we should resist market dominance so that incentive and ability just isn’t there to begin with.
Valve’s cost of hosting is pennies. They’re one of the most profitable companies in the US. They could lower that number to 5% and still have plenty of margin, I’d bet.
The first step of enshittification is being very pro-user. All of the good will from your users will build you a dominant market position so you can squeeze them later. We should resist any company dominating any market. Just because valve hasn’t screwed you over personally doesn’t mean we should just lovingly accept market dominance. The more competitive the market, the better.
It doesn’t have to go public to do that. It can get sold to private equity. The original owner can pass the business to their kid who has grown up privileged and huffs their own farts. Going public is a guarantee of enshittification but it isn’t the only way.
They take 30% of all PC game sales. If that isn’t abusing their position, idk what is.
On mine, you can just pull them off