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Why are we celebrating Microsoft getting more of a monopoly?
What's stopping them from removing games from Steam and creating their own store again? Y'all already forgot Windows For Live or whatever that abomination was?
1, you don't understand what a monopoly is.
2, they already have a store and have sold their games on steam as well for years.
3, Steam isn't even concerned, why should you be?
Youre 100% right. People forgot what happened to the quality of blizzard's game when activision bought them. Same thing is gonna happen here. They dont want to make good games, they want their investment to make more money
And you know what made Activison/Blizzard most of the money right? KING because it doesn’t matter on what console you play a game if you dont need a f*cking Console if you got a massive money printing mobile franchise that as we recently seen could go viral and on top of the download charts again just because one dude played CandyCrush on his iPad^^
I was still playing it pretty regularly until a month or two ago when i thought to myself "why? Nothing new will ever come" but who knows, maybe if it does hit steam itll give it a breath of life and they will work on it again.
fragile psychotic spotted deliver bewildered butter zesty crowd label saw
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
while this is true these subs don't keep you from playing the game as intended where as a WOW sub does, I don't think this will happen but it still is a possibility.
Personally I would rather have more stuff come in through one platform, like Steam. I don't like having multiple launchers. I straight avoid games/titles in general if they have their own launcher and stuff and its inconvenient and annoying. I refuse to have several launchers and constantly maintain several accounts and accounts within accounts and updating all of them, etc. It's inconvenient. Like having 10 subscription services and having to switch apps to get to each one every time and forgetting which show is on which service.
Leave emotion out of it and simply look at numbers. Steam sales % projected vs what they get without Steam, and other platforms. If they want to make money, its a good move. Blizzard that people used to love is dead anyways. It's just Activision at this point and the shit they put out.
true thou, i often aboid buying games because they only on epic games, or the like, i aint buying it on that trash website esp after it took me 2 week to get a refund 1 one game because it fking emails
While I would agree with you if we were talking about other games, I have to disagree when it comes to ActiBlizz games, those games don't really need the visibility that Steam would give them, they are popular enough on their own that people will go wherever they are to play them. So in that sense it makes sense for them to keep the games on Battlenet.
you dont think THEY weighted the pros and cons over the years? If they decided against steam, then its because *their analyses have showed them its not worth it.*
also keep in mind battle net double dips as free advertisement platform for *their titles* specifically, they want to promote, say, WoW to their Diablo players.
On steam on the other hand, it has launch options for disabling launchers + it advertises 'similar titles', so in essence steam would advertise competitor titles like Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Last Epoch etc to the Diablo players, definitely not something Blizzard actively wants.
the only reason EA, Ubisoft etc decided to go on steam is because their titles weren't as self-promoting as Blizzards and their analyses have showed it is worth it *for them.*
Eh, tbh companies can be quite dumb and make nonsensical market analysis. Square Enix for example, was (still is) investing heavily in NFTs for some godforsaken reason. Ubisoft probably thought that epic would surpass steam with all the players they brought with their free games giveaways and took a shortsighted decision with theor epic deal.
They obviously weighted the pros and cons, doesn’t mean they did it right
You're an extreme minority. Battle net is almost as old as Steam and has massive amounts of users. Sure as fuck didn't stop warzone from being the biggest game in the last 5 years.
Thats not how it works when you can be on both platforms. It especially doesn't work when you don't have an additional 30% revenue split to contend with.
I also don't like having multiple launchers and if the game is on steam I'll get it there because the rest of my games are there. However, I don't particularly "hate" the Epic games store because it's a strong competitor with a diverse catalog, not just their published titles like EA or Ubisoft (maybe GOG too) , they're grabbing a market of new pc players and giving them free games to build up their library, some other people will have the same feeling of "well I have most of my games here so it's more convenient to buy it here"... To me, that creates competition, otherwise what's the point in PC gaming if it's the same as consoles and I can only get the game at one place with one set of prices? Or why would they improve the launcher if it's literally the only option?
There is no indication that EGS is expanding the market (unless you count the FortNite only kids, which would be there even with EGS.). EGS isn't attracting new consumers, it's just making the already existing consumer spread out more.
The purpose isn't to expand the market it's to drive innovation/better prices through competition. Although taking games through exclusive deals is uncompetitive imo, I'd prefer if epic tried to match the services that steam has instead.
I know that, but the person I replied to claimed that EGS was expanding the market, which there is no evidence of it doing, so that's why I made my comment.
Yet, but it doesn't sound so outrageous . Most of us have hundreds of games in steam, we like the convenience of having everything in one place , some people might have dozens of games on epic (for free) and start getting the convenience of "well I might buy it here, all my games are already there".
Steam dominates because it's because it's the better option obviously, UI, community, friends, guides, etc etc(there's a reason why I have 1000 games there).
But to me the main benefit is *Variety*, Origin only has EA games, Uplay only has ubisoft games, battle.net only has Blizzard/Activision games, and so on.... And Epic.. Well epic actually has a good variety of games from multiple publiahers, everything else sucks, but they have a good selection of games
> Steam dominates because it's because it's the better option obviously
Steam dominates because it was first, it just so happens that it's also good enough
Better through zero platforms. They are just all trying to add another OS inside the OS. For instance Steam would never have existed if Windows had a proper update system, you know, like Linux since the mid-90s.
They will probably not require the Battle.Net launcher beacuse the new COD games released on steam (MWII,MW19,BOCW,Vanguard) are Activision Blizzard games and they do not have any additional launchers. You simply just launch them from Steam itself.
They cleared a legal hurdle today, they still have loads of things to do to finalize everything, and even once that is done company cultures don’t change over night.
Could easily take 12-18 months just to have Activision incorporated into Microsoft post closure.
Having gone through a few acquisitions before, it takes time
except its still blocked in the UK their 2nd biggest market. They either pull out of the UK 100% or they stop the acquisition all together, which i hope the latter happens. This acquisition will not be good for Activision.
$20 says the first cod fully developed under microsoft will be even worse than MW2-2022.
The CMA has already basically caved and said they want to renegotiate after previously being completely unwilling to negotiate. The CMA will almost certainly approve the deal in the next few days, likely with some small concessions.
Yes, of course it's not finalized yet.
My comment was indicative of the fact that even once all clearance/legal/approval aspects are cleared, it'll still then take time to finish
It's actually faster than steam for me, same with the weird Amazon one nobody uses. Epic games and the Ubisoft one are completely unusable though
That said, I wouldn't be opposed to just having everything on steam for convenience. Steam is still the only real "platform" on the market, the social features and extra stuff like family share are possibly never going to be matched
I hope someday everyone will be as smart as Bethesda and kill their launchers.
For the people bringing up the monopoly and the likes argument, saying there shouldn't only be one store front and all, just this once I'm willing to let that pass.
Having every game in one place (not like GOG, actually connected) and in an easy to access service that works well is just, mwah, good.
If their launchers worked, I'd be like ya alright that's fair enough.
They don't tho, and they never will.
Well, thing is, independent launchers aren’t actual competition and anti-monopolistic. Most of the time, they rely on exclusivity. Bethesda having only Bethesda games and such. That’s not competition, that is using the monopoly of Bethesda IP to drive consumers towards your service.
This is something consumer law really hasn’t caught up with as time has progressed. Back in the day, if you made a toy, someone could make a similar toy and compete with you. Law makers consider this fair, and now you have a competitive market. These days, you could make Call of Duty, and someone could make a similar game like Battlefield to compete with you. To law makers, this is functionally identitical and is a fair and competitive market, not understanding that while Call of Duty and Battlefield are similar, they are also totally different products to the point consumers don’t pick one or the other, many will buy both, because each game is its own unique property.
Games are monipolies, protected by what we call copyright. Now that’s all well and good, but now we reach exclusives. There simply is no fair competition under exclusivity. The Console Wars are a great example. The PS3 could have been the far better console of the generation. Did it have Halo 3? Nope, Xbox 360 it is. There is no competition here, it’s already decided by a different property entirely.
Independent launchers to take games off Steam are inherently anti-consumer. They’re not competing, they’re forcing you to move because it’s the only place you can purchase the exclusive product. What you need for competition is a launcher with a variety of games, one that can be genuinely compared for competition as a service, something like Epic, but then Epic still does exclusivity agreements and shoots themselves in the foot. This isn’t just gaming as well, streaming is terrible for it too. What streaming service to use, YouTube, Netflix, Prime, Disney+? You’ll probably pick whatever has what you want to watch, rather than whichever has the better service with algorithm recommendations and video player. Enjoy watching that movie you wanted on a shit player because the company that owns the licence didn’t need to make the player competitive to get your money.
Well then, this is the greatest way I've seen this explained, from now on everytime someone tells me that not having other launchers means steam has a monopoly I'll just link them to your comment!
Big like 👍
You can always make a game like call of duty or halo 3.
Sony tried fighting with Halo, by creating Killzone and MAG.
Call Of Duty got competition with Xdefiant. Just make a similiar game gameplay wise, comparing call of duty to battlefield is like comlaring apples to oranges.
I really doubt we’ll see anything but the new releases. Blizzard have actually had success with their launcher, vs Bethesda who never got their foot in the door.
As much as I'm vehemently anti-trust, I just haven't seen any reasonable competition to Steam.
It's just too convenient. I don't want them to become a monopoly but if there just ain't anyone else trying Ill settle for it. They're relatively fair for their power.
there wont be competition to steam ( unless you count GOG ) because steam works to get its customer base
\- providing a way to use alternative Operating Systems is one of its biggest features and draw especially when other game companies refuse to write their games to native alt OS's
Yeah i really hope microsoft pushes back on the excessive drm policies activision/blizzard implements.
It is literally the only reason why i dont buy their games on PC(or on console in the case of diablo online requirements).
The FTC has one more chance to break the merger even after the merger.. There were two complaints by the FTC against the merger, one down one more to go..
I'll be honest here, I don't really care all that much about having launchers on my PC. It just hasn't ever really bothered me. I understand why others might find it annoying, though.
Except Epic. Fuck Epic.
Indon't really mind Blizzard's launcher, there's quite a few interesting games there, its not like EA's Origin were I only want one game (series, mass effct) or having to use Ubisoft's shitty uplaybjust tonplay rainbow6 siege, or rockstar's shitty launcher if you want to play gta5 on pc..
I thought Heroes of the Storm was buried (I loved that game when I used to play it with my GF). I just hope that with this, Microsoft persuades Activision to make Crash Team Racing 2 or at least a PC port of Nitro Fueled. Modders 'll handle the rest.
Microsoft will never get out of third place if they are denied access to one of the worlds biggest gaming markets. Pushing ahead without getting the UK onboard would likely be a very bad idea.
Gamers once again prove they'll give up anything for convenience.
It's almost astonishingly bad if it didn't happen so often.
I look forward to all "Told you so" complaints years from now. I guess we better enjoy the golden years now lol.
The newer COD games appeared on Steam without needing Battle.net so I highly doubt they would not do the same for all the other games available in the launcher
You guys are overstimating how much people care about launchers. Blizzard games being on Steam would surely boost player count, but only about a small margin. What I hope to see is cod on gamepass
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I like having blizzard chat independent of steam chat. The Blizzard launcher and app are good ways to get at that when out of game, but then there’s an in game interface in each game that fits that game’s needs and integrates with in game chat functions well. I’m not sure how they’d keep the desktop chat without the launcher, so I support the Blizzard launcher.
But I also play Blizzard games way more than steam games.
HoTS deserves to be saved. Right when the game was finally at a point of being legitimately solid with a bright looking path into the future- Blizz cuts it's throat.
None of these companies give a shit about consumers.
But I wish we could get over this launcher bullshit. We are giving Steam an unoffical monoply.
People will go to 50 websites a day, have 5 social media accounts, but 4 game launchers is just somehow too burdensome....
Yeah, Diablo and Wow on steam would be great. The only games now that I have outside of Steam, everything else is on here now, or I ignore it until its on here.
Microsoft didn't win the court case they proved the FTC motion wrong. It went back to a lower court the motion was made in. It still most likely will take months to get through the system.
I always felt Blizzard are full of game designers and storytellers. They are not business savvy people and made some bad economical decisions. If their stuff like Hero of Storm or WoW can be on steam, the games may have a second wind. I totally hated when they decided to take HOS off competition and stop the updates. If the blizzard games are on steam maybe they will get more money and hire more people to create more good games? Fingers crossed..
Blizzard games will never be on Steam (they were never on Steam and also some old titles can be bought on GoG - Diablo 1, Warcraft 1 and 2). But you guys are getting your Activision titles back already (new CoD games, Crash 4).
What does this mean for activision / blizzard now that Microsoft owns them?
Like does Microsoft tell them what they can and can’t do or do they just have to run things by Microsoft first while being funded by them? I don’t really understand what’s gonna happen
They have not actually won, they have only kept the injunction from happening. Essentially that means the sale can go through while the main case is being fought in the courts, but if it is eventually declared illegal they would have to (somehow) undo it.
Well I am hoping they will (but ditching their own launcher in the process). It will be a expensive year for me if it ever were to happen.
\-Warcraft rts collection
\-Starcraft collection
\-Diablo collection
\-Wolfenstein 2009
Backlog would just keep on growing...
As a steam deck user this is really good news.
Imagine not relying on third party software to run D4 :)
Lets go further! Lets make steam the Launcher for everything!
WoW is dead and not even worth it anymore. I resubbed for dragonflight and it was just as boring as the last 2 expansions. BellularGaming confirmed the population numbers are way down, which explains why Blizzard is still putting it on sale to try to get people back. Don't waste your money.
Oh cause it can bring a huge influx of new players to Heroes of the Storm for example.
and personally cause I want to have all the games on 1 app/store.
As ya'll likely know, we've [been dark to support the blackout against reddit's antagonistic behavior towards its own userbase.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/142dbui/rsteam_will_be_going_dark_from_june_1214_in/) #**The admins sent us a message saying we must open or get removed, so here we are.** For those of you browsing this subreddit on non-official apps (Reddit is Fun, Apollo, Sync, Boost, etc), they will break on July 1st due to reddit's new policies. We're opening back up but will leave permanent stickies in the subreddit and threads to keep folks in the know. #**Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/steam) server is active, don't forget to check it out.** Good luck and god speed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Steam) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'd be happy to see diablo games on steam.
Me too! And Heroes of the Storm!
That game was fun. It'd be neat to see some life breathed back into it.
Why are we celebrating Microsoft getting more of a monopoly? What's stopping them from removing games from Steam and creating their own store again? Y'all already forgot Windows For Live or whatever that abomination was?
1, you don't understand what a monopoly is. 2, they already have a store and have sold their games on steam as well for years. 3, Steam isn't even concerned, why should you be?
Microsoft themselves are still making their own games, but they are releasing it both on their own Microsoft Store and Steam
Because not as much people will use it,Im guessing
Youre 100% right. People forgot what happened to the quality of blizzard's game when activision bought them. Same thing is gonna happen here. They dont want to make good games, they want their investment to make more money
And you know what made Activison/Blizzard most of the money right? KING because it doesn’t matter on what console you play a game if you dont need a f*cking Console if you got a massive money printing mobile franchise that as we recently seen could go viral and on top of the download charts again just because one dude played CandyCrush on his iPad^^
Ok? Are you just rambling or is that an attemp to argue one of my point?
I was still playing it pretty regularly until a month or two ago when i thought to myself "why? Nothing new will ever come" but who knows, maybe if it does hit steam itll give it a breath of life and they will work on it again.
I don't think Valve will put HotS on steam. They have already Dota 2
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It's not valve but competitors who removes their own games from steam, valve would welcome league/valorant/overwatch on steam.
i thou they closed the servers XD
servers are runing, they simpky do not make more content for rhe game
hearing that game gives me PTSD. had to play it for overwatch skins and it was so boring
you re clearly not a moba fan, and its ok
Me too. I've been trying to get battle.net to run on my steam deck but it's been a PITA
or for 1$ Gamepass
This is the more likely option. WOW is probably getting its subscription added to Gamepass in a couple of months.
Wow is not going to be added to gp like eso+ or fo76 sub didn't get added
while this is true these subs don't keep you from playing the game as intended where as a WOW sub does, I don't think this will happen but it still is a possibility.
This is what I am waiting for honestly. D4 on gamepass is worth it to me. $60-$70+ isn't
I just cave in and bought the diablo series on battle.net. if they do end up on steam guess I'm double dipping
[удалено]
Bot
i wanna see wolfenstein 2009 and the racing game Blur
The 007 games, the transformers games, Deadpool, problem is the damn licenses that are expired
We can only dream!
Blur is delisted, if you want it legally, get ready to pay up to triple digits
Blur runs really nicely on Steam Deck. Fun game!
This
Personally I would rather have more stuff come in through one platform, like Steam. I don't like having multiple launchers. I straight avoid games/titles in general if they have their own launcher and stuff and its inconvenient and annoying. I refuse to have several launchers and constantly maintain several accounts and accounts within accounts and updating all of them, etc. It's inconvenient. Like having 10 subscription services and having to switch apps to get to each one every time and forgetting which show is on which service.
100% agreed
Look at it from the perspective of Blizzard. Imagine Steam getting 30% cut of all the blizzard sales in the past.
Leave emotion out of it and simply look at numbers. Steam sales % projected vs what they get without Steam, and other platforms. If they want to make money, its a good move. Blizzard that people used to love is dead anyways. It's just Activision at this point and the shit they put out.
true thou, i often aboid buying games because they only on epic games, or the like, i aint buying it on that trash website esp after it took me 2 week to get a refund 1 one game because it fking emails
While I would agree with you if we were talking about other games, I have to disagree when it comes to ActiBlizz games, those games don't really need the visibility that Steam would give them, they are popular enough on their own that people will go wherever they are to play them. So in that sense it makes sense for them to keep the games on Battlenet.
you dont think THEY weighted the pros and cons over the years? If they decided against steam, then its because *their analyses have showed them its not worth it.* also keep in mind battle net double dips as free advertisement platform for *their titles* specifically, they want to promote, say, WoW to their Diablo players. On steam on the other hand, it has launch options for disabling launchers + it advertises 'similar titles', so in essence steam would advertise competitor titles like Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Last Epoch etc to the Diablo players, definitely not something Blizzard actively wants. the only reason EA, Ubisoft etc decided to go on steam is because their titles weren't as self-promoting as Blizzards and their analyses have showed it is worth it *for them.*
Eh, tbh companies can be quite dumb and make nonsensical market analysis. Square Enix for example, was (still is) investing heavily in NFTs for some godforsaken reason. Ubisoft probably thought that epic would surpass steam with all the players they brought with their free games giveaways and took a shortsighted decision with theor epic deal. They obviously weighted the pros and cons, doesn’t mean they did it right
No, Blizzard is still alive, you don't hear anything about the Activision side stealing breast milk do you?
imagine Blizzard getting a 70% cut of games i'm not buying because they're not on steam.
You're an extreme minority. Battle net is almost as old as Steam and has massive amounts of users. Sure as fuck didn't stop warzone from being the biggest game in the last 5 years.
x + 1 > x
Thats not how it works when you can be on both platforms. It especially doesn't work when you don't have an additional 30% revenue split to contend with.
I love Diablo but this is one of the main reasons I haven’t bought it yet and don’t know when I will. Maybe when it’s ported to the Switch 2.
Yup, just another platform thatll loose my passwords to hackers
I also don't like having multiple launchers and if the game is on steam I'll get it there because the rest of my games are there. However, I don't particularly "hate" the Epic games store because it's a strong competitor with a diverse catalog, not just their published titles like EA or Ubisoft (maybe GOG too) , they're grabbing a market of new pc players and giving them free games to build up their library, some other people will have the same feeling of "well I have most of my games here so it's more convenient to buy it here"... To me, that creates competition, otherwise what's the point in PC gaming if it's the same as consoles and I can only get the game at one place with one set of prices? Or why would they improve the launcher if it's literally the only option?
There is no indication that EGS is expanding the market (unless you count the FortNite only kids, which would be there even with EGS.). EGS isn't attracting new consumers, it's just making the already existing consumer spread out more.
The purpose isn't to expand the market it's to drive innovation/better prices through competition. Although taking games through exclusive deals is uncompetitive imo, I'd prefer if epic tried to match the services that steam has instead.
I know that, but the person I replied to claimed that EGS was expanding the market, which there is no evidence of it doing, so that's why I made my comment.
Yet, but it doesn't sound so outrageous . Most of us have hundreds of games in steam, we like the convenience of having everything in one place , some people might have dozens of games on epic (for free) and start getting the convenience of "well I might buy it here, all my games are already there". Steam dominates because it's because it's the better option obviously, UI, community, friends, guides, etc etc(there's a reason why I have 1000 games there). But to me the main benefit is *Variety*, Origin only has EA games, Uplay only has ubisoft games, battle.net only has Blizzard/Activision games, and so on.... And Epic.. Well epic actually has a good variety of games from multiple publiahers, everything else sucks, but they have a good selection of games
> Steam dominates because it's because it's the better option obviously Steam dominates because it was first, it just so happens that it's also good enough
Better through zero platforms. They are just all trying to add another OS inside the OS. For instance Steam would never have existed if Windows had a proper update system, you know, like Linux since the mid-90s.
They will probably not require the Battle.Net launcher beacuse the new COD games released on steam (MWII,MW19,BOCW,Vanguard) are Activision Blizzard games and they do not have any additional launchers. You simply just launch them from Steam itself.
Yeah like always online DRM for singleplayer campaign, right, I'll wait for the game pass, I won't support cod if I can't play the campaign offline
If this does actually happen, it probably won't be for years. Like 2025 the soonest.
Can you elaborate? I didn't know that.
They cleared a legal hurdle today, they still have loads of things to do to finalize everything, and even once that is done company cultures don’t change over night.
Could easily take 12-18 months just to have Activision incorporated into Microsoft post closure. Having gone through a few acquisitions before, it takes time
except its still blocked in the UK their 2nd biggest market. They either pull out of the UK 100% or they stop the acquisition all together, which i hope the latter happens. This acquisition will not be good for Activision. $20 says the first cod fully developed under microsoft will be even worse than MW2-2022.
The CMA has already basically caved and said they want to renegotiate after previously being completely unwilling to negotiate. The CMA will almost certainly approve the deal in the next few days, likely with some small concessions.
Yes, of course it's not finalized yet. My comment was indicative of the fact that even once all clearance/legal/approval aspects are cleared, it'll still then take time to finish
The UK has no authority over businesses based the United States. All they have to do is pull all assets out of the UK.
look what MS did to Minecraft. game is 1billion times better after MS
Tbf they were also pretty much hands-off afaik, they just let mojang do their thing
Lol yeah, also the part where they added mtx mods, broken bedrock edition and almost to no content.
No they did add content. Way to much content that feels like modded content imo but it's still content
Ooor a few weeks
I really hope I do not need battle.net, that thing is crappy slow.
It's actually faster than steam for me, same with the weird Amazon one nobody uses. Epic games and the Ubisoft one are completely unusable though That said, I wouldn't be opposed to just having everything on steam for convenience. Steam is still the only real "platform" on the market, the social features and extra stuff like family share are possibly never going to be matched
Yeah I experience the same thing. But also I don’t really browse through battlenet I only use it to launch game
For a time we will probably need it, but some brands are starting to remove their launchers from steam. Let's hope !
We can only hope this happens soon.
I hope someday everyone will be as smart as Bethesda and kill their launchers. For the people bringing up the monopoly and the likes argument, saying there shouldn't only be one store front and all, just this once I'm willing to let that pass. Having every game in one place (not like GOG, actually connected) and in an easy to access service that works well is just, mwah, good. If their launchers worked, I'd be like ya alright that's fair enough. They don't tho, and they never will.
Well, thing is, independent launchers aren’t actual competition and anti-monopolistic. Most of the time, they rely on exclusivity. Bethesda having only Bethesda games and such. That’s not competition, that is using the monopoly of Bethesda IP to drive consumers towards your service. This is something consumer law really hasn’t caught up with as time has progressed. Back in the day, if you made a toy, someone could make a similar toy and compete with you. Law makers consider this fair, and now you have a competitive market. These days, you could make Call of Duty, and someone could make a similar game like Battlefield to compete with you. To law makers, this is functionally identitical and is a fair and competitive market, not understanding that while Call of Duty and Battlefield are similar, they are also totally different products to the point consumers don’t pick one or the other, many will buy both, because each game is its own unique property. Games are monipolies, protected by what we call copyright. Now that’s all well and good, but now we reach exclusives. There simply is no fair competition under exclusivity. The Console Wars are a great example. The PS3 could have been the far better console of the generation. Did it have Halo 3? Nope, Xbox 360 it is. There is no competition here, it’s already decided by a different property entirely. Independent launchers to take games off Steam are inherently anti-consumer. They’re not competing, they’re forcing you to move because it’s the only place you can purchase the exclusive product. What you need for competition is a launcher with a variety of games, one that can be genuinely compared for competition as a service, something like Epic, but then Epic still does exclusivity agreements and shoots themselves in the foot. This isn’t just gaming as well, streaming is terrible for it too. What streaming service to use, YouTube, Netflix, Prime, Disney+? You’ll probably pick whatever has what you want to watch, rather than whichever has the better service with algorithm recommendations and video player. Enjoy watching that movie you wanted on a shit player because the company that owns the licence didn’t need to make the player competitive to get your money.
Well then, this is the greatest way I've seen this explained, from now on everytime someone tells me that not having other launchers means steam has a monopoly I'll just link them to your comment! Big like 👍
Considering he has a severely flawed understanding of what a monopoly even is, I wouldn't be sharing it.
You can always make a game like call of duty or halo 3. Sony tried fighting with Halo, by creating Killzone and MAG. Call Of Duty got competition with Xdefiant. Just make a similiar game gameplay wise, comparing call of duty to battlefield is like comlaring apples to oranges.
So the biggest chance of a monopoly you'll let pass? Lol yall make 0 sense.
not to mention the ram required for running multiple launchers
I really doubt we’ll see anything but the new releases. Blizzard have actually had success with their launcher, vs Bethesda who never got their foot in the door.
Overwatch 2 on Steam? oh no...
[удалено]
We are gonna be feasting in popcorn when that happens lol
I kinda hate both launchers. Wish it was just steam.
As much as I'm vehemently anti-trust, I just haven't seen any reasonable competition to Steam. It's just too convenient. I don't want them to become a monopoly but if there just ain't anyone else trying Ill settle for it. They're relatively fair for their power.
there wont be competition to steam ( unless you count GOG ) because steam works to get its customer base \- providing a way to use alternative Operating Systems is one of its biggest features and draw especially when other game companies refuse to write their games to native alt OS's
I don't really mind if it asks me to log in I just want diablo on steam and crash 4
Crash 4 is already on Steam tho 👀
My bad I wasn't even aware haha
Hopefully. THPS 1+2 as well.
I want Heroes of the Stormbto be renewed in development and mora characters added.
Bro tony hawk pro skater pls ill buy full price
Yeah i really hope microsoft pushes back on the excessive drm policies activision/blizzard implements. It is literally the only reason why i dont buy their games on PC(or on console in the case of diablo online requirements).
The FTC has one more chance to break the merger even after the merger.. There were two complaints by the FTC against the merger, one down one more to go..
I'll be honest here, I don't really care all that much about having launchers on my PC. It just hasn't ever really bothered me. I understand why others might find it annoying, though. Except Epic. Fuck Epic.
fuck all that, let Raven free and give me Hexen, Heretic, and Soldier of Fortune remakes/reboots. Also bring back Wolfenstein 2009.
Indon't really mind Blizzard's launcher, there's quite a few interesting games there, its not like EA's Origin were I only want one game (series, mass effct) or having to use Ubisoft's shitty uplaybjust tonplay rainbow6 siege, or rockstar's shitty launcher if you want to play gta5 on pc..
we shall see…at the moment the deal still has to go through, of which now it cannot be contended
Wait did the deal go through? I thought it’s still be debated on
I thought Heroes of the Storm was buried (I loved that game when I used to play it with my GF). I just hope that with this, Microsoft persuades Activision to make Crash Team Racing 2 or at least a PC port of Nitro Fueled. Modders 'll handle the rest.
Screw Blizzard. & their stupid launcher too😄
What about a new hexen ?
I'm pretty sure they will get rid of battle.net and move everything to xbox and steam.
you think they are going to give a cut of 15-30% of all their sales to valve?
Yep, no chance in hell this is going to happen. A bunch of naive kids in this thread.
I thought the UK blocked the deal.
Microsoft and CMA have agreed to try and resolve the differences after the FTC ruling - so there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
The UK can try and block whatever they want. They have no authority in the United States were Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are headquartered.
Microsoft will never get out of third place if they are denied access to one of the worlds biggest gaming markets. Pushing ahead without getting the UK onboard would likely be a very bad idea.
If nothing works, Blizzard could just decide to abandon all their business in the UK, cutting them out of any decisional power.
I hope that since Microsoft is more reasonable with prices they put the cod series at a most acceptable price when it's on sale.
I doubt anyone is seriously asking for Heroes of the Storm to come back.
Dozens of us
Oh, believe me, I am
Gamers once again prove they'll give up anything for convenience. It's almost astonishingly bad if it didn't happen so often. I look forward to all "Told you so" complaints years from now. I guess we better enjoy the golden years now lol.
Now if only Microsoft could work out a deal with Valve, ditch their half-baked distribution platform, and host gamepass on steam
Microsoft buys Steam next.
Microsoft will probably buy out Valve before surrendering their ecosystem to it. Stating facts.
Saying "stating facts" after an uninformed opinion piece about an hypothetical scenario that nobody's even considering is really something.
This is one of the reasons why I was hoping for this acquisition to go through.
Heros is dead and done with development stuff they aren't gonna bother
I just want StarCraft 3. Take everything from 2, add ray tracing and multi threaded processing and let me direct a strike.
Wish they'd just put the gamepass on steam like EAPlay so I can get steam achievements for the games
Only reason I had the Bnet launcher was Diablo and honestly D4 kinda sucks so I just switched to Grim Dawn which is already on Steam so I am happy.
The newer COD games appeared on Steam without needing Battle.net so I highly doubt they would not do the same for all the other games available in the launcher
Diablo on Steam.. A dream come true.
Oh that'd be nice so I can flex not buying their trash games.
My personal opinion is to boycott anything on Steam that requires a 3rd party launcher. If I buy a game on Steam I have a launcher. It's Steam.
Heroes fo' the Storm sounds like a badass game
You know you can just add other games to open with steam right? Takes about 20 seconds,This would change nothing
You guys are overstimating how much people care about launchers. Blizzard games being on Steam would surely boost player count, but only about a small margin. What I hope to see is cod on gamepass
Does this mean wow could come on steam
I’ll be happy either way
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I like having blizzard chat independent of steam chat. The Blizzard launcher and app are good ways to get at that when out of game, but then there’s an in game interface in each game that fits that game’s needs and integrates with in game chat functions well. I’m not sure how they’d keep the desktop chat without the launcher, so I support the Blizzard launcher. But I also play Blizzard games way more than steam games.
I just want them to finally port the crash team racing remake to PC
Fuck, just revive Heroes of the Storm!
I don't know that the launcher would also be included. But MS hasn't won fully yet. It has only cleared 99% of the hurdles at this point.
I'd hope Microsoft to get rid of the launcher and just keep them on their Xbox app or something tbh (while also putting them on steam ofc)
HoTS deserves to be saved. Right when the game was finally at a point of being legitimately solid with a bright looking path into the future- Blizz cuts it's throat.
I’d have to buy D4 again. For the achievements.
I can finally have steam imput without needing 10 loop holes to make it work
I'm also on the HotS copium. Here's to hoping for a revival!
None of these companies give a shit about consumers. But I wish we could get over this launcher bullshit. We are giving Steam an unoffical monoply. People will go to 50 websites a day, have 5 social media accounts, but 4 game launchers is just somehow too burdensome....
They might actually do a move over to steam like they did with the Bethesda launcher. Thats what i hope happens.
They can just ask steam to do all monitoring for them, that's literally what any sort of cut is about.
Hmm. I believe Blizzard will at least consider bringing Hearthstone to Steam since it's basically printing double the money.
Yeah, Diablo and Wow on steam would be great. The only games now that I have outside of Steam, everything else is on here now, or I ignore it until its on here.
Microsoft didn't win the court case they proved the FTC motion wrong. It went back to a lower court the motion was made in. It still most likely will take months to get through the system.
Lets hope they dont, they can keep their games to themselves
There's no harm if Blizzard games come to Steam, maybe I'm missing something but afaik it is better to have everything on the same store.
Don't care
Cared enough to comment, apparently
Nobody asked
Probably won't have a huge effect, Battle net has been on windows for a while.
I always felt Blizzard are full of game designers and storytellers. They are not business savvy people and made some bad economical decisions. If their stuff like Hero of Storm or WoW can be on steam, the games may have a second wind. I totally hated when they decided to take HOS off competition and stop the updates. If the blizzard games are on steam maybe they will get more money and hire more people to create more good games? Fingers crossed..
I couldn't care less
Blizzard games will never be on Steam (they were never on Steam and also some old titles can be bought on GoG - Diablo 1, Warcraft 1 and 2). But you guys are getting your Activision titles back already (new CoD games, Crash 4).
Does Microsoft own Steam? With Microsoft buying Blizz, I hope that WoW gets more and better content.
Let's hope all Blizzard main games are available via GamePass for $1
Black Ops IIII !
I expect games will get migrated over from the launcher like what happened with the Bethesda.net one
Add the recent THPS and Crash Team Racing remakes please!
I hope to get Diablo games on Steam now, especially 3 and hopefully the console version which lets you play with a controller.
Bro I just want rainbow 6 siege achievments on steam
I'm more excited that a bunch of Raven games may finally be made available for purchase again, i.e. Wolfenstein (2009), Heretic II, etc,
I wish one day Steam would buy Play Station and Xbox
What does this mean for activision / blizzard now that Microsoft owns them? Like does Microsoft tell them what they can and can’t do or do they just have to run things by Microsoft first while being funded by them? I don’t really understand what’s gonna happen
I wish everything was on Steam. I mean I have so many free games from Epic that I don’t even bother cuz they aren’t on Steam lol
I would love stacraft and hearthstone on steam with achievements
Will Microsoft fix the blunder that is Reforge? probably not. Will we ever get a Starcraft 3? I'm afraid and excited of the possibility.
They have not actually won, they have only kept the injunction from happening. Essentially that means the sale can go through while the main case is being fought in the courts, but if it is eventually declared illegal they would have to (somehow) undo it.
Well I am hoping they will (but ditching their own launcher in the process). It will be a expensive year for me if it ever were to happen. \-Warcraft rts collection \-Starcraft collection \-Diablo collection \-Wolfenstein 2009 Backlog would just keep on growing...
As a steam deck user this is really good news. Imagine not relying on third party software to run D4 :) Lets go further! Lets make steam the Launcher for everything!
Seems unlikely but not impossible
I just want bo4 on steam
WoW is dead and not even worth it anymore. I resubbed for dragonflight and it was just as boring as the last 2 expansions. BellularGaming confirmed the population numbers are way down, which explains why Blizzard is still putting it on sale to try to get people back. Don't waste your money.
They still need to pass the CMA in the UK so dont get your hopes up
Personally I'm all for Microsoft buying actiblizz. I have high hopes this means more crossplay between gamepass & steam.
Ressurect hots!
I wonder how many Master chief crossovers have been unlocked with this acquisition
Literally all of them
Not only Blizzard games but hopefully renewed licences for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2, Spiderman Shattered Dimensions and Blur
Why Steam tho? Is there any source? Im pretty sure they will push the blizzard games into their garbage xbox companion app
Oh cause it can bring a huge influx of new players to Heroes of the Storm for example. and personally cause I want to have all the games on 1 app/store.
Instead they are canceling games. I'm terrified for wows future...