They’re pretty much the entire reason gaming on Linux is as active as it is today.

Yeah, I have a Steam Deck, and it’s literally just a PC in the form factor of a Switch. It has a BIOS menu, you can install Windows on it (but you really shouldn’t), you can install a different flavor of Linux (I recommend Bazzite) – you can even install and play pirated Windows games through Proton, more or less fine, though you have to work for it a bit more.

They developed Proton so that they could get Windows games working on the Deck, and the reason they didn’t make the Deck run Windows is they wanted greater control over the OS than Windows affords. Proton has benefited all gamers on Linux. More recently, they’ve officially partnered with Arch as of a few days ago (which is what SteamOS is built on): https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/the-arch-linux-team-is-now-working-directly-with-valve-steamos-and-arch-should-both-benefit-greatly

and just to gush a bit more: the Deck is the only thing I can remember pre-ordering in the last 10 years and being genuinely happy that I did.

This isn’t a good argument, right?

The topic is Nintendo who make a handheld console and unless CD Project make a GOGBoy with a bespoke SteamOS-like “console OS”, yet another storefront for Windows PCs is hardly an actual alternative.

I also though of them because they recently improved their subscriber agreement (apparently not for selfless reasons but still an improvement esp. in the light of what Nintendo is currently doing).

I’ll give my own experience as a Steam customer and aspiring game dev:

I’ve never had a problem with Steam that wasn’t quickly and satisfactorily resolved. Usually, in ways that go above and beyond Valve’s stated responsibilities. They have been quick to respond to the two hardware tickets I’ve raised over the years of owning a Steam controller, two Steam Links, a Valve Index, and my own Steam Deck.

In the many years that I’ve used all flavors of Linux and installed all manner of native games and non-native games, it has only been in the last 4 or 5 years that the process has become, in my own experience, painless enough for me to not only consider suggesting other less technical people I know to try Linux, but to enthusiastically recommend it. They were the strongest single driving force I am aware of in bringing day-one mass-market release games to Linux.

I have, over the years of my dealing with them, come to believe that money spent towards Valve is materially making my life better in ways that just playing games through Steam doesn’t fully encapsulate.

They provide development assistance and funds for open source projects in a way that truly gives back to the projects they work with, their company is run in a way that I find personally satisfying and aspirational, their leadership feels like they’re maintaining their relevance in the industry instead of being disconnected money-men…

I respect their decisions enough to consider their cut reasonable as compared to the services they provide both directly and indirectly to the PC gaming industry as a whole.

to be fair, most of those “backups” are played once, if they suck they get thrown off instantly and if they are good they stay until the price point in the store doesn’t pain me anymore. so it’s really just a temporally displaced backup, you are right :-)

ETA: “Doesn’t pain me” depends on the content: i did not shy back from buying for example Baldurs Gate 3 at full price. Indie devs normally get full price and automatically bought DLCs too, but i’m not into throwing my cash after the Bethesdas and EAs of the gaming world.

And that benefits Microsoft, how?