r/pcmasterrace • u/screwdriverfan • 24d ago

News/Article Microsoft patents system to freeze games and inject ads during downtimes — watching commercials earns ad-free playtime credits

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/microsoft-patents-system-to-freeze-games-and-inject-ads-during-downtimes-watching-commercials-earns-ad-free-playtime-credits
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u/Falanin 24d ago

Oh, looking at Steam, it's easy to see how they could completely screw us over. They're a monopoly the same way Amazon, Google, or Netflix were. Trusted because they're the best.

Any venture capital or a different set of board members and they'll forget that the business model works because they're mostly ethical. Then we'll be back to getting copies of games from whatever source we can, sorting them manually, and talking about games on 3rd party sites.

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u/Dr_Valen 7800x3d / 9070xt / 64gb / Cachyos 23d ago

steam isn't a monopoly tho. People could easily migrate to gog or even god forbid epic games. Steam is only one of the PC gaming storefronts. They're the most popular because they treat consumers right but if they flipped they'll lose customers too

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u/Falanin 23d ago

Yes, you're seeing what I was getting at. Steam apparently holds monopoly power because they're so much more popular than their competitors...

but we could do without them if they were gone. Their position in the market is, as you also said, a product of how well they treat people compared to their competition.