Steam is now banned in Vietnam
www.eurogamer.net
Steam has been banned in Vietnam.As first reported by Game Developer and spotted by our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz,…

However, as reported in Vietnam.net, it’s possible Steam has been taken down in Vietnam after local game developers complained about the scope and size of Steam’s vast portfolio of games, claiming Vietnamese devs cannot compete with Steam’s releases given they are subject to government approval and thousands of international games on Steam are not.

Citing it as “an injustice to domestic publishers”, Vietnamese studios reportedly say that local game development “will die” if Steam is able to keep releasing games without the same government scrutiny as domestic games.

Based Vietnam protecting its domestic games industry from American capitalists. :)

TLDR: the online game monopolies of Vietnam complains that they can’t extort the market share our Lord and Savior Gabe Newell rightfully earned," said one unhappy Steam user.

Steam users are so fucking insufferable. They hate all capitalist game companies except this one which they will eagerly lick the boot of.

  • booty [he/him]English
    40•6 months ago

    A common reason cited by g*mers for only using Steam is that they “want to have all their games in one place”.

    I really don’t think that sentiment is all that common. People like to use Steam because it’s a good service, and always innovating new ways to be a good service. There’s no reason for family sharing to exist, or for it to have recently been overhauled in such a way that it’s even smoother and more pleasant to use. They just did it because it makes a better consumer experience. There’s no reason for Proton to exist, or for Valve to push into linux gaming at all. Linux was such an insignificant, tiny market. But Valve is making it a significant market single-handedly and that’s fucking awesome.

    Of course Valve, just like any other company in a capitalist society, only wants money. But Valve, unlike most companies in a capitalist society, is guided by the principle that people will fork over their money if the service is good. And they’re goddamn right.

    If Epic made a good service, or if Ubisoft made a good service, or if EA made a good service, or if Rockstar made a good service, or if Blizzard made a good service, or if anyone else made a good service, they’d have no problems getting people to use their service and Steam. The problem is that any time somebody other than Valve makes a game store, the only selling point for it is “you can’t play this game if you don’t download our store.” Nobody ever tries actually making something good.

    • StalinStan [none/use name]English
      13•6 months ago

      I specifically feel that way. Steam is a resource and a convenience and it makes life more difficult to interact with games in a other way. Steam should be nationalized by vietnam.

    • Beetle_O_Rourke [she/her, comrade/them]English
      11•6 months ago

      There’s no reason for Proton to exist, or for Valve to push into linux gaming at all. Linux was such an insignificant, tiny market. But Valve is making it a significant market single-handedly and that’s fucking awesome.

      Microsoft began making noises about wanting a cut of the Steam gravy train around the time development started on the failed steambox 1.0 project.

      • dachshundwithadesktop [any, they/them]English
        6•6 months ago

        Just curious, why? I’m not too into what goes on in the game world, so I don’t know who has been doing what. I just remember the hatred for Microsoft for monopoly, EA for some kind of anti-consumer practice, and Ubisoft for making shitty open world games and the microtransaction lootbox bullshit. What did CDPR and Valve do?

        • piccolo [any]English
          9•6 months ago

          EA (and to some extent Valve) is also well known for profiting very heavily off of getting people addicted to gambling in the form of loot boxes. Also EA’s former CEO said that they should capitalize on gamers in the heat of the moment to charge in-app transactions, like pay $1 to reload your magazine mid-combat in Battlefield. They’re also notable for charging tons for DLC. Overall just very money hungry and gross.

          Valve is not very good at censoring profitable fascist games from their marketplace (which goes in line with Gaben and his reddit-logo freedom takes). Valve also takes like 1/3 of the price of the game for themselves, which is pretty high, especially for indie game devs who don’t yet have many sales, and given that they have a de-facto monopoly. They also tried really hard to break EU and Australian law and not allow for refunds on games beyond very limited circumstances. Their work culture is also notoriously sexist and transphobic.

          I think Valve is probably the lesser evil of game companies but I think that their reputation is much much better than it should be given all this shit. That being said, as a tux enjoyer I’m happy they are trying to get gaming on Linux working better, even if it’s just for their own selfish interests.

        • RyanGosling [none/use name]English
          4•6 months ago

          That’s the thing. Valve hasn’t really done anything. They don’t make games anymore. They just sell you shit. They have some controversies but nothing really worth caring (wrt steam) about except that one time they allowed mods to be charged. As such, you don’t get too many reasons to hate it outside of principle, which is fine, but no one else cares enough to make an alternative.

    • Taster_Of_Treats [none/use name]English
      1•6 months ago

      You also can’t play steam games without downloading their store.

      I don’t think epic games is that bad as a game auto-uploader. I just wish it took less time to launch.

      They also have a better revenue share for game devs, which is good because steam should be pressured to share more revenue.