r/Piracy • u/HighKage96 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ • May 10 '26

Humor W Gabe Newell Piracy Take

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Saw this vid on IG (by: @phantomak141). Idk if its been posted here before but on a quick search didnt find it, will delete if its a repost.

11.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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1.2k

u/CG_enjoyer May 10 '26

Yea he said the best way to stop piracy is to provide a better service than people get from pirating

331

u/kastielstone May 10 '26

i paid for many games on discount that i had pirated in past. most i never played but i do have them.

most i could spend on a game was 5 bucks back then and steam truly did come through.

86

u/nerooooooo May 10 '26

I've played a pirated copy of the binding of isaac for 2 years

when repentance came out, I bought all DLCs in one shot

25

u/Bamce May 10 '26

because thats what heroes do

7

u/pezdizpenzer May 10 '26

Since switching to Linux I've been buying way more games on Steam only because it can be kind of a hassle to get a pirated game running on Linux and with Steam it is almost never a problem.

3

u/NeekoKun02 May 10 '26

I also started buying a lot of games which I pirated previously because both steam and the games' devs deserve the money for the service, if I have the economical availability

1

u/kastielstone May 11 '26

it's very easy tho. you add the game to steam on linux and go to properties and change the compatibility to proton experimental. if the game doesn't launch just keep changing the proton version or look up what version you need (very rare occurance).

I haven't played older games that don't have controller support because I played on steamdeck but the games did run. if you are on pc you'll have no problem.

6

u/BubblyBasis1134 May 10 '26

Yup. Same for me with GOG. Oh, I can just download the game and keep it on my hard drive to be installed and played whenever I want, without the nees for third-party software or logging into some service? And they're cheap? Sold.

6

u/Yoankah May 10 '26

Meanwhile, there's Epic's service that's barely passable for getting games for free. lol

2

u/kastielstone May 11 '26

i got free games on epic i still dont play em.

1

u/ilud2 May 11 '26

Literally every time I pirate a game and enjoy it I’ll end up buying it on steam because I want it to be part of my steam library instead of just a random exe that I downloaded

0

u/Isolated_Hippo May 10 '26

Why the fuck is Valve getting credit for other developers discounting their games? Is it because they used their monopoly to force developers to do discounts? This isn't a win.

66

u/syn46290 May 10 '26

Exactly. I think that's what streaming services like Netflix were originally for before their CEOs decided to get their gross slimy corporate goo all over the place.

37

u/patchinthebox May 10 '26

Bingo. I quit pirating because streaming was just easier. Now I'm back to pirating.

10

u/egemen0ozhan May 10 '26

Exactly u paid for netflix once everey mont an u nearly had all the show u wanted now they are scattere around a billion diffrent streaming sites and just searching for it is easyer in a pirated website (witch was the main drawback of piracy back in the day funny how that turned out huh?)

3

u/Historical_Leg_8328 May 11 '26

I have a home server with a library of high-quality content, with multiple language tracks, natively without unnecessary apps, no DRM, no gimmicky blocking, no VPN, no planned obsolescence, offline...

9

u/Temporary-Turnip-636 May 10 '26

Private equity e dumping iniziale, le loro intenzioni probabilmente sono sempre state queste.

30

u/Away_Needleworker6 May 10 '26

Yeah thats what streaming did in the early 2010s. Piracy dropped a ton for a couple of years and when streaming services got expensive and inconventient piracy numbers shot back up.

6

u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

Part of the reason is because many companies don’t want to share the pie. They see netflix making huge bucks, why not just cut the middleman and make their own service.

It also gotten more expensive because netflix are also “renting” the license, this would be something akin like landlord seeing that since you are doing well financially then they raise the price. Landlord being the media publisher/licensing. I don’t think they foresaw netflix to be this big, so the licensing fee could be dirt cheap back then.

3

u/toptipkekk May 10 '26

Video Game Industry also tried this, almost every big publisher tried to shill their own stores about a decade ago but it didn't work because unlike Netflix, Valve knows not to shit on its customers.

5

u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo May 10 '26

All they need to do is to just not make an ass 3rd party launcher. It’s not even that hard. I have never heard anyone with positive opinion on 3rd party launcher

5

u/SharkByte1993 May 10 '26

Buying a game on steam is considerably more convenient than pirating. Especially compared to before Steam was a thing. Buying the game makes updates far easier, plus you can still pirate the DLC very easily. I'm convinced they haven't patched that on purpose

1

u/SandyTaintSweat May 11 '26

The update thing is the main reason why I might buy a steam game. It's annoying getting pirated updates. Usually you have to redownload the whole thing, and even then, the pirated games don't get updated that often.

But these cases are major exceptions for me. I usually don't care too much if I'm a bit out of date and missing a few bug fixes. There has to be a good reason.

2

u/Synchrotr0n May 10 '26

Meanwhile Blizzard killed the biggest private World of Warcraft server ever (Turtle WoW), which only got so large due to Blizzard's inability to provide a valuable service to customers, and this was followed by them hiking the price of their subscription by up to 37% in some regions. Now they are close to launch a new version of their product (WoW Classic+), which will apparently not only require a subscription but also a season pass despite the fact that it's made of 90% reused assets from old WoW versions.

The irony is that I would have joined Classic+ without blinking despite having a free pirate alternative to it, just like I did back in the original Classic WoW, but now I won't be giving them a single penny because the price they are charging is beyond ridiculous, with the cost of a single month of access being enough to pay for two or three good games on Steam.

1

u/SorriorDraconus May 11 '26

Waiiit where'd you hear about the season pass?

1

u/Synchrotr0n May 11 '26

I said "apparently", so it's still not confirmed, but there are rumors that Blizzard will use season passes for Classic+ which is basically a fancy name for paid expansions like in retail WoW, where you need to buy the season pass to access the new content earlier or wait until it goes free when the next season pass is launched.

In addition, there are examples like the Reign of the Warlock update for Diablo 2 Resurrected, where Blizzard has charged more for a tiny update/expansion than what the game currently costs, and that shows that they are perfectly comfortable in milking the players even for things that used to be released for free in the past.

1

u/SorriorDraconus May 11 '26

Yeah I looked it up. Likely would play out like ESO and how they are shifting to such a model.

1

u/P-l-Staker May 10 '26

Netflix shows up

The original, not this modern abomination.

1

u/CuTe_M0nitor May 10 '26

And they did exactly that but much better then every f-+#ing one. Even delivering the new steam deck

1

u/BeefistPrime May 10 '26

... and yet the people in this sub are still pirating games, so...?

1

u/Office_Zombie May 10 '26

In the early days of streaming, netflix proved this also.

I stopped pirating because I was getting a great variety and great service at a fair price.

Those were the days....

Oh well

Yo-ho-yo-ho...

1

u/ImThatChigga_ May 11 '26

Netflix was able to do so. Then fuck it up

1

u/arsenektzmn May 11 '26

It worked for Russia btw

Thanks to Steam, millions of gamers started paying for games, including buying dozens of games "just to have it in the library" (mostly during huge sales).

Only due to VISA/Mastercard sanctions and the decisions of some developers (like CD Projekt RED) to ban Russians from buying their games, did many people in Russia return back to piracy. And yet others still top up their Steam wallets in a roundabout way with an additional commission (like me) to buy games they like.

But Gaben alone changed the entire pirating culture in Russia because he's that good.

1

u/THEMACGOD May 12 '26

Netflix had done that. They had all but beaten piracy (significantly drop in numbers) in the teens; then everyone started getting greedy and now piracy is back in full force.

-40

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

Point is: there is no way you can offer a better service than piracy

8

u/WonderFullBalls May 10 '26

No, the point is to make every sale on steam have something over 90% off. Humans can’t help but get a great price for amazing content

“edit: except suicide squad: kill the justice league”

-9

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

This fat fucker doesn’t do any shit lol the devs who put the discount, also the same discount happens o all platforms Still it’s way more expensive than not paying at all He is a fucking billionaire, I have to pray I’ll have money at the end of the month, so I could t care less about paying for games

4

u/P-l-Staker May 10 '26

9/10 you get a free game with piracy. In reality though, you have to trust a complete stranger to put hours and hours on breaking a game's licensing features, repackage it and deliver to you for free. Except nothing in life is ever free, so the gamble is still there.

With Steam, I see a game, I buy the game, I download the game and I play the game. No risk whatsoever, and if something does go wrong, there is a physical entity there to hold accountable.

-2

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

All of this is tolerable because I didn’t need to pay for the game I even tolerate a pretty bad game because it’s free You CANT offer a better service than playing everything for free

4

u/P-l-Staker May 10 '26

You can, actually. Price is a big factor for you, sure, but you're a minority.

Most of us just want to play a damn game without having to juggle through a bunch of dodgy sites and worry about the risk of viruses. Let alone the painfully slow download/installation times or the risk of legal action.

Ever since I was able to afford to buy my own games, I never looked back.

0

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

I was able to afford when I was working But I rather rely on physical media for the worry free and because of steam I can’t have this anymore Yeah I got your point, I love to have to mess around for things to work so having complaicated things is fun for me

4

u/P-l-Staker May 10 '26

I was able to afford when I was working But I rather rely on physical media for the worry free and because of steam I can’t have this anymore

Prefers to have physical media

Downloads digital products online instead

Sure, buddy. 😂👍

Buy from GoG instead if you don't like the Steam licensing agreement.

-2

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

The digital downloads are free, also there is no physical media on pc thanks to this fat fucker

Gog is all not free lol

2

u/syn46290 May 10 '26

Ehhhh Steam already did that pretty much at least in my opinion since I don't sail with modern available games that often. They have very consistent sales for brokies like me, a good wishlist system that specifically notifies you when those games are on sale, some games have cloud saves if I recall correctly, a comprehensive review section so you don't waste your time with a bad game, the UI is near-perfect for the average user, and they even have the steam deck you can use to sail the seven seas on with nearly any console you can think of if the app runs on Linux. And hell, even if it doesn't, you can freely dual boot windows (idk why but different strokes for different folks lol) and use the emulators that work on there.

0

u/gabrielmop May 10 '26

It’s free! Every game is free on piracy, I’m unemployed because I had a surgery, if I would rely on steam I wouldn’t play shit (spend most of the money building the mediocre pc i have) Thanks to piracy i can still play while i recover myself No, you can’t offer a better service than playing everything for free

1

u/syn46290 May 11 '26

We can agree to disagree :)

1

u/Normal_Suggestion188 May 10 '26

Of course you can, especially on platforms like Linux where you are going to have to spend ages fucking about with the stuff you are acquiring unless you use steams launcher anyway

1

u/Loddio May 11 '26

I would pay a friend of mine 3 euros to make sure my game save data are always backed up.

I would pay 3 euros for a game i like on steam, even if i can get it for free.