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[Usobuko]

They made 1.5 billion alone with Wechat. FB wishes they could pull that with Whatsapp.

Yes, WeChat is very different from Whatapps. I think it's something like $7 dollar per user vs 17 cent in 2016. This is why people shouldn't worry about Tencent pulling the same maneuver for West endeavors.

They are smart and knows what works and what don't. What they do in China is very different from how they approach the West, even on companies they acquired or have a large stake.

Chinese MNC companies alway aimed to secure their domestic market first and then if they want to venture outwards, they will used the billions they earned domestically to outright acquire other companies, preferably. More so in entertainment industry.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Aggressive is an understatement.

I mean...holy fuck.

Uhhhh....they are playing softball at this point y'all.

If they wanted they could probably pull some strings and get the entire service banned from China.

It's a literal goddamn miracle Steam is still available there.

 

[eyesradar]

Uhhhh....they are playing softball at this point y'all.

If they wanted they could probably pull some strings and get the entire service banned from China.

It's a literal goddamn miracle Steam is still available there.

Yeah tbh thats the case. Perfect World is not a bad partner for Steam in China but Tencent is just....enormous.

 

[CertifiedFP]

This isn't good. Tencent is a Literal Cyberpunk Megacorporation. Steam needs competition, but not THIS.

I dread to see what could happen if they start shaking their weight in the west and ensnare companies looking for the short-term gains who prioritize the mythical 1% of China over the west.

Especially after it took us so long to secure Japanese games on Steam.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Yeah tbh thats the case. Perfect World is not a bad partner for Steam in China but Tencent is just....enormous.

I guess people just don't know how big tencent is and also lack understanding of the Chinese market.

Steam is already 100% in a grey zone there and aren't being held to the same requirements that console publishers are held to.

That shit could be added to the great firewall next week if a few influential people made it their mission.

 

[Shinjica]

Which would you go for? Bearing in mind restrictions in China will probably make it impossible for a western company to ever catch up with a Chinese company.

China is a shitty Jole forum non chiede company

 

[ccbfan]

This isn't good. Tencent is a Literal Cyberpunk Megacorporation. Steam needs competition, but not THIS.

I dread to see what could happen if they start shaking their weight in the west and ensnare companies looking for the short-term gains who prioritize the mythical 1% of China over the west.

Especially after it took us so long to secure Japanese games on Steam.

Yeah Steam is dead in China.

When a major Chinese company wants to "replace" you in China, you might as well take the "L" and go home.

Even Google and FB has succumbed in China because of this (Apple is the only one that survived and that might be because the phones are made in China)

 

[Inuhanyou]

They can stay in china if they like. but if they try and move west, no sir

 

[Big-E]

Foreign expansion and investment is always a two-way street - translation, marketing, financial regulations, government help or hindrance, and nationalistic interests all affect what a Western company can do in China.



From one of the links I posted earlier.

Valve never really came out with how hard they tried. They partnered with perfect wold for Dota but they never really did much for the store front. Maybe they were blocked but I never got the sense they were committed to China.

 

[ShinMaruku]

Anything to not have one company holding a entire market.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Wait a second: today's news about exclusives are limited to China.
Yet they are clearly moving towards west, step by step.

Oops, turns out i was mistaken, it wasn't Tencent that announced their warchest it was Netmarble. Sorry! Tencent probably do have a huge stack of cash for purchases obviously but they didn't announce it the other day.

Thread - Netmarble sets up $4.4 billion game company acquisition fund

 

[Fularu]

Good

Steam needs some serious competition becaue the service is shit now and they have no reason to improve in any way

 

[Durante]

Anything to not have one company holding a entire market.

Erm, why?

I mean, even assuming that one company were to hold an entire market, which is obviously not the case with PC gaming, why would a situation where another company uses plainly anti-consumer moves to dislodge the other be preferable?

Steam needs some serious competition becaue the service is shit now and they have no reason to improve in any way

If the service was so "shit" it should be easy to compete by offering a better service rather than by buying exclusivity, right?

 

[patapuf]

Anything to not have one company holding a entire market.

In a thread about Tencent, a company that owns PC games with playercounts that dwarf Dota 2 and the biggest PC game in existence, i don't understand how people speak of "monopoly".

Nevermind Blizzard and pretty much every sucessful client based game are also not on steam.

Then you have every bigger western publisher with their own store and their own exclusive...

where is this monopoly?

 

[kiunchbb]

Good

Steam needs some serious competition becaue the service is shit now and they have no reason to improve in any way

This is not competition, consumer get nothing out of this.

 

[Caffeine]

I think its good steam ( my primary store front/library) needs to have competition they have been sitting by for awhile now, the client hasn't really had massive changes since like 2008. The store has been filled with shit.

This is not competition, consumer get nothing out of this.

it is WeGame is going global soon.

 

[GhostTrick]

Good

Steam needs some serious competition becaue the service is shit now and they have no reason to improve in any way

How's that ?
I mean, I know there are thing to improve, but shit ? And how making games removed will be competition ? That's basically a moneyhat.

 

[Fularu]

This is not competition, consumer get nothing out of this.

Consumers will get price wars, upgraded services, better features/support, etc

The fascination with steam and the "steam or bust" mentality is why Steam is such hot garbage now

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I think its good steam ( my primary store front/library) needs to have competition they have been sitting by for awhile now, the client hasn't really had massive changes since like 2008. The store has been filled with shit.

it is WeGame is going global soon.

There's a big Steam Client update coming soon i think.

 

[Caffeine]

There's a big Steam Client update coming soon i think.

I'm looking forward to it

 

[dude]

Man, if there is one thing PC gaming was missing it's bullshit exclusivity deals!

 

[Sword Of Doom]

I don't think I've ever seen exclusivity deals where games are removed post release. That's very aggressive and bullshit imo. Talk about throwing your weight around

 

[Trago]

Steam is definitely not perfect, but if it's going to have competition, this isn't the way. Offer better services and features, not this money-hatting bullshit.

 

[funkystudent]

Surely there must be a way Valve can offload the solution to this to the community?

/s



More competition is good. Aggressive competition like this, right now in the PC space is super needed IMO. Steam / Valve have been resting on their laurels and just fucking around for years.

 

[MUnited83]

Good

Steam needs some serious competition becaue the service is shit now and they have no reason to improve in any way

Ah yes, removing games is now "serious competition" that will make Valve improve Steam. LMAO

I think its good steam ( my primary store front/library) needs to have competition they have been sitting by for awhile now, the client hasn't really had massive changes since like 2008. The store has been filled with shit.



it is WeGame is going global soon.

Steam being a semi-open marketplace is a good thing, not a bad one. And the "competition" Tencent will give won't have a single positive change on Steam, since their competition is not based on having a actual better client or better features or better anything, it's just moneyhats and nothing else. That's not a example of actual competition that actually benefits consumers.

 

[Inuhanyou]

More competition is good. Aggressive competition like this, right now in the PC space is super needed IMO. Steam / Valve have been resting on their laurels and just fucking around for years.

This is not competition, this is literally stealing games already on steam and making them exclusives via checks. Its not a moral transaction. What your arguing is just complete unfair practices. You can't talk about monopolies when Tencent is bigger than Valve will ever be

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Surely there must be a way Valve can offload the solution to this to the community?

/s



More competition is good. Aggressive competition like this, right now in the PC space is super needed IMO. Steam / Valve have been resting on their laurels and just fucking around for years.

Is there cross play between the different versions? Because I would be pissed if I bought a multiplayer game that got delisted, which would then effect player population.

You're also arguing for competition but this is eliminating competition. You are left with no choice

 

[AlucardGV]

This is not competition, this is literally stealing games already on steam and making them exclusives via checks. Its not a moral transaction. What your arguing is just complete unfair practices. You can't talk about monopolies when Tencent is bigger than Valve will ever be

it's not stealing, they made a deal with the owner of ip and they decided that it was worth it. i guess if they comes to the west too valve can't lazy around anymore and will have to invest in something

 

[Shantom]

Buying exclusives is an anti consumer move designed to snuff out competition, not promote it.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

it's not stealing, they made a deal with the owner of ip and they decided that it was worth it. i guess if they comes to the west too valve can't lazy around anymore and will have to invest in something

Call it what you want, but it's a wealthy company throwing their weight around in a way that is eliminating choice for consumers and screwing over those who have already purchased a game

 

[Fularu]

Ah yes, removing games is now "serious competition" that will make Valve improve Steam. LMAO.

Coming from a Steam or bust guy, this is rich

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

If you want to compete with steam, do it by making a better platform than Steam.

Steam is so entrenched with players and their libraries I don't think that's realistic. With no exclusives, you'd have to have a better platform AND Steam would have to screw up royally in the most anti-consumer way possible to get people to switch their primary store. Even then, I think most players would just put up with it because of their existing libraries, like an unhappy spouse that stays in a marriage because of the kids. I think exclusives are the only thing that motivates most people to bother with anything besides Steam. The reason people hate the practice is precisely because it's one of the few things that can force them out of their Steam monogamy.

Yes, the competitors having a better platform is important if you want people to try your store for it's exclusive and have anything positive to say about it, but without that exclusive most people aren't going to bother.

 

[Inuhanyou]

it's not stealing, they made a deal with the owner of ip and they decided that it was worth it. i guess if they comes to the west too valve can't lazy around anymore and will have to invest in something

So....consumers deserve to have their games taken off of the service because some big multinational made a deal to make their weaker service look better without having to do anything more than hurt then other guys?

Steam is so entrenched with players and their libraries I don't think that's realistic.

Then Tencent should not be fucking over consumers if they can't bother to even try to compete legitimately

 

[Caffeine]

Ah yes, removing games is now "serious competition" that will make Valve improve Steam. LMAO

Steam being a semi-open marketplace is a good thing, not a bad one. And the "competition" Tencent will give won't have a single positive change on Steam, since their competition is not based on having a actual better client or better features or better anything, it's just moneyhats and nothing else. That's not a example of actual competition that actually benefits consumers.

No one said it was good competition but it is competition. This is true I would have liked an actual approach but tencent just pays and buys for shit they always have.

Valve was improving Steam regardless maybe it was this or not but for months now they have been pushing toward a new interface and improving the quality of the store front.

I have 800 games now on steam I really don't see me leaving to another platform and starting from zero.

 

[GhostTrick]

More competition is good. Aggressive competition like this, right now in the PC space is super needed IMO. Steam / Valve have been resting on their laurels and just fucking around for years.

I agree with you by 101% here sir. We definitely need that kind of competition, where honest gamers should get into an ecosystem regardless of its quality, solely because games have been removed thanks to a moneyhat.

I agreed, they've been resting for too long on their laurels by making Steam compatible with controllers with Big Picture Mode, their Workshop for mods, the openess of the store which allowed more games to more tastes, the price competition allowed thanks to the fact they dont take a single cent from keys produced by devs and sold on other stores, and universal support for DirectInput controllers.

I, for one, welcome our new Moneyhatters overlords. :")

 

[AlucardGV]

Call it what you want, but it's a wealthy company throwing their weight around in a way that is eliminating choice for consumers and screwing over those who have already purchased a game

well then i'll call it "finally crashing against the Digital Delivery Wall"

(chances are high if you bough the game you'll still be able to download it, i don't know about the online tho)

I, for one, welcome our new Moneyhatters overlords. :")

and still you'lll be able to play the moneyhatted games on weplay account, that you can make for free (if they ever moneyhat games in the west)

 

[dave is ok]

So weird to come into a thread like to this and see people openly praising anti-consumer moves.

 

[Inuhanyou]

So weird to come into a thread like to this and see people openly praising anti-consumer moves.

I don't even get it man...as bad as EA and MS are, altleast they only secure their own games for Origin and Windows Live.

 

[GhostTrick]

well then i'll call it "finally crashing against the Digital Delivery Wall"

(chances are high if you bough the game you'll still be able to download it, i don't know about the online tho)

What has more chances to crash into a wall is physical media though.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

It's just business.

Valve could try competing with Tencent and offer those companies/devs a better deal.

Who is this good for?

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Steam is so entrenched with players and their libraries I don't think that's realistic. With no exclusives, you'd have to have a better platform AND Steam would have to screw up royally in the most anti-consumer way possible to get people to switch their primary store. Even then, I think most players would just put up with it because of their existing libraries, like an unhappy spouse that stays in a marriage because of the kids. I think exclusives are the only thing that motivates most people to bother with anything besides Steam. The reason people hate the practice is precisely because it's one of the few things that can force them out of their Steam monogamy.

Yes, the competitors having a better platform is important if you want people to try your store for it's exclusive and have anything positive to say about it, but without that exclusive most people aren't going to bother.

I'd rather not replace steam with a company that's willing to do something like this. Competition is good but this is too great a cost.

They can fun games and sign exclusivity deals but not the way they're doing it now.

 

[Castef]

This is not competition, consumer get nothing out of this.

Mmmh... wait.

We don't know this. I mean, don't look just at the exclusivity thing: if they start proposing good deals and discounts, then customers will actually gain something out of this.

 

[The Technomancer]

Yes, WeChat is very different from Whatapps. I think it's something like $7 dollar per user vs 17 cent in 2016. This is why people shouldn't worry about Tencent pulling the same maneuver for West endeavors.

I was at a corporate party right before CNY and it was crazy the setup they had going on with WeChat, they had all these interactive games on a projector and every single person in the place was doing stuff via WeChat on their phones including some microtransaction stuff

Its absolutely pervasive, and its crazy how quickly its taken over

 

[Sword Of Doom]

well then i'll call it "finally crashing against the Digital Delivery Wall"

(chances are high if you bough the game you'll still be able to download it, i don't know about the online tho)

It's a multiplayer game. What happens when you buy a MP game and the player population dies off cause that game is no longer sold on the platform (if there is no cross platform play)

 

[SmartWaffles]

I know it's just business, but this is very shitty thing to do.



Could you expand on this? I know very little about Tencent beside that they're the publisher and owners of many successful F2P games.

There other divisions like security software and casual gaming sections have A TON of anti-consumer strategies like installing their "system security tools" on users' PCs without explicit consent and/or are hard to uninstall without technical knowledge. And a lot of their F2P games are widely regarded as rip offs and have A TON of unfair microtransactions.

Just saw this on Chuapp's Weibo (a Chinese video game / mobile game website).

When asked if Tencent made Rocket League exclusive in China on the press conference, the guy in charge basically went like "It's the developers' decision as they want to collaborate with us in China than simply sell the game to us." "We have nothing to do with Steam being censored or being slow or laggy for certain regions in China."

Yeah, the developer sure wanted to take their game off Steam.


Source:

The statement explicitly stated it is the developer(Psyonix)'s decision to remove the game off steam and not Tencent's. Plus it is not even delisted on the Chinese region of steam, just removed the price tag. Also Rocket League is not even widely playable in China regardless, since it uses Google servers which are unreachable in China.

 

[Bowl0l]

Hopefully ten cent stays in China. I don't want them running around removing content from other store fronts..

 

[chillybright]

Why is this called exclusive or anti consumer? It's not like you have to buy another dedicated hardware to install WeGame. Nor do you need to pay extra subscription fee like Netflix or Hulu.


To me it will be literally another .exe like origin, Blizzard App (rip batttle.net) and steam.

 

[GhostTrick]

and still you'lll be able to play the moneyhatted games on weplay account, that you can make for free (if they ever moneyhat games in the west)

Thing is, where is the so-called competition supposed to improve the service ?

 

[MUnited83]

I agree with you by 101% here sir. We definitely need that kind of competition, where honest gamers should get into an ecosystem regardless of its quality, solely because games have been removed thanks to a moneyhat.

I agreed, they've been resting for too long on their laurels by making Steam compatible with controllers with Big Picture Mode, their Workshop for mods, the openess of the store which allowed more games to more tastes, the price competition allowed thanks to the fact they dont take a single cent from keys produced by devs and sold on other stores, and universal support for DirectInput controllers.

I, for one, welcome our new Moneyhatters overlords. :")

Don't even forget how they made a whole complete VR API that is completely free for developers to use on their games. Man they truly are horrible aren't they?

 

[GhostTrick]

Don't even forget how they made a whole complete VR API that is completely free for developers to use on their games. Man they truly are horrible aren't they?

Right, but it happened years ago.