10mo ago

Vietnam bans Valve's monopolistic game platform Steam

www.eurogamer.net Steam is now banned in Vietnam

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.

Games @lemmy.world

Hal-5700X @sh.itjust.works

10mo ago

Steam is now banned in Vietnam

www.eurogamer.net /steam-is-now-banned-in-vietnam

249 17

Steam @lemmy.ml

pro_grammer @programming.dev

10mo ago

Steam is now banned in Vietnam

www.eurogamer.net /steam-is-now-banned-in-vietnam

326 107

47 comments

- This article makes it seem like more of a protectionist move than an anti-monopoly move, which I'm in favor of when China does it so why wouldn't I support Vietnam doing it
  
  It sucks for Vietnamese gamers who will now be forced to use a VPN and change their computer's locale to play foreign titles, but if in ten or twenty years there's Vietnamese game devs who wouldn't have been able to exist otherwise it'll be worth it.
  
  Hopefully this will help prevent the good people of Vietnam from catching the gamer mind virus.
- A common reason cited by g*mers for only using Steam is that they "want to have all their games in one place". They will literally never switch to anything else, no matter how good it is, if the majority of their "owned" games can only be accessed through Steam.
  
  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.
  
  These companies don't want to just sell games to you. They want you to interact with their apps and live in their ecosystem and I have zero interest to learn to use a shittier Steam where I have no games
  If they just sold you no-frills installers like GOG does (with an optional Steam-like ecosystem I never use) I wouldn't mind, but of course they don't want to do that
  
  I know a lot of people who refuse to use Epic because something something Tencent bad!
- I argue that is the case as well. Personally, I've been so dissatisfied with every alternative I have no desire to use a different service.
  Steam also appears to be the only service that tends to do right by the customer so there is no push to seek an alternative.
- Every indie game developer wishes gamers would use itch.io instead.

Mixed feelings bc this is going to cut people off from playing a lot of games with folks in other parts of the world, which to me is one of the main draws of online gaming. But fuck steam 100%.
- Piracy is always an option
  
  True, and VPNs exist. It's more of an access thing. Lots of people don't have hte technical knowledge and skills to do these things.
  
  A lot of Internet cafes in Vietnam already use pirated games. But cracked multiplayer games usually cannot play with legit players.

Steam users are so fucking insufferable. They hate all capitalist game companies except this one which they will eagerly lick the boot of.
I don't like steam but
the correct number of steam-like things is 0 or 1 and we already have steam.

It sounds like Steam just needs to subject itself to the same regulatory oversight as domestic developers are bound by. Which seems fair to me.

This story seems to be a bit exaggerated - a Vietnamese game developer I spoke to reported that people still have access to Steam and that the source for this story isn't super well substantiated.
- What I've seen says they can still use the library they have bought but can't use the store etc.
  
  I did only hear from one guy when I asked about this, so I'm not sure what the full extent of the situation is, but aforementioned singular Vietnamese developer called the provided explanation a "very wild theory" and that the quote seemed to just be speculation from a random guy, "...and as of today, people can access Steam normally."

expect the Gamer Color Revolution soon

STEAM IS BAD AND THIS IS DUMB
IF STEAM JUST NEEDS TO SUBJECT ITSELF TO REGULATION THEN THIS IS IN FACT BASED.

And with the stroke of a pen, SEA became unable to ever win The International

i fully agree with the banning of steam and the destruction of Valve as an entity, but i think it's worth noting that the limitation placed on domestic devs in this case is imposed by Vietnam. Like, I'm sure the leninists here could very eloquently explain it to me using words like "objectively" and "defense of the revolution" but I don't think it's actually necessary to require government approval for the publication of video games.

Death to Steam, long live GoG!
- GoG stays winning don't even need to log in to play my games.
  
  A friend of mine gave me their GOG copy of Baldur’s Gate the other day on a thumb drive and it just works. There was nothing else to it. They are the best store front by far.

Not really the same, but apparently Netflix got busted distributing games.
https://english.thesaigontimes.vn/netflix-told-to-cease-distributing-unauthorized-games-in-vietnam/
- "Unauthorized games"

Steams realeses? Of what counter strike and DOTA?
You can develop games just fine. You can sell your games on Steam. Steam is a storefront more than a competing developer. I don't get what the fear is?
Vietnamese devs cannot compete with Steam's releases given they are subject to government approval and thousands of international games on Steam are not.
So games released on Steam are not subject to government censorship and control. It isn't Steam so much as they fear the offerings through steam aren't in their control. Isn't this what the US is doing to TikTok?

a lot of shooting games are being released on Steam, which still leave the effect (red blood) intact. In Vietnam, games of the same genre must be edited, due to their violent nature, which affects the psychology of players. In addition, on this platform there are also games with adult content with revealing images, sexual intercourse...
I didn't know Vietnam was so church lady prudish.

47 comments