Why Does The Internet Worship Valve/steam/gabe?

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Why does the internet worship valve/steam/gabe?
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By 2026-06-04 21:59:29
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By Dodik 2026-06-05 01:56:43
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Asura.Saevel said: »
Hmm while this does exist, it's super cheap.

Added cost of Windows license for hardware purchases being cheap is not the point. Doesn't matter if it's 10 bucks or 100, it's a tax whether you use it or not.

I've not installed Windows on any machine since 2002, yet have indirectly paid for licenses multiple times via hardware purchases in that time.

Also, when you're selling hardware at near break-even prices, 10 bucks less or more matters to the consumer.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-07 14:46:40
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Just noticed you can't read or write reviews for the steam controller on steam, which seems to be the case for all steam hardware.

Anyone know why?
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By Garuda.Chanti 2026-06-07 16:21:52
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I think they are playing to a captive audience, IE steam users.

So positive reviews aren't going to get them any new possible buyers and negative reviews can only hurt them.

DLDR: Nothing to gain, can only lose.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-07 16:49:51
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Makes sense, but all of their games have a regular storefront with reviews, although most of them are usually very positive.
It's only the hardware that has a custom storefront without reviews.
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By Garuda.Chanti 2026-06-07 19:42:33
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They don't make the games. They do make the hardware.

They don't care which games sell, only that games sell.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-07 20:15:11
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They don't make a lot of games anymore as they probably figured it's easier to let others do the work to earn them money. However, they do make games. They mostly focus on service games lately, all of them have the same storefront with reviews as the games do that they didn't make themselves.
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By DaneBlood 2026-06-07 21:51:54
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Shichishito said: »
They don't make a lot of games anymore as they probably figured it's easier to let others do the work to earn them money. However, they do make games. They mostly focus on service games lately, all of them have the same storefront with reviews as the games do that they didn't make themselves.


Look Shichishito figured out what shift focus means in business.
not sure it has any points for the conversation though, but im so proud of you.
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By Dodik 2026-06-08 03:48:22
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When you make your own store, you can make your own rules on which products get user reviews or not.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 08:16:09
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Dodik said: »
When you make your own store, you can make your own rules on which products get user reviews or not.
True, but this clashes a bit with valves reputation of being consumer friendly.

If they offer reviews for everything but make exceptions for their own hardware in fear of negative reviews it looks like they don't have faith in their own products.
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By Carbuncle.Nynja 2026-06-08 08:38:00
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Alternative take:
If a store hosts their own reviews for their own product and they're all 5* reviews, people will doubt their legitimacy. Theres also the risk that people who have an irrational distain for the High-Lord Gaben and will just flood negative reviews. Fortunately, there are plenty of third party sites that do their own "independant" reviews.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=steam+controller+review
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 09:11:01
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Carbuncle.Nynja said: »
Alternative take:
If a store hosts their own reviews for their own product and they're all 5* reviews, people will doubt their legitimacy.
Good point!
They do have reviews for their own games though, most of which have very positive to overwhelmingly positive reviews. For instance their most popular game, cs2, is rated with very positive which stands in stark contrast to what you read on their discussion board.

Carbuncle.Nynja said: »
Fortunately, there are plenty of sites that do reviews.
You can also google reviews for every other product that they offer. IIrc their user review feature even was mentioned as a pro in valves favor, which I agree with. Why would it suddenly be a good thing when that feature is missing?
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By Dodik 2026-06-08 10:09:13
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Company that owns store decides rules for their store.

It's not complicated. Not some agenda.

You don't have to like it. No one said it's a "good thing".

You're making ***up to make them look bad because you don't like them/person at the helm.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 10:34:58
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What did I make up?

Dodik said: »
because you don't like them/person at the helm.
I don't think I dislike him, I just don't like the nimbus of infallibility.
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By Dodik 2026-06-08 10:40:14
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Shichishito said: »
Why would it suddenly be a good thing when that feature is missing?

Quote anyone in this thread that called it a "good thing".
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 11:56:53
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Dodik said: »
Shichishito said: »
Why would it suddenly be a good thing when that feature is missing?

Quote anyone in this thread that called it a "good thing".
I interpret the "let me google that" response from Nynja as a ridiculing expression to emphasis that selectively leaving out user reviews is a none issue.


Carbuncle.Nynja said: »
Theres also the risk that people who have an irrational distain for the High-Lord Gaben and will just flood negative reviews.
Wouldn't that be blasphemy?

Review bombing isn't a new phenomenon to steam, they've encountered it before and the review feature still exists. Their solution was to add a graph so people could see when review bombing happened and how perception is outside of the bombardment window.

I don't see why that solution is good enough for everything but not for their hardware products.
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By Dodik 2026-06-08 12:52:19
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Shichishito said: »
I interpret the "let me google that" response from Nynja as a ridiculing expression to emphasis that selectively leaving out user reviews is a none issue.

So no one said that. Got it.
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By Carbuncle.Nynja 2026-06-08 13:28:45
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Shichishito said: »
I interpret the "let me google that" response from Nynja as a ridiculing expression to emphasis that selectively leaving out user reviews is a none issue.
All I said was there are other sources for reviews on these products where you dont have to worry about the reviews getting home town treatment.

Why are you so concerned about this though?
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 14:23:12
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Carbuncle.Nynja said: »
Why are you so concerned about this though?
I don't see a good reason for excluding reviews for specific products if the feature already exists.

It's imho anti competitive behaviour and therefor I believe critique is warranted.

I'd also find it sus if amazon didn't add reviews for a selection of their amazon basics. I'd imagine there would be backlash if they did.
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By Fenrir.Niflheim 2026-06-08 14:52:46
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Shichishito said: »
It's imho anti competitive behaviour and therefor I believe critique is warranted.
So they have reviews for other controllers on steam?
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By Carbuncle.Nynja 2026-06-08 14:56:51
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Shichishito said: »
It's imho anti competitive behaviour and therefor I believe critique is warranted.
How is it anti-competitive?

Being anti-competitive would imply they hide reviews for their hardware but show reviews of other hardware, prioritizing negative reviews. I tried looking for the following on the steam store with no luck:
Playstation (only VR2 app showed up)
PS5
Nintendo
logitech (only VR ink driver showed up)
razer (couple things showed up, none related to hardware)
xbox (couple things shows up, nothing related to buying hardware)
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By Shiva.Thorny 2026-06-08 15:35:59
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What's the point of a review on the hardware? It does what it says on the box. How many people are digging through console reviews to see what they want? The enthusiasts know where to find info.

I can see Shichi's point; it probably wouldn't cost them anything to leave the reviews up on hardware too. But, hardware might be sold using a different backend or something due to the need to actually ship it. Who knows.

I don't really think any customers are losing out because they can't see the 1 star reviews crying that they missed rent because they spent too much on a steam deck or couldn't get a controller before it sold out. It's all going to be subjective ***. Who cares if johnnytwelveinches thought the controller was too big for his feminine hands?

If there was a major manufacturing defect and steam covered it up, the lack of reviews would be a whole lot more damning. To the best of my understanding, though, they've done an excellent job of QC on everything they've shipped.
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 16:00:06
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Afaik they don't sell hardware other than their own, I'm not trying to imply they do.

However, PC gaming isn't a closed eco system. They don't compete exclusively on their platform. There is competition to steam deck, there is plenty of competition to steam controllers or steam machines.

If someone is happy or dissatisfied with one of steams products the first and most obvious place to go to voice those opinions is usually the respective steam store page.

If you're competitive and convinced of your product you'd showboat the presumably positive reviews rolling in, front and center. You're anti-competitive if you avoid competition by hiding reviews cause they might be negative.

I hope that makes sense.
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By Shiva.Thorny 2026-06-08 16:24:18
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I think there's a difference between failing to provide an avenue to give a review in the official store and hiding reviews.

When a restaurant owner's wife or a company's social media manager whines to google to get bad reviews deleted, that's hiding reviews.

Why is it anti-competitive to sell something without adding an interface for reviews? There are tons of websites that sell things without one. Without evidence, it's a stretch to assume they actively disabled it as opposed to never adding it. They obviously had to do some adjustments to their shop to support the sale of physical goods.
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By Asura.Saevel 2026-06-08 18:42:31
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Lol, dude just has an emotional drive to hate something, you guys aren't gonna reason with hate like that.
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By DaneBlood 2026-06-08 18:54:51
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Shichishito said: »
True, but this clashes a bit with valves reputation of being consumer friendly.

No.

It also does not break your chain of utterly whining over the weirdest things.


it seems semi paradoxical that the person whining about getting checked for their gear. is complaining about some missing review function...
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By DaneBlood 2026-06-08 19:11:19
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Asura.Saevel said: »
Lol, dude just has an emotional drive to hate something, you guys aren't gonna reason with hate like that.

He is ALWAYS whining.

"people are trying to mpk me in dyna"
"people are /checking me"
"peopel are cheating since they can cap sparks"
"people are cheating since they can make afterglow weapons"

and again at no point in these could he realize that he just utterly sucks at the game
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By Shichishito 2026-06-08 19:36:55
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Shiva.Thorny said: »
Why is it anti-competitive to sell something without adding an interface for reviews?
I wouldn't say it is if steam didn't already offer that feature for most of their other products.

It's not just the reviews though, I can't find dedicated discussion boards or community hubs for their hardware either. Basically every feature one could use to voice a opinion that usually would be directly connected with the product page in their standard layout seems to be buried or missing.

Their social features are something steam gets praised for, why would they discard something that raises them above their competition?


Shiva.Thorny said: »
Without evidence, it's a stretch to assume they actively disabled it as opposed to never adding it. They obviously had to do some adjustments to their shop to support the sale of physical goods.
Their standard layout is pretty customizable, tbh I don't see much info presented on their custom layout that couldn't have been presented with their default layout.
They went the extra mile and made a prettified custom layout for the hardware, fair enough. But the new layout also works with links to sub pages for more in depth info so it's not like the new layout presents everything in one place.

If you scroll a bit past the mid of the steam deck storefront there is a button in the content body that reads "See verified games". It brings you to a page that looks pretty similar to their standard storefront layout.

This indicates that even valve isn't too concerned to strictly separate the two layouts from each other. At that point I don't see why you couldn't also link the standard social layouts.
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By DaneBlood 2026-06-08 19:44:04
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Shichishito said: »

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By Garuda.Chanti 2026-06-08 20:18:06
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Shiva.Thorny said: »
Why is it anti-competitive to sell something without adding an interface for reviews?
IMHO it would only be anti competitive if they sold other manufactures' hardware WITH reviews.
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