Gabe Newell says 'everybody benefits' from competition with Epic
https://tinyurl.com/vc2qb66
Conversations about the Epic Games Store often pivot on one central point of
contention: Is it fostering competition with Steam, or is its practice of
landing exclusive game releases "anti-consumer" because it keeps them from
being released on Steam, the platform of choice (or at least of habit) for
the majority of PC gamers? Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney believes it's the former
—and so does Valve boss Gabe Newell, it turns out.
In an interview with Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar), Newell said that
"everybody benefits" from the competition in the long run, although it can be
rough getting there.
"Competition in game stores is awesome for everybody. It keeps us honest, it
keeps everybody else honest," Newell said. "But it's ugly in the short term.
You're like, 'Argh, they're yelling, they're making us look bad.' But in the
long term, everybody benefits from the discipline and the thoughtfulness it
means you have to have about your business by having people come in and
challenge you."
Interestingly, Newell said that it's not competition that bothers Valve, but
attempts to stamp it out. Newell referenced the Apple store, but the comment
could also be seen as a quiet shot against Epic, which very carefully curates
what it allows on its store. Valve takes a completely opposite approach with
Steam, by allowing nearly unrestricted access to developers.
"We get a lot more freaked out not by competition, but by people trying to
preclude competition. If you ask us which is scarier, it's people falling in
love with Apple's model of controlling everything and having faceless
bureaucrats who get to keep your product from entering the market if they
don't want it to, or designing a store in a way that minimizes software's
value-add to experience and stuff like that."
While Newell didn't say that Epic directly spurred it to make Steam better,
2019 was a very active year for Valve. It launched the new Steam library
after years of work, Steam Remote Play and Remote Play Together, updated its
discovery tools and created Steam Labs to try out even more experimental
stuff, and did more behind-the-scenes for developers.
Competition notwithstanding, Steam continues to roll along as far and away
the big dog in the digital storefront pack: Earlier this week, with people
kept home by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, it set a new record by
surpassing 20 million concurrent users, with 6.2 million of the in game.
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Steam的老板 Gabe Newell 在接受 Edge Magazine 的访谈时提到了他对Epic的看法，也
能看出他的理念。
我大概只译一下那几段，我英文不是很好，尽量......
In an interview with Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar), Newell said that
"everybody benefits" from the competition in the long run, although it can be
rough getting there.
在Edge Magazine的访谈中 (借由 GamesRadar)，Newell 说长期来看在竞争之中“大家都
会受益”，尽管要达到这程度可能很艰难。
"Competition in game stores is awesome for everybody. It keeps us honest, it
keeps everybody else honest," Newell said. "But it's ugly in the short term.
You're like, 'Argh, they're yelling, they're making us look bad.' But in the
long term, everybody benefits from the discipline and the thoughtfulness it
means you have to have about your business by having people come in and
challenge you."
“游戏商店之间的竞争对每个人来说都很棒。这让我们保持诚实，也让每个人都保持诚实
。” Newell 这样说道。“但在短期来看这是丑陋的。你可能会这样看﹝阿，他们一直大
吼大叫，他们让我们看起来很坏。﹞但长期来看，每个人都将受益，从你必需让人们更加
了解和挑战你的业务时所带来的纪律和体贴中受益。”
Interestingly, Newell said that it's not competition that bothers Valve, but
attempts to stamp it out. Newell referenced the Apple store, but the comment
could also be seen as a quiet shot against Epic, which very carefully curates
what it allows on its store. Valve takes a completely opposite approach with
Steam, by allowing nearly unrestricted access to developers.
有趣的是，Newell认为对Vavle造成烦扰的不是竞争，而是试着灭绝它。Newell 提及了
苹果商店，但这些评论其实也意指了他对Epic不喜的部份。那就是钜细靡遗地整理了商
店中被允许的部份。而Valve在Steam上采取了完全相反的做法，那就是同意开发者们可
以几乎无限制的接驳。
"We get a lot more freaked out not by competition, but by people trying to
preclude competition. If you ask us which is scarier, it's people falling in
love with Apple's model of controlling everything and having faceless
bureaucrats who get to keep your product from entering the market if they
don't want it to, or designing a store in a way that minimizes software's
value-add to experience and stuff like that."
“我们感到惊讶的不是竞争本身，而是人们试着排除竞争。如果你问我们什么才是最可怕
的部份，那就是人们完全爱上了苹果的模式。即为完全控制一切，还有着不露面的官僚把
控着你的产品能不能进入巿场，又或著以最小化软件的增值部份的方式或经验上类似的东
西来设计商店。”