SteamDB joins Nexus Mods

Comments

• inlandempire@jlai.lu ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  RIP SteamDB, prepare for the enshittification

  What are you going to do with it?

  Short term: nothing you’ll notice. SteamDB keeps running exactly as it does today. Same site, same features, same data, same URL, still free.

  Then we invest. SteamDB goes from essentially a one-person operation to a cross-functional team with modern infrastructure, security and scalability. That means long-standing backlog items actually shipping, more robust infrastructure, and less “everything depends on one person not burning out.”

  We will also be connecting SteamDB’s data to modding tools and modding metadata so a mod manager can know which build of a game you’re running, warn you before an update breaks your setup, and make things like collections/mod lists install significantly more reliably.

  Are you going to commercialise it?

  We’re going to be straight about this rather than dance around it: yes, SteamDB needs to make money. What xPaw has built - and kept running largely through personal dedication and community donations - is an extraordinary achievement. Giving it the team, infrastructure and long-term investment it deserves is how we protect that work and ensure SteamDB can thrive for the next decade and beyond.

  That said, we want to be smart about it, and it’s very important that we don’t degrade SteamDB from the amazing resource it is today. While we could simply put ads on the website, we don’t think that’s the right approach here. So we’ll be looking at other, lighter-touch ways to make the website sustainable. This may include use of partnerships, integrations, and affiliate links with publishers when you buy a game after visiting SteamDB. These are harder to do, take longer to set up, and may not show the benefits immediately, but we’re happy to take that hit in the interest of doing things right.

  Here’s what it does not mean: no paywall on anything that exists today, no selling your personal data, no login walls, no degrading the site to squeeze value out of it. Enshittification is when an owner extracts value while the product gets worse. Our plan is the opposite direction: put money and people in so the product gets better. Judge us on what we ship.

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  • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    modern infrastructure, security, and scalability

    Why though? The site is modern looking and works great. Why would they need higher scalability? The product is the site, and the site is exactly what it needs to be. There isn’t going to be some massive surprise demand for Linux compatibility information that they need to scale to meet.

    This just reads like corporate justification for trying to add a bunch of unnecessary shit to the site to sell a subscription.

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    • philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The product was the site. Now we are the product.

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    • HouseWolf@pawb.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Why though? The site is modern looking and works great.

      Which is exactly why it must be enshittified!

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  • valek879@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s going to get worse but at least they claim to be aware of enshittification. Them being aware means… Maybe it won’t be as bad as it could be? Definitely not staying the same though, they’re upfront about that.

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    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Hopefully I’m just being cynical, but they’re probably saying that just to appease user’s fears, while fully intending to enshittify to make it profitable.

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  • Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Monetizing this service destroys both its useful and purpose. Fucken dumb.

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  • graynk@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They should finally build a good (even if paid) API around it. I know it all can technically be fetched from Steam, but it requires a lot of hacky trickery

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• warm@kbin.earth ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  What a massive loss. Rest in peace, SteamDB.

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• lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  RIP. Where do we go next? I can probably stand up a mirror pretty quickly

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• gedfromgont@piefed.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  So, I only ever used it for price history of games. Is there a different site that can look that up?

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  • inlandempire@jlai.lu ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    isthereanydeal.com or gg.deals

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    • gedfromgont@piefed.ca ⁨49⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Ah, forgot about gg.deals, I already had it bookmarked but only for their free games feed. Thanks!

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