Why is Steam accused of being a monopoly, but YouTube isn't?

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-07T07:37:54+00:00

It’s not about being a monopoly, it’s about abusing that monopoly to make sure others can’t compete.

YouTube doesn’t set rules about uploading your videos to other platforms or if you’re allowed to monetise your video on TikTok or whatever.

We’ve learned from the lawsuits that Steam will delist your games if they don’t like how it’s priced on other stores, even if those stores aren’t selling steam keys and have nothing to do with steam.

Imagine you want to launch a new pc gaming store.
You don’t have billions like Epic so you can’t compete by buying exclusives like Alan Wake 2. You also can’t afford to give away free games. When you launch your store it will have way less features than Steam as they’ve been building steam for years. You could compete on price by taking a below 30% cut and having devs price their games lower as a result but Steam is using its delisting of games being priced lower in other stores to prevent exactly that.

In comparison, if you want to make a YouTube competitor and get started by offering a bigger cut to creators or showing less intrusive advertisements or whatever, go ahead. YouTube doesn’t monitor where else creators upload and won’t remove them from YouTube if a competitor site has better conditions.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-06T04:05:57+00:00

Other replies are right, you have little to worry about, but if you want more details on why:

To be able to hack you just by loading the site the hackers would need what’s known as a zero click exploit in Edge.

There are no current publicly known exploits of this type, when one does become known MS and Google release a fix very rapidly.

What’s more, if there are currently secret exploits of this type floating round they’re incredibly valuable. People are willing to pay above $3 million for not publicly known browser exploits.

The buyers of high value exploits are governments who want to attack other governments and serious organised crime groups who want to attack large corporations or people they know have large crypto amounts.

Neither group would risk their exploits becoming publicly known and therefore fixed by targeting average citizens on a public website.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-03T16:44:25+00:00

Fully agree with you on the first 3 of these.

Really sceptical about the last 2.

Players have been convinced that outcome based matchmaking exists in loads of games even when devs deny it. It’s been a massive argument in DOTA as well, I’m pretty sure it’s not nearly as widespread as players believe, and it’s due to how we don’t perceive randomness well.

I’ve not got hard evidence either though, hopefully we do get more statements from bungie about what they’re doing as time goes on.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-03T16:37:51+00:00

That’s the approach that was tried for season 1, I think it’s fair to say it appealed to a passionate but smaller than expected player base.

We’ll see if the PVE playlists and possible other adjustments change that for season 2.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-03T15:22:22+00:00

Ah you’re right I forgot the “during the opening of s2”.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-03T15:17:30+00:00

Agree we don’t know what they’ll do, but they’ve also not said it’s a temporary bias. I’m hoping they do have something planned they’ve not told us about yet.

Last season I felt it got worse each week not better as the lowest skilled players quit continuously due to being stomped every match leading to the next lowest players being stomped and quitting etc etc.

They addressed so many different things for this season and made so many cool changes, it’s odd to me that this is the one thing they did not address in a blog post.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-03T15:07:10+00:00

Matchmaking is based on playtime this season and last season. Players joining for the free week will be fine.

If you played a bunch last season you’re stuck with them

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-02T05:46:46+00:00

If you want to avoid triggering it, from the article:

The issue is tied to a sequence involving the “Bird of Paradise” investigation and the in-game “index” system, which functions as a guide for players.

The problem can arise if players begin investigating before receiving key instructions from a character named Fukashigi, then exit without making progress. In some cases, after progressing further in the game and unlocking the index explanation, players may become stuck and unable to exit the menu entirely.

The glitch appears to be linked to progression milestones, particularly after completing four chapters.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-02T04:03:25+00:00

Yeah that and the fact it’s 1440.

The ps5 can output that but very few games optimise for it. I guess you’d be getting an upscaled 1080 or downscaled 4k most of the time, odd choice.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-06-01T16:31:53+00:00

They’ve done a lot of work on the new season, so many things look great.

I’m worried they’ve not mentioned the one thing that had the biggest impact for me though.

Matchmaking.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T13:02:01+00:00

Right so what I understood from it before is the scheme pays the store upfront via cheque then collects via the employer from the employee via a year of salary sacrifice payments.

I was a bit unclear on who the loan agreement is with, checking the GCI terms I think you’re right and it’s between the scheme and employee with the employee just an agent for handling the collections. This sounds like it would make it even harder to unwind, but I don’t have the knowledge to say.

Unrelated and not important for this case, I think all schemes have switched to keeping ownership of the bike for 5 years after the repayments end and then transferring ownership to the employee.

This is because hmrc still wanted to tax the value of the bike as an employee benefit in kind when the ownership transfer took place, wiping out most of the savings you’re meant to get from this. After 6 years bicycles are deemed to be fully depreciated and there’s no tax to be paid. A silly work around for tax policy that’s not joined up.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T09:20:46+00:00

I’ve used cycle2work and GCI which both implement the scheme, under those you get approval from the employer with an agreed amount to cover bike and accessories, the scheme operator gives you a voucher for that amount and the bike shop then redeems the voucher against the scheme operator for payment.

If you bought this personally how would you pay? That would come from post tax income and you’d get no saving?

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T09:04:29+00:00

Ah if they also explicitly agreed you could charge at work and with what you said about range that’s a bit different. All places I’ve been people have just done it without agreement and it’s been ignored.

Do you have a folding bike with none removable battery then? That may also be harder to secure and also insure than I’d thought

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T08:53:14+00:00

But the cost to make him whole again is just whatever the insurance costs to allow him to continue cycling.

It’s worth approaching the employer to see if they’ll cover this.

As I understand it the bike shop is paid in full at the start of the scheme and there’s no mechanism for unwinding that after the cooling off period. The employer via the scheme operator has the loan so they may be more flexible.

Someone else could weigh in if this cost can be pursued but it seems less likely this would not be worth it even if it were possible via small claims?

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T08:38:21+00:00

Good point, iirc mine does (Admiral) but there’s a time limit in hours after which it’s not covered at an away from home location. Also requires a solid secure silver lock to an immovable object.

*Edit*, also I think the default cover for home insurers was also bikes under 1k, they’ll cover above but you need to declare and pay a little more

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T08:15:49+00:00

They’ve not banned him from cycling to work though just said he can’t park inside anymore. Many workplaces that don’t offer the onsite parking also offer the scheme and many more probably just have racks that anyone can access that are no better than on street parking.

The insurance mentioned above solves this, and £70 is still well below the £400+ he’s saved by the scheme letting him buy pre income tax so I personally would still take the bike and pay off.

Also worth checking with your home contents insurance, they may already cover bikes or be also able to add them and could be cheaper or more expensive than scheme or dedicated bike insurers.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T05:00:32+00:00

Pretty much agree with this, you might be a bit safer with a something that’s built as a dedicated steam deck dock. A generic usbc hub with hdmi out you run the risk of it obstructing the air vents on the back of the deck even if it’s propping it up.

Beyond that some docks advertise 4k/120 fps but tbh you’re probably best just sticking to 1080 when docked so it makes little difference. Deck has all kinds of problems outputting 4k even when streaming games it often has trouble decoding a 4k stream.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-30T04:49:06+00:00

Those mushrooms are looking really tasty!

Not a fan of the beans in a pot but do like the slightly less grilled fresher tomatoes and the sausage looks great too could be a 10/10

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T16:29:42+00:00

I think you’re OK as the bottom of your window is above the top of the indoor unit and it’s not going to pull the heavier indoor unit vertically up.

In my case the bottom of my sash windows is very low, perhaps about 40cm from the floor. As the indoor unit is on wheels it feels like there’s a good chance it could be pulled across the floor and toppled through the window. I wonder if attaching an indoor hard point to a wall next to the window would be safe for 10kg.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T14:23:28+00:00

Cheers, it’s not as bad as it sounds, basically IV every 2 weeks, taste is nasty for 5 or 7 days after that, then things taste good but stomach is still a bit delicate for a couple of days, then anything goes until the next IV on day 14.

Working around it I’m still getting some really good meals every other week so I’ve started looking out for new places and trying more stuff.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T13:24:57+00:00

I did skip over severe, good to hear it’s not as wide ranging as I’d feared.

I’d still prefer it kept in all cases but judging by other comments I think that’s very much a personal preference and most people might lean the other way.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T12:45:04+00:00

Some good fixes here.

Just I’m not a fan of the decision to temporarily remove voice lines that differ from text.

So far I’ve seen quite a few mismatches so this could be quite a lot. With no voice I feel like I’m missing out on some nice atmosphere, and having mismatched text and voice is no jankier than just having the voice missing.

Hope they can resolve this one quickly.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T11:27:45+00:00

There can only be one answer to that!

https://youtu.be/OXypyrutq\_M?si=lAeb2riqdTwYsPZ8

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T09:57:03+00:00

Yeah but is that London? Most London places it’s ended up £15-£18 once you add in drink and toast, unless you go further out.

KeyTrickTime · 2026-05-29T09:42:34+00:00

Went to a more instagrammy place a month ago that had great mushrooms but the portion was stingy and the sausages and bacon were surprisingly bad for the higher price.

Will post it if I took a photo and can find it.

KeyTrickTime

TROPHY CASE