Following Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney's latest jabs against Steam, one former Valve dev has responded, telling the Fortnite and EGS boss that, in no uncertain terms, "you're kinda crashing out, dude."
Sweeney's beef with Valve is nothing new. He's been very loud with his criticisms before, but he's really been going for it over the last couple of weeks. After proudly proclaiming that "we vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy," he once again slated Steam's AI disclosure policy, claiming that "forcing developers to write a political statement to be used against them by the hate mob they're helping organize is abhorrent."
More recently, he went as far as to say that "Valve has held gaming back for years by locking developers' PC games into Steamworks' social walled garden where players can't talk to other players on iOS, Android, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, or even other PC stores." That's, uh, a questionable statement on multiple levels, and understandably, Chet Faliszek, who previously worked on Portal, Half-Life, and Left 4 Dead, has now responded with some thoughts.
In a new video on his YouTube channel (below), Faliszek suggests that some of Sweeney's behavior "is AI psychosis," but beyond that, "you're kinda crashing out, dude." First, acknowledging the CEO's comments about Steam's AI disclosures, he argues, "you're making up arguments that simply don't exist," in an attempt to back up his point.
Faliszek specifically highlights Sweeney's hypothetical of "should Valve force developers to list their political affiliation? Is that pro-consumer?" He responds: "Nobody's saying legitimately to do that."
He also points out that Epic's open digital assets marketplace, Fab, uses AI disclosures itself. "You said even if Steam removes their [AI disclosures] or not, you would still keep it up on Fab because, well, 'business, it just makes sense.' Business is political. Hmm. Hmm, Timmy. Come on. You can't have it both ways, bro."
Steam, Faliszek says, provides tools to serve what both developers and customers want, including giving players more information about what they're spending their money on – y'know, like those AI disclosures. "This is gonna sound like a dick move, but this may be something that you're not used to, is they've got a lot of people wanting to buy games on Steam," Faliszek says to Sweeney. Ouch.
هەفتانە هەرسکردنەکان، چیرۆکەکانی ئەو کۆمەڵگایانەی کە خۆشت دەوێن و زۆر شتی تر
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/former-valve-dev-hits-back-at-epic-games-ceos-claims-steam-holds-gaming-back-and-its-ai-disclosures-are-political-youre-just-treating-players-like-theyre-stupid
