Idk, the concepts of consoles as a whole feels more like monopoly than Valve. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have their own consoles, with extra fees for multiplayer and exclusive lock-in titles for their specific system. On the other hand Valve is actively supporting open source software in the push to bring games to more hardware and systems. I wouldnt call them a monopoly. That being said they are not without flaw, the whole CSGO skin market and gambling shenanigans are a huge issue but im pretty sure thats not the “monopoly” thats trying to be pointer out here.

Reality be like:

A monopoly has at least one of these five characteristics:

• Profit maximizer: monopolists will choose the price or output to maximise profits at where MC=MR. This output will be somewhere over the price range, where demand is price elastic. If the total revenue is higher than total costs, the monopolists will make abnormal profits.
• Price maker: Decides the price of the good or product to be sold, but does so by determining the quantity in order to demand the price desired by the firm.
• High barriers to entry: Other sellers are unable to enter the market of the monopoly.
• Single seller: In a monopoly, there is one seller of the good, who produces all the output.[6] Therefore, the whole market is being served by a single company, and for practical purposes, the company is the same as the industry.
• Price discrimination: A monopolist can change the price or quantity of the product. They sell higher quantities at a lower price in a very elastic market, and sell lower quantities at a higher price in a less elastic market.

Just so we have a definition of a monopoly.

Can confirm, he brainwashed me into using Steam by

(check notes)

offering a more-than-decent user experience, both on Windows and Linux

The only decent Steam competitor is GOG, in my opinion.

I mean, it’s one of the few companies that shows it cares about its users genuinely, and basically always does what it ‘correct’ or ‘just’. You have companies like Amazon that treat customers well, but sellers ‘meh’ and employees like shit. You have companies that do ‘right’ socially and environmentally, but have bad products. You have entities that contribute to public resources and open source projects, but who have no economic weight or who are arrogant. But with Steam you’ve got a very rare blend of ‘good’ characteristics in almost every category you can imagine. Competition is good and better than a monopoly, but if you don’t have an area with competition I can’t help but to wish the company you’re stuck with ends up being like his. There’s nothing inherently wrong with making money or being rich as long as you do so honestly without harming others or preventing others from having their own successes. The only way he has really prevented others’ success is by having really solid products and policies.

Honestly at least valve is doing great things for linux. in the end, many people have christian morals without being christian- as in they dont see the spectrum of gray and just want to push things into absolutes in terms of right and wrong. thats not how things actually are. valve is actively ending the windows/microsoft monopoly. if he disrupts enough we may see other people getting into the game of allowing compatibility layers being used with their software.

BEST case scenario gaming becomes agnostic in terms of hardware and software. We will be able to play shit on any generic system.