Valve is blocking the industry in Epic Games CEO's Tim Sweeney's eyes for forcing developers to use their closed social Steamworks ecosystem. The drama is relevant as it threatens the core Steam system where a 30% revenue cut is taken. It may very well change the way PC games approach multiplayer components of their games.
Valve documentation shows networking tools are available, though tied to store publication
Steam's social system may become an afterthought as developers find ways to go around it and develop their own cross platform systems. This may ultimately fragment the PC gaming experience we have today.
Sweeney points out that Valve doesn't provide Steamworks services a la carte because no developer is going to pay 30% commission when not forced to. Sweeney's position is that it forces PC games to become a walled garden ecosystem where players on iOS, Android, Xbox, PS, Switch, etc and other PC stores cannot talk to each other. This was affirmed by ex-Epic engineer Kiaran Ritchie who lambasted the revenue tax. He points to creating an alternative distribution platform easily being a possibility.
Valve makes these accusations with their Steamworks docs that very clearly lays out Steam Datagram Relay (SDR) as being an API for external use. SDR is the means of routing game traffic through Valve's private virtual gaming network backbones. It's not strictly needed to use Steam social components.
The Steam docs state that the SDR relay network hides IP addresses and protects server and players from DoS attacks. Additionally, all incoming traffic is authenticated and encrypted.
Per the Steam docs the SDR relay network can dynamically discover better routes when an influx of players pops up (in unexpected times) to lower ping. However, buried in the Steam docs technical rebuttal is a very important caveat that calls Sweeney's accusation of an all closed ecosystem into question. For a game to use the SDR API it has to be published on the Steam store. This means that developers aren't allowed to use the SDR service if they don't publish their game through Steam.
Source: IXBT
Sweeney is wrong. The docs are clear. You must publish on Steam to use SDR. It is not a free tool for everyone.
Does this mean cross play between Epic and Steam is dead? I just want to play with my friends on different stores.
It blocks the easy path. Developers can build their own relay. It is just harder engineering work for a feature Valve sells.
So basically we are back to square one for indie devs. They have to build their own netcode from scratch. 👀
standard corporate move tbh. lock the infrastructure tight. 😂
I remember when we just used open UDP sockets. No one cared about DoS back then because servers were small. Now it is a mess.
ngl this makes me worry about game longevity. If Steam shuts down the API later we lose the game too. Better safe than sorry.
It is not about blocking communication. It is about protecting their revenue share. They want you in their walled garden.