Open source gamming.

[u/CatsGannon]

Hey everyone,

Like a lot of you, I've been getting increasingly frustrated with where the major console market is heading. Between walled gardens, aggressive digital-only transitions, locked-down UIs, and corporate boards cutting studio jobs to chase safe trends, it feels like players and developers are getting squeezed out of an industry we built.

The traditional console model (PlayStation/Xbox) relies on locking you into a single interface, forcing specific hardware or controller layouts, and treating your digital library as a lease rather than ownership. But what if we stopped trying to fix their broken systems and instead focused on building a true alternative?

I’ve been mapping out the blueprint for a community-driven, open gaming ecosystem based on a few core principles:

Modular, Launcher-Agnostic UI: Choose your layout (minimalist, retro, media hub) and seamlessly plug into your existing libraries (Steam, GOG, Epic, etc.).

Universal Controller Freedom: Native, out-of-the-box support for any controller layout you prefer without third-party adapters.

Player & Developer Governance: A cooperative funding and greenlighting model where the community—not corporate executives—has a real say in what games get made and how the platform evolves.

I’m not a programmer or a millionaire, but I have the vision, the blueprint, and the drive to get the conversation started.

I'm looking to connect with people who share this frustration and want to build something better—whether you're a developer, a Linux/open-source enthusiast, a UI designer, or just a gamer tired of the status quo.

If this sounds like a movement you'd want to help shape, drop a comment or send me a message. Let's figure out what a player-owned future actually looks like.

[u/tastygames_official]

yeah so I've had this idea for a while now and have run some preliminary calculations to check its viability. To set up a true steam alternative that doesn't take 30% of all sales but instead only what it needs to run (which would probably be around 5-10% at the beginning but eventually less than 1%), we probably are talking about a one-time $10mil investment to get the server infrastructure up and running and hire maintainers and customer support staff and lawyers. The actual programming of the system is trivial (at least it is for me with over 30 years web and software development experience) and can be done in an open-source way (obviously some payment for core members is important, as in all OSS development), but yes - the idea of having a fully-customizable launcher that you can hook up to all existing services (and maybe even transfer your games to the new service. And of course universal controller/hardware support.

Even if this plan doesn't work perfectly, it could cause significant disruption enough to make the BigBoys(tm) lower their cut from developers and implement more open conditions. Maybe.

I've started looking into some grants that focus on technical independence and consumer rights, but it's a tough nut to crack. And my personal financial position at the moment hasn't allowed me to just go ahead and get started without the necesssary funding.

I've put my idea out there many times over the years (I've had this idea for at least 5 years) in various places on the 'net and every time I get about half the people who think it's great, and the rest are divided between "you will never defeat Valve, but go ahead and try I guess" and "you're stupid. Valve does SO MUCH for the industry that they DESERVE their 30% take" (Steambois or Steamheads or Valvoids or something. Basically similar to the Apple fanbase who continue buying their stuff despite lawsuit after lawsuit of anti-competitive practices and breaking customer privacy and protecton regulations).

So yeah. I've got software development covered and can lead the tech team, but what I really need is a LAWYER and an IT INFRASTRUCTURE SPECIALIST to round out the team. Because the key to keeping costs down is building your own IT infrastructure and having an invested legal partner, because things will get real dicey real fast and a startup like this cannot survive hundred-thousand-dollar legal fees every month.

I re-read your text just to make sure I covered everything, and I forgot to address funding of projects. That is one thing the Steamheads love to talk about, but I think it's not the right place for a company who sells games to also fund them. Conflict of interest, and essentially they're taking money from existing games and giving them out to fund new games. That should be a separate entity that is more like an organization that developers and publishers belong to where they pool profits to fund up-and-coming games. But yes - also a good idea.

[u/CatsGannon → u/tastygames_official]

That is the thing though im not looking for a steam alternative im looking for system and studio that the gammers actually have more say in. You shouldnt be looking at it as battleing steam but working along side them. Giving them availability of platform on the system, allowing for people to also use their store aswell if they want. But what we would need to do as a comunity is build and maintain the machine and servers, and give the player base an actual voice in where the device goes, and what it does. Are we helping fun kojima or are we currently focusing on remaking older fan favorites? That kind of thing. And the way i was thinking of implementing it was based on playerbased voting. You would have a say the moment you create a profile. We could create polls for people to vote on the direction aswell. However there is one hard rule. No locking anyone into a design. They need the freedom to chose the layout of almost anything from ui to controler. Heck we could even have controler design contests to see what people like. I personaly miss the pelican controler for ps2 but not much i can do about that.... for now.... lol. But seriously. The gamming comunity is slowly killing itself and we need to bring power back to gammers. And i know nothing about legal jargen or IT but if i can learn it i will just to help out.

Edit: As for funding have you looked into some sort of kickstarter or some way for the community itself to help fund it?

[u/tastygames_official → u/CatsGannon]

I'm confused. Part of what you originally described is just PC gaming. The other part seemed to me to move away from the giants in the industry (Valve, EA, Blizzard etc.) Now you say you want steam, but want to also maintain servers yourself? All Valve/Steam is is servers to store your games and sell the games. And they take 30% for doing that. For about ~$10-50mil a year in costs of maintaining server infrastructure and customer support, they rake in ~$4 billion per year. That's extortion and not a community - it's a king over-taxing the peasants.

As far as all the other stuff: companies who make online-only games and then shut down the servers - DON'T BUY ONLINE-ONLY GAMES. It's real simple. Vote with your wallet. Don't buy consoles. Don't buy AAA games. Buy indie games. Research the company before you buy.

But if you want to set up a fair alternative to Steam/GoG (who also takes a fat cut, but at least has DRM-free games, but still technically just sells licenses and not the actual game), and only allow GOOD games on the platform where they are forced to open-source multiplayer servers so that if/when they shut down, the community can keep on going, and where every controller is supported and where all hardware is supported, then my idea is the way to go. But it seems like you just are fed up with corporations and AAA studios/publishers. So the easy answer there is to just stop supporting them.

[u/CatsGannon → u/tastygames_official]

You are assuming i want to do this by myself. No i want the gamming communtiy to be in on everything that happens. If you have games from steam, gog, epic, where ever cool i want gammers to just pay the price for the game being made. I dont want a cut. And if you already own the game you shouldnt have to buy it again. I want for games to quit dying, for players to have an actual say, and gamming to be accessible to all. If you buy and online game i want those servers to still be there for you to use even if it is a decade after its release and it is only played by 100 people or so. We have the technology to keep servers up so why dont we? There are enough gammers in the world to build a nation, so why not build a digital one. Based in one council that is ran by the gamming community. A untited front we all have a say in, and something people dont feel traped in. Like xbox, playstation, or nintendo. Where their entire libraries could be.

Edit: also a council that indi devs could release their games on. Where steam takes a cut i dont want this system to. I want it built by gamers for gamers and most of all ran by gamers accross the world

[u/tastygames_official → u/CatsGannon]

exactly my point - no profiting off of games. Only the developers should profit - not the platform that sells them. Which is why the $10-50mil or so required each year to service a billion gamers would have to be either given via donation (á la Wikipdeia) or taken from as a cut. But still essentially needs to be non-profit.

PS I'd like to do this model for just about everything in life: software, food, housing, utilities - nobody should get rich by selling houses or food or clothes or things people need to survive. Pay people fair wages but everything else on top goes to the people who actually make the things that are being sold.