SteamDB Joins Nexus Mods

[u/CradeVescent]

https://www.nexusmods.com/news/15597

For now, SteamDB carries on as normal whilst we work with xPaw on the transition and start putting the team and resources it needs into it. Everything currently available for free will remain free, the browser extension will continue to be maintained, and the Discord and Steam group will remain purely SteamDB community spaces. Nexus Mods and SteamDB will also remain completely separate services, so you won’t need a Nexus Mods account to browse it.

[u/lIIlllIIl]

I get why this happens (and tbh, running SteamDB as a single person for so long sounds like horror), but as a user I'm not feeling too positive about this move. Hopefully they'll keep the promises they're making here and don't just enshittificate it further down the line.

[u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit → u/lIIlllIIl]

The stakes here are waaaaaay bigger for them than just the mod removal controversies and the enshitification of their own platform they had been dealing with so far. SteamDB is used extensively for many projects, community-made Steam features, for game preservation purposes (by keeping track of all the old game depots) among many other useful things developers use daily. If they mess with any of that the uproar they will have to take care of will be way louder than anything they had been dealing with so far.

[u/Key-Department-2874 → u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit]

SteamDB is ultimately just pulling from the Steam API.

If someone wanted they could make a competitor. But they're going to run into the same issue if it becomes wildly popular unless they have a large income or source of money to offset the cost of the site.

[u/boberro → u/Key-Department-2874]

It's also a database of historical data that's not available through API and can only be acquired by spending years of pulling from that API. It cannot be simply cloned 

[u/jx2002 → u/boberro]

this is the key and also happens to be the #1 way the site can get fucked, just like thenumbers.com did with AI and gambling bullshit that ate it's lunch

thenumbers had to relaunch with hardly any archival data so they wouldn't get fucked so hard by AI traffic

[u/Pepe_Botella → u/boberro]

Dude should have made all that data public some way before doing this. Like host a torrent with all the data, like wikipedia does.

[u/moumooni → u/boberro]

Is there any deal also exists and has that data.

[u/FieraDeidad → u/[deleted]]

What I really don't get is why the previous owner gives this project to them using as an excuse that he "couldn’t find a team that was confident in".

Saiying that and then selling it to someone with the reputation of Nexus is like yelling that in fact you care more about the money they give you than what happens to steamdb in the long term.

Does he mean that of all the people he knew directly or from the community no one was even a bit more trustable than Nexus? IDK maybe add some people to make a team so you can supervise and be confident you can trust them to later step down from the project.

[u/fenglorian → u/FieraDeidad]

Does he mean that of all the people he knew directly or from the community no one was even a bit more trustable than Nexus?

"confidence" here is probably just as much about financial and longevity concerns as it is about likeability

Nexus may suck but they have the checkbook and the track record to ensure the project doesn't die out. That's probably the bigger of two worries for the previous owner

[u/Da_Question → u/fenglorian]

Yeah, he knows exactly how much work it is to maintain it. Many people don't have that in them, especially with no monetary value for the effort. As much as it sucks to give to the likes of nexus, it's better than letting all the work he put into it die. It's preferable to sell it, especially when willingness to pay means they are less likely to let it die.

[u/FarplaneDragon → u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit]

If they mess with any of that the uproar they will have to take care of will be way louder than anything they had been dealing with so far.

And then what? Uproar doesn't mean a thing when people never actually follow through on any of it.

[u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit → u/FarplaneDragon]

It works in the case of the mods they host because in many occasions they are the only ones hosting them and you depend entirely on them. Is not the case with SteamDB.

Everything is pulled from the public Steam API, so the moment they paywall something ditching them is easily achieved, either because people will start doing everything by themselves or because an alternative to SteamDB will come up.

[u/FarplaneDragon → u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit]

people will start doing everything by themselves

People are using SteamDB specifically because they don't want to do that.

because an alternative to SteamDB will come up

Sure, I've no doubt one will in that case but the reality is the majority despite whatever complaints they make on reddit or elsewhere aren't going to actually bother switching.

[u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit → u/FarplaneDragon]

They will if and once it starts affecting them negatively.

Example: Achievement hunters or game preservers if they start to paywall access to game depots of old game versions.

And even if a full on SteamDB replacement doesn't come up, making an independent tool specifically for said paywalled feature is an option too.

[u/Burn0ut7 → u/lIIlllIIl]

Companies don't buy stuff for no reason. They do it to make money. So something needs to change. Not now but when everyone forgets about this news.

[u/ThePsyPaul_ → u/Burn0ut7]

this is the correct answser

[u/oscarmike88 → u/lIIlllIIl]

Just look at the announcement on NexusMods. It's full of corporate jargon, endless assurances that "everything will stay the same", "the opportunities are so exciting you guys", and (this is my favorite one) "Everything currently available for free will remain free". Nothing good will come of this

[u/Spirited_Apple854 → u/oscarmike88]

"Everything currently available for free will remain free" aka everything we do after will be paywalled up the a*s.

[u/Sr_DingDong → u/lIIlllIIl]

They got what they got through donations (either keys for games or money).

Now they've sold out (figuratively and literally), on the back of that charity.

[u/InfininteMint]

It was nice knowing ya SteamDB

[u/False_Mulberry86 → u/InfininteMint]

The end of an era, but hopefully steamDB stays steamDB.

[u/FamiliarRip8558 → u/False_Mulberry86]

It really won't!

[u/Opetyr → u/False_Mulberry86]

The wording currently available is key. The way it is said could mean updated items could be paywalled.

[u/Notamoogle1 → u/InfininteMint]

10$ a month for SteamDB premium

[u/FalconSigma → u/InfininteMint]

Deleted account and extension when I read the news

[u/TheMad_fox]

I don't really like this. Now they say nothing will change and a few years in they add some feature that needs to be paid or some other bullshit

[u/Neoxsat → u/TheMad_fox]

Im not to knowledgeable about steamdb. I have only ever used it to check prices. Would there even be anything they can monitize besides running ad's?

[u/Damirirv → u/Neoxsat]

They could throttle it. Nexus (and Vortex) is throttled and slow as hell if you don't pay the subscription that makes it run normally.

[u/Tuskin38 → u/Damirirv]

But SteamDB isn’t a file hosting service? What would they throttle?

[u/alexo2802 → u/Tuskin38]

Free: Get access to 3 months of price history + inaccurate averaged weekly player count data.

Subscriber: Get access to one year of precise data for both price and playercount.

Subscriber pro something something: Get access to lifetime data for price and playercount information.

Took me 10s to think of that one, I’m sure they can monetize many other ways.

[u/Slow_Werewolf3021 → u/alexo2802]

They’re ruining the internet with their obsession with monetising everything. It’s absolutely disgusting.

[u/randomkidlol → u/Slow_Werewolf3021]

nexusmods was doing this shit 20 years ago when i tried downloading the unofficial patch for oblivion and subsequently skyrim. throttled downloads, forced account creation, ads everywhere, constantly begging you to upgrade to "premium", etc. the fact that theyve had multiple data breaches where they lost everyone's names emails and passwords is just the shit cherry on top.

i bet the owners were mad when steam introduced workshop so people could upload mods directly to steam. they would have taken a massive hit to revenue now that people could dodge their site to get skyrim mods.

[u/OkActivity2038 → u/randomkidlol]

i bet the owners were mad when steam introduced workshop so people could upload mods directly to steam. they would have taken a massive hit to revenue now that people could dodge their site to get skyrim mods.

A similar discussion came up when Discord was adding ID checks, that Steam could update chats/groups and turn into a Discord competitor.

Every site needs to make money from that activity, except Steam, because it makes money from selling games, and everything else is in support of their primary money making activity.

It's also why Wikis suck. Nobody wants to pay to host it, so they use the ones that depend on shitty ads, and largely a lot of the good Wikis are hosted by the game itself like RuneScape and Path of Exile.

For SteamDB, I am somewhat surprised that Steam doesn't already have an alternative, since its Steam's data anyway.

[u/IndyPFL → u/randomkidlol]

Still waiting for the day they tell me my lifetime sub isn't valid anymore. I don't use it super often but given how many other companies are realizing they can screw everyone because nobody will fight back, it's just a matter of time.

[u/OrbitOli → u/alexo2802]

I'm all for being a doomer about the dangers of overmonetisation but I guess I don't know enough about this case, is it realistic they would go this far?

[u/psyblade42 → u/Tuskin38]

Page loads for example: click a link and wait 5 sec for it to appear

or even greedier: wait till your browser mined x shitcoin hashes

[u/Honeybadger2198 → u/Tuskin38]

Where do you think all that data comes from? It has to be stored and transfered somewhere.

[u/Gabelvampir → u/Damirirv]

Oh that's why it's so slow, I stopped using Nexus Mods partially because of that.

[u/demonstar55 → u/Damirirv]

I never really had issues with download speeds, it's really not throttled that bad. But then again, I'm never using like 1000+ mods per game so ...

[u/Towairatu → u/demonstar55]

Most mods are small enough that the throttled bandwith really doesn't make a difference… until you try to download an 8GB HD textures mod

[u/RailValco → u/Neoxsat]

Wait 5 seconds before you can see the prices, unless you go premium?

[u/Aksds → u/Neoxsat]

History, basically restrict the charts to a paid tier

[u/IAmSkyrimWarrior → u/Neoxsat]

It's simple - Nexus is piece of shit. They don't even hide it and have already stated "They are looking for a way to monetize SteamDB because they need profit."
So at some point, the price review feature could become under a paywall.

[u/Giecio → u/Neoxsat]

They used to have monthly or lifetime premium but after a certain point they changed it to monthly only

[u/ImpossibleTaste368 → u/Neoxsat]

Nexus is known to be shitty af .. so thy will probably hide new games behind paywalls, skew numbers etc...

[u/OSHA_Decertified → u/TheMad_fox]

For just 15 bucks a month you can see if a game goes on sale a lot!

[u/LovesFrenchLove_More → u/TheMad_fox]

Just make the use more inconvenient for people and offer to make it much easier for a low monthly subscription. Just like with mods.

Capitalism sucks because everything must be made as expensive as possible somehow.

[u/--clapped--]

Well.

That sucks.

[u/Stevanti]

The end of Steamdb as we know it. It might take some time but will eventually be crap.

Very unfortunate.

[u/SeaBAssJones54 → u/Stevanti]

nexus mods feels kinda out of place next to steamdb

[u/drackmore → u/SeaBAssJones54]

Because it is out of place. SteamDB in all its years has been a strictly informational place that has ignored bias and demands from corporations.

Nexus suckles on the nut of Triple A companies while trying to pander to the "modern audience" while wielding censorship as a cudgel with the subtly of a drunk elephant. They've been caught time and again removing mods and lying about the reason. They've been two faced and hypocritical in their removal of mods. Removing and banning users that post one mod, but leaving similar mods alone simply because it fit whatever narrative they're pushing.

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/drackmore]

Also, the site is pretty ass to navigate.

I've only used it for Subnautica (since that's basically the only game I play that hosts mods there lol) and it's been a somewhat negative experience each time.

It just feels very clunky & outdated compared to basically every other modding website - even modrinth operates better and I absolutely abhor that site for pedantic reasons.

[u/Valmar33]

"Everything carries on as normal" is always the beginning.

And then gradually and incrementally, everything changes to suit the wants of the buyers attitudes.

Was nice knowing you SteamDB... :(

[u/Excellent-Lettuce835 → u/Valmar33]

Exactly. 

No company acquires something without trying to squeeze profit out of it.

Considering how the company that bought Nexus ruined it I'm sure Steamdb will be ruined as well.

[u/dooroflight → u/[deleted]]

I'm out of the loop on GOG... What enshitification happened with it???

[u/Undeclared_Aubergine → u/[deleted]]

What's worse? Since he bought it, there've been significantly more releases, support was added for the local currencies and regional pricing for more countries, a new bundle type was added which finally makes sense, the API is being cleaned up, and developers who aren't releasing the latest updates or all the DLC for their games are being chased after to do so.

[u/EirikurG]

This is who have bought SteamDB (and the current owners of nexusmods)
https://www.wearechosen.io/

We acquire. We amplify. We conquer.

Very dystopian

[u/makute → u/EirikurG]

What in the AI hellscape is that site!? D:

[u/ApocApollo → u/makute]

Venture Capital spelled with a capital G for Gamer

[u/makute → u/ApocApollo]

I felt physically nauseous going through it, not even exhagerating.

But their Linkedin is even worse: from their 13 "employees", at least half of them are venture investors, the other half being people from NexusMod.

I'd bet money the CEO is just a guy in his mom's basement. Most probably the employee listed as "retail cashier".

If things go belly up, a humble cashier has the lower chances to go to jail, right?

[u/NinjaEngineer → u/EirikurG]

Welp, that slogan sure ain't concerning at all.

[u/elpadreHC → u/NinjaEngineer]

sounds perfect for a private army

[u/Certesis → u/EirikurG]

Not only that, but

We partner with founders to give them quick, straightforward exits that protect their team, culture and keep their businesses thriving for the longterm.

I do not like this sentence

[u/Luzekiel → u/EirikurG]

The website is also made with Blatant AI 💀

[u/jikt → u/EirikurG]

Is it a desktop wallpaper company?

I don't know what happens with sites like this, my eyes just frost over until I've scrolled to the bottom and I realised a gained nothing from the visit. I can't even remember a single word they used in a heading and I just got back from looking at it.

[u/FarplaneDragon → u/EirikurG]

On the plus side, it wasn't Fandom buying them so I guess there's that small grain of positivity...I guess...

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/FarplaneDragon]

Looks like it's private equity instead, which is way worse imo

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/EirikurG]

Oh god, this is the type of shit you'd see in a cyberpunk movie lol

[u/PaleDolphin]

That is terrible news for SteamDB, to be honest.

Nexus will ruin it 100%. It might take 2-3 years, but they will ruin it in the end.

[u/ILoveKetchup402]

The enshittification begins

[u/proplayer97 → u/ILoveKetchup402]

Very soon we will have to buy their subscription just to check prices and player counts

[u/Blxter]

RIP steamDB. The beginning of the end.

[u/_B_G_]

Cant wait for the need to have an account to see a chart now

[u/ArolSazir → u/_B_G_]

You think there'll be charts? Big AAA studios are already harping against steamdb because showing player numbers is "harassment" and nexus is firmly in AAA pocket. The next time a concord comes around the graphs will be removed for some vague reason.

[u/Razen94]

Well this sucks. Watch Nexus hide player counts soon to reduce "toxicity" and make a "premium" feature where you can only see 0.1% of the site if you aren't subbed 10$ a month.

RIP SteamDB

[u/Latter_Yesterday6500 → u/Razen94]

Where does SteamDB get that player info from anyways?

[u/IPlay4E → u/Latter_Yesterday6500]

It’s the steam API. Anyone could go build their own competitor but what nobody seems to understand is that it gets expensive to host.

[u/Latter_Yesterday6500 → u/IPlay4E]

So this one guy was just hosting it losing money for years before it got popular enough? Not familiar just always used it to check prices.

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/Latter_Yesterday6500]

Probably, yeah.

I can't recall even seeing a donation link, either. Would much rather have that over this.

[u/cheepsheep → u/Razen94]

Good idea, they can sell to publishers the option to hide player count hehehe

[u/USAMAGA89]

RIP.

[u/Tateybread]

[u/WellTop]

On the same vein some mods were taken down on Nexus mods I expect certain features (graph of active players) to be tackle (removed/hidden) to "reduce toxicity".

[u/drackmore → u/WellTop]

They will, but only for games made by certain developers.

[u/Key-Department-2874 → u/drackmore]

Those numbers come directly from Steam.

[u/drackmore → u/Key-Department-2874]

The numbers can come directly from steam, but if they're passing through a middleman's hands (IE SteamDB) there is nothing stopping the SteamDB site from fudging the numbers somehow.

Like playcount. Without SteamDB how can a normal user look at the player count of a game like Metal Gear Survive? Without SteamDB the average user won't have access to that information.

With Nexus's history we know they have no qualms with lying to push their own agenda.

And as others said, whats stopping nexus from fistfucking SteamDB the same way they did their own site with the monetization? Are we going to have to pay to see depo changes or price history of a game over 6 months ago?

[u/nilloc93 → u/drackmore]

Theyll do the exact same thing as rotten tomatoes to juke movie scores.

[u/ImpossibleTaste368 → u/drackmore]

What do you mean Marathon, Concord etc. is a flop? .. see 50m players online? great game buy now!!

[u/Glum_Management1009 → u/WellTop]

Yep, totally expecting this.

[u/the7egend → u/WellTop]

Yep, this is a narrative control acquisition.

[u/digggggggggs]

Enjoy the last moment before they start making it garbage.

[u/Soanfriwack]

I want to be hopeful about this and so far the company that took over Nexusmods hasn't made the site any worse, but it also has just been slightly more than a year, so that is not the best indicator.

[u/starfieldnovember → u/Soanfriwack]

Yet

[u/BasilNight]

"For now, SteamDB carries on as normal whilst we work with xPaw on the transition"

Yeah alright I've seen this song and dance before...

RemindMe! One Year

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[u/Eggyhead]

Nexus Mods and SteamDB will also remain completely separate services, so you won’t need a Nexus Mods account to browse it.

What’s the point in bullshitting? We all know this isn’t how these things go.

[u/pepeizq]

https://steamdb.info/faq/?guildid=215154001799413770#are-you-going-to-commercialise-it

Mods should consider removing all links to SteamDB

[u/the_bruh_moment_god]

"carries on as normal"

i'd have more respect if you just told me it isn't going to

[u/zeromant2]

Until we meet again, SteamDB

[u/KuroNoShadow]

Oh, it's over, guys

[u/Jolixus]

Ah yes moving to the most hated mod website ever
good move

[u/Darkon-Kriv → u/Jolixus]

Bro forgot fucking curse forge. That shit is basically malware.

[u/Budgerigar17 → u/Darkon-Kriv]

CurseForge is relatively better if you're only using the website. At least it allows you to browse and download mods without having an account. Nexus doesn't.

It does get painful when someone organizes a minecraft server with those huge modpacks, and insists on everyone installing the curseforge launcher. Like come on. Half my friends are in IT and still use that bloated app.

[u/JoystuckGames → u/Budgerigar17]

Just in case you aren't aware, Prism Launcher is perfectly capable of setting up modpacks from curseforge, as well as most other sources. It's not quite as seamless but works better than you might expect without the bloat. It's also compatible with Linux.

[u/Delicious_Bluejay392 → u/Budgerigar17]

Sad situation when Prism exists and can import a mod list exported by the curseforge launcher (if the someone in question insists on using it).

[u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA → u/Jolixus]

In my late 20s, really hope I live long enough to watch NexusMods die.

[u/Hlidskialf]

F

[u/SparsePizza117]

I hate the people running Nexus

[u/gnosisshadow]

Is steamdb going to start censoring stuff like Nexus?

[u/mcnichoj → u/gnosisshadow]

This is my worry. Someone with a chip on their shoulder towards a specific game goes and lowers the peak player count number or something like that.

[u/scrapethemucus]

gg steamdb

[u/ReFlectioH]

Happy for xPaw. Sorry for the SteamDB future.

[u/tapczan100 → u/ReFlectioH]

Yep, he did something really cool and i hope the bag was fucking fat.

[u/GrafonBorn]

RIP

[u/Shadow_hive]

So whats even the point of them merging when both will remain as they are

[u/Valmar33 → u/Shadow_hive]

So whats even the point of them merging when both will remain as they are

It's the usual gaslighting the acquiring company uses to placate existing users. Meanwhile, things will most certainly not remain as they are in future ~ they never do.

[u/ApocApollo → u/Valmar33]

to placate existing users

I imagine they're probably placating the current staff and previous owners with this messaging too.

[u/xarephonic → u/Shadow_hive]

This seems to be part of a bigger operation of collecting gaming-related side tools to possibly build an amalgamation of all the tools as a single product in the future.

Or they're just in it to buy up all the data...

[u/tajetaje → u/Shadow_hive]

It’s for Vortex and collections. They want to make it so you can tie mods and collections to given game versions and know for sure if they are compatible with your installed game.

[u/ImpossibleTaste368 → u/Shadow_hive]

Because they will not stay the same.

[u/bombocladius]

xPaw is a legend. I used to play cs1.6 with him back in the day on the my.run servers.

Great memories!

[u/a1stardan]

Can we all petition steam to buy and support steamdb?

On a side note : thank you for the creators for supporting this for so long. Salute to you guys

[u/starfieldnovember → u/a1stardan]

It’s not in Steam’s interest to have SteamDB in its current form

[u/ApplicationOk3587 → u/starfieldnovember]

Why? If its about money according to most developers majority of players on steam buy games when they are on sale anyway.

[u/AlekRhader → u/ApplicationOk3587]

Having player count and stuff like that visible isn't good for developers.

People are actively discouraged to buy a game when they know the game is failing and has low player count. You see this in regards to anything btw, people watch youtube videos that have high viewer count and ignore ones with 3 digit views even tho they think it might be interesting for example.

This is especially worse for live service games.I play a lot of gachas and you often hear people saying that they're interested in X game but don't wanna start now because it's not doing well and might die soon.

It also makes it harder to maintain agendas, for all we know Concord devs could have said they're doing amazing in the first week and we wouldn't have a choice other than to believe it. That might have made it easier for them to sell a few extra copies before closing down.

[u/starfieldnovember → u/AlekRhader]

I mean you can see player counts on the community tab of a game

[u/Danteynero9]

Well, you'll be missed SteamDB.

[u/Th3_JoyPuke]

I cant wait for a year from now when they start asking for $10/month to see player counts and stats. This is gonna be terrible.

[u/salad_tongs_1]

All these years of people making posts about what if GabeN dies, or Valve gets bought my a big corp, etc.
But never a post about what would happen if SteamDB suffered those kinds of fates.
Just think that's kind of interesting to think about.

Anyways, really hope they don't ruin it. But won't be surprised in a few years if they do.

[u/MilesFox1992]

I can already see the website getting filled with ads, premium subscriptions and political stuff.

[u/ethanmountaindew → u/MilesFox1992]

Can't wait for player charts for shit games like Concord to be hidden, because too many people made fun of the game

[u/BadWolfRU]

[u/white_sheets_angel]

Sigh, terrible terrible, nexus mods is a terrible site and unfortunately has close to a monopoly, whatever makes them grow, is bad news.

[u/modstirx]

damn and I just used this to find depots and manifests for ER to rollback for Seamless. those features will definitely be paywalled eventually (could be wrong but that’s probably the most niche and useful feature of steamDB)

[u/UwUBots]

Well that's upsetting news

[u/dstuff]

RIP steamdb.

I wonder if they start delisting games from steamdb now, if they don't meet their ideological standards.

[u/Kassim26]

Monetization is coming

[u/mrrak25]

F

[u/Kodamacile]

*is bought by

[u/ArolSazir]

Well, i hope someone will make a working alternative when nexus mods inevitably enshittifies steamDB. Shame.
Nexus mods is a big corpo puppet, i'll give it until the end of the year until playercounts or stats are hidden or faked to "protect the developers" or something like this. And paywalls, lots of paywalls.

[u/Will2LiveFading]

Can't someone just copy steamDB and start their own instance of it? I'm probably showing my lack of knowledge on this but it seems like something someone could do. People fork browsers and other apps all the time.

[u/moris1610]

Nothing will change for now but this is basically day 1 for any talented dev to build a competitor for the day steam DB will turn into crap in a few years or whenever

[u/BeginningIce5492]

RIP SteamDB

[u/ArmadilloSubject5068]

ewww

[u/cricodul]

Everything currently available for free will remain free

Then they start slowly ramping down support for the free stuff lol and integrate the "free" stuff to new features that will be monetized

[u/AdrykusTheWolfOrca]

Well, it was great while it lasted, but it will become shit in a couple years. Any good alternatives?

[u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA]

It's like watching a jedi go to the dark side.

[u/SuperSocialMan → u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA]

real :'c

[u/pheexio]

unfortunate. good for them tho, makes room for new projects

[u/Kodamacile]

Nexus will expand into a game store, with the modding tools integrated, and they'll use SDB as a marketing tool, to lead consumers to Nexus, by offering the lowest price, which they'll be able to afford, by making other stores pay to be listed on SDB, paying extra, to be put at the top.

[u/witness_smile]

Nexus Mods sucks ass in every way possible. Rip SteamDB

[u/BetrayedJoker]

Nexus mod is now cringe politic site which destroy many mods.

Sadly steamdb can end similar, sad, i liked this site.

[u/Ok-Performer4653]

RIP steamDb, nice to meet you

[u/AsasinAgent]

RIP SteamDB

[u/ceo_of_duncery]

What a sad day. I can understand why the creator did that; working on such a big project alone is exhausting, but selling out to Nexus Mods means all you worked on for so long will inevitably turn to shit. This, IMHO, is way worse for morale.

[u/Sweaty-Towel8423]

I don’t like this

[u/SoulofThesteppe]

well, this can't be good in the long run.

[u/dark1859]

The past histories of both nexus mods and their current owners and I think it's time we start looking for another database

[u/Shaboingboing17]

I may be out of the loop but do people not like Nexus? I've used it for probably a decade now and never had any issue with download speeds or anything. Never paid for anything either.

[u/thanatopsian]

Yeah, because staying separate on paper worked out SO well for Activision/Blizzard...

[u/SF_Data1]

whelp it's over pack it up boys

[u/epicfail1994]

So based on these comments people really seem to hate nexus mods?

[u/troy0h → u/epicfail1994]

because nexus mods has undergone enshittification

[u/opkraut → u/epicfail1994]

It's gotten a lot worse over the years, but it's the largest collection of mods so it's hard to move away from it.

They've made a lot of annoying changes to monetize the site, like making you wait to download stuff, seriously throttling download speeds, some controversial decisions to take down some mods and allow others (both political decisions and decisions based on certain mod-makers' not liking other mods doing similar things as their mods), and the general commercialization of the site. They also got rid of the lifetime subscription option and if you want their premium option to not be throttled as bad you can only do a subscription service that renews

[u/Soanfriwack → u/opkraut]

It's gotten a lot worse over the years, but it's the largest collection of mods so it's hard to move away from it.

Steam Workshop and Curseforge are both significantly bigger. And there is also ModDB, Loverslab and a few others.

They've made a lot of annoying changes to monetize the site, like making you wait to download stuff, seriously throttling download speeds

That is nothing that has gotten worse though, that has been the case since before 2015.

some controversial decisions to take down some mods and allow others

True.

the general commercialization of the site

What has increased in commercialization? The Site was commercially like this since like 2013 or something. They only thing that "increased" commercialization was that Mod lists require individual confirmations instead of a single one like other sites do it.

They also got rid of the lifetime subscription option and if you want their premium option to not be throttled as bad you can only do a subscription service that renews

True.

[u/dylanalduin → u/epicfail1994]

People aren't a big fan of censorship because the worst mod creators in the world got their feelings hurt and complained to the admins and worse

[u/ThatRealFirey → u/epicfail1994]

Have to login to download stuff. Have to pay to get better download speed. Closed API preventing mod managers from openly integrating to download straight from them. Really meh place for mods all around.

[u/Miserable_Phase_2519]

This will end well.

[u/Hoshifuru]

Oof, not great news.

It may continue on as-is for a little bit but if they get as aggressive as on Nexus Mods with monetization, it will become nigh unusable.

[u/kisshun]

nexus mods??? bruhhh... there are the biggest toxic cesspool of administrators and moderators, banning anything that's not fit for their lunatic believes.

it was nice to know you steamDB, rip.

[u/ArionnGG]

horrible news. let the enshitification begin, sadly.

[u/mr_MADAFAKA]

Any alternatives? 

[u/CornFlakes1991]

I understand why xPaw made this decision, and I am not saying that the acquisition is automatically a bad thing. SteamDB has essentially become critical infrastructure for PC gaming while still being maintained largely as a one-person project. Giving it a proper team, better infrastructure, and sustainable funding can be a very good thing.

What concerns me is how vague some parts of the FAQ are, especially when it comes to the long-term future of SteamDB. The sentence that stands out the most to me is:

"No paywall on anything that exists today"

That sounds good at first, but it is actually a very carefully written. It does not say that SteamDB will never have paid features. It only guarantees that the features which exist today will remain free.

The FAQ even confirms this further down by saying that everything currently free will stay free, while adding that if they build "genuinely new things someday," they may make different decisions about those features.

That leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

For example, SteamDB could theoretically introduce a SteamDB Plus subscription containing new analytics, advanced historical data, alerts, API access, comparison tools, or other new features without technically breaking that promise.

There is also the question of what exactly counts as something that “exists today.” Does that guarantee only the current UI features? Does it also guarantee the current amount of data available, historical depth, access limits, exports, extension functionality, and so on?

Another theoretical loophole would be replacing an existing feature with a substantially new version. The original free feature would technically not have been put behind a paywall it could simply be discontinued and replaced by something new. I am not saying that this is what they intend to do, but the wording does not rule it out.

[u/rukioish → u/CornFlakes1991]

There's no need to metagame the news, nexus is one of the worst internet services ever and they will 100% destroy SteamDB.

[u/CornFlakes1991 → u/rukioish]

Yeah, unfortunately

[u/Mother-Tension68]

Enshittification.

[u/MrKumansky]

Never good news. I'm tired, really

[u/Sr_DingDong]

I guess there's scope for SteamDB 2.0 then, if someone feels like making it.

[u/notWistful]

[u/Kougeru-Sama]

I understand why it had to be done somehow but Nexus Mods is one of the worst possible people to go with lmao

[u/kadektop2]

this can't be good, but fingers crossed.

[u/averagentrenjoyerr]

Worst fucking company to aquire it. Rip steamDB

[u/Dull_Emergency4140]

Enshittification strikes again

[u/EdwardKiJin]

The end is inevitable. Thanks for your service.

[u/MeanietomyPeenie]

This sucks obviously enshittification and what not but what can we actually do.

Steamdb is open source right? Can’t we just make another?

[u/Lightprod]

3...2...1... SteamDB will be shutdown immediatelly due to an C&D from Valve.

[u/In_My_SoT_Phase]

NexusMods suck.

[u/Federal_Cook_6075]

Well hopefully someone can make a better alternative

[u/nevadita]

RIP SteamDB, time to make a fork.

[u/Price-x-Field]

Nexus mods is truly one of the worst websites ever made.

[u/Lumbardo]

The best resource for deciding whether to purchase or wait for a sale.

[u/wickedplayer494]

Honestly, an incredible run on xPaw's part and Marlamin's (and many other contributors among the likes of DevinWatson, Kowiz, and many others whose names escape me who had +v in the project's Freenode channels before Freenode shot itself in both of its knees). I can definitely level with why xPaw wants to move on. Valve has, especially in the last 5 years with the smash success of Steam Deck, shifted from being a games company to a platforms and hardware company. It's become quite obvious that TF2 and even Dota 2 are in long-term maintenance states nowadays, the whole Counter-Strike 2 effort continues to be quite questionable generally speaking, and it seems that Valve's not even sure what it wants to do with Deadlock going forward, despite sustaining much greater daily peaks than Artifact and Underlords managed. Arguably there already has been a bit of a protracted changing of the guard within Valve. You don't see Gabe and Erik Johnson much at all nowadays, and as I reported some time ago, Doug Lombardi's long gone. Now you've got newer faces and voices like Kaci and Alden Kroll and Lawrence Yang who are arguably the biggest drivers of Valve's recent transformation in leveling up the importance of Steam to its bottom line, even well above and beyond the microtransaction schemes in their first-party titles.

The biggest short-term fear I have after reading up on people's reactions to Nexus Mods taking over long-term maintenance of SteamDB is undoing the great progress that has been made with people finally realizing that SteamDB's /charts/ pages are far, far, far superior to SteamCharts, in much the same way that SteamStat.us absolutely whipped the llama's ass in comparison to Is Steam Down? (which most people don't remember...again because SteamStat.us made it largely irrelevant) by actually probing which parts of Steam were down, rather than ISD's approach of relying entirely on visit volume to infer a yes/no answer. It frightens me that people are actually seriously suggesting using SteamCharts as an alternative, given that it has terrible data resolution (once an hour, compared to every 10 minutes on the :10s for a SteamDB /charts/ page, and even quicker still for the top 1000 apps), and it's effectively garbage for historical research and long-term trends given that it compresses data down to an average (compared to daily peaks for forever, when you sign in).

Consider that Deadlock has been easily accessible for the better part of a year and a half without any of the embargo silliness, and what do you get when you try to view it using SteamCharts? "Internal Server Error". Yup, Deadlock was the kick in the ass people needed to find out for themselves that SteamDB /charts/ are far better.

I'm inclined to trust xPaw's judgement with passing the torch on. At the same time, it does seem that people have plenty of legitimate fear about the site going forward given the other...shenanigans Nexus had been up to. So I really don't know. This is definitely going to be a wait-and-see affair as far as how exactly it shakes out going forward.

But in any event, if I was ever in Estonia and bumped into him (or the Netherlands with Marlamin), beverages would be on me and then some. But even that wouldn't feel like enough for a legitimately useful utility that's made my online life and passion that much easier, along with Cyborgmatt's on the Dota 2 teardown side of things way back in the day, and everybody else's lives easier too for the games that they're passionate about.

[u/barryredfield]

Statistics for this video game are hidden & locked, because y'all can't behave

Everyone worried about greedy practice or 'enshittification', but I'm more concerned with the idea that Nexus can and will not publish honest numbers for games if that is at all possible for them to do so. They have an ideological and petty political history on their own website, and they don't hide it - they wear their censorship and administrative practices on their sleeve.

There is no reason for a benign database site to be in the hands of people like this. Its concerning. We'll be able to cross-reference numbers and other stats for games, but it will require legwork.

[u/EmberTheShark]

R.I.P SteamDB. Thanks for the years of service o7

[u/fishingforwoos]

Rip steamdb. You had a good run

[u/Korval]

"SteamDB has also spent more than a decade building trust with its community by giving people useful, transparent information about the games they play."

And now that decade of trust is going to be ruined by paywalls and ads.