It seems pretty standard in terms of trajectory: hobby project blew up and became a thing people relied on, founder grew up over the years as well and can't sustain it. Company steps in to provide the "right resources", but inevitably doesn't emphasize too much the changes that will be needed to make it "sustainable".
> Running a service like SteamDB is not easy. I wouldn't be able to live with myself by either just letting the site run as-is and letting it wither, or completely shut it down. In January, I started looking for a worthy partner that could continue the legacy that I had built.
> This is where Nexus Mods comes in.
And Chosen's CEO:
> Our job isn't to change what makes SteamDB special. It's to give it the resources, team and long-term stability it deserves, while building a sustainable foundation that allows us to keep investing in and improving it for many years to come.
So the real news here is what "sustainable foundation" means.
I think that's answered pretty well by the 5 ads that open when I visit the announcement page on nexusmods.com link in the OP vs the speedy and clean UI that on the steamdb.info version (for now).
> After COVID and with the rise of AI, the internet we once loved is gone, and with it my passion.
And I really have to say that it's very relatable.
Someone posted that before I see (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491) so perhaps post can be merged to there
Just because it's ads for another site within the corporate umbrella doesn't make it any less of an ad. I also expect that to be just the start of the enshittification. I fully expect them to remove features, then add "new" features that are basically the same as the old ones, but that time behind paywalls. So that they can claim that they technically aren't making free features paid.
Maybe they'll change their minds when NM tries to monetize it. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they just create their own first-party version, then nuke this one.
"Why should the community trust Nexus Mods with SteamDB?"
You shouldn't have to take our word for it, so here are the commitments, in writing, that you can hold us to:
SteamDB stays free.
Nothing currently free goes behind a paywall.
We don't sell your personal data.
SteamDB keeps its own identity, site and community.
The extension stays free and keeps working.>We acquire. We amplify. We conquer.
lmao good luck.
Love how the guy was running the site alone becaue he couldn’t “trust anyone else” and ended up selling to a company like this.
Though SteamDB is not irreplacebale at all, it’s running on the Steam Web API so not something super secret stuff.
Is it possible to use Steam API to collect all the data that SteamDB collected over the years again?
Alternatively, maybe someone needs to to scrape SteamDB asap before they lock it down?
Nothing changed for the worse since that time. So don't expect any immediate changes.
SteamDB is (was) one guy's passion project, that's the only way a site like this can work, and passion projects in tech are a thing of the past. There's no way to monetize it without making it borderline unusable. I am confident that, when SteamDB inevitably becomes a cesspit of intrusive ads and/or starts locking features behind a paywall (that no one will pay for, because paying a monthly subscription to see metadata for Steam games is insane, which will lead to more desperate measures and possibly an eventual shutdown of the site), no suitable replacement will be made.
It could not be vibecoded in a day unless you want to hallucinate the data, which makes the site useless.
In fact, if the techbros actually tried, they'd force Valve into putting up anti-scraping countermeasures on all their APIs within hours.
Personally, I just can't imagine anyone paying a monthly fee just to access metadata for Steam games and nothing else. At least with Nexus Mods, you're paying for (easier) access to actual content for your games.
https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/did-nexus-mods-ban-pron...
And while they're still full of mods adding anime waifus into Skyrim, they'll ban anyone who uploads "content deemed illegal by English law" because they love sucking up to the Online Safety Act. (The site should really not be hosted in the UK until that law is repealed)
https://forums.nexusmods.com/topic/13520419-thevogelman-bann...
Does this mean that Steam's porn games will disappear from SteamDB as Nexus Mods puritanically censor their new acquisition?
> Uploading content deemed illegal by English law (indecent depictions of minors)
I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they started taking payments from game publishers to hide historical player count data for certain games that aren't doing very well.
It didn’t take long for x.com, previously known as twitter.
This ad hominem is unnecessary when we are talking about quality of life mods. Of course quality of life mods are going to address what people are complaining about. That's the whole point of them.
>the nazi bar problem
Nexus Mods doesn't ban mods adding the trans flag to the game. Does this mean they are going to have the trans bar problem? You can make this same argument about everything.
More directly, are you really using a false equivalence to counter an "ad hominem"?
"Quality of life", that's a euphemism for queer erasure I haven't heard before... and here I was thinking a quality of life mod was one that fixed a janky UI or smoothed out a grind, that kind of thing.
You certainly could complain about a "trans bar problem" if you like, and you could even go make your own nazi bar if not having one bothers you enough -- though it's pretty clear what that would say about your values.
Oh, no. If this is the most severe issue that the company has then we are fine.
You don't get what @amiga386 was implying
Be specific, use your big-person words like an adult. What specifically is the broader issue?
> You don't get what @amiga386 was implying
I think most of us get exactly what they're implying - they don't agree with the politics of the people running nexus (seems like they're scared of pronouns to me) - and don't really have anything concrete beyond that, so they're waving their hands and complaining about nexus abiding by the law.
Nexus mods is allowed to choose what they want to host. If you want to share a mod they don’t accept, host it somewhere else.
Bwahaha.
Ok
not scared it's a different reason, where you think on the surface that's the issue you dummy who can only see the surface.
Really weird things to be getting upset over if you ask me.
Regardless of the stupidity of the law (which don't get me wrong, the Online "Safety" Act in the UK is incredibly dumb) you still have to follow it until its struck down or replaced.
And what's the broader issue? That it's moderated?
It’s weak. Y’all are weak.
Expecting Nexus to host mods they don't want to host is idiotic.
Hiding the whole complaint behind an implication is cowardice.
Hope that helps.