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.
> 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).
They claim no ads on steamdb, but they also claim "show what games have a thriving modding community" or something like that. Which implies linking to modding hubs, which implies linking to nexusmods, which I'd 100% deem as being ads.
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.
i don't know. the whole operation was kind of obnoxious. valve could provide all this information for free in an afternoon, but chooses not to. of course, by information, i mean: historical, per-user purchasing histories, which are 1,000,000% the most valuable piece of data. but since the guy who ran steamdb doesn't make games, he didn't comprehend what it was that was valuable, and instead, focused on CSGO "leaks."
This uses a load of private Steam API endpoints to work, and I think Valve has just allowed that because it's a loved community project.
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.
That's a shame. Nexus Mods has been a sore to modding that I wish would go away so we can have smaller per-game community-run infrastructure again that doesn't want to make you create an account just to download something.
Does Nexus also get control of the SteamDB browser extension? While I was willing to trust xPaw for the convenience it provides I don't want to extend that trust to Nexus Mods.
Especially with their leftist politics.
Want to make all the characters of a game LGBTQ+++? Sure thing, here's a bunch of mods for that. Want to make your characters more feminine or remove forced lienral agendas in a game? Nope, all those mods have been banned.
I hear people say this from time to time and yet to me it feels fine. Could be better, but it's free, everything is reasonably well organized and in one place.
Meanwhile when I have occasionally ventured into per-game modding communities I've found the quality always pretty low and at times even feeling potentially scammy. So I don't think that "per game community run infrastructure" is an automatically good thing, as you seem to be implying. Probably the contrary, in fact.
Even aside from the scammy feeling I got (it was years ago, GTA V mods maybe is what comes to mind), running a community is whole project in itself that most games simply won't drum up the interest for, so modding for all but very popular games would suffer.
It's already been behind Cloudflare for a while so maybe it would be more sensible to ask Pavel to make a dump of the historical data available somewhere.
Damn, good for him, I guess, but what a bummer, I wonder how they'll enshittify the site. Also a reminder for everyone to disable or at least keep an eye out for updates on the extension. They say in the FAQ they won't change it, but i've been burned before by such promises
Okay, so go ahead and replace it. Even if we ignore the whole historical data aspect of SteamDB, you may find that accurately tracking and storing as much data as possible for hundreds of thousands of apps on Steam may not be as easy as it sounds, especially when you're doing it for free.
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.
The fundamental function of the site can now be vibecoded in a day, so now has no value. The daily visitors are the only unused item of value remaining.
"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.
none of that is legally enforceable so none of that matters, we had million stories of companies going back on their word, it isn't worth the rust it is written on
So, looks like SteamDB is gonna get a billion features behind paywall. Probably gonna rate limit how many depots you can look up for free within the hour lol
Are you speaking purely out of principle, or do you truly believe it makes sense in this particular case?
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.
Probably speaking as someone who has used nexusmods in the past decade. Their monetization stuff is on the "lolwhat, that's kinda excessive" side of things.
I'm so thankful that Minecraft has developed it's own ecosystem for modding (I don't like CurseForge but it's MILES ahead of NM, and modrinth is great) and did not rely on NexusMods. Try to install a big modpack in TES, Fallout or Cyberpunk without actually paying for the API access, it's borderline insane.
Please dont get enshittified
Please dont get enshittified
It has been a constant good source for TitleIDs (for the steam compat folder when modding on linux), for Steam frame Hopium (when they updated FEX or Lepton or the Stick driver again) and looking at the patch history of games.
Better link about the background here is on SteamDB's blog: https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/
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.
> 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).
Nexus also sells a subscription service.
Running a website of this magnitude costs money and I don't expect people to keep paying out of pocket forever. It is nice as long as it lasts.
I think this one particularly interesting and it really explains to me how a caring and passionate person would do such a move.
> 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.
> https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/
Someone posted that before I see (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491) so perhaps post can be merged to there
They claim no ads on steamdb, but they also claim "show what games have a thriving modding community" or something like that. Which implies linking to modding hubs, which implies linking to nexusmods, which I'd 100% deem as being ads.
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.
i don't know. the whole operation was kind of obnoxious. valve could provide all this information for free in an afternoon, but chooses not to. of course, by information, i mean: historical, per-user purchasing histories, which are 1,000,000% the most valuable piece of data. but since the guy who ran steamdb doesn't make games, he didn't comprehend what it was that was valuable, and instead, focused on CSGO "leaks."
This uses a load of private Steam API endpoints to work, and I think Valve has just allowed that because it's a loved community project.
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.
Well it's dead now. The demise of NM has been very public
what happened? I just use NM once every few years to download the same handful of mods
That's a shame. Nexus Mods has been a sore to modding that I wish would go away so we can have smaller per-game community-run infrastructure again that doesn't want to make you create an account just to download something.
Does Nexus also get control of the SteamDB browser extension? While I was willing to trust xPaw for the convenience it provides I don't want to extend that trust to Nexus Mods.
Especially with their leftist politics. Want to make all the characters of a game LGBTQ+++? Sure thing, here's a bunch of mods for that. Want to make your characters more feminine or remove forced lienral agendas in a game? Nope, all those mods have been banned.
I hear people say this from time to time and yet to me it feels fine. Could be better, but it's free, everything is reasonably well organized and in one place.
Meanwhile when I have occasionally ventured into per-game modding communities I've found the quality always pretty low and at times even feeling potentially scammy. So I don't think that "per game community run infrastructure" is an automatically good thing, as you seem to be implying. Probably the contrary, in fact.
Even aside from the scammy feeling I got (it was years ago, GTA V mods maybe is what comes to mind), running a community is whole project in itself that most games simply won't drum up the interest for, so modding for all but very popular games would suffer.
And the company behind Nexus:
>We acquire. We amplify. We conquer.
https://www.wearechosen.io/
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.
> 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?
It's already been behind Cloudflare for a while so maybe it would be more sensible to ask Pavel to make a dump of the historical data available somewhere.
Damn, good for him, I guess, but what a bummer, I wonder how they'll enshittify the site. Also a reminder for everyone to disable or at least keep an eye out for updates on the extension. They say in the FAQ they won't change it, but i've been burned before by such promises
Nexus was sold to those new owners a bit over a year ago.
Nothing changed for the worse since that time. So don't expect any immediate changes.
The part that's hard to replace is the historical data.
Okay, so go ahead and replace it. Even if we ignore the whole historical data aspect of SteamDB, you may find that accurately tracking and storing as much data as possible for hundreds of thousands of apps on Steam may not be as easy as it sounds, especially when you're doing it for free.
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.
The most valuable data is the per user purchase histories from before the time those were hidden by default.
Why is that "valuable"?
they basically map out the paying audience for your game on Steam
So we know how many hentai games you've bought
The fundamental function of the site can now be vibecoded in a day, so now has no value. The daily visitors are the only unused item of value remaining.
I await your repo tomorrow, then! I'd be happy to use an alternative with all backfilled playercount data and sales history that hasn't been sold out.
SteamDB is itself a massive collection of data - on pricing, game usage, etc. Scraped over years, in a way that Valve tolerate.
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.
The fundamental function is already on GitHub: https://github.com/steamre/steamkit
That only leaves the remaining 99.9% of work. Good luck.
that's optimistic
Go ahead and do it just to prove a point.
The value is in the contributed art.
Title has an extra d after Steam.
Crapd. Can't edit anymore. But like I suggested elsewhere, perhaps comments can be moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49534491, they were first
you can send an email to dang to get it fixed
FAQ by SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/faq/?guildid=215154001799413770#why-sho...
"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:
none of that is legally enforceable so none of that matters, we had million stories of companies going back on their word, it isn't worth the rust it is written on
I realy wished we had a way to have Companies make Legally enforcable claims.
I remember reading something like that when Oculus Rift was acquired by Meta.
> SteamDB stays free
So they'll add a ton of ads.
> Nothing currently free goes behind a paywall.
Technically true for Nexus Mods as well but they sure make access cumbersome for non-paying users.
> We don't sell your personal data
So they'll sell (barely) "anonymized" data.
> The extension stays free and keeps working
Yeah that's not the main concern people should have with an extension that gets free reign on the Steam store.
Lmfao
So, looks like SteamDB is gonna get a billion features behind paywall. Probably gonna rate limit how many depots you can look up for free within the hour lol
I think that's perfectly reasonable if it means a more sustainable future
Is it for a sustainable future, or just extracting maximum value from the user?
Are you speaking purely out of principle, or do you truly believe it makes sense in this particular case?
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.
Probably speaking as someone who has used nexusmods in the past decade. Their monetization stuff is on the "lolwhat, that's kinda excessive" side of things.
I'm so thankful that Minecraft has developed it's own ecosystem for modding (I don't like CurseForge but it's MILES ahead of NM, and modrinth is great) and did not rely on NexusMods. Try to install a big modpack in TES, Fallout or Cyberpunk without actually paying for the API access, it's borderline insane.
Probably have ads because idk who would pay to lift those limits.
I disagree. The project dying would at least leave room for a successor, which an enshittified version might prevent.
apparently it was sustainable just fine before
Yea, the steamdb extension gets uninstalled now.
R.I.P. it was a good site and couldn't fall into much worse hands
I don't love this. Wish Valve itself would have supported SteamDB.
Please dont get enshittified Please dont get enshittified
It has been a constant good source for TitleIDs (for the steam compat folder when modding on linux), for Steam frame Hopium (when they updated FEX or Lepton or the Stick driver again) and looking at the patch history of games.
Honestly why couldn't steam itself operate this? It seems like a great additional resource to steam