While many accuse Valve of monopolising the PC gaming market, others argue that Steam's dominance is simply the result of doing things right.
@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
-33d

That’s hard to do when Steam has all but cornered the market. Say what you will about Epic’s ineptitude, but even investing billions, the publisher of the biggest game ever can’t break into the market. Now imagine how hard it’d be for a smaller player.

AwesomeLowlander
link
fedilink
English
153d

Epic can’t break into the market because of their own shitty launcher, not because of anything Steam has done to lock down the competition.

Now imagine how hard it’d be for a smaller player.

Not very hard, if they were willing to create a decent launcher and engage in sustainable business practices (and regional pricing).

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
3
edit-2
3d

I sincerely doubt that even if another launcher did everything Steam does, it would rival it without huge amounts of money being thrown around. People already use Steam.

And that’s assuming they get to this point, ignoring that Steam had decades to get there. It used to be ass.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
33d

Not every company can pull it off, but I’m certain if Epic had invested in their launchers it could have worked.
A few years in and their launcher has stagnated completely

AwesomeLowlander
link
fedilink
English
03d

I sincerely doubt that even if another launcher did everything Steam does, it would rival it. People already use Steam.

At that point, you can start grabbing business from steam via promotions and such. You don’t need to rival or outgrow Steam to break into the market, you just need a bit of the market.

And that’s assuming they get to this point, ignoring that Steam had decades to get there. It used to be ass.

It’s not even that other launchers have less features than Steam. It’s just that other than GoG, which has a very limited catalog and no regional pricing, there is not a single store that is not actively anti-consumer to a hilarious extent.

qevlarr
link
fedilink
English
23d

There being a barrier to entry isn’t Steam’s fault. If someone comes and makes a competitor launcher and storefront that is just as good, people can easily switch. Both developers and customers. Nobody is locked in

I Cast Fist
link
fedilink
English
53d

The epic launcher is a fucking piece of shit. It being a bloated unreal application to serve as a glorified web browser does not help at all

Create a post

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

  1. Be Respectful.
  2. No Spam or Porn.
  3. No Advertising.
  4. No Memes.
  5. No Tech Support.
  6. No questions about buying/building computers.
  7. No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
  8. No Let’s Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
  9. No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
  10. Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
  • 1 user online
  • 148 users / day
  • 392 users / week
  • 927 users / month
  • 2.9K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 6.56K Posts
  • 48.3K Comments
  • Modlog