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]
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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.

qevlarr
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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

AwesomeLowlander
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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]
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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]
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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
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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.

I Cast Fist
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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

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