Does anyone have a link to the “internal communications” mentioned in the article showing Valve employees enforcing the unwritten rule? Seems foundational to the whole issue, I’d like to read them for myself.
Also:
… but a big challenge Epic Games faces is simply that an awful lot of gamers don’t seem to want an effective Steam competitor: Steam rules the roost, and they like it that way.
The article mentions that the Epic Games GUI isn’t great, and I think Steam’s monopoly (It is, for sure, a monopoly) is backed up in part by the fact that they’ve had the time required to develop a decent interface that at this point, not many people are too itching to leave. With software everywhere enshittifying Steam keeps looking better in comparison, and I think that challengers need to at least focus on building out a comfortable trustworthy GUI before there’s a serious argument for dethroning Steam.
GUI is definitely a big reason, but features as well. Epic could make their store snappy as hell and their GUI easier to use, but that doesn’t give us controller remapping, game recording, an overlay with a web browser, per game notes, per game news, community guides, baked in mod support, performance data overlay, controller centric mode (big screen mode), and god knows theres more I’m missing.
Personally, I’d put my money on GOG becoming the real competitor over time. GoG Galaxy feels absolutely better than Epic does, and the fact it integrates other storefronts is such a major benefit that it makes it at least capable of competing with steam in the long haul. If GoG Galaxy gained all the features Playnite has, it would easily be able to compete with Steam.
Steam’s “monopoly” is purely because none of their competitors bother with pro consumer updates.
Part of Epic’s problem is also their leadership pretty publicly showing they hate their potential customers on a regular and ongoing basis. If someone keeps screaming at me to eat shit and die, I’m not going to be particularly motivated to buy anything from them.
As far as GoG, they are actually my preferred storefront. I look at GoG for games before Steam, and am even willing to pay a slight premium to get them on GoG. Their DRM free stuff is a big thing for me. Being able to archive my games has value to me.
I know several family-owned businesses in my small town (that nobody outside of very specialized industries has ever heard of), which are worth significantly more each.
Again, absolute peanuts compared to other online storefronts.
While the site does provide a highly valuable service, it’s far too small, too little known and has been so for such a long time that I doubt it can grow significantly in the foreseeable future.
Does anyone have a link to the “internal communications” mentioned in the article showing Valve employees enforcing the unwritten rule? Seems foundational to the whole issue, I’d like to read them for myself.
Also:
The article mentions that the Epic Games GUI isn’t great, and I think Steam’s monopoly (It is, for sure, a monopoly) is backed up in part by the fact that they’ve had the time required to develop a decent interface that at this point, not many people are too itching to leave. With software everywhere enshittifying Steam keeps looking better in comparison, and I think that challengers need to at least focus on building out a comfortable trustworthy GUI before there’s a serious argument for dethroning Steam.
GUI is definitely a big reason, but features as well. Epic could make their store snappy as hell and their GUI easier to use, but that doesn’t give us controller remapping, game recording, an overlay with a web browser, per game notes, per game news, community guides, baked in mod support, performance data overlay, controller centric mode (big screen mode), and god knows theres more I’m missing.
Personally, I’d put my money on GOG becoming the real competitor over time. GoG Galaxy feels absolutely better than Epic does, and the fact it integrates other storefronts is such a major benefit that it makes it at least capable of competing with steam in the long haul. If GoG Galaxy gained all the features Playnite has, it would easily be able to compete with Steam.
Steam’s “monopoly” is purely because none of their competitors bother with pro consumer updates.
Part of Epic’s problem is also their leadership pretty publicly showing they hate their potential customers on a regular and ongoing basis. If someone keeps screaming at me to eat shit and die, I’m not going to be particularly motivated to buy anything from them.
As far as GoG, they are actually my preferred storefront. I look at GoG for games before Steam, and am even willing to pay a slight premium to get them on GoG. Their DRM free stuff is a big thing for me. Being able to archive my games has value to me.
GOG is absolutely tiny. It was sold by CD Projekt to one of the store’s founders for a mere $25 million last year:
https://screenrant.com/gog-sold-cd-projeckt-red-new-owner/
I know several family-owned businesses in my small town (that nobody outside of very specialized industries has ever heard of), which are worth significantly more each.
Profits were just $1.2 million in 2022:
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/wrestling-the-steam-goliath-pulling-a-nightdive-and-seeing-off-vulture-capital-gog-chats-the-risks-and-opportunities-of-its-future-as-a-company-without-cd-projekt/
Again, absolute peanuts compared to other online storefronts.
While the site does provide a highly valuable service, it’s far too small, too little known and has been so for such a long time that I doubt it can grow significantly in the foreseeable future.
How many years did it take for Epic to implement a shopping cart in their store?