There was a recent article about a dev saying that when their game was given for free on Epic, it increased their sales. But not on Epic Store… They increased on Steam…
The problem with Epic is that they were with the wrong assumption that people will “just” migrate to a new launcher. You might be able to attract new players that don’t have any baggage, but older ones with games on Steam, you’ll need to climb the Everest to convince them.
That task would already be hard even if your platform had 100% parity in features with Steam. But it isn’t, it lacks basic features that Steam has for years, so I’m not sure what they were thinking that giving free games would be enough (and I’m not saying this in hindsight, I’ve been saying this ever since they launched Epic Store)
GOG manages to get by because they offer something different. As long they offer DRM-free games, they will always have an audience. Steam can’t compete with that, unless some day they decide to do the same. So GOG will always have a place in the market.
Epic on the other hand, is picking a fight with Steam, on Steam’s territory, with Steam’s rules. It could be a David vs Goliath story except David doesn’t even have a sling or a stone.
YSK, you can change Steam’s look: https://steambrew.app/themes