Yeah, I mean… Steam holds the vast majority of the market share, but they got there by… having a good storefront that people actually want to buy from. Any of the others could compete on this metric, too, but they choose not to. It’s like a store surrounded by barbed wire and landmines and caltrops complaining that another store gets more business.
Yeah, sure. But I still have not heard about doubious methods to keep it that way. Like Lego suing other brick brands over copyright while stealing designs or using customs services to crackdown on shops criticizing their methods.
the question wasn’t whether or not they engaged in dubious practices though. you can be a paragon of righteousness and still have a monopoly over something.
No. It’s also about accusability. Steam did not work to become a monopoly by shady practice, it became a quasi monopoly by offering a good product and no competitor giving Steam’s customers a reason to switch.
Doesn’t change shit. Epic is literally pumping out free games and what does it give it? Nothing. Because it’s store is straight up vile to use - no human feedback anywhere, the whole shit is suited for publishers to orchestrate however they see fit. Same shit applies to most online game stores. They are aimed at publishers, not gamers, and thus ignored by the latter.
But hey, let’s look at two shops that are, slowly but surely, carving their part of the cake. GOG and Itch.io. What differentiates them? Both are trying to play with users. GOG with rescuing old games, dropping DRM as much as possible and working with other launchers and Itch by creating probably the biggest Indie publishing site ever. But Itch.io is niche and GOG is still lagging behind.
Yes, and that also means that the stores like Epic and EA are only fighting to be at Steam’s place in the monopoly. They all want to be the one store/launcher everyone uses. They’re not doing anything particularly different, so no one would even bother trying.
I love steam, but i wont refuse it is a monopoly.
Epic, GoG, indiegala, etc
Yeah, I mean… Steam holds the vast majority of the market share, but they got there by… having a good storefront that people actually want to buy from. Any of the others could compete on this metric, too, but they choose not to. It’s like a store surrounded by barbed wire and landmines and caltrops complaining that another store gets more business.
Removed by mod
Ah yes Blizzard didn’t have battle.net, Microsoft didn’t have windows live for games, stardock central didn’t exist,
Removed by mod
First aaa game to launch exclusively on steam… And you think that was Skyrim?
Gordan is so disappointed in you.
HL2 actually had an edition that came on disks that didn’t require Steam.
Wild when I bought what I thought was a disc copy I came home opened the case and found a game code and a link to steam.
And here’s why that didn’t matter.
9 years before skyrim. Steam had it’s launch title secured.
Yeah, sure. But I still have not heard about doubious methods to keep it that way. Like Lego suing other brick brands over copyright while stealing designs or using customs services to crackdown on shops criticizing their methods.
the question wasn’t whether or not they engaged in dubious practices though. you can be a paragon of righteousness and still have a monopoly over something.
No. It’s also about accusability. Steam did not work to become a monopoly by shady practice, it became a quasi monopoly by offering a good product and no competitor giving Steam’s customers a reason to switch.
Doesn’t change shit. Epic is literally pumping out free games and what does it give it? Nothing. Because it’s store is straight up vile to use - no human feedback anywhere, the whole shit is suited for publishers to orchestrate however they see fit. Same shit applies to most online game stores. They are aimed at publishers, not gamers, and thus ignored by the latter.
But hey, let’s look at two shops that are, slowly but surely, carving their part of the cake. GOG and Itch.io. What differentiates them? Both are trying to play with users. GOG with rescuing old games, dropping DRM as much as possible and working with other launchers and Itch by creating probably the biggest Indie publishing site ever. But Itch.io is niche and GOG is still lagging behind.
Yes, and that also means that the stores like Epic and EA are only fighting to be at Steam’s place in the monopoly. They all want to be the one store/launcher everyone uses. They’re not doing anything particularly different, so no one would even bother trying.
I guess the difference is that the monopoly is the result of having good products and not anti-customer tactics. Glares at Microsoft