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Amazon thought it could compete with Steam because it was so much larger than Valve, but Prime Gaming's former VP admits that 'gamers already had the solution to their problems' (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/pcgaming

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I did not realize they were trying to compete in the first place.

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[–] [email protected] 285 points 1 month ago (96 children)

Steam is a platform that happens to also have a storefront. Other companies are building storefronts and hoping that's enough.

If you can't provide fast downloads, cloud saves synced across devices, achievements, mod support, friends lists, and multiplayer support, it's not a real option. Being cheaper or having some exclusives aren't attractive. Gog already has the drm free angle to be a legitimate competitor.

[+] ILikeBoobies -83 points 1 month ago (44 children)

Steam is a platform that happens to also have a storefront.

I would like to see government intervention to break up Steam to remedy this

Though arguably Epic is way bigger of a platform since it goes from developer to end user

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Steam is hardly a monopoly.

There are plenty of successfully competing stores. The only real thing Steam has going for it is network effect that every gamer has an account therefore it's decent for socialising, but even that is being challenged by Discord and a multitude of others.

GamePass is probably the closest we're seeing to a potential monopoly. The purchase of activation should never have been permitted.