PC Gaming

9544 readers

2112 users here now

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

Be Respectful.
No Spam or Porn.
No Advertising.
No Memes.
No Tech Support.
No questions about buying/building computers.
No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

798

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 day ago by inclementimmigrant to c/[email protected]

234 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 275 points 1 day ago (90 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.

[–] [email protected] 128 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (47 children)

Being consistently cheaper would actually be attractive to many people. The thing is, none of these competitors can even muster that. Steam consistently has better sales, more often. And it's pretty funny seeing Amazon of all things not able to match or beat that. They are known for undercutting the competition, even at their own expense, just to get customers; It's literally how they got to be as big as they are.

[–] count_dongulus 101 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (45 children)

Epic kinda tried that by giving away tons of free games in the Epic Games Store. It didn't work.

If I want Steam games cheaper, I go buy a Steam key for that game from a separate retailer and activate it on Steam. Save like 50-70% irrespective of Steam sales. It's remarkable that Steam allows us to even do that in the first place.

[–] athairmor 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep. I have a bunch of Epic’s free games. Never bought a single game from them and probably never will.

The experience on Steam is just better. And Epics lawsuits look less like they’re fighting for the little guy and more that they are envious of the market that other companies have.