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It's an open question whether Epic's limited success is a result of the company's failure to "press its advantage," as Pitchford opines, or just a sign that Steam's massive entrenched network effects have proven more resilient than he expected.
It's not. EGS doesn't solve any problems that Steam leaves on the table to be solved. Customers have no reason to shop at EGS when Epic takes its thumb off the scale.
It doesn't solve most of the problems Steam already solved either.
Not only that but it’s a worse user experience all around.
I fucking hate the EGS and Xbox stores for browsing new games. Most of the time you’ll get an animated video that’s not game footage and two screenshots that don’t tell you shit.
Not to mention that the formatting is so bad that the client requires you to basically be in fullscreen but you’ve still gotta scroll a mile down to get any info.
Not to mention that the formatting is so bad that the client requires you to basically be in fullscreen but you’ve still gotta scroll a mile down to get any info.
For Xbox, that's because the PC app is literally copy/pasted from the Xbox console app. Hell, it probably is the same universal app since that was a big Microsoft push to have more apps available on the consoles and Windows Phone.
Even ea's origin tried to offer more, with the overlay chat, etc. Epic did none of that.
Steam also offers community pages, user reviews, and other features that allows players to discuss their games.
If anything, the only thing that other stores have that Steam doesn't would be games not on Steam. Even then, half of the time, they're either itch(dot)io exclusive indie titles or shitty triple AAA titles.
When I buy on GOG, I know I'm getting a game DRM-free. They muddied that a tad with how they handle online multiplayer, but for the most part, I get more value from their store for that. It's a huge reason why I'd choose their store, because they're solving a problem for me that Steam does not.
While I normally check both locations and buy from GOG if it's available there, you would be surprised how many Steam titles are completely DRM free.
I needed some DRM free games for the classroom last year and was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the smaller, indie games I own Steam, the ones I was most interested in bringing into the classroom to begin with, run perfectly well on a machine without Steam even installed just by copying the folder to a flash drive. Some required deleting a Steam.dll or adding a text document that states the SteamID of the game, but most of the games I wanted I was able to run from a flash drive, DRM free, no Internet, Steam or game install required.
Steam offers DRM to devs that want it, but it is not a DRM platform in of itself.
I'm aware, but when GOG takes the ambiguity out of it, I don't have to do tons of extra research to know that they have an extra feature that's important to me. I'd really appreciate if some store took the ambiguity out of it when it comes to multiplayer games being playable offline. It's something that Steam should easily tell you in theory, but there are tons of games that have LAN and such without bothering to report it. Some say they require an online connection and actually don't. These are problems worth solving for me, a particular kind of consumer.
Imagine if Steam and EGS were hotdog vendors.
Steam offers all the condiments; mustard, ketchup, mayo, relish, onions, pickles, tomatoes, bacon, cheese, chili, etc.
EGS is just a plain hotdog. No condiments. You're lucky to even get a bun.
Both are equal price.
Which hotdog are you getting?
Now imagine that the plain hotdog guy keeps whining that nobody wants his hotdogs.
The hotdog vendor keeps going on about how he’s the good guy because he pays more to the sausage suppliers. As if that’s at all relevant to his customers.
He also tried suing the fruit vendor because they wouldn't let them sell their hotdogs on their Apple cart.
That, and Gabe's hotdog stand has spent decades building customer trust by generally acting decently towards its customers, right after it invented the concept of the hotdog stand.
Making the core of your business model revolve around whining about your competitors doesn't work so great when your main competitor is already significantly better than you are.
Epic games store occasionally gives you a free hotdog every week. But it also contains no fixings, and you gotta eat it at the counter.
I eat that free hotdog every week, then go across the street and buy another one.
I eat that free hotdog every week, then go across the street and buy another one.
You actually eat it? I put it in the fridge for bad times but only eat the ones from the other side.
Sometimes the epic hot dog isn't fully cooked, or has everything on it because they grabbed it out of steams hands then gave it to their customer
It's false equivalence to claim steam has a monopoly when you're literally giving epic a monopoly on your games for financial kickbacks between yourselves that in the best case doesn't impact the user and worst case actively compells them to a much worse platform. What epic and gearbox did is monopolistic, what steam did is just make a good enough product that no one gives a sh*t about EGS. If you want an actual competitive store front, make something your users want, not your business partners. Gog is struggling but it's still my first goto for games because even if it's missing all of steams functionality, it gives me ownership of games that can't just be revoked or broken by publishers. That's a value add I'm willing to pay for. Paying more so publishers can make more money and sell a worse experience through EGS ain't moving me.
Sometimes I wonder if these people understand that no player ever wanted exclusivities on a game store. Instead of providing a decent service, they're litteraly trying to kidnap customers with a choice between waiting for months for this big release or taking it on a subpar platform.
"Famously, Steam does very little to earn the massive cut they take"
Must be why it's so successful.
I kind of cracked up at "Steam does very little".
Hell, Epic does not have any social features, didn't have cart, refund process through support only, very basic search, I am not sure about cloud saves and if they don't break completely when you play offline (is there even offline mode?).
Steam, on the other hand, is constantly adding and improving features - like the new beta family sharing which is finally what an easy way to share with my GF and sister.
The only things that Epic has are free games, exclusivity, and lower fees - and that's about it. All three, as you can see, are not really hard to implement for the developer team, but easy to throw large sums of money at for a quick boost so they can boast numbers.
Fuck Epic, seriously. Money can solve lots of stuff, but not by throwing it at the wall. Meaningless.
Don't forget first party Linux support and Proton to add Linux/Mac support to many windows exclusive games.
EGS is worse than Steam was 10 years ago. Its only useful for piling free games from the store that I'll never play.
I gave Epic's store a chance but even after all this time it's still shit and very far from feature parity with Steam. There's not even proper reviews. No big-picture equivalent. No good out-of-the-box Linux support. No Steam-Deck. The list is very very long. Until Epic starts delivering, the 30% cut Valve takes is more than justified.
I never gave it a chance, as theit practice of paying for exclusivity is infuriating to me.
Make your shit better. Hell, make it comparable, and charge a lower cit (so devs make more), and I'd support then.
Paying to make the market more closed off sucks.
I gave it a chance when they took over Rocket League. The damn platform doesn't even support profile avatars while Steam did. So to get a basic nice feature working all you had to do was... not use their platform.
They still don't have avatars.
They absolutely slaughtered rocket league. They even put the dumb cyber truck in it lmao
FWIW, my understanding is that the owner of Epic is actively anti-Linux, so your third feature is a unlikely at best. The fourth was only remotely likely due to market share.
I don’t get why anyone pays attention to these wannabe Hollywood producers like him or Todd Howard. The most interesting and innovative things in gaming are NOT happening in the AAA space.
I don't even bother claiming free Amazon games on the epic store.
do nothing
Win
The gaben method works again
This is a CEO covering his ass. Nothing to see here folks
What he really meant to say was that he shilled out for the bags of money
I would love to see reasonable competition to steam which would give consumers and developers better options, but Epic ain't it
What would a better option look like? Steam user experience is great. Games are cheap entertainment. What more could you ask for?
My only real concern with Valve is what will happen when Gabe passes or retires. Who knows how his replacement will direct steam.
I like the fact they tried to compete with Steam from the begining. I have a large library of games and some real gems that I wouldn't normally look at.
EGS is ok, GOG is ok and also Steam is just ok too for what I want from a store/launcher.
No digital game store is worth your loyalty.
Steam is just ok to for what I want from a store/launcher.
It's not just ok, compared to the alternatives. A games library that cannot be matched, regular sales, easy no-frills refunds, cloud saves, beta support, family mode, big picture support, seamless integration with the Steam deck, which in its own right, has pushed right-to-repair and Linux gaming to new heights. The competition doesn't even have any of this stuff, including the console market, and if they can't compete, they don't deserve my money.
No digital game store is worth your loyalty.
I'm fine being loyal to a privately-owned company that actually gives a shit about its customers. As long as Gabe is still alive and they will continue to be privately-owned, the company will stay in good graces.
With his Linux takes I'm starting to think ol Tim doesn't have a good grasp on computer games