this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Meanwhile GOG attempts to compete by offering features that other platforms don't offer, like DRM-free installers and a multi-platform game launcher.
If Epic got to #1 place, what guarantees there are that they would stop using exclusivity deals to hinder their own competitors? It might just be that we end up with a more anti-competititve market leader, and then what would be the benefit of having overtaken Steam?
I like GoG. They don't hold any control over the market though. I wish they did, but they aren't competing.
I can agree that GoG doesn't have a large share of the market, but I'm still unconvinced of the benefit of this call for competition for competition's sake when it's introducing anti-competitive practices. Usually we want competition to push back against anti-competitive practices.
Epic takes less revenue than Steam.
They both have anti-competitive practices. They're just different practices. Epic tends to favor helping developers and Valve tends to favor appealing to users. Valve doesn't need to force exclusivity because games have to take a loss to not use them, because they're already the market leader. There's no knowing what Valve would be doing if they were the underdog, but people need to stop assuming Valve is good. No company is ever good.
No company is good but that doesn't mean they are all equally, identically bad.
We have seen what Valve did when it was not the market leader because it didn't spawn in such a place. What they did is lock their own games to their own platform, which is something most other PC storefronts do or did at some point.
We did not yet see what Epic would do if it would got to the top. Is it even guaranteed that they would continue to take less revenue?
And really, if all companies are bad, what's the point of rooting for Epic to overtake Steam?
I'm not rooting for epic to overtake steam. I'm just against the people who hate Epic just for the sake of hating Epic. It's cool to hate them I guess, but it doesn't usually make sense. The biggest real issue is their store client sucks, but Steam wasn't always as good as it is now either.
They don't owe Epic any respect or reasons to dislike them either. For all this "all companies are bad", you are being a bit picky over when they can or can't be judged.
I gave you my reasons why I don't like them. They are not jumping into the game client market in the early 2000s, they are did it 2018. They have had the blueprint ready, with many examples, but they didn't care to match the other alternatives in the market. Which in itself wouldn't be such an issue, but it does leave a bad taste when they make themselves the only option where to buy certain games. I don't hate them because it's cool, I hate them because they inconvenience me.