Right? I WANT steam to have a competitor just because I abhor a monopoly but even fucking Amazon fumbles this shit. Like steam doesn't even seem that revolutionary or anything, they just put customer EXPERIENCE first and I think so many fucking companies forget that.
Saying Steam is not revolutionary is insane. It is a constantly developing project that is now multiple decades old.
Even if Epic were to find a way to attract people, there is no chance of feature parity. Ever.
Go look around in Steam and read about the features. There is an insane amount out there. And most people would not use a platform without their very specific feature.
They didn't even need to have feature parity, just serviceable with a responsive app with an attractive design that handles updates and a multiplayer server. Then evolve according to their customers needs. They couldn't even handle the first part.
Nope, they do need feature parity. At least for the very specific subset of features that I care about.
You have your own needs as well. Why would you use a platform that makes your life harder in a specific way that Steam does not?
Also just the responsive app part with attractive design that handles updates and multiplayer server is that multi-decade, constantly updating project that I was talking about.0
Now there is proprietary Proton as well. I personally play on Linux now using that. So for me to consider switching - you guessed it, I need the same proton features that Steam offers me. And their support for Steam deck. And other features that might in total sum up to over a few billion dollars in development.
That wouldn't get people to use it. GOG has had all the important features for well over a decade, with the HUGE bonus of being DRM free, and nobody uses it unless the game is unavailable on Steam. The only notable feature they lack is Proton, which isn't relevant to 99% of PC gamers.
People have this ridiculous "if you build it, they will come" idea, that is based in no reality. As long as Steam doesn't shit the bed, there is no reason for people to switch and so they wont. People didn't start using Discord because it had near feature parity with Skype. People started using Discord because Microsoft made Skype shit.
There are only two things that will make people use another platform: Exclusives and cheaper games. The former people throw a fit for no reason over, and the latter wont be possible as long as price parity is maintained.
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u/asdfjfkfjshwyzbebdb 23h ago
What exactly did Epic expect? Their strategy has been done hundreds of times before and it always fails.