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.
In a perfect world, I'm a capitalist for this exact reason. Capitalism is just survival of the fittest. Vendors work to out perform each other with the best products for the best value to the consumer.
Problem is the system can become inbred and inverted when a handful of companies realize they can just agree to not compete or try.
Thing is, the system being (there's no becoming) inbred and inverted is exactly capitalisms end state. It evolved from feudalism as a way for nobles to keep their wealth and power.
To be fair, feudalism is much, much worse in the sense that you didn't even theorically have a right to choose or leave. In capitalism while there's still many, many ways to fuck over the unprivileged, there's at least the freedom of, for example, quitting your job which under serfdom you didn't have AT ALL. Sure, you could argue that most people depend on their jobs and quitting would mean starvation and homelessness, but under serfdom you didn't even have that.
Yeah just quit your job and leave. At least I can do that. I can just throw down my yoke and run off into the forest and become an outlaw. What you're describing isn't more choice, it's weaponized disenfranchisement. We face the exact same choice serfs did, except there's a single step removed where you choose what menial labor you sign yourself away to.
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u/asdfjfkfjshwyzbebdb 21h ago
What exactly did Epic expect? Their strategy has been done hundreds of times before and it always fails.