this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
186 points (95.1% liked)

Technology

85108 readers
6189 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
186
Gabe Newell on Steam monopoly accusations: Gamers have 'enormous choice' about where to buy games (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 1 day ago by sanitation@lemmy.radio to c/technology@lemmy.world
87 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ReluctantlyZen@ani.social 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But that rule is only when using steam keys for distribution on other platforms no?

[–] ardrak@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes (or at least it was how it used to be, don't know if it has changed) if you were selling steam keys outside of steam you should price match the steam price. If you are distributing the game some other way you can set any price you want.

[–] 46_and_2@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think this is true, because I've definitely seen games on sale at Epic that have lower price than their Steam version.

But then I get into the quandry if I want to "own" it on Epic's platform over Steam, and I usually don't 🫤

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I don't play enough games to have a poney in this race, but why do you care if you are already using Epics platform for some games? What benefits does steam platform bring that others don't?

[–] Nugscree@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

All the extra's it brings;

  • Valve supports Proton which allows any game in you library to be played with on Linux or even on Mac if your device can run it
  • Common redistributables which automatically get installed for the player if needed
  • Notification system
  • in game micro transaction handling through Steam
  • Multiplayer API's you can hook into (like matchmaking)
  • A complete stat and achievement system
  • Chat and friends system
  • Steam cloud for save games
  • Steam input, so controllers just work for your game (even Epic will point you to this)
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM)
  • Error reporting
  • HTML API so you can show HTML pages in your game
  • Persistent inventory system
  • Key system so you can give them away, or sell them on other platforms
  • Leader boards
  • Remote play (couch co-op over the internet)
  • Voice chat
  • Steam Workshop
  • Valve anti-cheat (VAC)
  • Steam VR layer that allows any vr device, even has a controller remapper build in
  • A customer support team that will actually help you, the customer, instead of throwing roadblocks left, right and center
  • The store has a gift option, Epic does not (as far as I know), so you can buy a game for someone else and gift it to them via Steam

Epic has:

  • A store, that has popups and pulls straight back to the store which is very annoying
  • Multiplayer (EOS), which is free for anyone to use
  • Unreal Engine
  • A CEO that actively shits on things Valve related and in the past has shared his dislike for Linux

Epic has had plenty of time to copy the success of Steam by just using their blueprint, but they won't switch to being customer friendly, so instead Tim Sweeny (Epic CEO) is just hating on them (Valve). The other launchers are just terrible to begin with, the EA launcher has been buggy from the start and really unstable, Uplay is equally as bad. The only real competitor is GOG in my opinion, but they are small in comparison to Steam.