this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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[–] MortUS@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

The argument here is not that Steam is, in the current flawed legal American sense, a monopoly, but that it is a monopoly in the sense that it has cornered enough of the gaming market that it could do very serious harm.

Note that “they’re not currently doing harm” is not a great counterargument here. When my neighbor buys a bazooka, I won’t be satisfied by “don’t worry I’m not currently using it”.

Absolutely this. I'm glad you were able to convey it in a way people understand.

Steam is a blackhole for PC gaming/gamers from a marketing perspective. They've capitalized on so much of the market, that once a person buys a game on Steam they are unlikely to buy the same game and/or even future games from a different but similar platform. It is in a sense, locking the consumer in and so many consumers are locked in. Nobody competed with Steam in the PC gaming market for an eternity and it's not Steams fault at all.

Even if Steam went to absolute shit in the next 20 odd years they've pretty much guaranteed that I'll be coming back to play all the games I've ever bought on there. Even if EGS or GoG improves their interface to compete with Steam, I've no reason to buy elsewhere (though do support GoG please).


Now to pose a question: How does a competitor even compete with Steam to capture even a % of the market?

Lemme knock out the obvious: Better UI and stronger community / community tools. I think these are a given. That being said, I do think EGS is going the correct route by investing in games / unique games and locking them into their platform. Everybody like free market and availability, but to compete against the goliath that is Steams marketbase, you gotta be the only place where to get some things. It sucks, but that's what I can't think of a better, to the point method for anyone to capture a similar market for growth, but what do you think?

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 points 1 hour ago

The EGS app is so poorly built that Heroic, a third party app made by volunteers, runs faster, has a nicer UI, and has more features. EGS are not a serious competitor.

[–] tomkatt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

That being said, I do think EGS is going the correct route by investing in games / unique games and locking them into their platform.

I strongly disagree. I quit consoles because of the exclusivity nonsense, and EGS guaranteed I will never buy anything from them by doing that shit. I won't even redeem free games on their platform via Prime Gaming, just on principle.

You compete by giving devs and publishers a better cut, or convincing them to do deeper sales on your platform. You compete by providing a better service to users. You do not compete by literally not competing.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 1 points 50 minutes ago (1 children)

Well, exclusive games is the only thing Nintendo really has going for, and it's working. And those games being first or third party isn't really making much difference for the final user.

Only real difference is hardware lock in.

[–] tomkatt@lemmy.world 1 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

I quit consoles because of the exclusivity nonsense

Nintendo was included in that statement.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 1 points 29 minutes ago

But you're not the market. So this not working for you doesn't mean it's a bad strategy, and Nintendo is an example of a company who pulled this off.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

Lemme knock out the obvious: Better UI and stronger community / community tools. I think these are a given.

OK. With you, there.

That being said, I do think EGS is going the correct route

...and, you lost me.

I work in UI, outside the game industry. It's plain to me very, very few publishers care about developing good UI or community tools. Epic is no exception. Perhaps that wasn't what you meant, but if it's a venue they intentionally ignore, it fits the OP picture perfectly.

I also think there are other features on which Steam has failed to compete, and an inventive competitor could investigate. Things like better game integration, better curation, promises against censorship to publishers of adult content, or creative uses of AI to improve player experiences, are all options. But I think that between the attempts of Google, Amazon, and Epic, it's seemed that simply throwing money at the game industry without knowledge of what's valuable to gamers, has not worked well.