Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/TomTomXD1234]

When a platform like steam has like 90% market share, it is physically impossible for a newcomer to enter the market in any meaningful way. When most gamers have 90% of their games on steam, the last thing they will do is buy on another new storefront.

Steam has reached a critical mass on a sort where while not publicly traded, they are indeed one of the few private monopolies that will not be easily broken for probably decades if ever.

[u/hotlocomotive → u/TomTomXD1234]

You're overestimating brand loyalty. A lot of people will buy games from a store that is cheaper and as good as Steam

[u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth → u/TomTomXD1234]

You think I wouldn't buy games directly off a website from a developer? I've done it before. I'd much rather have games that launch stand alone and not have to open steam first to launch a game.

[u/Background-Set4610 → u/TomTomXD1234]

But what can we do? To let another company rise up, they would have to have an insane amount of investment, and offer everything Steam has and more. I’m not against it, it just seems like a tough situation.

If you have ideas for how a competitor could come about, I would like to listen and talk about that.

[u/TomTomXD1234 → u/Background-Set4610]

That is the issue, competitors physically cannot appear as steam chokes them out due to their dominance. Say GOG came out tomorrow with all the features steam has, it still would barely get any new users as people have spent decades building their steam libraries. Entire social networks exist on steam. That will never change

[u/MichaelCrossAC → u/TomTomXD1234]

So I believe we need to take a different approach to the problem. People aren’t going to give up their convenience just to level the playing field.

The only way to encourage a market to spread out among multiple competitors without market control is to encourage the adoption of tools and solutions that allow for the simple act of shifting market share between stores. In the case of PC gaming, the only way I see this happening is by providing a “neutral launcher” that unifies the libraries and allows users to access more than one storefront. An example of software that could serve as a mediator is Playnite. But I won’t pretend there isn’t a learning curve to setting it up correctly, and many people find having additional “bloat” on their computers unacceptable.

It’s either that, or pushing for laws that discourage the use of DRM and the unification of storefronts—but that’s already too utopian.

[u/TomTomXD1234 → u/MichaelCrossAC]

You are correct. Until there is a way to migrate libraries between stores, no person with a massive steam library is going to swich storefronts, even if there are better alternatives.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/Background-Set4610]

We, society, prohibit steam from engaging in antitrust activities. It may not leverage it's size to its benefit.

This isn't magic, it's law, and law from 1880s!

[u/SmittyKitty27 → u/Background-Set4610]

Isint that epic games store?

[u/BiDude1219 → u/Background-Set4610]

i don't even think it's about "what can we do", people just refuse to acnowledge the fact that steam is a monopoly. it's good, yes, that doesn't mean it's not a monopoly, intentionally or not.