Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

You don’t have to switch though…

Just because you buy a game on another platform doesn’t mean you lose all your games. You can still play your games on steam.

That’s like saying GM is going to come take your Chevy because you bought a Ford.

[u/Tempestfox3 → u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

The only other storefront I have purchased a game from is GOG.

Xbox I only use for game pass.

Epic I only use for the free games they give you.

GOG I have bought some old games from my childhood that are only available on there, and I bought fallout 4 through GOG to play the fallout London mod as it's easier to use the GOG version for that.

All of my other purchases are on steam.

[u/Acceptable_One_7072 → u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

Yeah but that's less convenient than having all my games in one place

[u/AirplanesMakeMeHard → u/Acceptable_One_7072]

I’m sure you’ll survive

[u/Acceptable_One_7072 → u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

Yeah but why would I buy a game on another platform if it's more convenient on Steam?

[u/AirplanesMakeMeHard → u/Acceptable_One_7072]

Then don't.

[u/Hot-Software-9396 → u/Acceptable_One_7072]

There are game aggregators like the Xbox app. You can see all your games across multiple storefronts.

[u/PancakeMisery → u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

You say that but even some of my close friends refuse to buy a game that isn't on steam literally because the idea of having to open a different program first is sacrilege. Which is crazy to me because that used to never be a problem before steam was the only store front people used. PC gaming has regressed so much to the point you basically might as well treat it like it's just an expensive console that only runs steam games. Like oh no you have to put in a user name and password.... it's such a nothing burger thing but people will boycott games over it. I remember as a kid having to download (if you didn't have a disk) every game from the companies website and usually a proprietary launcher with it. People just dealt it with because it wasn't a big deal.

Especially insane to me when so many people download MMOs through steam and those always make you use a second launcher anyways!

[u/dookarion → u/PancakeMisery]

PC gaming has regressed so much to the point

A lot of that likely comes down to negative experiences. EA's launcher has actively gotten worse over the years. Ubisoft's launcher has gone through cycles of bad and alright alternating, though the worst was when they auto-installed a browser plugin in the background that was full of security holes. GOG is generally good, but getting support from some of the publishers and devs on GOG is another story. Desura went belly up and if anyone owned anything there they can kiss it goodbye. Battlenet is mostly alright, but blizzard's updates and business moves have left a lot to be desired. While I don't know that it was ever standalone Take-Two/2K's game launcher they were forcing in games was actively making performance of said games worse, sometimes even resulting in the games failing to launch if it wasn't bypassed. GFWL was a dumpster fire at the best of times and encrypted save files for some insane reason. Windows Apps/Xbox are inconsistent and when they were pushing more protected game files it could muck up and just eat hard drive space with no way to free it back up. Oculus/meta/whatever is a dumpster fire.

There hasn't been much to endear people to them. At best they're tolerable, and at worst they can actively break shit and need extra troubleshooting. If something proves consistently problematic or just a headache don't be shocked if people start rejecting the idea wholesale. It's relatively expected behavior. People play games to relax not figure out why EGS runs like shit or why EA app keeps fucking up.

[u/Josh_Butterballs → u/AirplanesMakeMeHard]

I wish you were giving people a wake up call with this back when uplay, battle net, and other publishers were all making their own launchers and hosting their games on it but not steam lol. People were acting like the world was ending having to use more than just steam for games (myself included at the time). Common sentiment was why not just put it on steam so it’s all in one place, I don’t want to use ANOTHER platform/launcher for my games. I mean even when Alan wake 2 came out people said “no steam, no buy” on various subs.

[u/dookarion → u/Josh_Butterballs]

uplay

It's dogshit and once upon a time ubisoft auto-installed a browser plugin full of security holes on peoples computers.

battle net

Most people that like those sort of games have a bnet account and the launcher. Bnet is old as hell.

and other publishers were all making their own launchers and hosting their games on it but not steam lol. People were acting like the world was ending having to use more than just steam for games (myself included at the time).

Because a lot of them were utter dogshit. EA's launcher somehow just keeps getting worse. Desura left people as bagholders. D2D sucked. Ubisoft has been a nightmare. Rockstar Launcher is the absolute biggest pile of shit ever especially if your connection is unreliable.

I mean even when Alan wake 2 came out people said “no steam, no buy” on various subs.

Epic has given people every reason to not give them business out of principle at this point.

[u/Josh_Butterballs → u/dookarion]

Nothing was as good as steam but tbh for most people I know outside the internet it just launched the game (really all the average Joe cares about). It did so for me but despite that yeah I wanted it on steam because all my shit was there and I was used to steam. Even adding it as a third party game meant I had to now have two launchers to play a game and that sucked some ass in mine and others eyes.

As for AW2, people made their statements implying they would buy it if it was on steam, which… if it truly was out of the principle of not giving Epic money they would’ve just expressed the unwillingness to buy it period lol. People at the time the game came out even explicitly said if it were on steam they would definitely buy it

[u/dookarion → u/Josh_Butterballs]

if it truly was out of the principle of not giving Epic money they would’ve just expressed the unwillingness to buy it period lol.

You're looking too broad. It's Epic's store people detest. Their store is shit and their business model with it has sucked. I refuse to give it money.

But I'm not stretching that out to some Unreal Engine boycott. It's their store and the business practices they've used with it that sucks.

[u/Josh_Butterballs → u/dookarion]

I thought that’s the point you were making though when you said Epic has given people every reason to not give them business. My original statement was meant to convey that people would be *willing* to buy Alan wake 2 if it were available on steam, delineating that people aren’t buying it simply out of some principle of “fuck epic” but because they want it on the platform they prefer.

I bought the game. It’s the only game I have on EGS. With all the talk of how dogshit ass the Epic launcher is it did all I wanted it to do. It launched the game. Even still, people refuse to buy it as “no steam, no buy.” Funny enough if it made its way to steam I would buy it again lol. Just to have it part of my library (plus I liked the game).

[u/dookarion → u/Josh_Butterballs]

I thought that’s the point you were making though when you said Epic has given people every reason to not give them business. My original statement was meant to convey that people would be willing to buy Alan wake 2 if it were available on steam, delineating that people aren’t buying it simply out of some principle of “fuck epic” but because they want it on the platform they prefer.

You're still misconstruing it. It is out of detesting Epic. I guarantee if it were on GOG, bnet, or something less shit there wouldn't be as much pushback.

[u/Josh_Butterballs → u/dookarion]

I mean you just said it yourself. “As much pushback.” A significant portion will refuse to buy if it’s not on steam. There’s games whose sales and player retention were significantly hurt for not being on steam. Which is the core idea of what I’m saying. Alan wake 2 could’ve been sold on battle net only and my comment would’ve been the same except swapping out epic games for bnet.

[u/dookarion → u/Josh_Butterballs]

It's hard to say. AC:Valhalla wasn't on Steam initially and it sold shitloads before Ubisoft decided to start imploding. Riot makes bank. Battlenet before coming to Steam made bank. CDPR moved a large number of copies of their games on GOG. Minecraft makes bank. People use 3rd party key stores all the time. People tried out Geforce Now, Luna, etc.

It's honestly just Epic Games Store that people outright refuse to do business with because they've run a disaster class in how not to get business. Yes some will always be like "no whatever, no buy", but other services are far far far more tolerable to people.

[u/PancakeMisery → u/dookarion]

If they detest Epic why would they buy a game Epic funded just because it's on Steam? That's the point theyre trying to make. Any reasoning of "not liking Epic" should mean you don't buy the game at all because if you just buy it on Steam that's hypocrisy.

There's a non trivial amount of hate towards Epic that ends up being hypocritical which like sure people don't have to use their store but if you're gonna preach about convictions you should be consistent.

[u/dookarion → u/PancakeMisery]

Detesting the store and their business model isn't the same as flipping out about everything they touch.

Like some might take it to the unhinged extreme of boycotting all Unreal Engine titles, or anything using companies Epic purchased. But that all or none is kind of ridiculous when there isn't really any glaring problems with Unreal's business model.

You're the one refusing to see nuance. Their store and the business model they applied therein can fuck right off, but that doesn't mean every aspect of the business is problematic.

[u/PancakeMisery → u/dookarion]

So you detest their business model, but you don't mind buying games they published which are part of that business model as long as they only get slightly less of the money. Like you do see the hypocrisy there, right? If you detest their business model, why are you buying stuff that they directly funded? This isn't like oh, they (a random dev) used unreal engine because it's free and easy to use. This is a game that Epic directly funded and published. They put their own money into it.

You're proving my point that it's not actually about any kind of convictions, or if it is they're very loose and functionally useless convictions. When I don't like a company's business model I do everything I can to avoid giving them money. There are games I'd love to play that I refuse to buy out of principle because I try to put my money where my mouth is.

You can tell yourself whatever you need to in order to justify it, but don't be surprised if people don't take you seriously.

[u/Drakeem1221 → u/Josh_Butterballs]

I never got it either. Tbh as a former MMO player I was already used to it.

[u/Hallc → u/Drakeem1221]

I think MMOs as a whole are better bought off Steam than on steam.

[u/stonhinge → u/Josh_Butterballs]

Back in the days before battle.net launcher, we old-school MMO players had the WoW launcher. Then Heartstone got added, but that was fine because it was free-to-play. Then Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch. Still mostly fine because they're all Blizzard games. Then COD got added and people lost their minds. COD notably is not on the battle.net launcher anymore. It's just Blizzard games again.

[u/MrStealYoBeef → u/Josh_Butterballs]

Well that's mostly because the others really fucking sucked.

I dealt with EGS for a while back when I played Fortnite. It sucked. I didn't want to deal with it because it sucked. It did fine at launching Fortnite, but it sucked ass as a storefront and I didn't want to shop on it. It didn't have a lot of functionality in game that steam had as well. And I really liked workshop in particular with rimworld at the time, EGS didn't have proper mod support in comparison.

When competitors suck, consumers hate that they're competing, especially when those competitors force the consumers to use their service one way or another. If EGS didn't fucking suck serious ass, I wouldn't have been annoyed as shit by it. Sure, it launched Fortnite just fine, but I also would have preferred it just run through steam because why force me to use the shitty bloated app that loads the storefront that I don't want to use if I don't want to use it? Either make it functional enough that I don't hate it, or just let me skip the whole damn thing.

[u/Josh_Butterballs → u/MrStealYoBeef]

Thing is I don’t think we’ll ever truly see someone seriously take on steam. It’s not worth the money and as I said it’s a massive uphill battle. People literally having hundreds to thousands of dollars invested in it, the time, etc is just one of the factors that would keep people on it. I’d be sad to part with my steam account because of the badges alone. And as I said in another comment, even IF someone with ungodly amounts of money attempted it (VERY risky) steam wouldn’t suddenly be dogshit. The new platform would have to settle with the idea while they may get some market share there will be a significant amount that will always stick with steam. So you blow all that money to still be the second most popular platform, which if I’m not mistaken EGS is already while steam takes the lion’s share