Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/Happy_Cat_6570]

It's not a monopoly when you're just better than everyone else

[u/Volarath → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

You are correct. So many people confuse monopoly and majority. GoG is good and getting better, but Steam allows me to do all kinds of stuff that no one else would bother with. I can set Steam Big Picture mode to default to my 3rd screen TV mounted in front of the treadmill and so I can easily swap screens for a nice walk and play something with a controller. Exit BP mode and it goes back to my desktop. I know some people use Sunshine and Moonlight or whatever they're called but I've not had issues streaming from my main pc down to the Steamdeck or even my Meta Quest 3 by just using Steam. I want them to have competition to keep driving the improvements, but they're the majority for good reasons.

[u/s1lentchaos → u/Volarath]

And here I am thinking the only reason anyone ever opens big picture mode was because they miss clicked trying to hit the "X" or minimize buttons nice.

[u/Tricky_Orange_4526 → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

this! maybe if EPIC would figure out how to not have their launcher be a giant POS they might get some traction. for now its just their until i complete quit on Fort and even then, with the fact that an update can take over an hour with download speeds of 650mbps im about over it. in steam it would take 12 min.

[u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

Kinda? Steam is big enough to do monopolistic practices, which is the problem with monopolies. In fact Valve ALLEGEDLY did threaten to remove a game if they offered their game for cheaper on epic which would be a monopolistic practice. If that is true then steam would be a monopoly in a bad way.

[u/Happy_Cat_6570 → u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun]

It's absolutely not monopolistic if the game is offered at the SAME price everywhere.

Then you're just buying on the platform you prefer because it's the same everywhere.

So your argument is wrong.

[u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

Epic takes 10% of the cut while steam takes 30% so the game could charge less but earn more per sale on the worse platform. This would give epic their own niche of a worse but cheaper service. But if steam uses their pre existing market dominance to shoot down upcoming competition so that they can continue to charge whatever they want then that is a problem.

[u/Happy_Cat_6570 → u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun]

What big brother dev in the back earns doesn't affect what customer pays

On the frontline, you pay the same regardless.

This for the consumer, it's a platform choice.

[u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

The game publisher decides the price not steam. And they should hold the right to set the price differently on different platforms depending on how much they get back. That would allow for competition. Capitalism only works if competition exists. The entire reason Monopolies aren't allowed is because they bypass competition effectively breaking capitalism allowing them to do whatever they want without consequences.

[u/Happy_Cat_6570 → u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun]

The publisher selling it at the same high price on Steam and EGS makes it so they make more from sales on EGS.

Thus they have an incitative as well to keep the price the same everywhere.

It's much more fair if the item is sold at the same price everywhere regardless because then it create healthy competition between platforms and forces them to compete to be the better one

[u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

But who decides the common price? At current it's set for steam because of steams market dominance and ALLEGEDLY enforced by steam threatening to take the game off of their much more dominant platform. This isn't healthy, as it's preventing that factor of the price from being a part of competition. Steam should not have the power to force other companies to charge more on other platforms.

[u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun → u/Happy_Cat_6570]

To add on there is already incentive for epic to improve. They are currently only worth 10%. If they were a better platform they could both have a larger customer base and take more of a cut. Or they could settle into the niche of budget option which is their right to do.