this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Larian Studios defends Valve: Steam's success is deserved (www.gamereactor.eu)
submitted 1 month ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Competition keeps them honest, and right now we need more real contenders, not just storefronts throwing money at exclusives.

Then the competition should put in the work.

[–] stephen01king@piefed.zip 13 points 1 month ago

That's kinda his point.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml -4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That's hard to do when Steam has all but cornered the market. Say what you will about Epic's ineptitude, but even investing billions, the publisher of the biggest game ever can't break into the market. Now imagine how hard it'd be for a smaller player.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Epic can't break into the market because of their own shitty launcher, not because of anything Steam has done to lock down the competition.

Now imagine how hard it'd be for a smaller player.

Not very hard, if they were willing to create a decent launcher and engage in sustainable business practices (and regional pricing).

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I sincerely doubt that even if another launcher did everything Steam does, it would rival it without huge amounts of money being thrown around. People already use Steam.

And that's assuming they get to this point, ignoring that Steam had decades to get there. It used to be ass.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Not every company can pull it off, but I'm certain if Epic had invested in their launchers it could have worked.
A few years in and their launcher has stagnated completely

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago

I sincerely doubt that even if another launcher did everything Steam does, it would rival it. People already use Steam.

At that point, you can start grabbing business from steam via promotions and such. You don't need to rival or outgrow Steam to break into the market, you just need a bit of the market.

And that's assuming they get to this point, ignoring that Steam had decades to get there. It used to be ass.

It's not even that other launchers have less features than Steam. It's just that other than GoG, which has a very limited catalog and no regional pricing, there is not a single store that is not actively anti-consumer to a hilarious extent.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago

The epic launcher is a fucking piece of shit. It being a bloated unreal application to serve as a glorified web browser does not help at all

[–] qevlarr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

There being a barrier to entry isn't Steam's fault. If someone comes and makes a competitor launcher and storefront that is just as good, people can easily switch. Both developers and customers. Nobody is locked in