7 ms·

Not a storefront per se, but I think Blizzard's Launcher that includes most of their newer games (as well as Destiny 2!) is a good example of one that's gone fr

Not a storefront per se, but I think Blizzard's Launcher that includes most of their newer games (as well as Destiny 2!) is a good example of one that's gone from nothing to pretty-darn-good while the Steam client has been relatively stagnant.

pvg 8y ago
Right, there are clients/stores from some of the very big players for their products and some stores for more niche products (e.g. GoG) but I can't think of anything else on PCs with the scale and money-printing power of Steam.
mattmanser 8y ago
I wouldn't call it good, at best it looks pretty while it is functionally lacking, especially when you compare it to Steam.
Impossible 8y ago
Activision is starting to move all of their big multiplayer games to Battle.net. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be the first PC release of a Call of Duty game on Battle.net after it being a Steam only game for 11 years. For big publishers and tentpole titles it makes sense to completely control the platform, because people will install a custom launcher and make a new account to play a big title, and there is no reason for publishers to give away 30% of revenue to Valve. The same trend is happening in video streaming with Netflix and Netflix isn't hurting. That said I think the Valve hating in this thread is... overblown? DOTA2 and CS:GO are some of the most played games period outside of Fortnite, LOL and PUBG. HN has been complaining about Valve not releasing a new game for years but why release a new game when you have multiple, popular, heavily played titles? All the complaints seem strange coming from a site where many of the users work for SaaS companies that don't follow a business model that requires releasing an entirely new product every year or two.
- phobosdeimos 8y ago
  Steam is crap but they have a captive audience. Can't transfer your Steam account to a competitor so your years of gaming history is stuck.
  - metasaval 8y ago
    GOG is trying to alleviate some of this with their Steam Connect stuff, where you can connect your Steam account and gain access to some of those games on GOG, but it'll never be 100%.

pvg 8y ago

Right, there are clients/stores from some of the very big players for their products and some stores for more niche products (e.g. GoG) but I can't think of anything else on PCs with the scale and money-printing power of Steam.

mattmanser 8y ago

I wouldn't call it good, at best it looks pretty while it is functionally lacking, especially when you compare it to Steam.

Impossible 8y ago

Activision is starting to move all of their big multiplayer games to Battle.net. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be the first PC release of a Call of Duty game on Battle.net after it being a Steam only game for 11 years. For big publishers and tentpole titles it makes sense to completely control the platform, because people will install a custom launcher and make a new account to play a big title, and there is no reason for publishers to give away 30% of revenue to Valve. The same trend is happening in video streaming with Netflix and Netflix isn't hurting. That said I think the Valve hating in this thread is... overblown? DOTA2 and CS:GO are some of the most played games period outside of Fortnite, LOL and PUBG. HN has been complaining about Valve not releasing a new game for years but why release a new game when you have multiple, popular, heavily played titles? All the complaints seem strange coming from a site where many of the users work for SaaS companies that don't follow a business model that requires releasing an entirely new product every year or two.

phobosdeimos 8y ago
Steam is crap but they have a captive audience. Can't transfer your Steam account to a competitor so your years of gaming history is stuck.
- metasaval 8y ago
  GOG is trying to alleviate some of this with their Steam Connect stuff, where you can connect your Steam account and gain access to some of those games on GOG, but it'll never be 100%.