5 ms·

they've made a huge mistake, their competitive advantage, somewhat like Nintendo, is that their platform has / had valve games on it.

Impossible 7y ago
This was Steams initial competitive advantage and it's still a benefit, but now Steam's advantage is that most commercial PC games are on Steam. Although many people still dislike Steam for various reasons, it's still overall the best game platform available on PC and is better than console and mobile platforms in many ways. One thing to thing about is that many of the biggest games (LoL, Fortnite, Minecraft, Activision Blizzard and EA titles) are not available on Steam.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
This right here... There are game studios that can keep churning out enough games to create their own alternatives to Steam and they have and they will succeed without Steam. What will be left is microtransactions and indie games if they arent careful.
paulryanrogers 7y ago
Valve has the network effect being both a top-of-mind store, distribution platform, and friend network.
- Theizestooke 7y ago
  I think discord has taken over as friend network #1.
  - shearskill 7y ago
    Just wait until Twitch and Discord find a way to merge.
kbenson 7y ago
Well, given that now Epic is trying to cut into that with Fortnite as the killer/gateway app that gets the Epic marketplace on your system, maybe Valve will be forced to focus on shipping some good new games to retain their position? If that's the case, yay for competition! :) That said, I think part of what people are missing about Valve is that they are also seem to be focused on what they see as the next big thing in gaming, which is VR. They're supposedly shipping their own VR hardware (headset plus new hand controllers) soon (Aug 1st), and have publicly committed to launching a "Flagship VR" game this year. Probably not what most people want, given the cost of VR equipment (not mentioning the cost of the computer hardware to run it). Personally, I'm kinda amped up about the Occulus Quest. A hands free (~3 hour charge, can play while charging), self-contained (no PC required), $400-$500 (depending on internal storage) device? I might actually be willing to pay for that as a first VR device. That the games are all $30 or less is a bonus.
- nordsieck 7y ago
  > Well, given that now Epic is trying to cut into that with Fortnite as the killer/gateway app that gets the Epic marketplace on your system, maybe Valve will be forced to focus on shipping some good new games to retain their position? We'll see. There have been a number of game marketplaces over the years that have tried to compete with steam. For the most part, they're all gone, and the games they hosted are gone too. At this point, it would take something pretty unusual for me to spend any money on a non-Steam game. I just don't believe other platforms will be around in 5-10 years.
  - jaggederest 7y ago
    FWIW I'm a diehard steam user from the beta in 2002, and the Epic store is every bit as good at this point. Absolutely disappointed in Valve for resting on their laurels for this long. Frankly I'm almost in the opposite camp now - why would I buy anything on Steam when it's clearly being left to rot.
    - wlesieutre 7y ago
      >the Epic store is every bit as good at this point So it has cloud saves and you can buy games to send as gifts? They have the “Buy game > download game > launch game” flow working, but there’s a heck of a lot of catching up to do. Frankly I’d say that cloud sync for game saves is table stakes for a game store in 2019. If Epic weren’t throwing around millions of dollars on exclusives and discounts, no one would use it. I’m sure there are other missing features, the ones mentioned above are just what came to mind from when I looked into EGS after Borderlands 3 was announced as an exclusive. They might be on track to catch up to Steam sooner or later, but it’s far to early to say they’ve done it.

Impossible 7y ago

This was Steams initial competitive advantage and it's still a benefit, but now Steam's advantage is that most commercial PC games are on Steam. Although many people still dislike Steam for various reasons, it's still overall the best game platform available on PC and is better than console and mobile platforms in many ways. One thing to thing about is that many of the biggest games (LoL, Fortnite, Minecraft, Activision Blizzard and EA titles) are not available on Steam.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

This right here... There are game studios that can keep churning out enough games to create their own alternatives to Steam and they have and they will succeed without Steam. What will be left is microtransactions and indie games if they arent careful.

paulryanrogers 7y ago

Valve has the network effect being both a top-of-mind store, distribution platform, and friend network.

Theizestooke 7y ago
I think discord has taken over as friend network #1.
- shearskill 7y ago
  Just wait until Twitch and Discord find a way to merge.

kbenson 7y ago

Well, given that now Epic is trying to cut into that with Fortnite as the killer/gateway app that gets the Epic marketplace on your system, maybe Valve will be forced to focus on shipping some good new games to retain their position? If that's the case, yay for competition! :) That said, I think part of what people are missing about Valve is that they are also seem to be focused on what they see as the next big thing in gaming, which is VR. They're supposedly shipping their own VR hardware (headset plus new hand controllers) soon (Aug 1st), and have publicly committed to launching a "Flagship VR" game this year. Probably not what most people want, given the cost of VR equipment (not mentioning the cost of the computer hardware to run it). Personally, I'm kinda amped up about the Occulus Quest. A hands free (~3 hour charge, can play while charging), self-contained (no PC required), $400-$500 (depending on internal storage) device? I might actually be willing to pay for that as a first VR device. That the games are all $30 or less is a bonus.

nordsieck 7y ago
> Well, given that now Epic is trying to cut into that with Fortnite as the killer/gateway app that gets the Epic marketplace on your system, maybe Valve will be forced to focus on shipping some good new games to retain their position? We'll see. There have been a number of game marketplaces over the years that have tried to compete with steam. For the most part, they're all gone, and the games they hosted are gone too. At this point, it would take something pretty unusual for me to spend any money on a non-Steam game. I just don't believe other platforms will be around in 5-10 years.
- jaggederest 7y ago
  FWIW I'm a diehard steam user from the beta in 2002, and the Epic store is every bit as good at this point. Absolutely disappointed in Valve for resting on their laurels for this long. Frankly I'm almost in the opposite camp now - why would I buy anything on Steam when it's clearly being left to rot.
  - wlesieutre 7y ago
    >the Epic store is every bit as good at this point So it has cloud saves and you can buy games to send as gifts? They have the “Buy game > download game > launch game” flow working, but there’s a heck of a lot of catching up to do. Frankly I’d say that cloud sync for game saves is table stakes for a game store in 2019. If Epic weren’t throwing around millions of dollars on exclusives and discounts, no one would use it. I’m sure there are other missing features, the ones mentioned above are just what came to mind from when I looked into EGS after Borderlands 3 was announced as an exclusive. They might be on track to catch up to Steam sooner or later, but it’s far to early to say they’ve done it.