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I've been wondering lately whether Steam will be able to hold onto its large commission and market share, given the rise of competition like the Epic Games Stor

by gnode 7y ago

I've been wondering lately whether Steam will be able to hold onto its large commission and market share, given the rise of competition like the Epic Games Store with a much more competitive commission rate. I can imagine these stores will have to increasingly differentiate themselves as technology platforms going forward (e.g. VR on Steam, or Unreal Engine licensing on EGS). In this way VR exclusive games make a lot of sense for Valve, to encourage people to buy into their platform.

dleslie 7y ago
Most likely is that Epic will eventually raise their commissions, or never reach feature parity with Steam. Steam's networking, workshop, et al aren't cheap to run.
- gnode 7y ago
  > or never reach feature parity with Steam To some extent this is intentional. Epic Game's market research culminated in a decision to include fewer social features, and less visual clutter than Steam. Epic Games seems to be competing more on the back-end, offering better rates and licensing to developers in return for distribution exclusivity, rather than the front-end with features for users. That said, as a user, I appreciate the minimalism of EGS.
  - dleslie 7y ago
    That decision was more than a little contentious; some developers hated the store-supplied user product reviews and forums, and Epic wooed them over by rejecting those features for allowing too much toxicity. As an old fart, developer and gamer, I don't feel much sympathy for those who are wooed by intentional ignorance. Personally, I will not buy products without reading user reviews; and I find that most professional reviews aren't worth the bandwidth to download.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
Ultimately it matters a lot less what developers prefer, it matters where the audience is. Right now Epic is handling that by simply giving developers a guaranteed amount of money so they don't have to worry about actually selling any copies. That strategy will probably not hold out for very long though.
- gnode 7y ago
  > it matters where the audience is. I don't think that strictly applies here; the stores don't play a predominant role in marketing the games (at least for popular titles), so they don't have exclusivity over an audience. I think the relevant question is the extent customers decide not to purchase a game because it's exclusive to an alternative store.

by gnode 7y ago

dleslie 7y ago

Most likely is that Epic will eventually raise their commissions, or never reach feature parity with Steam. Steam's networking, workshop, et al aren't cheap to run.

gnode 7y ago
> or never reach feature parity with Steam To some extent this is intentional. Epic Game's market research culminated in a decision to include fewer social features, and less visual clutter than Steam. Epic Games seems to be competing more on the back-end, offering better rates and licensing to developers in return for distribution exclusivity, rather than the front-end with features for users. That said, as a user, I appreciate the minimalism of EGS.
- dleslie 7y ago
  That decision was more than a little contentious; some developers hated the store-supplied user product reviews and forums, and Epic wooed them over by rejecting those features for allowing too much toxicity. As an old fart, developer and gamer, I don't feel much sympathy for those who are wooed by intentional ignorance. Personally, I will not buy products without reading user reviews; and I find that most professional reviews aren't worth the bandwidth to download.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

Ultimately it matters a lot less what developers prefer, it matters where the audience is. Right now Epic is handling that by simply giving developers a guaranteed amount of money so they don't have to worry about actually selling any copies. That strategy will probably not hold out for very long though.

gnode 7y ago
> it matters where the audience is. I don't think that strictly applies here; the stores don't play a predominant role in marketing the games (at least for popular titles), so they don't have exclusivity over an audience. I think the relevant question is the extent customers decide not to purchase a game because it's exclusive to an alternative store.