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As a matter of principle, I think digital delivery platforms benefit from competition, and we should not be locked down into a single monopolistic, stagnating p

As a matter of principle, I think digital delivery platforms benefit from competition, and we should not be locked down into a single monopolistic, stagnating platform. As a selfish consumer though, I hugely wish we just had Steam and Netflix: The Origins and Uplays and Battle.nets of the world exist solely to make my life difficult, refusing to play my game when I want it due to obscure update required or forgotten password or old email account (especially when they are an overlay on top of Steam), and have zero repeat zero positively zero benefit to myself as a consumer. It is blatantly anti-consumer, and not made with customer view in mind. (Gog.com gets a pass because it allows me to JUST download the game, with no launcher and crap, so essentially going into opposite direction from all publisher-owned platforms and provides a unique value proposition) Same for Netflix. It's fine. It's good. It's great! Over the last 5 years, proliferation of Disneys, Amazons, HBOs, Hulus, CBS All Access, Paramount Ultra Plus Exclusive Diamond Platinum... the whatEVERs, all they do is make me have to guess which service is content I want to play on. All they are, at any level, is "we want more money for less consumer convenience, and we think we can get away with it due to exclusive content lock-in we refuse to license to the convenient platform". I understand I'm supposed to vote with my money, but with exclusive lock-in that's difficult. My kid wants their Octonauts and their Stinky & Dirties, dammit :D

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samtheprogram 5y ago
> As a matter of principle… It’s not really a matter of principal though! > [the competing platforms] have zero repeat zero positively zero benefit to myself as a consumer. The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition. However, because of exclusivity, licensing, ownership, et cetera, that also means you eventually may want to deal with said competition.
- Macha 5y ago
  As a user, Steam and Netflix both provided more value to me prior to credible competition. Netflix used to be one €9.99 subscription to watch basically everything, Steam was the one stop shop to manage all my games. Basically all the features I care about on either were already well established before their competitors came around. On the other hand, my Steam account now represents a very expensive point of failure should it somehow get hacked or Valve decides to robo ban me.
  - ThatPlayer 5y ago
    But Netflix wasn't profitable at a €9.99 subscription, and therefore that was never sustainable. Look at how Netflix continues to raises prices just this year already.
    - Macha 5y ago
      That's not the only reason to raise prices, or they wouldn't have raised them this year given they made a profit in 2021. Netflix's net income has been positive for the last decade: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/net-i... It might be a better business _for the the business owners_ with less licensing fees due to less third party content and higher prices, but that's not the same as being better for the users.
      - ThatPlayer 5y ago
        Their net income is positive, but their free cash flow afterwards is pretty substantially negative until recently: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/free-cash-flow https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/free-... It doesn't matter if it's better for the users if it is not sustainable. That's how you go out of business, which is no good for anyone.
- NikolaNovak 5y ago
  >>The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition. I don't believe in this case that is demonstrably true. What has improved for me as a consumer with either platform since competition came - other then less content? In particular with Steam, I don't believe there has been a single improvement relevant to me. Uplay, ea origin, battle.net are purely net negatives to me, in their own right and in their impact on steam.
p_j_w 5y ago
>I think digital delivery platforms benefit from competition, and we should not be locked down into a single monopolistic, stagnating platform. I agree with this in principle but I think it's only necessarily true when production and distribution are separated from each other. As it stands now, I don't see much actual competition or innovation in any of the streaming services, but rather the contrary: the experience is worse now than it was 10 years ago. The only thing we have is a never ending arms race of new stuff to watch being kept exclusive (which you mention) while the UIs move backwards and prices creep up. What we have now is akin to the studio system and I don't see why it shouldn't be broken up in the same manner.
mabbo 5y ago
There are two distinct problems: content and content access. Games, tv shows, films, these are the content we want. Netflix, HBO go, Hulu, steam, battle.net, these are content access systems. What consumers want is legal access to all content they desire with competing offerings for the way in which they access the content. Competition drives quality, innovation, consumer value. The problem is that we have a system today where the content access systems have monopoly control over subsets of the content. So there's no competition around the access system- if you want that content, it comes bundled inside that content access system. You have no choice if you want the content, so why would anyone invest in making theirs the best?
_carbyau_ 5y ago
Disney triggered I use Netflix and Disney. They are mostly pretty equivalent functionality with different shows. But Disney+ seems to be a faceslappingly appalling waste of large Disney franchises. Mostly I am screaming for canon watchlists. Whether it is in release order, or universe-timeline order, or "makes most sense watched this way" order. Or all of them as options. So many friggin' Marvel movies and TV shows and yet I have to google some random page to find the order I should watch them in?!? Same for Star Wars! Come on Disney, kids keep growing through teenagerdom into adulthood all the time. Why not make it easy to hook them to watch your stuff? end rant
- the_snooze 5y ago
  >So many friggin' Marvel movies and TV shows and yet I have to google some random page to find the order I should watch them in?!? It's definitely there for the Marvel movies. I'm watching them in release order. If you go to the Marvel screen on Disney Plus, you'll see lists for "Cinematic Universe Phase One," "Cinematic Universe Phase Two," etc. They also have one for timeline order.
  - _carbyau_ 5y ago
    I stand corrected! Will go hunting tonight. Thank you!

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samtheprogram 5y ago

> As a matter of principle… It’s not really a matter of principal though! > [the competing platforms] have zero repeat zero positively zero benefit to myself as a consumer. The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition. However, because of exclusivity, licensing, ownership, et cetera, that also means you eventually may want to deal with said competition.

Macha 5y ago
As a user, Steam and Netflix both provided more value to me prior to credible competition. Netflix used to be one €9.99 subscription to watch basically everything, Steam was the one stop shop to manage all my games. Basically all the features I care about on either were already well established before their competitors came around. On the other hand, my Steam account now represents a very expensive point of failure should it somehow get hacked or Valve decides to robo ban me.
- ThatPlayer 5y ago
  But Netflix wasn't profitable at a €9.99 subscription, and therefore that was never sustainable. Look at how Netflix continues to raises prices just this year already.
  - Macha 5y ago
    That's not the only reason to raise prices, or they wouldn't have raised them this year given they made a profit in 2021. Netflix's net income has been positive for the last decade: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/net-i... It might be a better business _for the the business owners_ with less licensing fees due to less third party content and higher prices, but that's not the same as being better for the users.
    - ThatPlayer 5y ago
      Their net income is positive, but their free cash flow afterwards is pretty substantially negative until recently: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/free-cash-flow https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/free-... It doesn't matter if it's better for the users if it is not sustainable. That's how you go out of business, which is no good for anyone.
NikolaNovak 5y ago
>>The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition. I don't believe in this case that is demonstrably true. What has improved for me as a consumer with either platform since competition came - other then less content? In particular with Steam, I don't believe there has been a single improvement relevant to me. Uplay, ea origin, battle.net are purely net negatives to me, in their own right and in their impact on steam.

p_j_w 5y ago

>I think digital delivery platforms benefit from competition, and we should not be locked down into a single monopolistic, stagnating platform. I agree with this in principle but I think it's only necessarily true when production and distribution are separated from each other. As it stands now, I don't see much actual competition or innovation in any of the streaming services, but rather the contrary: the experience is worse now than it was 10 years ago. The only thing we have is a never ending arms race of new stuff to watch being kept exclusive (which you mention) while the UIs move backwards and prices creep up. What we have now is akin to the studio system and I don't see why it shouldn't be broken up in the same manner.

mabbo 5y ago

There are two distinct problems: content and content access. Games, tv shows, films, these are the content we want. Netflix, HBO go, Hulu, steam, battle.net, these are content access systems. What consumers want is legal access to all content they desire with competing offerings for the way in which they access the content. Competition drives quality, innovation, consumer value. The problem is that we have a system today where the content access systems have monopoly control over subsets of the content. So there's no competition around the access system- if you want that content, it comes bundled inside that content access system. You have no choice if you want the content, so why would anyone invest in making theirs the best?

_carbyau_ 5y ago

Disney triggered I use Netflix and Disney. They are mostly pretty equivalent functionality with different shows. But Disney+ seems to be a faceslappingly appalling waste of large Disney franchises. Mostly I am screaming for canon watchlists. Whether it is in release order, or universe-timeline order, or "makes most sense watched this way" order. Or all of them as options. So many friggin' Marvel movies and TV shows and yet I have to google some random page to find the order I should watch them in?!? Same for Star Wars! Come on Disney, kids keep growing through teenagerdom into adulthood all the time. Why not make it easy to hook them to watch your stuff? end rant

the_snooze 5y ago
>So many friggin' Marvel movies and TV shows and yet I have to google some random page to find the order I should watch them in?!? It's definitely there for the Marvel movies. I'm watching them in release order. If you go to the Marvel screen on Disney Plus, you'll see lists for "Cinematic Universe Phase One," "Cinematic Universe Phase Two," etc. They also have one for timeline order.
- _carbyau_ 5y ago
  I stand corrected! Will go hunting tonight. Thank you!