5 ms·

Competition between marketplaces is good. Epic is offering free games and discounts to lure players in all the time. this is excellent for consumers. The prob

Competition between marketplaces is good. Epic is offering free games and discounts to lure players in all the time. this is excellent for consumers. The problem with goat simulator is 100% on the developer and not some dark pattern imposed by steam. If you have an xbox or ps controller it will work out of the box without steam (provided you have installed the drivers). Steam has a gamepad emulation layer and that's why the dev recommended using it as a launcher for the non-steam game, because any controller will work with it. > I'm guessing you aren't a gamer. > Fortnight Seriously? it's Fortnite

emodendroket 4y ago
Competition for competition’s sake isn’t always good. Netflix is by any standard I can think of a worse product than it used to be. It’s doubtful that the free games thing is sustainable long term; Epic is burning a ton of money to try and establish a toehold.
- kobalsky 4y ago
  Steam is a special case because they set the bar incredibly high while having a monopoly on PC for almost two decades. However, you can't rest easy with a monopoly, even with a BDFL. At some point, Gabe will step down, and Steam will either go sideways or get sold to Microsoft or Google, ending the love story. That's why I buy some games on Epic, to keep Steam on their toes, even though they are still the best option out there. I tell everyone I know to do the same.
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    Well, for my part I’m not going to do that because it’s an inferior product I don’t like using.
- govg 4y ago
  To be honest, streaming is fraught with content restrictions and copyrights. If it was similar to the PC gaming case, then we would be able to watch any show on any platform, minus a few exclusives. That would actually lead to innovation and is good for the end consumer. This is decidedly not the case any more after all the major content owners came out with their own streaming service, and locked others out.
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    To me this shows the flaws of a narrow-minded focus on competition. There is little video streaming services can do to distinguish themselves without exclusive access to content (sure, UI tweaks and the like, but most of the time the UI is not even visible by design), so the anticipated result of more competition is the content splinters across a greater number of services.

emodendroket 4y ago

Competition for competition’s sake isn’t always good. Netflix is by any standard I can think of a worse product than it used to be. It’s doubtful that the free games thing is sustainable long term; Epic is burning a ton of money to try and establish a toehold.

kobalsky 4y ago
Steam is a special case because they set the bar incredibly high while having a monopoly on PC for almost two decades. However, you can't rest easy with a monopoly, even with a BDFL. At some point, Gabe will step down, and Steam will either go sideways or get sold to Microsoft or Google, ending the love story. That's why I buy some games on Epic, to keep Steam on their toes, even though they are still the best option out there. I tell everyone I know to do the same.
- emodendroket 4y ago
  Well, for my part I’m not going to do that because it’s an inferior product I don’t like using.
govg 4y ago
To be honest, streaming is fraught with content restrictions and copyrights. If it was similar to the PC gaming case, then we would be able to watch any show on any platform, minus a few exclusives. That would actually lead to innovation and is good for the end consumer. This is decidedly not the case any more after all the major content owners came out with their own streaming service, and locked others out.
- emodendroket 4y ago
  To me this shows the flaws of a narrow-minded focus on competition. There is little video streaming services can do to distinguish themselves without exclusive access to content (sure, UI tweaks and the like, but most of the time the UI is not even visible by design), so the anticipated result of more competition is the content splinters across a greater number of services.