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72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study (www.gamesindustry.biz)

submitted 1 day ago by mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to c/steam@lemmy.ml

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[-] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 12 points 23 hours ago

Failing to make a product that doesn't suck shit does not make a monopoly for your competitor.

In fact, Steam is de facto not a monopoly because of the very existence of GOG. EA and Activision tried to break in to this arena but failed to provide a product that actually switched people off of steam, because they failed to provide a comparable experience to steam. GOG did, and they're doing fine.

[-] HailSeitan@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago

By this logic Google isn’t a search monopoly because DuckDuckGo exists, despite Google buying default placement in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc to make sure no other search provider can compete, with their bribe to Apple alone totaling $20 billion a year to maintain their search dominance. What do you think monopoly power is if not that?

[-] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 13 points 23 hours ago

Can you describe where Steam has done anything even approaching that, ever?

EA and Activision stores didn't fail because Steam bought them out and bullied them out of the market, they failed because they were trash products. Steam doesn't buy "default placement" in anything. They just have a good product that people want to use over alternatives.

Point out a situation in which Steam has acted anti-competitive and I might agree that you have a point, but I can't think of any situations to call out here.

[-] Mk23simp 5 points 21 hours ago

Whether something is a monopoly or not is independent of anti-competitive practices. It's about market power.

[-] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 5 points 21 hours ago

If there's a genuinely good product that's popular because it's good. There's no need to step in and give shittier products more share in the market.

The point in breaking up monopolies is to be more fair for consumers. If you want to say they're technically a monopoly because they have a large share of the market then fine. But I don't see that as a bad thing until it starts abusing its power.

[-] Mk23simp 2 points 20 hours ago

I agree that Steam is pretty good as it is, and there are certainly more pressing concerns. However, in an ideal world, what Steam does should probably be handled by the public sector because it's a natural monopoly. People like only having to go to one place to find their games, but that place doesn't have to be controlled by a for-profit corporation.

[-] Oppopity@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago

Videos games aren't like food or housing. If you want to buy a game you can look up all the different sites selling it and buy from which ever one you think is best.