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Larian Studios defends Valve: Steam's success is deserved
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this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Then the competition should put in the work.
That's kinda his point.
That's hard to do when Steam has all but cornered the market. Say what you will about Epic's ineptitude, but even investing billions, the publisher of the biggest game ever can't break into the market. Now imagine how hard it'd be for a smaller player.
Epic can't break into the market because of their own shitty launcher, not because of anything Steam has done to lock down the competition.
Not very hard, if they were willing to create a decent launcher and engage in sustainable business practices (and regional pricing).
I sincerely doubt that even if another launcher did everything Steam does, it would rival it without huge amounts of money being thrown around. People already use Steam.
And that's assuming they get to this point, ignoring that Steam had decades to get there. It used to be ass.
Not every company can pull it off, but I'm certain if Epic had invested in their launchers it could have worked.
A few years in and their launcher has stagnated completely
At that point, you can start grabbing business from steam via promotions and such. You don't need to rival or outgrow Steam to break into the market, you just need a bit of the market.
It's not even that other launchers have less features than Steam. It's just that other than GoG, which has a very limited catalog and no regional pricing, there is not a single store that is not actively anti-consumer to a hilarious extent.
The epic launcher is a fucking piece of shit. It being a bloated unreal application to serve as a glorified web browser does not help at all
There being a barrier to entry isn't Steam's fault. If someone comes and makes a competitor launcher and storefront that is just as good, people can easily switch. Both developers and customers. Nobody is locked in
The competition is at work, but too many fanboys blindly bashing on anything that isn't Steam is making it very hard for them.
Which competition are you referring to?
The only competition is GOG and they will never succeed with DRM free for the big AAA. Epic succeeding is the worst case scenario
Steam took years and years earning customers trust slowly but surely. Why would we greet Epic, EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard with anything other than suspicion?
Looking at how other tech areas have all consolidated into monopolies or oligopolies, valve is the best case scenario for PC gaming.
Imagine anyone else being in control. Activision? EA? Ubisoft? The gaming industry is not immune from disgusting money hungry corporations stepping on the users to squeeze out every little penny they can. Valve has never done this and has kept others in check for the longest time. The day we lose the current version of Valve will be disastrous for the industry, I'm pretty sure.
I think you might reconsider what qualifies as "best case scenario" if you end that statement with "when this thing goes, it's taking the industry with it". Like, best out of a bad bunch, for sure, but the best possible outcome?
My personal opinion is that better than this in a money driven capitalistic economy is not possible. The pressures to keep growing and to make more are too great and most companies will do anything to make line go up. Valve has been very steady and metered in their ways over the years compared to any other company I am aware of.
If we change the external pressures, as in change our entire economic model, then sure, better can be had, I assume for all companies everywhere not just valve.
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