It's an open question whether Epic's limited success is a result of the company's failure to "press its advantage," as Pitchford opines, or just a sign that Steam's massive entrenched network effects have proven more resilient than he expected.

It's not. EGS doesn't solve any problems that Steam leaves on the table to be solved. Customers have no reason to shop at EGS when Epic takes its thumb off the scale.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 117 points 3 months ago

It doesn't solve most of the problems Steam already solved either.

[–] Graphy@lemmy.world 74 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Not only that but it’s a worse user experience all around.

I fucking hate the EGS and Xbox stores for browsing new games. Most of the time you’ll get an animated video that’s not game footage and two screenshots that don’t tell you shit.

Not to mention that the formatting is so bad that the client requires you to basically be in fullscreen but you’ve still gotta scroll a mile down to get any info.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Not to mention that the formatting is so bad that the client requires you to basically be in fullscreen but you’ve still gotta scroll a mile down to get any info.

For Xbox, that's because the PC app is literally copy/pasted from the Xbox console app. Hell, it probably is the same universal app since that was a big Microsoft push to have more apps available on the consoles and Windows Phone.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Lol I thought it was just my advanced age of 33 that made it difficult to understand a game from the Xbox previews. A majority of screenshots look like garbage once you're not in character and the store highlights that.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 months ago

Even ea's origin tried to offer more, with the overlay chat, etc. Epic did none of that.

Steam also offers community pages, user reviews, and other features that allows players to discuss their games.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If anything, the only thing that other stores have that Steam doesn't would be games not on Steam. Even then, half of the time, they're either itch(dot)io exclusive indie titles or shitty triple AAA titles.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When I buy on GOG, I know I'm getting a game DRM-free. They muddied that a tad with how they handle online multiplayer, but for the most part, I get more value from their store for that. It's a huge reason why I'd choose their store, because they're solving a problem for me that Steam does not.

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While I normally check both locations and buy from GOG if it's available there, you would be surprised how many Steam titles are completely DRM free.

I needed some DRM free games for the classroom last year and was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the smaller, indie games I own Steam, the ones I was most interested in bringing into the classroom to begin with, run perfectly well on a machine without Steam even installed just by copying the folder to a flash drive. Some required deleting a Steam.dll or adding a text document that states the SteamID of the game, but most of the games I wanted I was able to run from a flash drive, DRM free, no Internet, Steam or game install required.

Steam offers DRM to devs that want it, but it is not a DRM platform in of itself.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

I'm aware, but when GOG takes the ambiguity out of it, I don't have to do tons of extra research to know that they have an extra feature that's important to me. I'd really appreciate if some store took the ambiguity out of it when it comes to multiplayer games being playable offline. It's something that Steam should easily tell you in theory, but there are tons of games that have LAN and such without bothering to report it. Some say they require an online connection and actually don't. These are problems worth solving for me, a particular kind of consumer.

[–] EveningNewbs@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If only they supported Linux. Proton support out of the box is the biggest selling point for me.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm with you, but they've got a very generous 30 day refund policy, no matter how many hours played, if it doesn't work. So far, I've only had to use it once, on Phantom Fury, which is Verified on Steam but had issues in the tutorial through GOG; some day I'll pick up the Steam version and see if it does any better. I also buy my GOG games through Heroic launcher, which has a referral link so that some of the revenue of my sale goes toward the development of Heroic. That way GOG knows that if they want all of the revenue from my sale, it's clear what they have to do to earn it.

And as a reminder, there are Linux native games on GOG. I just played Duck Detective: The Secret Salami on the native Linux version from GOG.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

The funny thing is, I feel like it's not so hard to navigate Steam for particular problems that consumers would like a solution to, but Valve has been ignoring or considers beyond them. For some people, those individual problems form the root of their buying decision. You'd have to beat them at something before you beat them at everything.