Steam keeps on winning

Steam gets all of my gaming money until other vendors support Linux.

Steam has got to be the most loved monopoly ever. It's inherently toxic to the gaming community in ways that aren't instantly apparent but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's not a great thing that every game you buy isn't yours, it's effectively an unlimited time rental that can be withdrawn for a multitude of reasons. GOG and the like actually sell you the game proper such that it's yours to keep forever no matter what happens to GOG. But still they sit at single digit market share for anything that's not their own game and even Cyberpunk 2077 only sold 10% of copies on GOG...

On the one hand valve having a monopoly is bad for the industry and it's consumers.

On the other hand nobody seems to be trying to provide a truly competitive service without also being far more anti-consumer than valve from the get go.

Not sure anyone in this thread knows what the word “monopoly” means. Steam has competition, it all just comparatively sucks.

I should really start pirating copies of games that I buy on Steam. Servers and licenses don't last forever.

meanwhile ive finally stopped using steam! very happy and proud to say i only purchase on itch and GOG now! (as well as a few indie stores) hope i can get a few friends to join me.

edit: i do not think less of people for using steam! i just like the idea of having friends who share my personal philosophies. im aware that im abnormal, lol.

Steam feels like a library with a store attached. Epic feels like a store with a library attached. If they changed the way they presented the epic app then I'd be more inclined to use their services.

It feels really weird how so many people here seem to just...be okay with steam being to gaming what chrome is to browsers? Its for all intends and purposes a monopoly and just because they barely support linux its all happy sunshine and roses?

People should have a sledgehammer pointed at them at all times just in case, cause yall know, no matter how good the intention may or may not be for whoever gaben selects as the next big boss (not like hes that all good saviors either), once gaben is out, hes out and things will get worse sooner or later.

If Steam could just ban 3rd party launchers in Steam - that would be great.

Need to login to rockstar/uplay/gog/EA account? Do it in-game...

I bought an Index bc I thought it was truly promising. It certainly delivered with games like Alex and Boneworks. I’m sad that there is so much proprietary bs and I don’t get some really good titles.

Valve's VR efforts have cooled—the all-in-one Meta Quest 3 is the headset to get right now

Fuck Meta, Valve Index is still better