Honestly, at this point, I think it's wholly impossible for a competition to emerge. Any platform that is released, regardless of its parity with steam or the value it offers, will exist in the shadow of just how entrenched Steam is into the PC gaming landscape. Hell, it's even entrenched into the handheld space now with the Steam Deck's success. Steam is a monolithic platform, it's just impossible to stand up to at this point in its life cycle.
It is fortunate then that in the monopolistic position Steam holds, they are generally benevolent and pro-consumer. Obviously there are issues (as discussed here), but they largely pale in comparison to the deficiencies of other "competing" platforms.
Can’t compete with something so cheap and convenient already. If steam becomes Apple and becomes less affordable or convenient then they’ll create room for competition. When companies make bad decisions they create room for competition. Steam usually makes such good decisions that it’s hard for anyone to make a better decision with a more convenient system. Good business decisions destroy competition, and steam usually makes good choices
Just wanted to mention, not all Steam games have DRM (for example: the english versions of the entire "Trails" or "Kiseki" series as of writing this) and, if there is no custom DRM used by the publishers / developers, even if they put Steam's DRM wrapper, it can easily be circumvented. Thus, whether a Steam game has DRM or not depends solely on the publishers / developers.
Fair point, it is good that DRM systems aren't mandatory with Steam, but they are nonetheless prevalent in many games and products offered through Steam. While it's good that Steam's DRM systems are easy enough to circumvent (it's not the abject atrocity that Denuvo is or anything), it's still a valid issue and concern for many.
Whether you said this or not but Steam does have a No DRM option for game developer's so its not like you only have two options either custom drm or steam's drm.
It would be good if there was an indication on the storefront as to whether or not a game uses steams DRM or not similar to how they show Denuvo or 3rd party launchers.
@@nFyrin Yeah, but even with Denuvo, they're not consistent. Sometimes the game has Denuvo, but it's not indicated. It's to the point that I had to subscribe to a curator who only says whether or not there is Denuvo. (the name of the curator is "Denuvo Games")
Noble insofar as they legitimately wanted to provide a better revenue model for people who publish on EGS and for trying to compete with Steam. I'm not a major fan of EGS and at the end of the day they're a megacorporation 40% owned by the CCP, but the revenue model is objectively better for developers and competition is valuable.
@@gordonfreeman1163 Not keen on the exclusivity deals but ultimately they aren't permanent and thus I don't look at them as some grand evil (just a minor evil). If anything they're a non-ideal way of getting people in the door of EGS with the hope they stay once they get there (though few do). I am not trying to run hard interference for Epic here, but I do want them to succeed insofar as they provide useful competition for the industry. I am not fond of what Epic is atm (aside from better revenue splits for developers), and want them to be better.
I think I spoke to you before on a video essay discord and only just now came back to check on your channel, I'm glad to see your having success man good job. great video!
What an awesome video. I cant remember who, But some other youtuber posted a picture saying go to your vhannel so i did, Shoutout to that guy because i just subbed. Quality quality content brotha
Hey I appreciate it man, glad you enjoyed it. Captain KRB is who you're thinking of, he's a good guy and a friend. Hope you enjoy the rest of my catalogue, and let me know what you think of my other vids :)
deals, digital downloads, good download speeds, online play, massive library without worry of backwards compatibility.easy storage and finding of countless games. the only downside steam has, is we technically don't own the games. it is in their disclaimer. but its hard to imagine steam not being around in the near future, as long as people make and play games they make money. and they are at the top of the PC market by incomparable numbers. so i feel safe putting my trust im the service despite the technical risk it presents. it isn't like physical stuff is immune to damage or theft. and once those are gone you no longer have the game. with steam you can redownload it. so there are benefits steam has that physical copies don't.
Well if you wanna hear them I'll gladly share my thoughts. Good vid! This video put into perspective why Epic exists other than to be a blight on my pc where my friends can force me to play fortnite. I'd never heard about the difference in the split that Epic offers developers over Steam, as a consumer I personally would rather steer clear mostly due to the reasons you mentioned surrounding tencent but this really highlighted some genuine reasons behind why folks in the industry made exclusivity deals and tried to back them up due to the prospective increase in revenue if consumers migrated to the platform, made it all seem a little more sensible.
Yeah, Epic is an imperfect and less feature robust platform than Steam, but if you want to provide as much support to developers as possible it's the better option. In a sense it's sad that it can't really compete with Steam, but given the issues and limitations surrounding Epic I understand why consumers avoid it.
16:24 touhou fans malding (i am a touhou fan) absurd that after nearly 2 decades steam still faces hardly any competition i have been using it since the 2000s and have yet to be given reason not to (please go big GOG you deserve my money)
Epic exists as a source for free games but that's really it, all the other stores are either trash or not big enough to realistically compete with Steam.
this vid actually made me think about streaming services like netflix. imo, there isn't a steam equivalent for streaming services - nothing with a substantially higher quality and quantity than the others. both streamers and game companies are ruining their own services due to a singular focus on money. these days, streaming services are quick to cancel shows, taking media (even exclusives!!) out of their library for tax cuts, and more. with video game voice actors potentially joining the SAG-AFTRA strike in the future, i wonder if we'll see something similar with game launchers taking down games to avoid paying residuals to the performers.
I would be kinda shocked if launchers begin removing games, I think keeping games up is a much more mutually beneficial arrangement and you can't get the same write-offs through dropping other people's games than your own IPs.
Honestly, I would actually be happy if Steam was a monopoly. Valve is not perfect, I hate the fact they have gambling in Counter Strike for example. But overall, they are one of the few big companies that is consumer friendly and ethical. They offer an amazing store that has everything I want, without the BS that EGS and other launchers have.
Nice analysis as usual in your videos. Nearly everything we were warned about pre-2010s about DRM and Micro-Transactions in the industry corrupting it, happened. A LOT of innovation slowed as focus on graphics and $$$ overtook AAA companies.
Hi Ciggy! Great introductory video to how steam and other store fronts operate/work and their history. I have never really understood the stigma around the epic games store until now so was very interesting to get some insights into it! Hope to see more great content like this in the future!
I just wanted to note. Ive had my steam profile for 14 years. 700+ game library. I've not once bumped into a DRM issue across my 5+ laptops and 8+ pcs over the years. I always figured drm was a myth.
This video was really well written, edited, and I loved the small comments in the gameplay footage for games I'll subscribe and I hope you get recommended to more people!
No its not lol. It was 17 minutes of pro steam rethoric. Didnt even mention the huge mess ups by steam such as; Insanely poor and over moderation of steam forums Massive amounts of shovelware, and even cases of bitcoin miners being sold on the storefront The time where valve essentially (by having poor wording) told players to clear their wishlist of games in order to get a free game if they win an event No protection against item scams The market place being a breeding ground for russian bots (See; trading card market) Literally no regulation on what games can be sold on steam (See; asset flips and actual scams) But yeah, ignore all of that. Steam is great! Epic bad!
To me? I honestly think I'm genuinely in love with steams ecosystem that the %30 cut and the $100 fee is just a minor inconvenience for me. But I totally agree about the DRM issue and I can think of an alternative in that case (itch io). Itch can be used to download files from it, which makes it safer from any kind of deletion... as far as I know at least.
8:46 they banned user for no reason which is terrible enough. But can one play his games if his account gets banned!? If ones steam acc gets vac banned , he can still play his games that he bought and paid for. Either way thank you so much for warning, i will never buy a game in ea app ever.
The best i could describe Steam is that it is kind of like the Apple of the industry in name only though, not price lol. The platform is easy to use and a one stop shop. Profile customization, sales, etc. Anything else that comes up is just woefully worse from buggy launchers (bethesda, ubisoft, EA) to feature missing platforms and desperation tactics (epic), to specific brands that been around forever (Blizzard). Competition is healthy, but the Competition also needs to put in the effort. I love steam and one of the reasons i refuse to switch, is because literally every game i play is on steam, minus a few mmo launchers. I rather not start splitting my library up
The disinterest and inconvenience of splitting up ones game library is a common complaint regarding platforms other than steam. It's like having a shelf full of video games in every room of your house, rather them all in one room and one shelf. I feel this heavy preference for that one stop shop convenience makes competition with steam extremely difficult.
The thing that worries me the most about steam is that you need steam to play steam games. So if valve goes down what happens to steam and all its games? I always try to buy games from gog if they’re available there too.
I wanna support GOG more but since I got the Steam Deck their mediocre Linux support and terrible launcher has made me not want to do so anymore. The problem is the launcher having absymal performance and the issues are even greater when run through Proton Yes, I could play these games without the launcher, but then I have to miss out on multiplayer, achievements and cloud saves. So I really wish they'd fix their launcher already
Well, yeah, as Linux user i can only agree about their Linux support. It seems they had big expectations on Linux back then but results was not as impressive as they expected, so they kinda scaled it down to second tier support (no GOG galaxy, no real push to publish linux builds, being ok with Linux build delayed\outdaten and some games being broken as is - its no surprise now when you need to go and search how make game to run after installation). On better side they at least still provide Linux support, unlike Humble which simply dont care anymore. And i not expect Galaxy on Linux at all anymore.
I don't know if "defeated" is the right word, but Gaben's line that people will buy a game rather than pirate it if there's an easy and decent platform distributing it is accurate.
Piracy is unavoidable, but it can be mitigated. The fact you don't have to constantly re-download and apply new patches to games with steam is a point in its favor and over piracy.
Oh really? I'm surprised to hear that. Steam is probably my favorite platform out of them all, but I won't pretend that it isn't FULL of flaws. When I think of Steam, I think of a love/hate relationship. There is so much potential (Steam probably has the most potential), but Valve is dumb and decides to do dumb things. What they did to achievements all for their profits is disgusting. The profile user level is a great idea, but implemented in a way that sickens me. The badge system is yet another great idea, implemented in a way that disappoints me. Steam does a lot right, but they also do a LOT wrong as well, and that is why I have such a love/hate relationship with Valve/Steam.
@@kukukachu Yeah, my voice often gets compared to Mandark from Dexter's Lab, which is interesting I suppose. Fair take on Steam in terms of its somewhat flawed community/user aspects. In terms of this vid I viewed the simple fact Steam had reasonably robust community features in itself as a substantial advantage over basically every other launcher. They may be flawed as you so pointed out, but they're at least there and add some value to the service, unlike everyone else.
Madark? Really? Fascinating, that wouldn't have been one of my first picks. Oh most definitely, there's a reason it's a love hate relationship, I LOVE the community discussion threads being part of the ecosystem of Steam. I love the variety of games, including the NSFW options as well. I love that we can refund a game within 2 hours of playing it (within 15 days). I LOVE all of the profile backgrounds, stickers, emojis, etc that you can buy in the point shop. There is a LOT to love about what Steam offers. They could just be better and I know they know that. Absolutely agree with you that they add some (a lot) of value to their existence, unlike EPIC, which FREAKING TOOK MY FALLS GUYS AWAY FROM ME AND TURNED IT INTO A FREAKIN F2P GAME D:< I still like GOG because they constantly bring old MSDOS games back to life. I'm still hoping they bring back The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain.@@CiggySnake
Is this even a question? Steam came at exactly the right time, when broadband was becoming a thing (meaning large downloads had become possible). And they focused on making it a community instead of monetizing the hell out of it. From what I can tell, the simple act of offering a desirable service while not being a*holes has earned them a pretty penny. On the customer side, launchers for other stores can be annoying as hell, I don't want a dozen of them running all the time, and Steam just works: I can buy a game in a few clicks, without having to enter all of my data again and again. There's enough games on Steam that I don't need other launchers. Right now my thinking is that I might check them out after I finish my Steam backlog. That's another way of saying "never"... Epic made the major mistake of pissing off Steam users when they launched, and it works against them to this day. They also lack the all-important reviews. And their free games were a bad idea: people aren't invested in stuff they get for free. They should have charged a dollar per game, so people feel it's actually worth not just grabbing, but also spending time on...
Wasn't able to fit it in the video as it wasn't super relevant, but this only applies for games that have sold >$50 million. If your game makes under $10 million in revenue it's the same 70/30 split, between $10 million and $50 million it's 75/25, and everything over $50 million is 80/20. This system was only really implemented to coax big publishers into selling their games on Steam; they're the most likely to actually hit the preferred thresholds of $10 million and $50 million. The 70/30 split will still apply to >99.9% of games on the platform. It's not a bad policy per se, but it's just not something indie or smaller developers will really benefit from.
I will like to add that Epic is not doing what they do to be the good guys. Their lawsuits against apple showed they were willing to cooperate with apple if they only got a better cut. Epic is only seeking to have the steam monopoly with the minimal effort. And nothing show the lack of effort then throwing money at the problem hoping it will be solved (talking about exclusivity) . Steam really need to overhaul their forums and workshop (improve) helpfully they are next after. Cuz the new UI seem to be done.
Not saying it isn't, it's just been substantially worse these past few decades, at least compared to the 1945-1980's period of greater general economic expansion, mobility, and equality.
Some say steam is monopoly but really it was the pc gamers who choose it as the de facto store since every other store didn't do good job improving the user experience on the game launcher side,things like, adding always online DRM, not improving the shitty UI, making exclusivity deals, including spyware, banning account and restrict access to the game library, not allowing play games until the launcher is updated, all these decisions contribute to bad user experience, i'm not saying steam is perfect but when you give me the choice to buy game from your non-functional game launcher that does have all these negatives , yeah... i will always choose steam EDIT: and GOG
Yeah, it's a matter of Steam ending up in a Monopoly position due to the sheer incompetence/avarice of their competition, along with consumer preference for a single centralized store and launcher for games. It's just fortunate that Steam doesn't totally take advantage of their position and provides a (generally) quality service.
Valve in general is the only good game company left. They've made mistakes but they always put the customer first. I just wish they made more of the games we want them to make.
While Steam is more than excellent (what issues it has are discussed here and are relatively minor), their parent company Valve is not doing anything too crazy with games. They still have lootboxes and the like in TF2 and CS, TF2 is borderline abandonware at this point ridden with bots, and what new water they tread with titles like Artifact and Deadlock were or look unimpressive. I still have mad respect for them for Steam and their approach with it, but barring that Valve isn't doing anything too praiseworthy imo.
Although it probably doesn't matter for most users, Epic Games also differs from Steam in that it hosts blockchain-based games. Some people regard this as ethically dubious due to the prevalence of scams and rug-pulls in blockchain gaming. To make matters worse, a game that scams its users out of cryptocurrency can just run with the money, and there's nothing Epic can do about it despite having hosted the game.
Something I should have talked about, yeah. Crypto and blockchain junk has seemingly fallen in relevancy over the past 18 months or so, but the the fact Epic hosts titles built on sugh dubious and poorly regarded tech is a questionable move. I do actually cover crypto and the stupidity surrounding it an older vid of mine,, check it out if you want.
As far as i know ,epic game store, Xbox and gog are doing great, and the stores that are dying and are putting back their games on steam/epic are the store that only have games made by the same owner of the store (battle net, Ubisoft store, uplay etc) By the way awesome video 😎👍
EGS' problem is that people may use the platform (because they give away free games and have exclusive big ticket titles), but they're seldom purchasing anything on it. One of the triggers for me researching and doing this video was a post from an indie dev who put their game on Steam and EGS. They claimed they had ~100X as many sales in Steam than on EGS. While a ridiculous disparity, it was more than believable, which goes to show just how well EGS is doing imo.
@@CiggySnake every store have its quirk, gog is drm free and epic games quirks are exclusive games and free games weekly and Xbox have gamepass,gog even have less sales than epic games and epic games have less sales than steam, so now we will say that gog is dying? , This situation is basically Xbox and PlayStation where the games on PlayStation just sell more than on Xbox but that's about it ,Xbox is still here lmao Well just wanted to add that probably the sales of a game on the Microsoft store are on epic games levels or even less, because the main quirk of the Microsoft store is gamepass xd
@@CiggySnaketotally agree, epic isn't really good at transferring its majority of users into actually using epic to buy games, and tbh I don't know how they could other than offering better sales on games. drm rights is still a pretty niche issue as important as it might be, and so the only real thing that convinces gamers to use a platform is when games are cheaper. but just like how free games aren't sustainable, selling games for cheaper isn't sustainable, and so epic has to live as second place unless steam goes under suddenly (unlikely).
12:52 every part of your video was good until this point. Dude how the hell do you know? All you know if China is what US media wants to know of China, dude I lived in China for almost a year as an exchange student. It's s far more better country than US, cheap almost free healthcare for NON citizens like me, for residents it's FREE. Houses are cheap and made for people and not banks to own. People work less, as a foreigner they treated me very very well and kindly, not the treatment I got in US. Public transportation gets you everywhere, you don't need cars to get around. And no homeless people on the streets because they have 1000$ houses for sale, actually good houses with pre installed everything. I studied BIS course in there, I wanna go back when I graduate and find a job there, in US I would get laughed at because of my accent, was not the case in China, hell I don't even know 10% of the Chinese even now. Don't judge the whole country because of one creppy company mate, that's just ignorance.
I find it hilarious that most people are totally fine with Steam holding this insane monopoly because the alternatives are just flat out worse 95% of the time. Epic Games Store is the closet to Steam and even then I just do not care for it the same way I feel about Steam.
Steam is a rare case of a monopoly figure that isn't disgustingly abusing and exploiting its monopoly position. As you said the alternatives are all pretty trash or just insufficient compared to Steam, but there's also a benefit for gamers in having a centralized system for games, mods, community features, mods, etc.
Lmao don't , you will regret it. If your account gets banned for some reason they will never respond to you. There are insane horror stories in reddit.
The reason why every other launcher sucks is because they are just copy protection schemes disguised as a storefront. It is a shame that GOG has fallen to the wayside of the inferior Xbox and EGL stores.
I wouldn't exactly say they failed. Steam is a platform where you can find pretty much all games even Adults only. Uplay, origins, rgl aren't exactly doing that. They only put their games on their platforms. Epic games is slowly becoming a pretty good store. Give it some time and it will be a great alternative as well.
Isn't it sad? Steam is the best and I'd argue steam suuuux. Hardly any good deals... Crap refund policy... Annoying forced updates that often make games worse actually... And I hate the site I find it much harder to navigate than the playstation store even... Oh and thanks for crapping on assassins creed and halo infinite. Well deserved. Wayyy too many of those samey feeling asscreed games. And I hate online only micro transaction trash which is all that halo infinite is. Which is a shame because those franchises have clearly seen better days. There's a reason years like 98 are hailed as the best time for gaming : )
Hardly any good deals? The deals are up the the game publishers/developers to decide, not Steam, and even then, there's plenty of games that go below 70% off every now and then (and not just bad games). I guess it mostly depends on what games you're looking for, since some games just never go on sale (or never get big sales). I find the refund policy to be quite lenient. You can still ask for a refund even if you went past 2 hours (though it might not work), however, I do agree that 2 hours sometimes isn't enough since it may take that amount of time just to set the game up or to begin seeing what the game actually looks like. I agree that the forced updates are annoying, but you can work around it by replacing the files with an older version (there are guides for this, though you'll have to do it again after every update). Can't really comment on the navigation, though I personally don't see the problem with it.
I have to say this though, Epic has hands down the best customer service, I had an issue in which the game I bought wasn't showing up and they were even willing to easily offer a refund , can't say the same about Ubi Connect or other launchers
Steam customer support is also very nice. When rocket league announced they would stop providing a native Linux version, you could ask for a full refund of the game no matter how much you played. I had bought it in a bundle that included 4 copies and shared the other 3 with my friends, so I contacted support and they were able to only refund my copy and leave everyone else's copy intact. Plus the game became free to play not long after that lol
I've been using steam for around 15 years or so, It's had it's ups and down but over all it's the best for what I need. I still use some other platforms to make sure I have games in more than one place. GOG is getting good and really trying to compete as a store front, but all these other platforms are far from the SOCIAL gaming platform that Steam is.
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Honestly, at this point, I think it's wholly impossible for a competition to emerge. Any platform that is released, regardless of its parity with steam or the value it offers, will exist in the shadow of just how entrenched Steam is into the PC gaming landscape. Hell, it's even entrenched into the handheld space now with the Steam Deck's success. Steam is a monolithic platform, it's just impossible to stand up to at this point in its life cycle.
It is fortunate then that in the monopolistic position Steam holds, they are generally benevolent and pro-consumer. Obviously there are issues (as discussed here), but they largely pale in comparison to the deficiencies of other "competing" platforms.
Can’t compete with something so cheap and convenient already. If steam becomes Apple and becomes less affordable or convenient then they’ll create room for competition. When companies make bad decisions they create room for competition. Steam usually makes such good decisions that it’s hard for anyone to make a better decision with a more convenient system. Good business decisions destroy competition, and steam usually makes good choices
Just wanted to mention, not all Steam games have DRM (for example: the english versions of the entire "Trails" or "Kiseki" series as of writing this) and, if there is no custom DRM used by the publishers / developers, even if they put Steam's DRM wrapper, it can easily be circumvented. Thus, whether a Steam game has DRM or not depends solely on the publishers / developers.
Fair point, it is good that DRM systems aren't mandatory with Steam, but they are nonetheless prevalent in many games and products offered through Steam. While it's good that Steam's DRM systems are easy enough to circumvent (it's not the abject atrocity that Denuvo is or anything), it's still a valid issue and concern for many.
True but that has nothing to do with Steam's scammers and hackers and pedophiles that Steam are protecting from user reports.
Whether you said this or not but Steam does have a No DRM option for game developer's so its not like you only have two options either custom drm or steam's drm.
It would be good if there was an indication on the storefront as to whether or not a game uses steams DRM or not similar to how they show Denuvo or 3rd party launchers.
@@nFyrin Yeah, but even with Denuvo, they're not consistent. Sometimes the game has Denuvo, but it's not indicated. It's to the point that I had to subscribe to a curator who only says whether or not there is Denuvo. (the name of the curator is "Denuvo Games")
"Epic Games developed their store front with more noble intentions"
lol
lmao even
Noble insofar as they legitimately wanted to provide a better revenue model for people who publish on EGS and for trying to compete with Steam. I'm not a major fan of EGS and at the end of the day they're a megacorporation 40% owned by the CCP, but the revenue model is objectively better for developers and competition is valuable.
HAH
@@CiggySnake Their "competition" is a hypocrisy. They're just trying to become a monopoly themselves, hence the exclusivity deals.
@@gordonfreeman1163 Not keen on the exclusivity deals but ultimately they aren't permanent and thus I don't look at them as some grand evil (just a minor evil). If anything they're a non-ideal way of getting people in the door of EGS with the hope they stay once they get there (though few do).
I am not trying to run hard interference for Epic here, but I do want them to succeed insofar as they provide useful competition for the industry. I am not fond of what Epic is atm (aside from better revenue splits for developers), and want them to be better.
@@gordonfreeman1163 No, as this video discusses, that is _literally the only way_ for EGS to gain a foothold regardless of how good their store is.
I think I spoke to you before on a video essay discord and only just now came back to check on your channel, I'm glad to see your having success man good job. great video!
What an awesome video. I cant remember who, But some other youtuber posted a picture saying go to your vhannel so i did, Shoutout to that guy because i just subbed. Quality quality content brotha
Hey I appreciate it man, glad you enjoyed it. Captain KRB is who you're thinking of, he's a good guy and a friend. Hope you enjoy the rest of my catalogue, and let me know what you think of my other vids :)
Be thankful Steam is a privately owned company. But when it goes public and has investors to please it’ll be all downhill from there.
deals, digital downloads, good download speeds, online play, massive library without worry of backwards compatibility.easy storage and finding of countless games.
the only downside steam has, is we technically don't own the games. it is in their disclaimer. but its hard to imagine steam not being around in the near future, as long as people make and play games they make money. and they are at the top of the PC market by incomparable numbers.
so i feel safe putting my trust im the service despite the technical risk it presents. it isn't like physical stuff is immune to damage or theft. and once those are gone you no longer have the game.
with steam you can redownload it. so there are benefits steam has that physical copies don't.
Only reason steam has a return policy is due to australian courts.
Feels nice actually owning a game with gog though.
Be that as it may, they at least broadly applied that system rather than implement it solely in Australia.
14:07 Almost spit out my tea at this part, dammit
Great video mate. Keep up the good work!
I appreciate it man, glad you enjoyed it
Well if you wanna hear them I'll gladly share my thoughts. Good vid! This video put into perspective why Epic exists other than to be a blight on my pc where my friends can force me to play fortnite. I'd never heard about the difference in the split that Epic offers developers over Steam, as a consumer I personally would rather steer clear mostly due to the reasons you mentioned surrounding tencent but this really highlighted some genuine reasons behind why folks in the industry made exclusivity deals and tried to back them up due to the prospective increase in revenue if consumers migrated to the platform, made it all seem a little more sensible.
Yeah, Epic is an imperfect and less feature robust platform than Steam, but if you want to provide as much support to developers as possible it's the better option. In a sense it's sad that it can't really compete with Steam, but given the issues and limitations surrounding Epic I understand why consumers avoid it.
16:24 touhou fans malding (i am a touhou fan)
absurd that after nearly 2 decades steam still faces hardly any competition i have been using it since the 2000s and have yet to be given reason not to (please go big GOG you deserve my money)
Epic exists as a source for free games but that's really it, all the other stores are either trash or not big enough to realistically compete with Steam.
this vid actually made me think about streaming services like netflix. imo, there isn't a steam equivalent for streaming services - nothing with a substantially higher quality and quantity than the others. both streamers and game companies are ruining their own services due to a singular focus on money. these days, streaming services are quick to cancel shows, taking media (even exclusives!!) out of their library for tax cuts, and more. with video game voice actors potentially joining the SAG-AFTRA strike in the future, i wonder if we'll see something similar with game launchers taking down games to avoid paying residuals to the performers.
I would be kinda shocked if launchers begin removing games, I think keeping games up is a much more mutually beneficial arrangement and you can't get the same write-offs through dropping other people's games than your own IPs.
Great video! Looking forward to your future content :) !
Honestly, I would actually be happy if Steam was a monopoly. Valve is not perfect, I hate the fact they have gambling in Counter Strike for example. But overall, they are one of the few big companies that is consumer friendly and ethical. They offer an amazing store that has everything I want, without the BS that EGS and other launchers have.
Browsing GOG while watching this.
Very insightful content. Keep it up
Thanks man, I appreciate it.
GOG is the best since you don't have to use it at all
Unless you want og tomb raider, swat 4, world at conflict, or silent hill 4 hhhhhh
otherwise it is useless
Nice analysis as usual in your videos. Nearly everything we were warned about pre-2010s about DRM and Micro-Transactions in the industry corrupting it, happened. A LOT of innovation slowed as focus on graphics and $$$ overtook AAA companies.
Honestly I have almost all of my games in steam, and it's a bother to have them divided in many plataforms.
Awesome video! Hope the algorithm picks it up :)
Hi Ciggy! Great introductory video to how steam and other store fronts operate/work and their history. I have never really understood the stigma around the epic games store until now so was very interesting to get some insights into it! Hope to see more great content like this in the future!
I just wanted to note. Ive had my steam profile for 14 years. 700+ game library. I've not once bumped into a DRM issue across my 5+ laptops and 8+ pcs over the years. I always figured drm was a myth.
I don't get why EA went to the EA app from Origin, while I'm not a fan of either i thought Origin had a neat logo at least
This video was really well written, edited, and I loved the small comments in the gameplay footage for games
I'll subscribe and I hope you get recommended to more people!
That's very kind of you to say man, thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed the video itself and that the work I put into it shined through.
No its not lol. It was 17 minutes of pro steam rethoric. Didnt even mention the huge mess ups by steam such as;
Insanely poor and over moderation of steam forums
Massive amounts of shovelware, and even cases of bitcoin miners being sold on the storefront
The time where valve essentially (by having poor wording) told players to clear their wishlist of games in order to get a free game if they win an event
No protection against item scams
The market place being a breeding ground for russian bots (See; trading card market)
Literally no regulation on what games can be sold on steam (See; asset flips and actual scams)
But yeah, ignore all of that. Steam is great! Epic bad!
Great content! Thanks!
nice vid ciggy
Good video👍
Glad you enjoyed it man
>check view count
>less than 400
i thought this was a video from a big channel wtf ☠️☠️☠️☠️
same here haha didn't even realize the sub count. I thought I just come here early
Megamind: presentation
To me? I honestly think I'm genuinely in love with steams ecosystem that the %30 cut and the $100 fee is just a minor inconvenience for me. But I totally agree about the DRM issue and I can think of an alternative in that case (itch io). Itch can be used to download files from it, which makes it safer from any kind of deletion... as far as I know at least.
Yeah, while Steam does have some flaws (which should ideally be addressed of course), they are more than dwarfed by its strong points.
Great video as always Ciggy!
Thanks vingo :3
8:46 they banned user for no reason which is terrible enough. But can one play his games if his account gets banned!? If ones steam acc gets vac banned , he can still play his games that he bought and paid for. Either way thank you so much for warning, i will never buy a game in ea app ever.
Ah, the quintessential 90’s nerd voice
I get that a lot.
The best i could describe Steam is that it is kind of like the Apple of the industry in name only though, not price lol. The platform is easy to use and a one stop shop. Profile customization, sales, etc. Anything else that comes up is just woefully worse from buggy launchers (bethesda, ubisoft, EA) to feature missing platforms and desperation tactics (epic), to specific brands that been around forever (Blizzard). Competition is healthy, but the Competition also needs to put in the effort. I love steam and one of the reasons i refuse to switch, is because literally every game i play is on steam, minus a few mmo launchers. I rather not start splitting my library up
The disinterest and inconvenience of splitting up ones game library is a common complaint regarding platforms other than steam. It's like having a shelf full of video games in every room of your house, rather them all in one room and one shelf. I feel this heavy preference for that one stop shop convenience makes competition with steam extremely difficult.
Not a word about GOG. Yeah, rright.
The thing that worries me the most about steam is that you need steam to play steam games. So if valve goes down what happens to steam and all its games? I always try to buy games from gog if they’re available there too.
I wanna support GOG more but since I got the Steam Deck their mediocre Linux support and terrible launcher has made me not want to do so anymore. The problem is the launcher having absymal performance and the issues are even greater when run through Proton
Yes, I could play these games without the launcher, but then I have to miss out on multiplayer, achievements and cloud saves. So I really wish they'd fix their launcher already
Well, yeah, as Linux user i can only agree about their Linux support. It seems they had big expectations on Linux back then but results was not as impressive as they expected, so they kinda scaled it down to second tier support (no GOG galaxy, no real push to publish linux builds, being ok with Linux build delayed\outdaten and some games being broken as is - its no surprise now when you need to go and search how make game to run after installation). On better side they at least still provide Linux support, unlike Humble which simply dont care anymore.
And i not expect Galaxy on Linux at all anymore.
Heroic is very useful for GOG, Epic and Amazon Games. Give it a shot. Also on Windows for those how aren't brave to switch to the penguin.
Steam also defeated piracy, offering better download features for small price.
I don't know if "defeated" is the right word, but Gaben's line that people will buy a game rather than pirate it if there's an easy and decent platform distributing it is accurate.
@@CiggySnake I'm from Barcelona. My english is not very good 🤣🤣
You're good man, my gf is Swedish and it can be a similar situation. "Overcame" might be the more appropriate term in this context.
@@CiggySnake I think that's kind of true, except there are people who will pirate anyway.
Piracy is unavoidable, but it can be mitigated. The fact you don't have to constantly re-download and apply new patches to games with steam is a point in its favor and over piracy.
Love it Ciggy
Todd Howard?
I heard your voice and immediately thought, Todd Howard.
Haven't gotten that comparison before, I suppose we both have more high pitched voices.
Oh really? I'm surprised to hear that.
Steam is probably my favorite platform out of them all, but I won't pretend that it isn't FULL of flaws. When I think of Steam, I think of a love/hate relationship. There is so much potential (Steam probably has the most potential), but Valve is dumb and decides to do dumb things. What they did to achievements all for their profits is disgusting. The profile user level is a great idea, but implemented in a way that sickens me. The badge system is yet another great idea, implemented in a way that disappoints me. Steam does a lot right, but they also do a LOT wrong as well, and that is why I have such a love/hate relationship with Valve/Steam.
@@kukukachu Yeah, my voice often gets compared to Mandark from Dexter's Lab, which is interesting I suppose.
Fair take on Steam in terms of its somewhat flawed community/user aspects. In terms of this vid I viewed the simple fact Steam had reasonably robust community features in itself as a substantial advantage over basically every other launcher. They may be flawed as you so pointed out, but they're at least there and add some value to the service, unlike everyone else.
Madark? Really? Fascinating, that wouldn't have been one of my first picks.
Oh most definitely, there's a reason it's a love hate relationship, I LOVE the community discussion threads being part of the ecosystem of Steam. I love the variety of games, including the NSFW options as well. I love that we can refund a game within 2 hours of playing it (within 15 days). I LOVE all of the profile backgrounds, stickers, emojis, etc that you can buy in the point shop. There is a LOT to love about what Steam offers. They could just be better and I know they know that.
Absolutely agree with you that they add some (a lot) of value to their existence, unlike EPIC, which FREAKING TOOK MY FALLS GUYS AWAY FROM ME AND TURNED IT INTO A FREAKIN F2P GAME D:<
I still like GOG because they constantly bring old MSDOS games back to life. I'm still hoping they bring back The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain.@@CiggySnake
6:29 yooo they used to give away FOUR games for 60? defaq?
good stuff as always
thanks pal :)
Is this even a question? Steam came at exactly the right time, when broadband was becoming a thing (meaning large downloads had become possible). And they focused on making it a community instead of monetizing the hell out of it. From what I can tell, the simple act of offering a desirable service while not being a*holes has earned them a pretty penny.
On the customer side, launchers for other stores can be annoying as hell, I don't want a dozen of them running all the time, and Steam just works: I can buy a game in a few clicks, without having to enter all of my data again and again. There's enough games on Steam that I don't need other launchers. Right now my thinking is that I might check them out after I finish my Steam backlog. That's another way of saying "never"...
Epic made the major mistake of pissing off Steam users when they launched, and it works against them to this day. They also lack the all-important reviews. And their free games were a bad idea: people aren't invested in stuff they get for free. They should have charged a dollar per game, so people feel it's actually worth not just grabbing, but also spending time on...
15:34 steam cut scales till 80/20.
Wasn't able to fit it in the video as it wasn't super relevant, but this only applies for games that have sold >$50 million. If your game makes under $10 million in revenue it's the same 70/30 split, between $10 million and $50 million it's 75/25, and everything over $50 million is 80/20. This system was only really implemented to coax big publishers into selling their games on Steam; they're the most likely to actually hit the preferred thresholds of $10 million and $50 million. The 70/30 split will still apply to >99.9% of games on the platform. It's not a bad policy per se, but it's just not something indie or smaller developers will really benefit from.
I will like to add that Epic is not doing what they do to be the good guys. Their lawsuits against apple showed they were willing to cooperate with apple if they only got a better cut. Epic is only seeking to have the steam monopoly with the minimal effort. And nothing show the lack of effort then throwing money at the problem hoping it will be solved (talking about exclusivity) .
Steam really need to overhaul their forums and workshop (improve) helpfully they are next after. Cuz the new UI seem to be done.
And don't forget that they totally nuked Unreal Tournament - the franchise that made them.
Greeds not just a modern thing in corporate America.
Not saying it isn't, it's just been substantially worse these past few decades, at least compared to the 1945-1980's period of greater general economic expansion, mobility, and equality.
Some say steam is monopoly but really it was the pc gamers who choose it as the de facto store since every other store didn't do good job improving the user experience on the game launcher side,things like, adding always online DRM, not improving the shitty UI, making exclusivity deals, including spyware, banning account and restrict access to the game library, not allowing play games until the launcher is updated, all these decisions contribute to bad user experience, i'm not saying steam is perfect but when you give me the choice to buy game from your non-functional game launcher that does have all these negatives , yeah... i will always choose steam
EDIT: and GOG
Yeah, it's a matter of Steam ending up in a Monopoly position due to the sheer incompetence/avarice of their competition, along with consumer preference for a single centralized store and launcher for games. It's just fortunate that Steam doesn't totally take advantage of their position and provides a (generally) quality service.
Valve release Steam 2 when??? (sorry for bad English)
im gaming right now!
Dude we are so gaming! Maybe even epic style??
Valve in general is the only good game company left. They've made mistakes but they always put the customer first. I just wish they made more of the games we want them to make.
While Steam is more than excellent (what issues it has are discussed here and are relatively minor), their parent company Valve is not doing anything too crazy with games. They still have lootboxes and the like in TF2 and CS, TF2 is borderline abandonware at this point ridden with bots, and what new water they tread with titles like Artifact and Deadlock were or look unimpressive. I still have mad respect for them for Steam and their approach with it, but barring that Valve isn't doing anything too praiseworthy imo.
For me there are only 2
Steam and GoG
You’ve said one stop shop 4-5 times in this video
Although it probably doesn't matter for most users, Epic Games also differs from Steam in that it hosts blockchain-based games. Some people regard this as ethically dubious due to the prevalence of scams and rug-pulls in blockchain gaming. To make matters worse, a game that scams its users out of cryptocurrency can just run with the money, and there's nothing Epic can do about it despite having hosted the game.
Something I should have talked about, yeah. Crypto and blockchain junk has seemingly fallen in relevancy over the past 18 months or so, but the the fact Epic hosts titles built on sugh dubious and poorly regarded tech is a questionable move.
I do actually cover crypto and the stupidity surrounding it an older vid of mine,, check it out if you want.
Blocked you for lying to the public it is illegal to lie where I am from.
As far as i know ,epic game store, Xbox and gog are doing great, and the stores that are dying and are putting back their games on steam/epic are the store that only have games made by the same owner of the store (battle net, Ubisoft store, uplay etc)
By the way awesome video 😎👍
EGS' problem is that people may use the platform (because they give away free games and have exclusive big ticket titles), but they're seldom purchasing anything on it. One of the triggers for me researching and doing this video was a post from an indie dev who put their game on Steam and EGS. They claimed they had ~100X as many sales in Steam than on EGS. While a ridiculous disparity, it was more than believable, which goes to show just how well EGS is doing imo.
@@CiggySnake every store have its quirk, gog is drm free and epic games quirks are exclusive games and free games weekly and Xbox have gamepass,gog even have less sales than epic games and epic games have less sales than steam, so now we will say that gog is dying? , This situation is basically Xbox and PlayStation where the games on PlayStation just sell more than on Xbox but that's about it ,Xbox is still here lmao
Well just wanted to add that probably the sales of a game on the Microsoft store are on epic games levels or even less, because the main quirk of the Microsoft store is gamepass xd
@@CiggySnaketotally agree, epic isn't really good at transferring its majority of users into actually using epic to buy games, and tbh I don't know how they could other than offering better sales on games. drm rights is still a pretty niche issue as important as it might be, and so the only real thing that convinces gamers to use a platform is when games are cheaper. but just like how free games aren't sustainable, selling games for cheaper isn't sustainable, and so epic has to live as second place unless steam goes under suddenly (unlikely).
12:52 every part of your video was good until this point. Dude how the hell do you know? All you know if China is what US media wants to know of China, dude I lived in China for almost a year as an exchange student. It's s far more better country than US, cheap almost free healthcare for NON citizens like me, for residents it's FREE. Houses are cheap and made for people and not banks to own. People work less, as a foreigner they treated me very very well and kindly, not the treatment I got in US. Public transportation gets you everywhere, you don't need cars to get around. And no homeless people on the streets because they have 1000$ houses for sale, actually good houses with pre installed everything. I studied BIS course in there, I wanna go back when I graduate and find a job there, in US I would get laughed at because of my accent, was not the case in China, hell I don't even know 10% of the Chinese even now.
Don't judge the whole country because of one creppy company mate, that's just ignorance.
The criticism here is levied solely towards the government of China and the CCP, I have no issue with China or Chinese society more broadly.
I find it hilarious that most people are totally fine with Steam holding this insane monopoly because the alternatives are just flat out worse 95% of the time. Epic Games Store is the closet to Steam and even then I just do not care for it the same way I feel about Steam.
Steam is a rare case of a monopoly figure that isn't disgustingly abusing and exploiting its monopoly position. As you said the alternatives are all pretty trash or just insufficient compared to Steam, but there's also a benefit for gamers in having a centralized system for games, mods, community features, mods, etc.
dude, stretched footage looks terrible.
Epic store gate keeping games for 6 months
After that the games available on steam😅
to be fair...
you need a pretty high iq to understand the fortnight battlepass XD
14:07
this honestly could be the shortest video ever. just say “they offer refunds” and then endcard
While the fact they offer refunds is a major point in their favor, they also just do damn near everything better than their competitors.
The rise of Steam? More like, the rise of a broken sigma
Because they have Counter Strike😂
TURN OFF MODELS
I only buy games from the epic games store.
And surprisingly it uses less ram than steam. Steam uses chromium.
Lmao don't , you will regret it. If your account gets banned for some reason they will never respond to you. There are insane horror stories in reddit.
@@ChairmanOfConstellationI've used it for over 7 years. Never had an issue.
The reason why every other launcher sucks is because they are just copy protection schemes disguised as a storefront. It is a shame that GOG has fallen to the wayside of the inferior Xbox and EGL stores.
I wouldn't exactly say they failed. Steam is a platform where you can find pretty much all games even Adults only. Uplay, origins, rgl aren't exactly doing that. They only put their games on their platforms. Epic games is slowly becoming a pretty good store. Give it some time and it will be a great alternative as well.
Isn't it sad? Steam is the best and I'd argue steam suuuux. Hardly any good deals... Crap refund policy... Annoying forced updates that often make games worse actually... And I hate the site I find it much harder to navigate than the playstation store even...
Oh and thanks for crapping on assassins creed and halo infinite. Well deserved. Wayyy too many of those samey feeling asscreed games. And I hate online only micro transaction trash which is all that halo infinite is. Which is a shame because those franchises have clearly seen better days. There's a reason years like 98 are hailed as the best time for gaming : )
Hardly any good deals? The deals are up the the game publishers/developers to decide, not Steam, and even then, there's plenty of games that go below 70% off every now and then (and not just bad games). I guess it mostly depends on what games you're looking for, since some games just never go on sale (or never get big sales). I find the refund policy to be quite lenient. You can still ask for a refund even if you went past 2 hours (though it might not work), however, I do agree that 2 hours sometimes isn't enough since it may take that amount of time just to set the game up or to begin seeing what the game actually looks like. I agree that the forced updates are annoying, but you can work around it by replacing the files with an older version (there are guides for this, though you'll have to do it again after every update). Can't really comment on the navigation, though I personally don't see the problem with it.
And old games that have less languages than the OG release (like for example, idk, Half Life Opposing Force or some of the Popcap games)
Steam has a pretty good return policy. Not sure what you're talking about.
I have to say this though, Epic has hands down the best customer service, I had an issue in which the game I bought wasn't showing up and they were even willing to easily offer a refund , can't say the same about Ubi Connect or other launchers
Steam customer support is also very nice. When rocket league announced they would stop providing a native Linux version, you could ask for a full refund of the game no matter how much you played. I had bought it in a bundle that included 4 copies and shared the other 3 with my friends, so I contacted support and they were able to only refund my copy and leave everyone else's copy intact. Plus the game became free to play not long after that lol
@@pazzoeo yo that's awesome dude , I think my experience with steam has been good too so I can't complain about them
I've been using steam for around 15 years or so, It's had it's ups and down but over all it's the best for what I need. I still use some other platforms to make sure I have games in more than one place. GOG is getting good and really trying to compete as a store front, but all these other platforms are far from the SOCIAL gaming platform that Steam is.
I don't use epic and never will, I don't use anything directly connected to the CCP lol but I'm not really missing anything.