Linux Support. (and Open-Source initiatives like SteamPlay / Proton)
Outstanding free feature-sets. (Cloud Saves, which are not free on most platforms)
Outstanding free feature-sets. (Cloud Saves, which are not free on most platforms)
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Steam has been around for 17 years now, for those of you who continue to use it as one of your primary platforms, what's keeping you attached to it?
- Thread starter Deleted member 1659
- Start date
- Status
They have been introducing features regularly to keep people coming back. Some reasons for me
- Great and generous refund policy
- Reviews + forum + screenshots upload help increase the social aspect with fellow gamers especially for niche & old titles where you won't find active discussion on reddit and here
- A guide feature where gamers can provide guides such as walkthroughs, so you can avoid those youtube videos if you want
- Quite possibly have the biggest range of games selection from AAA titles to extremely niche ones
- Huge range of supported controllers and a LOT of customization options, allowing you to use gyro on some games is a game changer for me
- Have a huge range of PC-based VR library and support all PC-based VR headsets
- Games dedicated news hub, and I like how nearly every devs will publish detailed change log for every update. Especially for early access titles, you can check out the history of the news hub to see what updates the titles has received, when it was last updated, how frequent it gets updated etc, and determine yourself if the early access titles is still in active development or has been abandoned.
- Remote Play Together lets you play local co-op games online with friends (great for Overcooked 1 which for some BS reason doesn't have online)
- No need to fear about backward compatibility issue
- Steam collections feature (essentially folders but better) lets me organize games library and its UI for folder is better looking compared to other platforms
- Forum feature where developers hang out to talk with gamers, where gamers can provide feedback easily and others
The biggest thing is my games are there already. I don't mind using other launchers, but it just makes it nicer to have stuff through steam. Honestly, steam is also the most feature-rich. It feels like a platform, where something like Epic just feels like a storefront right now.
Honestly I'm still one of those weirdos that will prefer buy and run games without using any game platform or service, but along this time, I find Steam being one of the best on the market, mostly because:
-Cloud Saves
-Excellent digital store with curators, useful reviews and content good discounts (On this last one EGS has been pretty good too)
-Great controller support, giving to the player the option to map every button and action as he desire, also, being one of the few storefronts that support every mainstream controller without any issue.
-Almost every game it's on the store
-Steam Link (Geforce GameStream has been a better option on the last months, but I cannot deny that Link works with almost any rig and you can stream your games everywhere)
-Still have one of the best customer services and refund system on all the industry
-Steam Workshop, having native support for mods directly from the launcher and being able to add or remove anything you want without messing with your files it's still a godsend.
Other shops will have better storefronts, better discounts or better alternatives to have and play games, but I can still find Steam very competent, and still being one of my favorite game clients on the PC.
-Cloud Saves
-Excellent digital store with curators, useful reviews and content good discounts (On this last one EGS has been pretty good too)
-Great controller support, giving to the player the option to map every button and action as he desire, also, being one of the few storefronts that support every mainstream controller without any issue.
-Almost every game it's on the store
-Steam Link (Geforce GameStream has been a better option on the last months, but I cannot deny that Link works with almost any rig and you can stream your games everywhere)
-Still have one of the best customer services and refund system on all the industry
-Steam Workshop, having native support for mods directly from the launcher and being able to add or remove anything you want without messing with your files it's still a godsend.
Other shops will have better storefronts, better discounts or better alternatives to have and play games, but I can still find Steam very competent, and still being one of my favorite game clients on the PC.
And being honest, this storefront bullshit war has been always stupid, and it will always going to be, let people enjoy their games, nobody is stealing your precious games by buying Skyrim on Xbox Store or EGS
I just started PC gaming again for the first time since like the early 2000's and I had never used Steam before. It's near console-levels of convenience and shit I want is constantly on sale, what a combo. It's great.
I've also found the message board and help sections for each game immensely helpful on several occasions now.
I've also found the message board and help sections for each game immensely helpful on several occasions now.
I don't know about it being a platform, sure it's a platform, but PC is also a platform. I play games on PC and I don't really care what the launcher is. I just played some Destiny 2 for the first time since it moved from battle.net, and to me, it's still all Destiny 2. The real division between platform in my mind is cost. To play on any of the platforms there's a hardware cost and relevant subscription costs should you have any. Going from battle.net to Steam, for instance, incurred no additional hardware cost for me, so therefore as a platform, I really do not care what launcher I use on PC.
Protip: stuff is usually cheaper via legit third party sites that sell Steam keys. It's honestly quite rare that I buy anything directly from Steam.
I use gg.deals to track prices and sales. You can even import your Steam wishlist.
Used it since Half Life 2. The only times I don't buy a game on steam is when I can get it cheaper on another platforms. When price is matched, I go team Valve. It's still the best client available. GoG is a close second but only because it also serves as a cross platform games aggregator.
- 95% of my PC library is on the platform.
- I use Remote Play all the time.
- Cloud saves are handy.
- 99% of the multiplayer games and friends I play with are on Steam.
- I like the level of library control/sorting/filtering that exists, especially compared to other digital storefronts.
- Other features (achievements, cards, store recs, etc.) are nifty, albeit I could live without some of them.
It has a ton of features I love, like completely letting me remap buttons on controllers, even creating my own macros. It's easy to play with friends, I enjoy the easy screenshot functionality and a ton of other things Steam does.
I use every major PC DD platform and Steam is simply the most fully featured. It also seems to be the default for many developers and so the games are built around Steam functions. GOG is pretty good too but lacks features, and the rest are figuratively years behind Steam in functionality. I'm no EGS hater but it's beta software compared to Steam. Origin is not much better. The rest of the publisher specific platforms are trash. I guess Battle.net is alright but only because Blizz games have comprehensive ingame functionality that's equivalent to what Steam provides on a platform wide basis.
I buy from all the stores so I'm not Steam exclusive or anything, but I prefer it due to functionality. Easy refunds, remote play, great input support, achievements, mod support with the workshop, linux suport. Valve invests in their client and it shows. I also like the user reviews and per-game forums. They can sometimes be a mess, but I generally find them to be very useful.
Oh cool I'll check that out, thanks!
Turns out most of my taste in gaming is cheap old shit though already. Patting myself on the back for that lol
I'd say in the past year I've been less inclined to buy things on Steam. It used to be synonymous with PC gaming for me, but there are so many different services now that even heavily discounted games on steam don't jump out at me anymore, since there's always a pretty good chance that I could get the same game for free on a different platform or service.
In 17 years steam has not given me a single reason to dislike it, and many reason to love it.
-Steam doesn't do digital redlining, allowing everybody a fair chance of success. This is especially true for adult/minorities games. If steam didn't do anything else but this, i'd still absolutely love and support it. Not understanding this is probably the only real blunder Jim Sterling took in their career as industry critic.
-Amazing refund system that is the industry lead/standard. Great offline mode. Remember the steam DRM? Me neither, it's completely invisible. Steam is firmly consumer first.
-It pushes new technology against the common wisdom: VR, linux, big picture, plus a lot of work with gaming software. All of this prevents stagnation of the platform, the solidification of terrible new monopolies (like UWP), which leads to the last point:
-Steam cares about the health of pc gaming, it's not a hackjob to suck money and run away once the tide changes: steam controllers, proton, are all moves to avoid the entire industry to peg itself into a hole real or presumed. Even in its big blunders, like paid mods, you can at least see a big vision about the sustainability and future of the PC market.
-Steam doesn't do digital redlining, allowing everybody a fair chance of success. This is especially true for adult/minorities games. If steam didn't do anything else but this, i'd still absolutely love and support it. Not understanding this is probably the only real blunder Jim Sterling took in their career as industry critic.
-Amazing refund system that is the industry lead/standard. Great offline mode. Remember the steam DRM? Me neither, it's completely invisible. Steam is firmly consumer first.
-It pushes new technology against the common wisdom: VR, linux, big picture, plus a lot of work with gaming software. All of this prevents stagnation of the platform, the solidification of terrible new monopolies (like UWP), which leads to the last point:
-Steam cares about the health of pc gaming, it's not a hackjob to suck money and run away once the tide changes: steam controllers, proton, are all moves to avoid the entire industry to peg itself into a hole real or presumed. Even in its big blunders, like paid mods, you can at least see a big vision about the sustainability and future of the PC market.
The latest version is 4.4, but there's an unoffical patch in the steam forums that fixes its problems: Unofficial Patch for MetroForSteam [Version 9.1] :: Metro Skin (steamcommunity.com)
It works really well for me.
This is such an odd question to ask people. Because most of the pc games I've bought in the last 17 years are on my Steam account? Honestly, its the same reason people stay in Apple's system- They bought a lot of stuff on that platform. Don't understand what answers OP is trying to get out of people.
Great library management and other secondary features like universal controller support/management (!!!), cloud saves, achievement tracking, a screenshot tool, in-home streaming and more. On top of that, user reviews are an endlessly useful resource, and Steam's discoverability tools for niche games are quite good, so if I'm looking for a new game to get -- whether I have a specific one in mind or not -- it's the first place I go.
They're the only store that actively supports Linux on their client, and will probably be the only one to include native wine/proton setup.
There are simply no viable alternatives to Steam, which is frankly incredible on such a popular and totally open platform as PC, and with so, so many attempts at competition.
Nobody does it better, though sometimes I wish someone would.
Nobody does it half as good as Steam.
Nobody does it better, though sometimes I wish someone would.
Nobody does it half as good as Steam.
Most of Steam's features aren't really compelling for me, it's mostly because I've already established a library.
Steam has been around for a long time so I can be reasonably sure my digital library will stick around.
It gives me full access to the game files so I can backup and modify them as I see fit, which is also good for long term preservation and modding.
Steam Depot gives me access to previous versions of the game other than the very latest version so I can revert in case a serious bug is introduced with a patch (this was the only way to enjoy FFXV for like a year, maybe longer).
It has a very solid refund policy that has saved me from games with serious performance issues many times.
Cloud saves work great and come at no extra cost. In general, Steam's online infrastructure is free for end users.
It gives me full access to the game files so I can backup and modify them as I see fit, which is also good for long term preservation and modding.
Steam Depot gives me access to previous versions of the game other than the very latest version so I can revert in case a serious bug is introduced with a patch (this was the only way to enjoy FFXV for like a year, maybe longer).
It has a very solid refund policy that has saved me from games with serious performance issues many times.
Cloud saves work great and come at no extra cost. In general, Steam's online infrastructure is free for end users.
If I have a game on origin, uplay, gog, epic, etc I will still launch it through Steam to play it because of their controller features. So if I have a choice I will naturally choose to buy them on Steam instead.
I find the way this topic is phrased, as if there's an alternative that's even remotely close in terms quality, support, size of offerings, features and the rate of additions and improvments, hilarious.
variety of games, especially the games i like.
ease of access to mods
usually good price for stuff
ease of access to mods
usually good price for stuff
I have my Steam account since 2003 (13 days after the official release). The majority of my digital game purchases are there. I think I got attached to it haha. Steam also has a lot of QoL features and somewhat affordable prices here in Brazil. The deals are still good but they used to be REALLY good.
There are storefronts and there are platforms. Steam is a platform and it is miles ahead of the other launchers and storefronts. I'm willing to jump to another platform so long as one comes to market and gives me a reason to make Steam my secondary one. We're nowhere close to that day, though.
Steam is still way ahead in terms of features.
--Other than GOG it's still the only PC client that has a dedicated backup utility.
--It's still the only one you can use with a controller -- indeed the only good way to boot PC games from the desktop with a controller is through Steam.
--Its community features like forums and reviews are still way ahead of everybody else's (maybe itch is somewhat comparable?).
--No other PC client has anything like Workshop, which some games basically use as their entire modding frontend.
--Other than GOG it's still the only PC client that has a dedicated backup utility.
--It's still the only one you can use with a controller -- indeed the only good way to boot PC games from the desktop with a controller is through Steam.
--Its community features like forums and reviews are still way ahead of everybody else's (maybe itch is somewhat comparable?).
--No other PC client has anything like Workshop, which some games basically use as their entire modding frontend.
- Games are kept up-to-date via patches
- Store has lots of useful functionality in regards to highlighting games I'm interested in/ones that friends play
- Steam reviews are in fact actually a useful thing to have and not the trash Epic would lead you to believe...
- Steam lets you use ANY controller you want through it's UI and the customisation options are fantastic if you need to fine tune anything
- Chat functionality
- Steam forums (just ignore the toxic assholes, but hey that's easily done :P)
- Very little bugs, and any that do crop up get fixed by Valve.
- Valve constantly innovate whilst other game launchers twiddle their thumbs
- Valve never pay devs to keep their games off of other store fronts
- Steam sales
- Valve uses profits generated by Steam into funding R&D which leads to advancements in VR/Linux Gaming (something I don't use by I have friends that benefit greatly from this, so winning in my books)
Bottom line, Valve do a lot of good for the PC platform, Epic though only give a shit about PC gaming when it suits their wallet.
Edit: Will also add that I initially got ticked off with Steam due to the fiasco that was Half-Life 2 launch, but only because I was an idiot at the time and hadn't setup Steam prior to installing the game :P
- Store has lots of useful functionality in regards to highlighting games I'm interested in/ones that friends play
- Steam reviews are in fact actually a useful thing to have and not the trash Epic would lead you to believe...
- Steam lets you use ANY controller you want through it's UI and the customisation options are fantastic if you need to fine tune anything
- Chat functionality
- Steam forums (just ignore the toxic assholes, but hey that's easily done :P)
- Very little bugs, and any that do crop up get fixed by Valve.
- Valve constantly innovate whilst other game launchers twiddle their thumbs
- Valve never pay devs to keep their games off of other store fronts
- Steam sales
- Valve uses profits generated by Steam into funding R&D which leads to advancements in VR/Linux Gaming (something I don't use by I have friends that benefit greatly from this, so winning in my books)
Bottom line, Valve do a lot of good for the PC platform, Epic though only give a shit about PC gaming when it suits their wallet.
Edit: Will also add that I initially got ticked off with Steam due to the fiasco that was Half-Life 2 launch, but only because I was an idiot at the time and hadn't setup Steam prior to installing the game :P
- Status