Places like G2A have been operating for years and never been shut down.
-
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.
Steams "Competitors"
- Thread starter brokenswiftie
- Start date
- Status
Places like G2A have been operating for years and never been shut down.
G2A sells DOTA 2 and Artifact in game items? Thought they only sold game keys. Learn something new everyday.
Far as csgo is concerned, wingamestore sells it as part of a valve pack
https://www.wingamestore.com/product/3766/Valve-Complete-Pack/
Ive not seen it on other authorized key sellers such as humble, but they would be sold in retail packages for europe at least and as such are sold on grey market online key sellers such as cdkeys.
Thinking back wasn't that in fact the reason? A quick search shows they sued in 2014, Valve introduced refunds in 2015 and then in 2016 it was decided against Valve.
Im in the camp of letting EA have their store, Acti/Blizz their store etc. I'm not buying their shit that way but hey, their choice. The worst thing is how they buyout games for exclusivity like Discord and Epic it seems like. That really pisses me off and puts me off buying the game at all.
I honestly get the impression that part of it comes down to most companies not having a clue about what consumers, and PC gamers in particular, want and will use. Like, nobody sees how much Steam adds for both developers and consumers, which is why do many stores only try to get by with exclusives.
First, you can sell them for money to buy games. It's already been addressed in this thread, such as in these posts:
Great work OP and everyone else that contributed to it, something like this was sorely needed.
To be honest I think that negative reviews should stay even if the issues that caused them have since been fixed. If your game launched with serious issues that caused a review bomb, it's commendable that you responded and fixed them but you still failed in launching a fully working product and customers should have that information. I fully support the removal of review bombs that happened for racist, misogynistic, bigoted etc reasons.
To be honest I think that negative reviews should stay even if the issues that caused them have since been fixed. If your game launched with serious issues that caused a review bomb, it's commendable that you responded and fixed them but you still failed in launching a fully working product and customers should have that information. I fully support the removal of review bombs that happened for racist, misogynistic, bigoted etc reasons.
Scenario 1. You have 10 games. 10 gamed sold on 3 different storefronts with their own launchers and you, as a consumer, can decide where to buy the game from. Nice.
Scenario 2. You have 10 games. 5 locked in launcher X (inferior to launcher Z), 2 locked in launcher Y (also inferior to launcher Z) and 3 games which can be bought and played from launchers X, Y and Z.
Yey.... competition...?
Yes, it was the reason. Steam would have been sued in other countries (and would have lost) so it was easier to allow automatic refunds.
I welcome a serious competitor to Steam. I'll keep it simple and list some things I'd like to see different.
1. Curated lists with summaries.
Apple does a great job of writing lists and articles about games, themes, or genres.
2. Less of a 'gamer-bro' aesthetic.
The current aesthetic is much cleaner than the military-green look it had in the past, but I'd like something brighter and friendlier. Unfortunately Epic are unlikely to deliver on this.
3. Make room for other types of player.
Big Fish Games still have an active game launcher and storefront for casual games, and their game selection is so different to steam's. I would love a PC storefront that made better room for players that love Puzzlescript or Roguelikes or Pico-8 or Hidden Object. Puzzle games have always had a difficult time on Steam.
4. Performance prediction.
An API that lets players see how the game runs on similar spec hardware. I have bought games and been denied refunds from Steam in the past because they refused to run properly on my laptop hardware.
5. An opt out for crap like 'trading cards'.
I've always hated these shady bonus items and the ability to sell them only makes it worse.
6. A better Big Picture mode
For the last three years I've done 95% of my PC gaming on my couch with a gamepad. Lots of games still fail despite being listed as gamepad compatible, and 'lists' don't work properly on the Big Picture Store. Deleting games is fiddly, and often newly purchased items don't show up.
7. Some features on players and real world events.
Articles about big events in gaming, like PAX shows, Gaymer X and charity events would a really nice, especially if they can feature human beings with faces and lives. The vacuum is where all the poison brews.
Steam is so much better than it used to be, but it always felt like it was designed for someone else. Launching Steam and seeing yet another military game or resource sim shoved in my face has always underlined how Steam favours certain types of gamer.
1. Curated lists with summaries.
Apple does a great job of writing lists and articles about games, themes, or genres.
2. Less of a 'gamer-bro' aesthetic.
The current aesthetic is much cleaner than the military-green look it had in the past, but I'd like something brighter and friendlier. Unfortunately Epic are unlikely to deliver on this.
3. Make room for other types of player.
Big Fish Games still have an active game launcher and storefront for casual games, and their game selection is so different to steam's. I would love a PC storefront that made better room for players that love Puzzlescript or Roguelikes or Pico-8 or Hidden Object. Puzzle games have always had a difficult time on Steam.
4. Performance prediction.
An API that lets players see how the game runs on similar spec hardware. I have bought games and been denied refunds from Steam in the past because they refused to run properly on my laptop hardware.
5. An opt out for crap like 'trading cards'.
I've always hated these shady bonus items and the ability to sell them only makes it worse.
6. A better Big Picture mode
For the last three years I've done 95% of my PC gaming on my couch with a gamepad. Lots of games still fail despite being listed as gamepad compatible, and 'lists' don't work properly on the Big Picture Store. Deleting games is fiddly, and often newly purchased items don't show up.
7. Some features on players and real world events.
Articles about big events in gaming, like PAX shows, Gaymer X and charity events would a really nice, especially if they can feature human beings with faces and lives. The vacuum is where all the poison brews.
Steam is so much better than it used to be, but it always felt like it was designed for someone else. Launching Steam and seeing yet another military game or resource sim shoved in my face has always underlined how Steam favours certain types of gamer.
Is their any store, that has better discoveribilty then steam? PS, Microsoft amd Nintendo stores included.
Exclusive games are a tiny fraction of the number of games released yearly. You may need to adjust the relative percentage in that example.
Additionally, this is just a snapshot in time. Who knows if the 'inferior' storefronts could become superior in the future? Would you ever get the chance to get to that level if we keep wishing for a PC storefront monopoly ?
Yes, it's cool to have ALL games in one place, but this is hardly a deal breaker. Click on the damn icon and play the game.
I find it somewhat disappointing that on a forum where there's so much opposition to additional monetisation schemes to offset the increasingly higher cost of game development and marketing, moves to increase developer cuts aren't treated as a really big deal. If the only benefit from the Epic store is to force Valve to someday slash their take, then it would have achieved something significant.
OP
OP
Oh, I always thought it was pressure from players who also used Origin.
Interesting.
Why haven't ppl taken other stores that refuse refunds to court then? It should be an industry standard.
You should run through your Discovery Queue. Whilst Steam is not quite as good as Amazon at showing products that might interest you, it is possible to train it to an extent. You can also add tags to ignore on your Account Preferences Page, which means the store shouldn't shove ignored-tag games in your face. :)
(Apologies if you've already done these things, it just strikes me that you might not have.)
I think it's hilarious Steam zealots try and use games being locked behind other launchers as some gotcha when Steam literally exists on the very basis of this same practice. No one I know ever wanted Steam...it was forced on us by Valve through locking titles, including already released games that we had been playing for years, to their new service. Now other publishers and developers are doing the same and you complain about it? You'll get used to it, just like the rest of us had to get used to Steam.
Also, the Op would be extremely compelling if I cared about list wars. Unfortunately, all I care about are the games, and in that regard Battle.net, Origin, Uplay, GOG, etc. are all just as capable when it comes to downloading, updating and playing my games.
If I could move my entire library to BNet I'd do it in a heartbeat, or a Steam lite that was something similar with all the bullshit. I still use Steam, there's nothing inherantly wrong with it, but I basically use it as sparingly as possible and in almost the exact same way as any other launcher. The rest is just bloat as far as I'm concerned. Considering I use Steam less and less compared to these other launchers I welcome their growth in the coming years.
Also, the Op would be extremely compelling if I cared about list wars. Unfortunately, all I care about are the games, and in that regard Battle.net, Origin, Uplay, GOG, etc. are all just as capable when it comes to downloading, updating and playing my games.
If I could move my entire library to BNet I'd do it in a heartbeat, or a Steam lite that was something similar with all the bullshit. I still use Steam, there's nothing inherantly wrong with it, but I basically use it as sparingly as possible and in almost the exact same way as any other launcher. The rest is just bloat as far as I'm concerned. Considering I use Steam less and less compared to these other launchers I welcome their growth in the coming years.
What flew for Steam back in 2003 wouldn't fly now. That's a fact. But of course, if Steam hadn't done what it did in 2003, all of this wouldn't have happened. So *shrugs*
That's great - no-ones saying you can't enjoy any of those other clients, or the games that come with them. The OP just illustrates how they appear almost bare-bones and featureless compared to Steam. I mean, I love having my Steam store region being Malaysia, and having a worldwide friends list available to talk to people in the UK and Germany. BNet wouldn't let me do that - I have to keep my region set to Europe, unless something has recently changed. But if you're happy with BNet, that's fine.
It is baffling that you still dont understand what you are talking about. EA can have their Origin and sell Battlefield through their own site (without paying Valve a cut) while letting the customer decide which launcher to use. Steam makes this possible.
You are not talking about adding competition, you are literally advocating for walling different games behind different gardens for no reason what so ever. Steam launcher is not the same as Steam's storefront. You can use Steam's launcher, without buying a single game from Steam. Every publisher can sell Steam keys exclusively from their own storefront.
No. PSN and eShop are horrible, with way off mark recommendations and shitty search functionality.
Yeah, people should stop saying that if it worked in 2003, it should work now. The market has changed and all the stores seem to try and launch a product that is just barely better than when steam added third party games in the store.
Steam input alone makes me want to use it instead of any competition. Being able to use my original Sega Saturn pad for 2D games and fighters without needing any additional software has been a game changer. Previously I often had to at at least use joy2key or xpadder and then possibly some Xinput spoofer as well as something to hide the pad being partially detected to stop double inputs. It even helps me make up for missing buttons by letting me define extra actions to a long or double press.
Wait does Proton seriously automatically work with non-steam game added as a shortcut?
EA can sell origin keys and steam keys from its storefront (without paying a dime to Valve.) This would allow the customer to choose which launcher is preferred to his/hers individual preferences.
It does not but there are very basic scripts out there that would do everything needed for you.
I made my own script and am no Linux wizard by any means.
OP
OP
I would say If steam didn't happen and innovate in distribution there would be no PC gaming today at least not to the extent it is today. There wouldn't likely be any Origin or Uplay. Many developers did stop supporting PC during that Era. All these publishers would be making games for consoles.
It's hilarious you chose B.net out of all the storefronts which have boneheaded design decisions like Region Locked Friendlists and no overlay
I'll take my word back, it seems the 14 day return period in the EU does not include digital downloads.
Pretty much the only things I'd like to see from Steam's platform on GOG (which I prefer primarily since it's DRM free and also requires no client launching/remaining in the background) are:
Apart from that I don't use things like overlays, chat and other peripheral features and pretty much all games I play are singleplayer so such features aren't important to me personally.
- A Workshop-like hosting service. The extended value of certain games comes their officially supported user content hosted on Steam's workshop (this is different from mods hosted on third-party sites and available to any version of a game obviously). However such an addition would be complicated by the fact that one can't compel existing content creators to duplicate their work for both sites, so if some content is popular on Steam it's no guarantee it would be available on GOG should they offer such a service. At least it would offer functional parity though.
That said for that very reason above and also cost-wise it's unclear if CDPR if would implement this since for example The Witcher 3 has official mod support yet most of its mods are hosted on the third-party site Nexus Mods. Why add this service themselves if they can rely on other sites in that regard.
- The ability to arbitrarily download previous versions of games. Steam allows this (with some know-how) while on GOG only the current version of a game is available for download.
Apart from that I don't use things like overlays, chat and other peripheral features and pretty much all games I play are singleplayer so such features aren't important to me personally.
Last edited:
Great post ! Just a small correction :
The Bethesda Launcher does have DRM Free support. I bought Quake 2 on there out of curiosity and was able to launch it without the client as well as moving the game folder and using it elsewhere.
If I have made a mistake here pls inform me*
EDIT: Fixed some inaccuracies in the image. again.again.
The Bethesda Launcher does have DRM Free support. I bought Quake 2 on there out of curiosity and was able to launch it without the client as well as moving the game folder and using it elsewhere.
OP
OP
pretty sure Galaxy supports Rollback. Not sure about the website though
I see thanks for notifying me
I'll make the change once I'm home
Thanks for making this excellent post brokenswiftie ! We should link to this post every time someone claims that Steam is crap or Valve doesn't do anything.
A few corrections:
- Steam does support subscriptions services (Humble Monthly)
- The Windows Store doesn't officially allow key reselling in 3rd party stores. It's literally in their Terms of Service. Play Anywhere keys being sold by sites like cdkeys are usually leftovers from hardware bundles, and a few sites are selling accounts with certain games activated (bought from cheaper regions). Microsoft provides official retail partners with keys, but the devs themselves aren't allowed to do so. This is a huge difference with the free key reselling that Steam offers.
- You may also wanna add "personalized store page" as a feature that Steam does right
- Microsoft Store offers anti-cheat support (trueplay)
- Isn't selling trading cards Steams version of a loyalty program?
A few corrections:
- Steam does support subscriptions services (Humble Monthly)
- The Windows Store doesn't officially allow key reselling in 3rd party stores. It's literally in their Terms of Service. Play Anywhere keys being sold by sites like cdkeys are usually leftovers from hardware bundles, and a few sites are selling accounts with certain games activated (bought from cheaper regions). Microsoft provides official retail partners with keys, but the devs themselves aren't allowed to do so. This is a huge difference with the free key reselling that Steam offers.
- You may also wanna add "personalized store page" as a feature that Steam does right
- Microsoft Store offers anti-cheat support (trueplay)
- Isn't selling trading cards Steams version of a loyalty program?
Last edited:
Hey OP! While Linux game installer can be downloaded from the GOG website, the GOG Galaxy Client is not available on Linux. So I wouldn't say it has support for Linux actually...
PD: Valve has been working on so many things we players can't just see. VR Framework, pushing Vulkan and Linux support to a level never seen before, their support has been greatly improved...
As a person who just got rid of Windows becasue the only reason I used it was for playing games, now that we have Proton I just can't thank enough Valve for this efforts...
PD: Valve has been working on so many things we players can't just see. VR Framework, pushing Vulkan and Linux support to a level never seen before, their support has been greatly improved...
As a person who just got rid of Windows becasue the only reason I used it was for playing games, now that we have Proton I just can't thank enough Valve for this efforts...
I go through the discovery queue all the time and it fails pretty badly. I can't remember ever finding anything of interest. It really needs more nuance for the 'not interested' button. I have to skip so many military man games.
I have VR and military and maybe something else on my ignore lists. They don't work perfectly but it helps.
Great post OP, very good summation of all the featuresets. Surprised at no Epic Games Launcher in the s/sheet though?
Sadly I'm sure this will all fall on deaf ears as per >_>
Sadly I'm sure this will all fall on deaf ears as per >_>
Does steam joypad stuff work properly with everything? Last time I checked it was failing for a lot of games, and my Saturn gamepad was put away into the drawer.
As long as your gamepad (or its USB adapter) supports DirectInput, you should be good.
OP
OP
-Valve itself as an entity doesn't offer a subscription service to users and Humble is a third party key reseller
-I guess I could change it to restricted instead of Yes for 3rd party store support
-I do have it I just named it store preferences unless you meant developer pages, I have to check which stores support this before adding it
-I will edit the table about trueplay
-Im still debating with myself whether it counts as one lol
I think this alone qualifies GOG as supporting Linux games as opposed to straight up not offer it like UPlay
Awesome work!
I actually wanted to make exactly that picture.
You're still missing some things though. For example, Leaderboards.
Steam has them and hosts the servers for them for developers for free.
Also, I'd personally add a row "encrypted game files", make "No" green and "Yes" red, and only tick it for the Microsoft store. Because fuck that.
Mmm, it does. In my mind I was thinking of installers while writing since I was thinking back to a game which I desperately wanted a prior version for and the dev told me GOG only keeps the latest installer on their servers.
Should mention that rollback doesn't allow for rolling back to any version though, only the latest handful (some versions I'm on aren't even listed now but that's to be expected for a feature intended for rolling back nearer to an unwanted patch I suppose). Steam OTOH allows downloading any version of a game, at least in my experience (if anyone knows whether there's a cutoff I'd be interested). I've downloaded versions of a couple games dating back to release day.
Nice idea to make a big summary but... it seems inaccurate in some things. I was looking for 5 seconds and I already saw something wrong. Origin and Uplay has friends activity, I can see what they are playing.
Or is Friend Activity another thing?
Or is Friend Activity another thing?
Last edited:
Another vote for this. The Microsoft Store blocking access to game files can't be mentioned enough!
Battle net isnt even just region locked friend lists. For instance diablo 3 has eu and na clients and progression is entirely separate for both.
And that is what "saved" PC-Gaming. Now you literally have Final Fantasy, Tales of, Yakuza, Crash etc. on PC. You can buy Visual Novels without importing them and applying some translation patch, since new VN publishers were created because of the ease of Steam (like SekaiProject) for distribution.
The Activity Feed. Which achievements you earned, uploaded screenshots, status messages, games bought etc.
By the way, I don't consider the likes of Uplay or Activision launchers as Steam competitors. They are clearly only for their titles, and won't try to be a third party store/platform. At least EA is releasing some other indie games, lol.
OP
OP
Epic Store is not out yet and Epic Games Launcher has like 3 games total I think cant really compare with the others
Thank you!!
I've added these changes you've mentioned
I've also mentioned file encryption outside of the picture
Yeap what I meant is like the Activity page that says what your friends did, what game did they buy, what achievements they got, what screenshots they upload etc.
I've made the change 😊
Some folks ready to die in the smallest hill possible.
Didn't know in such a progressive environment stuff like monopoly was actually positive for some people
Didn't know in such a progressive environment stuff like monopoly was actually positive for some people
Is it really a progressive environment, if we distort the truth, lie and don't do any research before posting useless takes?
Maybe you should try to understand what a monopoly is? Should progressives not understand what facts are? Should progressives erect straw-man arguments?
- Status