Yeah no. Most pc gamers have grown up with steam and if a game isn't on their chosen platform they simply won't buy it. This forum is full of posts like that. So epic uses exclusivity deals (lots of them) to try and break that. It's very close to how steam got on everyone's computer in the first place. Forced installs with HL2
Isn't one of the main difference have to so with how Valve developed HL2 and there for could do what they wanted with the game? I don't think people have issues with exclusives, I mean look at Ubisoft and EA games on Origin and Uplay.
If Epic decided to just develop games (that we're really good) and sell them only on EGS then there would be no issues and people would just buy them without much complaint.
I am one of those people defending Valve (well Steam anyway). To me in theory Epic was one of those companies that was very well known in the PC community and when PC needed them the most they just left and blamed pirates (Ubisoft did something similar and called PC just a place filled with pirates). Did any of them try to solve with issue? No? Did Valve try to solve this issue? Not really? They just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Which well when everyone else was leaving makes you wonder.
Unless I read some of your previous stuff incorrectly it seems that you have been playing PC games since the 80s? If so then our views on PC are different. When I was first playing PC games I was 5 years old in 2000 and I didn't think much of anything, I just saw a computer (be it a Windows PC or a Mac) and I just played games on it. Then around 2005 or so when I was 10 years old I would just go to a place like Walmart and buy PC games on a disc and then just install them. During that time period I didn't think about stuff like pirating or DRM, I still just thought about buying the game and playing it. In 2014 when I graduated high school I made a Steam account and started playing games that way. Prior to making that Steam account I had not been playing PC games since maybe 2007 and mostly just played on consoles and handhelds. So when I was talking to my friends in 2014 about getting back into PC gaming and mentioned Steam, I had no idea what that was.
From my understanding it was from around 2007-2012 when devs/publishers were leaving PC gaming because of pirates and they also had stuff like DRM that people didn't really like. I was not playing PC games at this time so I can't really comment to much about it.
In 2014 I was thinking of just buying an Xbox One (since I had a 360) over a PS4, in the end I just ended up getting a gaming PC (I eventually picked up a PS4 as well in 2017) and I am glad that I did. So why do I like Steam? Well of the games that I like, I enjoy JRPG and other Japanese developed games. Since 2014 the number of Japanese games released on PC just keeps growing and growing, prior to this you need a PlayStation or a Nintendo system in order to play Japanese games since that is mainly where they were (in 2014). I do okay some AAA and Indies games but I don't think I play nearly as many of those as era does. So in theory as long as Steam keeps being a thing more and more Japanese developed games will keep releasing on PC (heck there are some games that are only on PS4/PC or NSW/PC, which I think is pretty wild. If you told some one back in 2013 that DQXI would launch on PC and PS4 at the same time, they would think you are crazy).
Do I refuse to buy games if they are not on Steam? No, I have purchased some games from Origin in the past. Do I have issues with using other launchers? Yes, mainly since I have to update some of them and then update the game itself, my biggest complaint has to be in regards to forget my password, because if you don't log in for a while then you will be asked to log in again and a decent amount of the time I don't even bother to look up my password and just move on and play something else on Steam. Am I against the EGS? Sort of, I don't like the way that they are going about the exclusive game, I would have preferred it if games released on multiple clients at the same time and then people choose where to buy it. Was I one of those people that said "no Steam no buy"? Sort of, I did kind of have some of that mentality at first but then after thinking about it some more I realized that I was either not going to buy the game at launch anyway or that I was maybe only going to play half way through it before dropping the game. I am worried about the EGS security complaints since they have had issues in the last 2 years, once those are fixed I may end up buying the Quantric Dream games.
Is Steam perfect? No? Does it get the job done? Yes. Do I care for Valve as a company? I could care less if they release a number 3 game, I just care about Steam. Will you hear complaints from me if say something like SMT V came to PC and became a EGS exclusive? Possibly, but then I might cave in and just buy it anyway. I'm not sure if I mentioned this already but the only game I even pre-order/buy at launch are basically all Japanese games. The only AAA western game that I purchased, was well exactly that a AAA western game (RDR2). If I do pick up stuff like indie games it's maybe close to the end of it's Early Access.
