Is Steam gonna do something to contest Epic Games store?

[[SKy]Eagle]

Every 2 days or so Epic releases a free version of a game on Steam, Will steam do something about that? Won't that hurt Steam's market or so?

[gugnihr]

Diposting pertama kali oleh =CrimsoN=:

Diposting pertama kali oleh gugnihr:

What could Steam do? It should be illegal to do nothing else except trying to directly damage your competitors like what EGS is doing, there should be laws against that, to punish those who do things like that but apparently nobody cares and they are allowed to have an activity that has no other goal than trying to damage their competitors.

I wouldn't say EGS is trying to damage its competitors. Like others stated, EGS is trying to attain market share that Steam/Valve holds near dominion over. But they are going about it the wrong way. EGS isn't doing anything unique to establish a customer base.

This is what I was talking about. They hope to surpass Steam / other competitors using a lazy, self damaging stunt hoping that this stunt will damage others more than themselves, instead of doing something interesting to offer a validand worthy alternative.
Just doing nothing special and plain copying what others do would be less bad.
But pulling out a stunt like that which is not sustanable is just trying to damage others. They are not trying to do anything constructive, they are not even trying to compete or legitimastely find their own niche, they are just trying to cause a lot of mess hoping that in the end it will have damaged others too much more than themselves.
This should be illegal. Companies often start lawsuits for much less, much more dumb and shallow resons, and then EGS can start doing something like that all of a sudden? It's just crazy.

[Suberb Anthro]

Not really. Steam has like 70% of digital game sales. Also Steam has more and more features than EGS.

[Tito Shivan]

Diposting pertama kali oleh SKyEagle:

I'm not familiar with things from a market perspective, just worried that they might kill the steam store and general playerbase.

They're working on a loss-seller strategy, which is a fairly common (and often considered dirty) tactic to starve away competition.

Store A basically starts selling their products at a price that doesn't give any benefit (often even making them lose money) expectin customers to drop using store B because of the cheaper prices. Eventually store B closes, once A has gained control over the market they can charge whatever they want (usually overcharging) as any competition was banished.

Diposting pertama kali oleh =CrimsoN=:

I wouldn't say EGS is trying to damage its competitors. Like others stated, EGS is trying to attain market share that Steam/Valve holds near dominion over.

However they've been pretty consistent on picking up fights with almosty everyone in the gaming market.
-They annoyed Steam users by pulling games for sale in the store to feature them on exclusive.
-They annoyed kickstarter backers by taking games which promised a Steam release as Epic exclusives
-They annoyed their own customers (I'm talking the developers) undercutting them by putting the Epic discount on top of the developers chosen pricetag during their first sale (Causing several devs to completely pull their games off the sale)
-They've started a gigantic legal battle with both Google and Apple in the mobile market.

At the very least they're behaving like that drunken guy at a bar just looking to start a brawl and poking everyone's eye to see who hits back.

As Virgil wrote a loooong time ago: "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

[Χάρης]

Steam does that too, but our dear Toroto locked the thread that kept us informed about the ' Free 2 Keep ' games.

But EVEN if Steam did not have any free games there would still be no contest. Steam has become everyone's #1 gaming platform for PC. Most people install Origin, Uplay etc. for a couple of games that require those, but that's it.

[Rio]

Kind of odd that they'd want to hurt steam, when steam is working on an alpha censored client that would appease them.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

Steam does that too, but our dear Toroto locked the thread that kept us informed about the ' Free 2 Keep ' games.

But EVEN if Steam did not have any free games there would still be no contest. Steam has become everyone's #1 gaming platform for PC. Most people install Origin, Uplay etc. for a couple of games that require those, but that's it.

O.o

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/2527030866866290296/

[Χάρης]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Spawn of Totoro:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

Steam does that too, but our dear Toroto locked the thread that kept us informed about the ' Free 2 Keep ' games.

But EVEN if Steam did not have any free games there would still be no contest. Steam has become everyone's #1 gaming platform for PC. Most people install Origin, Uplay etc. for a couple of games that require those, but that's it.

O.o

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/2527030866866290296/

oh, sorry. I thought you locked it once tho?

[MikeBob2013]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

(...)

our dear Toroto locked the thread that kept us informed about the ' Free 2 Keep ' games.

(...)

This is no longer the case. That thread was re-started (with Totoro's help) and is currently buried (because it's no longer stickied).

I still keep track of it, and the OP and I both update it whenever there's a 'Free2Keep' Steam game up for grabs.

Here's the link to all current Steam Freebies:

https://steamdb.info/upcoming/free/

Feel free to bookmark it.

(Right now there's only a handful of DLC, weekend stuff when it's available, and I myself posted the most recent free game that's on it to the "Free2Keep" thread.)


EDIT P/S, Here's a link to the OT 'Free2Keep' thread:

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/2527030866866290296/

[Spawn of Totoro]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

oh, sorry. I thought you locked it once tho?

Due to it going inactive for a while, yes. Talked to the OP of the thread, in another thread, and said to go ahead and make it again. As long as they are willing to keep it updated, it will remain.

[agu]

Just go to FreeGameFindings on reddit, they always get posted there first. Bookmark it, no need to rely on a single user updating his own thread...

[Χάρης]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Spawn of Totoro:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

oh, sorry. I thought you locked it once tho?

Due to it going inactive for a while, yes. Talked to the OP of the thread, in another thread, and said to go ahead and make it again. As long as they are willing to keep it updated, it will remain.

Diposting pertama kali oleh MikeBob2013:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Χάρης:

(...) our dear Toroto locked the thread that kept us informed about the ' Free 2 Keep ' games.

(...)

This is no longer the case. That thread was re-started (with Totoro's help) and is currently buried (because it's no longer stickied).

I still keep track of it, and the OP and I both updated it whenever there's a 'Free2Keep' Steam game up for grabs.

Here's the link to all current Steam Freebies:

https://steamdb.info/upcoming/free/

Feel free to bookmark it.

(Right now there's only a handful of DLC, weekend stuff when it's available, and I myself posted the most recent free game that's on it to the "Free2Keep" thread.)

ok, thanks.

[᠌ ᠌]

I would disagree with some people here about egs being like super-bad for consumers. Of course, they could do mistakes and I don't defend them, but for the end user it is ultra beneficial that one more big company arrives to the market. This means that you have choice now.


I would also assume that steam has network effect in its DNA, so dumping prices is an appropriate investment for me.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Diposting pertama kali oleh ᠌ ᠌:

I would disagree with some people here about egs being like super-bad for consumers. Of course, they could do mistakes and I don't defend them, but for the end user it is ultra beneficial that one more big company arrives to the market. This means that you have choice now.


I would also assume that steam has network effect in its DNA, so dumping prices is an appropriate investment for me.

Actually, it is the opposite. By buying exclusives for a store, they remove choices. Just like consoles remove choices with their exclusives.

None of it will really lower prices either. Developers tend to equalize prices through out the market, regardless if they make more or less at one store or another.

All it really does is create an inconvenience for the end user.

Those developers who release on EVERY platform and store are the ones I can really stand behind. Too bad they are few and far between.

[Nomad]

Already had choice with MS, EA and every small-time developer having their own individual launchers.

[=CrimsoN=]

Diposting pertama kali oleh ᠌ ᠌:

I would disagree with some people here about egs being like super-bad for consumers. Of course, they could do mistakes and I don't defend them, but for the end user it is ultra beneficial that one more big company arrives to the market. This means that you have choice now.


I would also assume that steam has network effect in its DNA, so dumping prices is an appropriate investment for me.

It would be creating choice if they actually offered a competitive advantage to consumers. Meaning something that would make it more appealing or different from other digital distributors. For example GoGs competitive advantage is stuff like DRM free games and unofficial patches for older games to run better on newer hardware. EGS doesn’t actually differentiate itself from the competition. They simply try to buy out market share by creating exclusivity or offering sales promotions in the form of free games to entice consumers. But none of that is unique to EGS.

From a business perspective they should be asking themselves why do people want to go to Steam or GOG. What makes EGS different from the competition. What are our consumer options? Instead they just figure exclusivity and free games = customers. But they can’t keep up the free games for long. It’s not a sustainable business model.