I have realised that there might be ongoing battle between gaming distribution platforms "Steam" and "Epic games".
Steam was launched in 2003 and it started to gain player base in 2004. Half life 2 was the first game to require installation of the Steam client to play the game.
Since then Steam knew what a huge potential could have been achieved by having software launcher installed on gamers computer which would allow them to offer new games and purchases. From that day Steam is the only real player in the town. Many game developers would publish their games through Steam since this is the place where are the buyers. With each game purchase or market trade of virtual items Steam is earning their cut so you can imagine how much do they earn.
There you have some other game launchers but they are not on a scale of Steam.
And then I realise that there is very successfull Epic games. They have fresh game which make them a ton of money (Fortnite).
It is like as when it started with steam with half life2. They have a huge player base who had to download and use their game platform. But it's more than that. They have a range of games that steam does not have which servers the purpose of keeping current players to play some other games but also to attract new ones to join epic games instead of steam.
As of late I have seen that every 2 weeks they will offer great deals with giving away games for free which will attract players to join their platform but not just that. Purpose of doing that is to make players feel that they are building valuable account like you do with steam where you collect games, build up your steam account level and makes you feel like you own something.
With Steam making their own game Counter Strike GO go from €15 to free to play I am convinced that this is response for Epic games action.
It has greatly icreased number of players on steam but there is also some backlash to it with old community feeling ripped off.
With that being said I really hope that there emerges competition which would benefit users since they might offer better deals and try to improve by listening to user feedback.
As you could imagine while in monopol I feel as many others that Steam never listened to any feedback, they didn't care about marketing since they were the giant so it will be interesting to see if competition could change that.
Share down your opinion
