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72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study (www.gamesindustry.biz)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

But I think that being forced to abandon Steam, which is for sure an option they all have in a world with GOG and Epic, is exactly why Valve doesn't really have that power. As soon as that guy sees the $5 lemonade, he's going to hear the other guy yelling that there's a dark alley selling it for $1 around the corner.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    finetuning the lemonade stand analogy, both stands would need to be the same price, as the busy street has a sale price restriction for alternative stands. The lemonade vendor would need to decide whether it was worth losing the busy street as a whole in order to use the dark alley in order to keep the lower 1$ price

    Developers and studios would need to be willing to leave steam (whos market share is estimated to be 75-80% of the PC third party gaming market) and either make their own(costs money + no userbase) or go to the next big thing which would likely be epic (who is at an appoximate 15% game share despite having a 12% cut vs 30 and releasing weekly free games)

    My money is on the devs just raising their price to match steams new price and also allowing both markets to exist.

    note: The percentages I gave are actually on the lower end by the way from the numbers I found. I saw some sites quoting steam to be in the 90's for market share in third party PC gaming.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    I don't see it, especially since Steam got to where it is now by stealing customers who rejected that same price hike on consoles. Everyone learned that Steam sales offer deeper discounts than digital purchases on consoles' walled gardens and that online is free. If customers are savvy enough to do that, they're savvy enough to find other storefronts in a world where Steam sucks. As I see it, anyway. I think I'd have to see the world change in a substantial way to believe otherwise.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I definitely see your concept as plausible. However I think that amount they raise it by would need to be pretty substantial for it to be worth the risk of the studio/developer bailing on steam as a whole.

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