this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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You would have a platform to trade games, and another to keep them. The trading platform will be able to undercut the holding platform due to practices such as exclusivity deals. This, in turn, will make the holding platform require a commission fee whenever a game is transferred to it.
If you could get a game for free in the Epic store and transfer it to Steam, where does Steam get the money from?
If you can transfer / buy everywhere, how would there be any exclusivity, though?
Platforms are all already dealing with the possibility that they don't make money but still have to distribute the games. If you bought a game for $0.99 on Steam 15 years ago, and you download it today, they're not making money off you. If you download a F2P game via Steam and never buy anything, they lose money. Hell, I've never bought anything on Steam, but I've probably downloaded terabytes of data from them. They're not making money on me, except maybe with ads (which would apply to this other scenario too).
The platforms also already have to deal with the issue of not getting paid because you bought / got the game somewhere else. You can buy from GMG, etc. and then download from Steam. And publishers give away games frequently during anniversaries, etc. that you then download from Steam or Epic.
My thinking is that the platforms would obviously want to make money, so they're going to price compete to make sure you buy it there instead of buying it somewhere else and downloading it from there.
I also think an inevitable outcome of digital distribution in general is that companies are going to start charging for downloads. Digital games are one time purchases requiring lifetime support. They're not going to let it work that way forever.