this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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Steam does have a monopoly though. They don't do anything anti-competitive with it, so there is not much Epic can do about it (other than make their platform better for the people using it).
Steam does not have a monopoly by any actual definition of monopoly, though. A) Mobile gaming makes up the most of all video gaming revenue. B) On PC the most revenue is made by games that aren't even on Steam in the first place (Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox). Steam's 2023 revenue has been estimated to be around 8.6bn USD out of 45bn USD of PC gaming revenue. That's barely a 5th of the market power. By no account this can be actually considered to be a monopoly.
I love this graphic because it’s a reminder to self-proclaimed “gamers” that mobile gaming has been doing laps around “real” gaming for over half a decade now, with no indication of the trend changing. Yes, mobile games are typically lower quality and more predatory, but it’s undeniable that the average person who plays video games now is just a regular person with a phone.
Yes, but... it's like comparing people that go to the cinema and people who watch reels on Instagram.
Okay, both things involve watching a video, but they are two very different experiences.
This is by revenue, so whales succumbing to mobile bullshit may distort it - a lot.
What is "handheld" here? It doesn't seem like the Switch counts, and I doubt Steam Deck does, so is this this the old handheld-exclusive consoles like 3DS?
Also, it's sad arcade is so small now, I loved arcades as a kid.
Pretty sure from Game Boy up to 3DS.
Just for the sake of being fair, Steam does do one thing which is anticompetitive; they require publishers don't sell their games for less than they do on Steam.
If you think about this for a moment you'll realise it's in the publisher's best interest to agree to this.
Not quite true - they require that you not sell Steam keys for less than you do on Steam. They still don't even stop you from doing giveaways or participating in bundles. It's just that your typical prices on independent Steam key sales, for which they don't even take a cut, can't be lower than Steam prices. Also the seller sets all of these prices.
Given they're footing the bill for indefinitely hosting the games supplied via those keys, that's an entirely reasonable restriction.
This is coming from someone who is against capitalism and all IP law. The big problem with Steam imho is that Gabe Newell won't live forever and when he's gone the company could go public or go to some fail son who will tank it. I'm not even saying Gabe Newell is a great guy or an ethical billionaire, but he's been remarkably consistent in keeping Steam's business model running well.