[blakeyrat]

Valve's "flagship" software product Steam is full of bugs and terrible usability. (The ability to change font size went away when they switched to HTML rendering, and has never come back. Font size. A desktop application which is extremely likely to run on high DPI monitors where you can't adjust the font size.)

I've had a customer service request in for about 4 days now. I know that if/when it gets replied to, the person who replies won't read what I typed and I'll have to explain it again and wait another 5-6 days to get any action. (Before you ask, it's about a DLC that isn't part of their refund policy, so I can't simply refund it.)

Based on Steam's example, I'm not a fan of this concept. They're popular because they have a lot of network effect, not because Steam's any good.

[figgis]

And this has been going on since it's inception, and I am hoping it finally bites them in the butt.

Every single other marketplace even slightly similar to Valve has support that outshines Valve in every single way possible.

EA with their Origin client launch did a fantastic job with customer service and making sure they are keeping as many people that actually use Origin, happy. (yeah we all love to hate them, but they got this one right.) I thought it would go to crap quickly but from my (admittedly limited) experience and what I have heard it is still great.

I am actually scared that should my steam account get hacked I will lose everything. I've used steam for many many years. I've put more money than I should have into it (400+ games) and now I have to be extremely careful that nothing I do screws my account because there is a very good chance that it will go unresolved and I will be out all of that time/money.

Whenever I look to get a game, I buy them any way I possibly can outside of steam before I turn to their platform.

I believe there is time for Valve to turn it around. There are many things they have certainly done right. They've done a great job pushing for Linux, especially since I moved to linux only gaming over a year and a half ago. They've helped Indie developers and modders bring their creations to a unified platform.

[mahyarm]

So why did steam win compared to other online game stores?

And why do they continue to do well with their game offerings?

[jhanschoo]

This is all from memory, so I may misidentify some factors as important and fail to identify some factors, and my chronology may be wrong.

Steam won because it had first mover advantage. Valve was historically a developer, and it launched Steam with a highly-anticipated game, so I suppose it didn't have pre-existing relationships with its retailers to negotiate. Other traditionally to-retail large publishers didn't get into the online distribution and online DRM game till quite a bit later. Meanwhile, the indie gaming scene exploded, and many of them chose to distribute via Steam.

As for why it continues to be the most popular platform, I presume that they are mostly due to it's reach as a channel as well as its gamification of its platform to encourage loyalty and spending. I think I should let someone who's seen things from the developer side answer this though.