[bergheim]

Everybody says this. It's so weird.

How on earth will epic win without exclusives? It's like launching some Facebook competitor "but you get two profile pictures". Noone would switch.

All these geeks singing steam and lamenting competition. Competition bad for me mkay, steam good.

/me shakes head

[hamdingers]

How do they win with exclusives? The strategy is nonsense.

For Sony, I get it. I want to play Demon Souls, I buy a PS5, now I own a PS5 I'm gonna buy more games for it.

But for EGS this doesn't make sense. It costs me nothing to install both stores on my PC. I buy Alan Wake 2 on EGS, great, that doesn't make me any more likely to buy the next game I want there. Nothing about the platform is sticky or requires a sunk cost.

Unless they're making enough money on the exclusive games to justify the deals on their own (which, given this announcement, seems unlikely) I don't see how they or you think it could work.

[lmm]

> It costs me nothing to install both stores on my PC.

But you wouldn't bother unless you have a reason to. I put off buying games I wanted to for months because I'd've had to install a new store. No-one is going to install a store for nothing.

> I buy Alan Wake 2 on EGS, great, that doesn't make me any more likely to buy the next game I want there.

Now every time you launch Alan Wake 2 they get a chance to sell you another game. If you see a game you like, why wouldn't you buy it on EGS now that you've installed it and know it works? They've got your email address now and can send you recommendations or tell you when there's a sale on.

Sure, it's still going to be an uphill struggle. But if they can't get you to install the store then they can't even start.

[lux-lux-lux]

This is definitely wrong, Steam’s stickiness is a massive selling point.

[hamdingers]

What part? Finish your thought.

Steam is sticky (social features, network effects, etc) and EGS is not, so EGS exclusives do not work. What part of this is "definitely wrong"?

[johnnyanmac]

It's called a network effect. At some point, you use it because you use it. And without any killer feature, you have no reason to move. It's not "wrong", but it explains why "just do better than Steam" does not work.

[hamdingers]

Comment is suspect. Defines a term I already used like you think you're introducing it, and addresses an argument I didn't make.

Did you use an LLM to generate this? Don't do that.

[johnnyanmac]

No, I am sadly human. Heck, these days I'm sloppier with my typing specifically to avoid such accusations.

You asked why and I answered with the real reason. It's not that deep. People don't leave because people don't leave. If that's not a satisfying answer, I agree. But reality can be irrational.

[johnnyanmac]

Historically, exclusives have been the only way to get an edge in. And it only takes one system seller to pull it off.

Or at least, that's how it worked 20 years ago. Thing is, games got so diverse, as well as the rise of "forever games" that there's fee actual "systrlem sellers" these days. It's really just GTA that comes to mind now.

[autoexec]

I'd love steam to have some competition. epic isn't it though. Epic sucks up your personal data to sell to advertisers and "marketing partners", the client itself is trash, it's just one more middle man to get in your way (https://old.reddit.com/r/EpicGamesPC/comments/zc5ri3/playing...) at inconvenient times.

A good competitor would not come from a game publisher. It wouldn't collect any more data than it needs and wouldn't use your data for marketing or sell it to anyone else. It also wouldn't be able to remove your ability to access and play the games you've already purchased for any reason.

Bad products/services that are more trouble than they are worth do not magically become good because they might compete in some ways with something else.

GoG is the closest thing to a steam competitor right now and even in that case I have zero incentive to install their client.

[array_key_first]

Competition is good, the EGS is bad and anti-consumer.

Two anti-consumer products is probably better than one, but I also hate Epic as a company, so I would just prefer for Steam to win. At least I like half-life.