[brendoelfrendo]

> It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your platform. Just make it a nice experience.

I feel like this is good advice, and should still be a pillar of building a business: prioritize customer satisfaction, and your happy customers will become repeat customers. But I don't think it's enough. Epic tried to launch a store in 2018, 15 years after the launch of Steam. That's 15 years of customers buying their games on steam, building a friends list, and getting used to making Steam their PC gaming "home." How do you convince someone who might have hundreds of games tied to one online account, that it is in their interest to open a new online account with a new merchant and start over from scratch? Your experience can't just be nicer, it needs to have some level of appeal that convinces customers to peel themselves away from whatever platform is their current default.

I don't have a good answer for how to accomplish this. Epic tried it by paying devs for exclusives and freebies, litigation, and a PR campaign that Valve and Apple and Google were ripping people off. Their approach was hostile and didn't prioritize making a nice experience, and it seems to have failed. But I think these platforms are sticker than we give them credit for, and just making a nice experience isn't enough.

[vablings]

15 years is not some insane gap that you can't get around. The biggest issue is that the EGS is just an inferior experience compared to steam, that's simply it.

If Epic games really wanted to start eating away at steams market share, they would do one thing. Make EGS not shitty for the user

[johnnyanmac]

15 years is a humongous gap. Almost an entire generation. Do you expect to make a Facebook killer in 2022? A WOW killer in 2017? Make a DOTA killer right now?

There's so many people who aren't even your market, they are an "one game player". You can't target that realistically unless that one game shits the bed.

[bentcorner]

Tik Tok is arguably a Facebook killer.

Roblox is in some ways there, I think Epic thought fortnite could have competed. IMO they made a strategic mistake in shackling their game-as-a-platform to Fortnite. I thought the music fortnite thing looked interesting, but I have negative interest in installing Fortnite.

Call it something else and make it literally the first thing you see on epicgames.com, have it work on mobile, and maybe things would be different today.

(Aside: Roblox wins because I can go from typing in roblox.com into my browser and be playing a game with a friend in under 20s)

[vablings]

Instagram was a Facebook killer until Facebook bought it.

Snapchat was a Facebook killer until Facebook bought a VPN service and tracked every user without consent then stole half its features

I guess you could say LoL is a DOTA killer since its significantly more popular now, although some of that is likely to do with the Russian/Ukraine war

Giving actual compelling reasons to get users on your platform is the only way and the best way and that isn't really a function of time. TeamSpeak, Ventrilo and Mumble got eaten up by Discord and also most game forums

One of the biggest issues with all these stores that are other than steam is that they suck in terms of UI/UX and they are HUGE resource hogs, I am more inclined to kill off the epic games launcher from running in the background because it taking up gigabytes of my system memory and that annoys me

[johnnyanmac]

Steams's UI is also meh and is also a resource hog. There's a good reason I don't keep any launcher running at startup.

>Giving actual compelling reasons to get users on your platform is the only way

And sometimes there is no compelling reason. People may only want 1 or 2 things and they bias towards what they are familiar with.i suspect that's why Twitter is still technically a market leader (despite falling apart behind the scenes).

I also think it's really funny that talk about offering a good platform then mention an example where the market leader just gobbles them up.

[tzs]

> How do you convince someone who might have hundreds of games tied to one online account, that it is in their interest to open a new online account with a new merchant and start over from scratch?

I haven't play a PC game in a long time, so don't have any experience with the modern game stores and playing downloadable games.

I understand that these stores are more than just places to buy games--they also include extensive social media aspects.

But surely you don't have to give up one store if you make another account on another store? If you are on Steam and have a large friends list there and want to try a game that is only on some other PC game store couldn't you send a message to your Steam friends saying you are going to try that other game and asking if anyone else wants to come play with you?

If you meet people in that new game and want to be online friends, just point them to your Steam account and say that's your main gaming social media site, or point them to some non-gaming social media if you actively use any and they aren't also on Steam.

[toast0]

Freebies and discounts helps get people in the door. Having an experience that people don't hate might keep them there.

I don't buy a lot of games, but when I do, I don't usually look at Epic. I'd rather buy on GOG or Steam. Steam is probably from inertia, but if Epic provided a better than Steam experience on the games I've gotten for free, than I might consider it. I don't really know what would qualify as better than steam though... maybe faster startup, less dumb prompts?

I don't even consider buying games on the Microsoft store though, so Epic has a leg up --- if it's sale season, I will look to see if Epic has a bigger sale than Steam.

[IshKebab]

> Your experience can't just be nicer,

No but it has to be at least nicer and they didn't manage that.

[tayo42]

Why did they need to make a store? Seems like there was no need for it...

[brendoelfrendo]

Why does anyone need to make a store? Walmart and Target both exist. Generally, consumer choice and industry competition are considered good things that drive innovation and the nicer experiences we're talking about.

[kgwgk]

Interestingly both Walmart and Target opened in 1962. There were other stores by then, so I guess there was no need.

[saalweachter]

Maybe they saw the 30% cut Apple and Google were taking on their app stores and wanted in on the action?

[johnnyanmac]

The litigation angle to legitmatize a mobile storefront was smart. Having a company able to offer premium mobile games with a proven track record could have had it stand out from Steam, or at least open on an untapped market.

But it seems that gamble slowed as the economy did. Worse yet, China and Korea have gotten much more attractive to get people into their casinos. Competition is stiffer than ever.