Thread 714538013

Will there ever be a viable alternative? If you don't use Steam, what do you use outside of piracy?

>>714538013 (OP)
as soon as someone decides to put in the work to make a platform with the same features as steam then there will be competition

>>714538013 (OP)
I use Steam, GOG and piracy.
It's PC after all so you don't have to swear allegiance to one platform.

>>714538013 (OP)
GOG for old games because anything on Steam older than 2010 just doesn't fucking work

and EGS for the free shit they give me every week

>>714538013 (OP)
if they bring back physical pc releases

i won’t use anything but steam
don’t release on steam? guess you don’t want my money
i want to open ONE thing and all my games are there

>>714539218
This. It's my way or the highway. Devs kneel before me and suck my dick on command.

Anyone know if playnite is any good and if there's any reason someone would use it over the steam client?

>>714538013 (OP)
As long as companies continue their obsession with short-term profits, no.

>>714538013 (OP)
The only alternative to steam, gog and piracy is physical media
But devs wont release their 120gb game on a 26 disk pack

>>714538013 (OP)
>Will there ever be a viable alternative?
no because corporations are simply too retarded as we have seen for the past 20 years.
> If you don't use Steam, what do you use outside of piracy?
i'll use gog if possible. other than that ubi connect once every few years to play anno or an old ass creed and ea play for some old need for speeds i have there, that's it.

>>714538013 (OP)
I use Steam and GOG, and I mainly use GOG just for ancient games that don't have proper Steam support or they're buggy on it etc.

I'm going to build up a GOG archive of my top 100 games (at least those that are available on GOG) and store on cold storage archive in case of dead internet apocalypse scenario. Apart from that I always use Steam.

>>714538013 (OP)
A desktop icon I remove again when I finish with the game it links to.

>>714538152
The features don't matter if you don't have the games, which nobody else really does. Even then there are tons of people with hundreds of games on steam who aren't going to want to switch even if a new platform is objectively superior. Steam will only lose its stranglehold on the market if it goes to shit after Gabe dies.

>>714542108
100 GB Bluray discs are standard. And yes, I do have a 5.25" BD drive in my PC.

Epic has the opportunity to become an alternative.
They just gotta stop paying devs to give away free games and actually add features to their platform.
Right now I have like 300? Games on Epic, and I never use because it's a chore to use their launcher.
Everything takes forever to load...
That's just basic features, but they're not competing with 2003 steam, It's 2025 now and they have A LOT of catching up to do.

why try and compete with steam? Its basically the gold standard and has conditioned PCfags on what level of quality should be the norm for a storefront. Despite this devs still just sell the game through their own servers with no problem

Only thing steam does extremely shitty are pre-2010 games where they sell them on the store but most of them are broken
Like prototype on steam straight up does not work properly unless you do a million fixes which is retarded
GOG kinda does this but everything else about it is worse than steam so still not worth the switch

I will use a Steam alternative when:
>run by a private company
>is pro consumer/anti dev like Steam
>has at least all of Steam's features

>>714548183
All the big ones tried to make their own stores but ended up crawling back to steam in the end because users just didn't switch over. Origin was fucking awful and I hated using it for BF3 and dead space.
>Why try
Because they wouldn't have to pay steam their 30% cut if they hosted it on their own instead.

Fun fact. Amazon was apparently trying to defeat steam and nobody even knew. Pic related.

>>714538013 (OP)
>Will there ever be a viable alternative
No, because it's a monopoly.

>>714549035
cost more than 30% to host their own platform methinks

>>714549404
Go ahead and tell me why origin, uplay, and epic store exist then.

>>714549503
>ea sports
>France, Canada, Singapore government money
>fortnite

>>714549647
By your logic why is fortnite not on steam. I already know why (Tim even told us) but go ahead and say it.

>>714549796
it's on android, xbox, playstation

>>714545440
Getting the game library is easy, as the model is to charge per-sale, not to list. Epic has a comparable library, but the client is gay and Timmy burned too many bridges.
>>714538013 (OP)
Even making a comparable store now isn't enough, due to the head start. The only people you might woo are people just getting into PC gaming. If someone opened something exactly like Steam, I have no incentive to buy there instead of Steam, where all my games are rolled up into one package.

>>714538013 (OP)
>Will there ever be a viable alternative?
Absolutely not.
There ARE viable alternatives, but you will find an argument against them anyway.
Steam won solely because they were first and nobody feels comfortable leaving without drastic reasons (such as Steam dying or doing something that directly kills someone's library)

>>714552126
There really aren't viable alternatives.
Epic is the only store with a comparable library, but you have a shitty client with no basic features like game migration (either to a new drive or getting a reinstalled client to recognize games already installed).
GOG doesn't have a comparable library, and also has a shitty client. The alternative to their shitty client is to download 4GB chunks on a web page like it's 1998.
MS doesn't have a comparable library.
EA doesn't have a comparable library.
Ubisoft? LAWL

There's really nothing else on PC, because nobody wants to put in the work to be close to what Steam is.

>>714552045
yeah but all MY games are on steam.
im not buying 18 years of games on a new service.
which means ill always still have to have steam
so i may as well just keep buying the games i need to buy on steam.
hell, i may even put the games i buy off steam on steam, so i can launch them easily without needing to track down wherever i bought them from originally for updates.

>>714539218
>i want to open ONE thing and all my games are there
You can add non steam games to your steam library

>>714552654
But why, when Steam sells them as well? What benefit is there to buying elsewhere, barring a sale (at the cost of convenience)?

>>714552654
too much work
i don’t want to install other launchers and create other accounts and then become hackerman to make it compatible with steam. i want zero part of any of that. i want to click buy, click play in the same window, and play a game.

>>714538013 (OP)
>Will there ever be a viable alternative?
No. Corporations literally do not care about putting in effort for their copycat platforms.
>If you don't use Steam, what do you use outside of piracy?
Most people use Steam. Contrarians and some genuine innocent people use GOG. (the innocents don't post on 4chan)
The rest are probably playing on console. EA Origin and Uplay users are almost entirely on console.

>>714549035
funny and shows how out of touch big corporations are.
"yeah people will use our storefront because twitch n shiet"
steam will never get overtaken, other companies value short term profit too much to build an ecosystem like it. Even sony is bending the leg now and selling their games on steam.

>>714553015
>bending the leg
bending the knee**

>>714553015
the part i never understood about steams side is the broadcasting and social features they keep implimenting just doesnt take off.
steam could easily overtake twitch with the infrastructure they have built, just no one uses it.

>>714553120
why would they, twitch exists, and thats where all their streamers are.

>>714538013 (OP)
No, they won

>>714553075
Your image reminds me that all birds are precious. There is not a single ugly bird on God's green Earth.

Only game I've had to use Steam for was Lost Ark and it is not something I would consider worth playing.
Steam cultists are severely mentally ill. Doesn't help that Steam is obviously one of the tranny jannies paying sponsors.

>>714553120
>>714553151
This. Making the same mistake Amazon did would be dumb. If they can easily improve it for cheap then they probably will.

>>714553228
New challenger.
>>714553256
What do you get out of lying on the internet for free?

>>714553151
>>714553317
then why do they keep adding the features and actively work on them? it just doesnt make sense to me.

>>714553120
if they wanted to invest money into it by advertising, getting streamers on contract, etc. then they could probably carve out at least somewhat of a market share, but I imagine it's an uphill battle and not worth it for them just based on how long youtube and twitch have been around.
Most of their broadcasting infrastructure
is just used by game devs to advertise or for them to stream counter-strike/dota majors or whatever (and even for those they don't mind the hosts streaming on yt and twitch)
>>714553228
hell yeah brother

>>714553120
Steam client is slow as hell as a social network software.

>>714553402
because maybe they'll hit something that does work.
they aren't JUST trying to do what someone else does, they're trying to incorporate things that work elsewhere into their service, and hope something takes off in a major way.
like tf2 hats
or trading cards
or VR

>>714548740
Prototype didn't work on launch for me

>>714553318
I would genuinely keep this as a pet to protect its ugly smile. It deserves to have life on this world, even if nature decides it doesn't.
>>714553425
God I love parrots.

>>714553402
Because it kept them ahead of the competion. Now any competitor needs twelve million features to even attempt to claim theirs is better. Epic couldn't even put on a fucking shopping cart for years.

I can even drag my save file into the chat bar with a friend and send him the file directly. Does that feature need to exist? No, but it's awesome that it does. We even used steam voice the other day and the quality was just as good as discord/mumble.

>>714538013 (OP)
A disk drive
> buh they don't release new games on disks
New games suck.

>>714553610
You wouldn't keep mine, though, as it's a king vulture and it would maul the shit out of you.

>>714553737
I don't care if I'm alive or dead at any given moment. A bird that might hate me would break my heart but it wouldn't put the fear of God into me.

>>714553586
yeah, i got prototype as a physical disk and only later put it on steam.
its just a broken game
same thin ghappened with farcry 3, entering the snow areas would literally overheat my GPU, thats not a steam issue.
GoG puts in the work to fix those games, which is for sure a value add, but if you're going out of your way to play a game from 2010, you're probably also willing to spend the time finding forums and downloading patches to play it.

>>714553402
Twitch and Discord doesn't work in 167 countries. Think about the guy using Steam in Antarctica.

>>714552045
>Epic has a comparable library
not even close. Its comparable for larger scale games, but most indies and stuff aren't on there.
Would sooner use GOG than EPIC, because EPIC does nothing to set itself apart from steam other than buying exclusives, so most people perceive as just diet-steam.
GOG has the no-DRM thing going for them, and tries to be as non-intrusive as possible

I mean if you had an exclusive gaming sensation that took the world by storm with over 10 million concurrent players at one point, literally all you'd have to do is invest in you platform to replicate the important features steam has and not take half a decade to implement a shopping cart button.

The only way you could possibly fuck up so a strong starting point is by instead investing in limited time exclusives that garner animosity, free handouts of dated titles that return minimal user retention, and focus on legal battles.

>we'll give you a indieslop game no one wanted if you download our platform with no reviews!
what did epic mean by this

>>714553960
But GOG lacks a lot of major games, has a shitty client like Epic (exactly like Epic, EA, and Ubisoft; ackshually), and has an even shittier alternative to using the client.

>>714554049
They have reviews but it's random on game exit and only after a certain number of hours. Means the people with game crashes happening never get to leave a review lol.

The biggest hurdle for any competition is that Steam simply has a gigantic headstart. GOG kind of had the right idea with the "library migration" feature as in if you already own a game on Steam, you get to redeem it on GOG as well for free. It quickly fell apart because there's just too many games and GOG is far too small.

>>714538013 (OP)
The only viable alternative is gog. There is no reason to use any other launcher outside of exclusivity bullshit.

>>714538013 (OP)
Unlikely. The effort that a company would need to put into it would be insane. Were talking operating at a loss for potentially decades while consistently pleasing customers and being the steam of the original summer and winter sales. I can see it happening only if the EU really steps up to be a competitor in tech which in of itself is unlikely.

>>714554684
GOG lacks a large chunk of games, thougheverbeit. Also, managing/installing games is a chore.

Steam pros
>98% of all games
>constant sales
>it's *the* PC platform
>it works

GOG pros
>"idiotproofed abandonware with benefits" (manuals, soundtracks, other goodies; already implemented patches official and unofficial; if for some reason you don't know how to deal with DOSBox and ScummVM, GOG will do it for you
>2% of actual exclusives you can only get on GOG as of right now because they literally fixed the games and made them run/made them run better on modern hardware
>offline installers
>it works

>>714554830
>includes regular DOSbox in their releases, even though it doesn't work on modern machines
>have to replace it with DOSbox Staging anyway

>>714538013 (OP)
I pirate most of the time but even I buy games on Steam because fuck pirate sites ever updating a game at a decent pace. I know beggars can't be choosers but if I gotta play a game lacking a major update that been out for a whole ass month if not more then yea, Steam suddenly become a lot more temping. Gabe knew what the fuck he was doing. His service somehow outweigh getting something for free.

>>714549035
man origin was practically malware, that shit way too hard to remove for a vidya storefront

>>714555101
>uninstall
>disappears
>too hard to remove
Maybe linux is more your speed if you aren't smart enough to use Windows.

>>714554941
Wow really? I mean I already presumed they don't update versions of DOSBox (or ScummVM?) to be honest. That's why I said it's "idiotproof abandonware". Anyone that knows even a little about games will want to do this stuff themselves.

>>714538013 (OP)
Viable alternative would be a bad thing. Look at the state of movie streaming service now, it was a better time when Netflix had true monopoly. Now all of the dozens of streaming services rely on exclusivity so you feel compelled to subscribe to multiple of them.

There can only be an viable alternative if it offers something Steam doesn't that outweighs anything else missing from this new platform. This is why EGS fails so badly because it doesn't even offer anything close to parity with Steam let alone something alternative that outweighs its drawbacks. Sure they can offer free games all they want but that doesn't outweigh how much of a god awful platform it is enough to justify using it for anything except those free games. And even if one could offer parity without having some sort of massive draw you aren't going to somehow claw over existing Steam users since all their shit is already there hence they want to keep using it.

>>714555052
>His service somehow outweigh getting something for free.
It is nice to no longer have to reinstall a massive game for an update that is less than 1/20th of it size. Also get the updates on day 1.

>>714555472
The free games just hurt it in my case. It ate an email claiming it was already being used but the account was never made so no password recovery or any way to access it, it was like the platform auto deleted it without clearing the email. Try a different email later for a free copy of Enter The Gungeon just for more or less the same thing to happen AGAIN. The platform was so awful I literally couldn't even get the free shit. Why would I ever put money into something that I can't even trust to make an account on? Not that I could anyway with my non-existing accounts. The free games just told me how unreliable and shitty it was. Seem counterproductive to their goals at the time.

>>714555232
this man didnt install origin, smart move honestly

>>714555909
There was a bug (now fixed) in the MELE where achievements past 1 wouldn't be logged, even by Steam. It required manually installing an old version of Origin and forcing updates off to get them to register. It uninstalled easily.

>>714555232
He's right. Back when Origin first released there were major issues when it came to installing/uninstalling the client. Files would get left on your computer making it impossible to uninstall/reinstall correctly. Just do a "EA origin uninstall issues" and you'll find hundreds of posts about it from years ago.

The main reason I use Steam is Steam Input API, it is fucking great, I added StarCraft 2 and I play it with my Steam Controller. I did add my PC GayPass games (with glosSI) too, which was a pain in the ass because UWP but whatever.

Steam is really good for the customer.

I feel like Microsoft will try to open a REAL online store, and pull people with exclusive games, like an Apple Arcade. But I also feel like even that would fail.

Epic could be decent if Timmy tried to build himself up instead of tearing Valve down.

>>714556902
Epic fell on their faces due to that shit. MS had some of their own games exclusive (Gears of War Ultimate, though Reloaded got released on Steam. Isn't Minecraft exclusive as well?).

GOG
without game on gog i pirate
If i cant download offline installer i dont own game

Theo only two I'd even condier are Battle.net and GoG. I don't play anything from Blizzard right now, but they were always floating around the PC games space so they have a pass. GoG offer DRM-free games so they have that going for them
Everyone else can fuck off.
Especially Epic
>buying exclusivity from 3rd party developers
>dropped every non-fortnite BR game like a bad habit, fucking over any faith I would have into their other projects
>EGS itself lacks features and for some reason has a fucking awful download/install speed compared to the competition.
>The browsing experience for the library and the store is awful
The only reason it's not uninstalled is because of the free games, but I don't even play them so it's becoming a moot point.

>>714549035
Steam does the advertising for them and lets them use their own bandwidth to download games AND lets them use the API tfor their steamworks servers so they don't even have to worry about who is going to host their master listen server for their multiplayer games. 30% is generous

>>714555751
On paper free games does sound like a viable lure to get people on platform. But when using said platform is akin to pulling teeth no one is going to stick around and put real money into using the platform. I know it has been talked about to death but just the simple lack of the Shopping Cart function and how long they took to implement that was the perfect example of them demonstrating they don't understand the first thing about creating an online marketplace. That simple feature was already learned back in the 90's to be a critical ease of use feature for any online marketplace. That is before even addressing the psychological benefits to having it since it makes impulse buys significantly easier etc. They weren't just proving they didn't understand what made Steam desirable as a platform, they were showing a fundamental lack of understanding of business and operational lessons learned well prior to Steam existing.

>>714538804
>and EGS
Liar.

>>714556737
this, and there will never be an alternative because other companies don't want to put in the work that valve has

>>714556902
That would basically be their 3rd attempt at doing so. Maybe 4th if you include XB Live integration to PC. They are arguably positioned best to get their foot in the door to do something like that since they could have it installed on Windows as a default. But they have a proven track record of making such marketplaces and systems are bad as possible.

>>714549035
>Steam was more than just a store it had other features we didn't bother to implement fuck you pay me millions of dollars in compensation for not knowing this obvious fact
Falling upwards is scary.

>>714557398
Think of all the money that could have been saved if they pulled some random steam user off the street and asked him why he didn't want to switch to their shitty service.
But if they did that they wouldn't have had a well paying job making a platform nobody wants for a service that already exists.

>>714557398
You would be surprised at what sort of retardation management people with business degrees will believe. Even if you know something obvious you have to convince these retards who hold the purse strings and already have their vision set in stone that they are wrong and should listen to you instead. You can have the most quantitative and empirical evidence showing they are wrong or making bad assumptions and they will still just say no and go with what they feel.

>>714557541
>so we want to be steam
>have you used Steam?
>well no but my idea is better.
Basically.

>>714545440
No, the features do actually matter. Steam is good because the user experience is better than everything else. I tried using GoG but the user experience is absolutely miserable, so I have to go out of my way to force myself to use it instead of being happy to just use it.
Like at one point GoG Galaxy didn't work on my computer for MONTHS, I ain't gonna spend a long time troubleshooting it. It did eventually get fixed and started working again, but I think it was at least 3 months at that point. Probably more. The issue was reported by someone else the whole time too.

>>714557747
It is literally that. And they will hire a new Project Manager specifically to run it who also has no idea about any of it either. Who will block any feedback to the top about how bad an idea this is or where it is going wrong. All whilst money goes into the dumpster fire. Or worse they will hire someone who does know what they are doing and then proceed to not listen to them anyway.

>>714556902
They already tried that and it failed. That's why Microsoft started putting their games on Steam in the first place.

>>714557948
A lot of people come up with crazy theories about how MS will operate in the future, and it's things that they either tried (exclusives on their store) or is actually a regression of policy (subscriptions for home Windows licenses, when they now give away Windows for free after decades of WGA and other draconian shit). MS is the big bad, and they're going to rape your mom when you're not looking.

>>714555052
>Gabe knew what the fuck he was doing. His service somehow outweigh getting something for free.
GabeN outweighs everything, why are you surprised?

>>714558142
MS just regressed when it comes to technical competence. Which is a fucking hilarious thing to say given their track record yet somehow it is true. Unless they can magically unfuck that part of their business they aren't going to be able to have a real footing to pursue other business prospects.

>>714558380
They have certain markets printing money, so they gamble elsewhere with house money. They have their fingers in so many pies that they always net positive.

>>714558142
People seem to fail to understand that Microsoft is only interested in AI, now. They ignore that both they and Sony are showing heavy signs of becoming third parties. Everyone is seeing that, some are making plans to switch to PC and Nintendo, others are quiting gaming.

>>714558573
Nobody's quitting gaming. People are just "quitting gaming" on 4chan and YouTube as part of a demoralization campaign.

>>714557857
Part of GOG's appeal is completely bypassing the client and using the backup installers. Features obviously play a part but the fact of the matter is that GOG simply doesn't have a significant number of games on its store that steam has. You can switch to GOG and stomach the worse user experience if it had all the games you want, but you cannot use just GOG if it lacks a game you want to play, at a minimum you will have to use it in conjunction with doing something else. So lacking games is a complete non-starter to genuinely competing with Steam because Steam will always have users even among those who prefer its competitors while most Steam users will continue to just use Steam and nothing else, because it's much more convenient to use one platform and because they can, which other platforms don't offer. If GOG gave the middle finger to galaxy but had all the games Steam had (minus denuvo ones I guess) while playing up the drm-free angle as always I guarantee you there would be way more people using GOG.

>>714560790
It's Nintendo and PC or Nintendo or PC going forward, no one is going to spend over $1000 for a PS6 or next Xbox. Sony and Microsoft pretty much lost this and may be on their way out of gaming since the corporations and investors are becoming less and less interested in it.

A competitor would need to do somethin radical like offering purchase parity with Steam.
Own it on Steam? Cool, now you can download it through us as well.
Getting publishers on board would be almost impossible, b it'd give it a great start.

>>714538013 (OP)
I need valve to hurry the fuck up and make Loonix at least as good as Windows so I can get the fuck off Microsoft's wild ride.

>>714538013 (OP)
I like gog, I sometimes double dib and buy games i already bought on steam on gog if there is a good sale.

>>714562691
It mostly works fine.
Sometimes you have to manually tell it to use a specific Proton version but that's about it.

Emulation, standalone, gog installers.

>>714562691
It's not made to kill Windows, it's made to be the gaming OS for PC gaming.

I'd stop using Windows if there was an alternative, but sadly, MS makes the only OS for x86-64.

>>714562186
Yeah sure. Small problem. The backup installers are fucking TRASH. Literally wouldn't even let me install my game because my hard drive (which I never ever intended to install the game on) did not have enough free space. GoG Galaxy could install the game fine, but the backup installers? No.
Also the installer download was split in like 40 files or something retarded like that. Fuck this, why? Just have a torrent or something holy shit.