GOG sails past the bottom of the screen on a skateboard sipping a juicebox with a straw

There was a funnier one with GOG enjoying itself in the corner and the complaining party being Epic lol

Close, but also include the accusation coming from the ones on the left!

Accurate

To be clear, the only time Valve requires prices match what's on Steam is if you're selling Steam keys. Games are sometimes cheaper on GOG and EA and Ubisoft regularly price their games a dollar or two cheaper on their own stores.

Some are DRM free and can be backed up at your leisure. I'm pretty sure that's up to the developer to implement or not.

It would be neat if steam let you sell a game back, but I'm not sure how to square that with "you have a drm free copy that's trivial to copy"

Obligatory GOG shill?

MS was anything but lol, they had a swarm of lawsuit dramas over by then. Only Apple glazed MS because they quite literally saved them from bankruptcy which they only did as insurance against a proper antitrust case.

Google was newer but they also weren't a private company, they were riding silicon valley money to the moon.

Regardless, Steam is a monopoly but their immediate competitors are the only ones chucking anti competitve measures around like crappy DRM and price lockins.

Other gaming platforms are fully capable of competing with Steam. It's only real edge is that it treats game developers better than any other platform.

Think about a manufacturer of gizmos completely cornering the gizmo market

If your monopoly in the Gizmo market is because you've actively fought other companies, lobbied governments, filed frivilous patent suits, etc... in order to KEEP people from competing with you, than you're a piece of shit.

If your monopoly in the Gizmo market is because despite there being no hinderance to them doing so, no competitor has been able to match your quality, than kudos.

In your example, you're effectively saying that governments should force people to use shittier services just to avoid a monopoly, even if that monopoly is earned.

If people want to buy Gizmos, and that first company is losing their trust, another company will come in and compete successfully because that first company isn't preventing them from doing so. If that second company does it better, great.

An earned monopoly and a forced monopoly are not nearly the same thing, precisely because an earned monopoly is on the whim of the consumers. If your product turns to shit, a replacement will make itself known. Whereas a forced monopoly is on the whim of the government and lobbyists.

Of course it's bad. For decades Valve has shown others why gamers value their game store yet most game stores still do stupid shit that drives gamers away.

The only one making an honest attempt is GOG. And their only issue is low purchasing volume which means they are slow to develop and improve their platform.

This gizmo maker is making the best gizmo that everyone loves, best delivery and best support for people that buys the gizmo. Why would you fault that company for delivering what majority of people wanted. They didn’t corner the gizmo market by buying out smaller gizmo makers, they didn’t block smaller gizmo maker by undercutting them, they didn’t even advertise to cut into other’s profit share. They win the capitalist market by making the best gizmo plus the best experience of buying and owning the gizmo.

But other stores exist, they just don't offer what steam does (which includes Play on Linux).
It like if you bought an amazing vacuum that does everything (hardwood, carpet, car attachments, air filtration), and the competitor offers a vacuum that only does carpeted floors...its not a true monopoly, its the competitor not understanding what sells

Nah I think gog is fine, they're just not the same size (and for linux also not plug & play)

Yup, it's why I am willing to argue for them, at least until Gabe dies. He's proven to be far more fair and I know you wouldn't get that deal anywhere else. These days it really does seem like there a coordinated push to attack valve for not being scum like the rest of the industry these last couple of months.

Gog and itch.io are decent. They're different types of stores, but very usable.

The only one that lets me keep in my library, download and install at any time games that were delisted 10 or 15 years ago by their publishers.

For that reason alone, they deserve my money over any other storefront.