While I don't approve of Epic's stabs at exclusivity, Steam needs a competitor to keep it in check, and one that is making some efforts to support the preservation of art is a welcome choice.

[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But GOG is alresdy the Steam with Principles..

[–] echodot@feddit.uk -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As much as I like them I don't think you can call them a competitor.

I've seen games that are available on both platforms that sell hundreds of times more copies on Steam simply because of steam's reputation.

A competitor actually has to be able to compete.

[–] szczuroarturo@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Im pretty sure gog is more popular than epic games . Alghtough i might be biased due to my country of origin.

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca -1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

My experience with GOG is that it is a fringe option, at least in the combined North American (USA+Canada) culture. Plus, the unfortunate reality is that in many cases GOG's principles preclude it from being a genuine competitor to Steam. Insisting on being DRM free means half of released games never go to the platform, so it will always be the secondary "better if" option.

I worry about Steam's functional monopoly on PC game access. It hasn't been an issue so far, because it has remembered that it is, first and foremost, a service, providing consumer protection through a generous refund policy and supporting devs with easy access to simple matchmaking and anti-cheat systems. But without a healthy competitor, it would be easy for Steam to start milking it's users and developers alike.

[–] szczuroarturo@programming.dev 1 points 10 minutes ago

Im pretty sure gog does have some games with drm.