Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy… and then it’s only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can’t it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It’s so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic… which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

  • cmhe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Well I can only speak for myself, but I prefer games stores in that order:

    1. GOG, because DRM free and they don’t enforce game updates.
    2. Steam, because they are well integrated into the SteamDeck, they push Linux gaming, and Gabe seems to be an alright guy.
    3. Itch.io, because lots of indy games
    4. Epic Game store, good: free games, bad: Epic and Tim Sweeney.

    There are business decisions with all of them that I dislike.

    For the top dog PC game store, Valve could behave much much worse. Epic is still in the customer and game developer acquisition phase, if the ever manage to push Valve aside, I believe they will be much worse.

    • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      For the top dog PC game store, Valve could behave much much worse.

      But also much much better. They are really hands off with scummy dev practices, such as paid review farms. Sentinels of the Store covered them here. After it blew up, Steam removed some of the most obvious cases, but afaik others remain.

      Steam has also been hosting numerous outright neo-Nazi groups for many years (PDF) and never really stepped up effectively against them. User reports and media attention has limited effect.

      • cmhe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        Sure.

        Valve can do a lot more, but what is more concerning to me is if they are actively consumer unfriendly. There is a difference between passively allowing bad stuff to happen, and actively doing bad stuff.