MattyC wrote on Jan 2, 2020, 19:47:
Prez wrote on Jan 2, 2020, 09:22:
Valve was breaking new ground when they launched Steam and thus there was no model to follow. They were basically making things up as they went along and fighting whatever fires popped up as they came.
I would think that goes both ways. Steam had no competition and thus nothing to compare it with. We knew it was a complete shit show, but there was nothing to point and say "why didn't they do it like <X>." Steam in 2004 was a large soft opening for Valve. It wasn't a sales platform yet. It was just a buggy mess, forced on people to not just get HL2, but to continue to play HL1. It didn't become a real digital storefront right away.
At any rate, Steam did have issues on things that you could compare. We had server browsers, chat clients, and friend trackers. They worked, but Steam's sure didn't. It didn't just not work at launch either, it didn't work for years.
Steam is my preferred store and I can't see that changing anytime soon. People do, however, need to take off the coke bottle rose tints they seem to don whenever they look Steam's way.
If I ignored Steam and hated on it from the start until 7 years later, what makes you think I'll excuse away Epic's problems? Its current year bro, not 2003.
Out the door they're insulting their customers as toxic gamers and saying their real customers are the game devs/publishers. You've just opened up a new middle man digital retail store, pop quiz hot shot, what do you do? You don't insult your actual customers and call your suppliers your only real customers. Its not 2003 or 1994. I don't even need forums or reviews or silly achievements. Cloud saves and a shopping cart might be nice though. Not some slapdash, hope the mutliplayer integration works, no customer support, download games multiple times until they just let you download it on uplay and run it from there only, one game at a time work in progress insanity. All along with exclusive access (sometimes 2 weeks in advance of launch) and a price monopoly.
They're lucky they've got me for 2 games, a total of $25 spent.