"Of course, you must be on Steam. But Steam isn't the entire world": CEO of game distribution company says yes, some PC gamers prefer "local" stores to Valve's mega-shop, and China is a huge factor

Steam is massive, and the vast majority of digital PC games live and die by their success on Valve's platform. But other platforms, particularly those serving regions where Steam's reach is limited, can be huge factors in a game's global success. That's the argument presented by Vadim Andreev, CEO of Rokky – a company specialized in helping game publishers reach PC gamers outside of Valve's ecosystem.

"Steam is the centre for everyone, yes," Andreev says in an interview for the latest issue of the Knowledge newsletter. "Of course, you must be on Steam. But Steam isn't the entire world. There are very big markets – China, Eastern Europe, Latin America – where local platforms are simply stronger in trust, in loyalty, in payment behaviour."

Andreev has a vested interest in encouraging publishers to see the digital distribution world outside of Steam. Rokky works with those publishers to help them reach non-Steam platforms, distributing keys, aiding with marketing, and offering sales analysis. The company also happens to own at least one such alternative storefront: ChinaPlay, which was acquired in 2025.

"The whole PC market is growing about two per cent; the Chinese PC market is growing about 15 per cent," Andreev says. "We wanted people who understand this market better than we do."

Across the fast-growing gaming markets in the regions Rokky particularly serves, players "visit local stores because of loyalty programmes, local payment, their own social network," Andreev says. "They know them better. Steam is not unavailable – it's just not their first choice."

You might recall that Rokky recently published a study suggesting that 72% of game devs "see Steam as a monopoly," an assertion that provoked some serious discourse about what constitutes a monopoly and whether Valve's platform meets that definition. Clearly, the folks at Rokky believe there are many parts of the world where Steam can be challenged.

"Steam is great, but it is not enough if you want full global revenue," Andreev says.

Valve has done a "very good job" of building a "massive marketplace" on Windows with Steam, but Microsoft and Xbox are looking to go one step further: "We're going to be everywhere."