One game developer has a theory on why Steam has remained the dominant PC storefront for so many years despite the existence of high-profile competitors like the Epic Games Store.
Witchfire creator Adrian Chmielarz, who co-founded Polish studio The Astronauts in 2012, partially credits the success of Witchfire with its early days as an Epic Games Store timed exclusive, but he didn't shy away from criticisms in an interview with FRVR. Chiefly, he compared Steam very favorably to the Epic Games Store in terms of community features.
"There's actually so much happening in that community hub for every single game, much more than I ever imagined," he said, "and it's no wonder that people sort of get invested emotionally in Steam. And then they feel like, 'Okay, my home is here, so my personal library is here'. So when something is released exclusively to Epic, something they want to play, then it's a problem for them because now I'm gonna [have to] cheat on my home library with some other shop."
It's true that the Epic Games Store is a little barebones compared to Steam, lacking the social features that make Steam more than just a place to buy and launch games. It's also true that Steam is absolutely the place to be for PC games and their developers, which is probably why the developers behind indie horror game Horses seemed to make a much bigger deal out of getting banned on Steam versus the Epic Games Store.
"People are not, basically, using EGS as their home, it’s not home to them," said Chmielarz. "I don't know if it’s deliberate or not but they [EGS] don’t have written reviews. They don’t have the forums. There’s nothing to do there but to buy. So that will always lose to a shop that is also emotional and you can basically engage with the shop."
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