Who are you expecting to come on top in digital distribution market?

[Brenker]

Discord will take over them all

[twidget]

GoG would be my choice to become the leader in digital distribution but it'll probably be the 800 lb gorilla that is Steam.

[Anaconda156]

What if the fact that the Epic store takes a lower % on the game causes the price of those games to be lower than Steam? Could this motivate you to buy on the Epic Store instead of Steam?
I recently got subnautica from the epic store and when the game starts it tries to start the Steam VR thingy as I have an Oculus dev kit. I'm wondering if Epic will be able to sell games that have the multiplayer managed via steam for player invite. If this works and they have a lower price for the game I would gladly use the Epic store but as the friend list is not shared between the two stores I'm guessing that most people will just stay on Steam for the convenience.
A bit more concurrence between Steam and others would be good for us in the long run.

[xadu]

I wish I could buy games directly form the creator. All money to him. Cut the intermediary.

Platforms like steam police your toughs, ban you with arbitrary rules, survey you, and make games more expensive by taking his cut.

[Matias]

even tho i prefer gog i would say steam is gonna stay on top.

[Medi22]

I've seen the name gog.com tossed around a few times before, but until searching it up I'd somehow never realised it was a game store. Maybe I just forgot, or wrote it off because the UI reminded me of League of Legends terrible design and ecosystem.

[isturbo1984]

Someone forgot Xbox

[Borghir]

Now yes MS windows store is really bad and has been really bad. However, if they get it working well, it could easily take up a huge market share. It would be pre-built into every windows PC, and Microsoft has huge market share of OS and all games are made for Windows.

That does sound like a solid plan, except Microsoft will face a lawsuit the second they release it. Media Player and Internet Explorer also had lawsuits against them for the exact same reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micros..._v._Commission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...Microsoft_Corp.

[xadu]

To me, Windows Store would be the worst possible one, because of the tyranny of Microsoft forcing it onto people.

Microsoft controls computers, installs software without the user's knowledge, and forces abusive EULAS on people. I don't want the company making the OS to also control other things on my computer.

I do not want any "service" from microsoft. I do not want a microphone on me 24/7, I do not want my documents being uploaded to microsoft without my consent ("even the ones not provided by the user"), I do not want to cede my copyrights to microsoft for free ("you consent to Microsoft’s collection, use and disclosure of Your Content and Data"), and for commercial purposes. I do not want microsfot to tell me what to do ("Don’t engage in activity that is harmful to you"). Basically, windows EULA is a blank contract where you agree to anything microsoft want from you "We may change these Terms at any time ... you agree to the new terms".

[aileron]

Probably only because Microsoft Store has failed badly that's why it isn't being sued by Steam etc. It's clearly the same kind of bundling like IE and Media Player, but hasn't had the same success as they did back in the day.

[Animusisters]

I bet on the professional capitalists.

[Clyde Frog]

I wanna say Steam, but I'd be willing to bet on Epic. Mainly because of their grasp on the Unreal Engine. Steam can cut their percentage of the game sales to compete with them, but Epic can really make a move with working some deals out to ease that licensing fee for developers.

[ethansito]

New competitors like Epic Games and Discord are going to force Valve to get off its lazy ass and fix their UI. We have already seen some improvements in the chat system, and I expect them to start fixing the rest of the buggy mess eventually.

[k4far]

New competitors like Epic Games and Discord are going to force Valve to get off its lazy ass and fix their UI. We have already seen some improvements in the chat system, and I expect them to start fixing the rest of the buggy mess eventually.

I think the games they have to offer are pretty shit not the UI.

[PriestTroit]

On the very few PC games I have, I've mostly used Steam. No problems. I once bought Pillars of Eternity (I think) from GoG and it was a hassle because I had to pay in a different currency and something else I forgot.

Most of the digital games I've bought, however, were from Xbox Marketplace and PlayStation Network.