For me the killing feature of Steam is its longevity. I still have in my library the games that I bought in 2008. It means that I can reasonably expect my library to work for the rest of my life. I can't say the same of any other store, much less some newfangled startup.
The only conditions under which I can imagine switching to another store is if publishers would suddenly stop releasing their games on Steam en masse. And I mean en masse, not just one or two popular publishers.
Sure that's nice, but plenty of games on Steam require third-party logins and Internet connected DRMs, even for single player games. The day the publisher decides to retire the infrastructure for the game is the day the game becomes unplayable, even if still technically available to download on Steam.
Not really, Steam is big enough that they could nudge the industry in the right direction.
For example, GOG does not sell any game with DRM or Internet connected crap, even if it requires making tough decisions like removing the Hitman reboot from its store.
> For me the killing feature of Steam is its longevity. I still have in my library the games that I bought in 2008. It means that I can reasonably expect my library to work for the rest of my life. I can't say the same of any other store, much less some newfangled startup.
You can say the same of GOG. Right now I am playing more GOG games than Steam games, even though my steam library is much larger.
I want to like GoG, and do buy games there, but the client sucks. It's hard to navigate and for some reason insists on showing me 500+ Steam games rather than my smaller GoG library.
Also, none of my friends use it, so if I buy a game on GoG, I'll eventually end up buying it on Steam too.
The big case for GoG is buying older games as in general they're much easier to get working on a modern PC than buying on Steam (no idea if that's true, but it feels easier to me).
> I want to like GoG, and do buy games there, but the client sucks. It's hard to navigate and for some reason insists on showing me 500+ Steam games rather than my smaller GoG library.
> Also, none of my friends use it, so if I buy a game on GoG, I'll eventually end up buying it on Steam too.
I was only addressing the longetivity requirement, not the UI or the network effects requirements.
The only conditions under which I can imagine switching to another store is if publishers would suddenly stop releasing their games on Steam en masse. And I mean en masse, not just one or two popular publishers.