I think this comes from Valve taking the long view of the business, and placing customer satisfaction as a high priority.' 'In spite of Steam's size, it feels more like buying games from a hobby shop than from a strip mall. 'Steam's secret weapon is that the people at Valve just seem to understand games and their audience on a level far beyond that of most large companies, and this is evidenced in which games get promoted on the service and the overall feel of the experience,' neatly surmises Supergiant Games' Grag Kasavin, whose delightful action RPG Bastion recently launched on the service. Certainly, you'll have trouble finding anyone willing to argue that it doesn't deserve its success, whether they be a developer, commentator or competitor. Steam's brilliant, right? Accessible, developer-friendly, passionate about its content and offering good value for money, it's the fat cat it's okay to like. EA's decision to launch its Origin store back in June presents the biggest threat to Steam's dominance yet, especially if it sets a precedent that other publishers will follow.īut has Steam built an unassailable lead? Is EA shooting itself in the foot? Or does the impending digital revolution spell the end for its good will-driven market monopoly? Eurogamer spoke to a number of key players in the PC download market, Valve and EA included, to find out.įirst things first, the Steam faithful may well argue that there's no need for an alternative.

However, while serious challenges to its dominance have been few and far between in recent years, the playing field suddenly seems to be getting a little more crowded.

Kotor steam vs gog