Has it ever crossed your mind that valve has no problem sharing a significant portion of their market with epic store? Considering their consistent tendency to play the long game, they may see no threat in this.
- EGS could possibly grow the pie,helping attract more players to PC with their mobile and console synergy. This, taken by itself, is a win for everybody.
- EGS is never going to match steam's features. Not up for discussion. If EGS takes root and settles in, the inevitable constant comparisons will put steam's capabilities in the spotlight.
- Don't believe everything you hear: the one-way deluge of PR going on is not effective at much of anything. It can sway the conversation on social media for a bit, but the things will swing back. And in an odd case, Valve offers 0 opposing PR.
Note the lack of PR talking points(horseshit) available for regurgitation by valves fans in these arguments.With no wave of PR being sent back, a countervailing narrative forms organically. It comes directly from the many happy users.
- Epic could pay to yank half of the biggest games from steam. That would obviously lead to the other half having less competition on steam. Steam would still have a billion more games. And after epic and it's big publisher friends suck up full price sales for 6 months, the games go to steam and keep resellers where they will live out the rest of their lives going on sale for an objectively superior platform. I'm sure valve is shaking in their tube socks.
- Valves curiously intense software and hardware projects would it be unaffected.
- How much of their incredibly profitable business could valve lose and still be fine? If they lost 25%, there will be a conveyor belt of doomsday articles, but I think valve would be able to keep doing what they're doing without big vested interests breathing down their neck.
A lot of us are operating under the assumption that valve is under some sort of threat here. When really, they may be perfectly happy to share the market with epic. Everybody wants to know how the valve is going to react. I predict they will continue to not.