Has Steam innovated enough to maintain it as a 'platform' of choice outside of library?

[Durante]

I wish other clients had half of Steam's featureset.

No-questions-asked Refunds
In-Home Streaming
Steam Input, which is *the* greatest feature in a long time for me.
Family Sharing
Curators
Guides available right from the overlay
Big Picture Mode

A while ago they've updated their Review System. You can now view reviews per day and it detects 'review bombs', where you can easily see if it would affect you or not, just as an example.

A few weeks(?) ago they've started beta for a massive Chat and friendslist overhaul.

A few days before the summer sale they've introduced developer and publisher pages. Example SEGA

You can now follow devs/pubs you like to get notified when a new game releases. They can make little 'mini homepages' to categorize and present their games in an organized manner, etc.

I'm probably forgetting some things as well.

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All of this, especially the bolded.
Plus amazing developer-side distribution features, as well as the Steam Workshop which is half/half a developer/user feature.

Seriously, even outside the library advantage, no other client even comes close.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

Steam is great and the features added since its creation have been amazing.

Never forget the OG steam of 04-05. No one was happy.

Now, with cloud saves, friends, screenshots, communities, reviews, curation...... its fantastic.

GOG is great too. Origin is passable. Uplay is a necessary evil.

 

[Budi]

Others have mentioned many of the features lacking on other platforms. And Valve has recently been updating Steam too, as mentioned the reviews but also wishlist got improved and most recently the chat. I think that the upgraded chat might still be only in beta though. The size of the library isn't really the sole reason I prefer Steam the most.

Edit: Oh chat/friends was already mentioned too.

 

[spam musubi]

What kind of bubble must one be living in to not think that Steam has objectively the largest amount of features and not realize that all the competitors combined still don't compare to the feature set of Steam. Sure, there are complaints to be had about it, but it's still by far the best.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

Steam Input, which is *the* greatest feature in a long time for me.

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Steam input is such an underrated feature. It's actually huge for me as well

 

[iceblade]

Honestly Steam has a lot of nice usability features, as mentioned above. I would like for them to be able to fix offline mode not tracking playtime (ie, sync it over when you reconnect) and also add play-as-you-download, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the Steam client itself, and am really liking the new friends beta and the developer pages.

All of this, especially the bolded.
Plus amazing developer-side distribution features, as well as the Steam Workshop which is half/half a developer/user feature.

Seriously, even outside the library advantage, no other client even comes close.

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Silly question but could you elaborate on Steam Workshop being a dev feature? Do you mean developer as in mod creator, or?

 

[GhostTrick]

Steam input is such an underrated feature. It's actually huge for me as well

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It is an insane feature. It's basically native controller support with FAR BETTER support than their own consoles.
100% customisation, binding, behaviours and such.

 

[BasilZero]

For me other than the game library, what I like about steam is...

The profile page allowing you to customize it
The badges and steam cards feature
The time clock for games played
Community features like screenshots you can upload
Achievement system
Steam workshop
Customize your controller
Steam in home streaming
Steam community guides


I don't really care for user interface, it's the same thing as having themes or wallpapers on other platforms like psn or just your normal pc, I use a platform to play games and if the UI is as good as it is now then I am fine


Also XMB is Beth UI ;)

 

[Slayven]

Steam interface is at least 15 years past due a update

 

[WillyTheBikeGuy]

Steam is still the best, although I like GOG Galaxy as well. The rest are trash.

 

[Cecil]

Steam Input
Steam In-Home Streaming
Steam Family Sharing
Steam Guides

Yes

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This.

Steam, GOG and Humble are the only stores I freely chose between when buying a game. The rest are forced upon me if I want certain games.

 

[Durante]

Silly question but could you elaborate on Steam Workshop being a dev feature? Do you mean developer as in mod creator, or?

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No, I meant game dev in this case.

I consider it a dev feature to some extent since, if you are a developer and want to support modding officially and in an easily usable way, then on every other platform you need to implement your own mod distribution, parsing and submission system.
On Steam, you can just use the Steam Workshop.

 

[citrusred]

Yeah, free cloud saves, controller remapping and big picture mode are the big ones. The only other client I use regularly is itch.io which I find useful for organising free indie games I wan't to play.

 

[spam musubi]

Steam interface is at least 15 years past due a update

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Why? Does it lack features/usability, or does it look bad? I think usability wise it's the most intuitive of the PC clients and has the most features, and if you dislike the look, themes can drastically change its appearance (also a feature that most competitors don't have)

For example

 

[Deleted member 8408]

Steam interface is at least 15 years past due a update

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This is the only thing that is a "problem" as far as Steam goes at the moment IMO.

And I say "problem" because it still works as intended and the library functionality is straight forward and as quick as ever to navigate/use.

The storefront needs work though. It really started creaking during the last sale.

 

[Deleted member 24118]

Yeah I think the steam bells and whistles are great, I've cleaned up on the Marketplace and used the in home streaming a little (now I use it through the Nvidia experience to my phone)

But they are really the only everynow and then things for me, the core stuff is all the same (almost) and I really like the simplicity of the Blizzard and Epic launchers.

Spoiler: spoiler

I'm playing devils advocate for some good discussion here, I think steam is solid but I would love to see an update, it's feeling a little creaky.

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Honestly the Battle.net client ui is shockingly awful and only works because of the small amount of games on it. Even just a small increase in games - such as, say, Activision games - will make it borderline unusable.

 

[Slayven]

Why? Does it lack features/usability, or does it look bad? I think usability wise it's the most intuitive of the PC clients and has the most features, and if you dislike the look, themes can drastically change its appearance (also a feature that most competitors don't have)

For example

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It could be better at juggling larger libraries.

This is the only thing that is a "problem" as far as Steam goes at the moment IMO.

And I say "problem" because it still works as intended and the library functionality is straight forward and as quick as ever to navigate/use.

The storefront needs work though. It really started creaking during the last sale.

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The storefront goes to shit every sale, you think they know by now

 

[ArmsofSleep]

Stream really really sucks, but there is no alternative even close. And that's not only in terms of library.

 

[spam musubi]

It could be better at juggling larger libraries.

The storefront goes to shit every sale, you think they know by now

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I think adding tags to make your own categories and being able to hide games is pretty good. What else do you think is necessary? I have a fairly large library but I never really thought what could be missing.

 

[Delusibeta]

FYI: background downloading is actually a feature of Steam for a good few years now, but it's off by default.

 

[Slayven]

I think adding tags to make your own categories and being able to hide games is pretty good. What else do you think is necessary? I have a fairly large library but I never really thought what could be missing.

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The steam icon in the corner only having your last 5 games. They should have nested menus so all your installed games are accessible just from the icon

 

[spam musubi]

The steam icon in the corner only having your last 5 games. They should have nested menus so all your installed games are accessible just from the icon

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I didn't even know this was a thing, lol

 

[LQX]

I like things simple so Steam works for me. I just need a list and the ability click any game on that list and just play it. I do wish they would have sort options like genre, publisher, etc.

 

[acm2000]

i hate steam, its a clumsy mess but i doubt they will fix a thing.

 

[Deleted member 1594]

Right now on my PC I have

- Steam
- Battlenet
- Epic Launcher
- Twitch
- GOG Galaxy
- Uplay
- Origin
- Windows 10 Store

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Well so far I have Steam, Origin, Uplay, Twitch (for prime game deals), GoG Galaxy, Epic Games Launcher, Blizzard Launcher... and probably some more I don't remember. Sure, why not more. Something something competition, amiright?

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Shit, I forgot one :P Though I don't really use the Windows Store at all. I refuse.

 

[SuiQuan]

Having to go back to Sony or Microsoft storefronts after Steam is awfull. Most of the good things about Steam have already been mentioned, but I'd also like to add that I actually find community tags super useful when looking for games. The wishlist and how it works is awesome. And last, but definatelly not least - the download speeds are always top-notch, never failed me once in years, PSN though...

 

[Gelf]

I struggle to understand what's so bad about the client UI, who's offering something better that could handle libraries with hundreds of games as I haven't seen it on PC or console? It could stand to be less laggy at times but in terms of usability and features I can't think of anything better.

It feels like wanting change for the sake of it sometimes, like people just want something that looks different.

 

[JarrodL]

They literally just added a major new feature (publisher curator pages), what 'stagnation' are you talking about.

 

[inner-G]

Do any of the other ones even have features like BPM or Steam Link?

All it really needs to be is a list of games though. I don't really care for social features.

 

[fluffydelusions]

I don't have any issues with Steam. The UI feels a bit outdated at this point but that is about it.

 

[Armaros]

I struggle to understand what's so bad about the client UI, who's offering something better that could handle libraries with hundreds of games as I haven't seen it on PC or console? It could stand to be less laggy at times but in terms of usability and features I can't think of anything better.

It feels like wanting change for the sake of it sometimes, like people just want something that looks different.

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Its the double standard people have with Steam. It has to update even more then its competitors even if its already the most feature rich by a million miles and all their competitors have generally stagnated.

Battle.net is basically the same as ever, just more activision games, Origin hasn't been updated in years at this point.

 

[collige]

As others have said, absolutely.

I struggle to understand what's so bad about the client UI, who's offering something better that could handle libraries with hundreds of games as I haven't seen it on PC or console? It could stand to be less laggy at times but in terms of usability and features I can't think of anything better.

It feels like wanting change for the sake of it sometimes, like people just want something that looks different.

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The organization of the general and game settings confuses the shit out of me personally. The other major issue I have with it is that during sales, promotions, etc, there's no way to hide games that are already in my library. It's really obnoxious to try and browse the Summer sale and see upwards of a quarter of the games be shit that I already own.

 

[Delusibeta]

Its the double standard people have with Steam. It has to update even more then its competitors even if its already the most feature rich by a million miles and all their competitors have generally stagnated.

Battle.net is basically the same as ever, just more activision games, Origin hasn't been updated in years at this point.

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As a general rule of thumb, if there's one company that is more successful at an thing than the rest of the industry, a lot of people try to be the Success Police and begin badmouthing them at every opportunity. You'll see it every time the PS4 is mentioned in this forum, for example.

 

[Launchpad]

Steam is still unmatched in feature set across the entirety of PC gaming AND console gaming. It's not even close.

 

[LuckyLocke]

Too little too late for the chat update imo. Twitch is taking off big and discord is way too established already. I don't see Steam being able to compete in the long term.

 

[Launchpad]

Stream really really sucks, but there is no alternative even close. And that's not only in terms of library.

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How does it suck when no alternative is even close?

 

[Qassim]

The client is due a redesign, a whole new UX, but Steam as a platform is way ahead of any other PC platform in terms of functionality offered and the ecosystem it provides.

 

[ArmsofSleep]

How does it suck when no alternative is even close?

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The same reason the Wright Bros. plane sucked

 

[Decado]

The flexibility in controller configurations and steam workshop put it miles beyond any other platform on PC or console.

 

[JD3Nine]

I use some of the other clients but none of them even come close to what Steam offers. So Valve gets most of my money and I don't really see that changing.

 

[Raptomex]

I'm not loyal to anything. I primarily use Steam because it has the most games available. I go wherever the games are. That said, I also utilize Battle.net, uPlay, Origin, GOG, and recently, Twitch.

 

[MattWilsonCSS]

it's still the only client whose launcher list I like. I don't like giant grids (though that's an option) or vertical tiles or any of that. I just like the games, one by one, in a list. If other clients get on the ball and do the same, maybe then I'd be down. But I have a 4 digit number of games. I'm not scrolling through endless tiles. Sorry Origin, sorry uPlay.

 

[BeI]

To me, Steam is way ahead of any other PC market / launcher because of all its features. It's not even close. It's a shame quite a few games have to be stuck on other marketplaces / launchers, making it more of a pain to use Steam's features with them.

I kinda wish there some way to crossover between Steam and other launchers. Like maybe making games timed exclusive on Origin, then releasing on Steam after a while and allowing people that bought on Origin to download a version on Steam for free as well.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

GOG (Galaxy) is the only real competitor, they rerelease old games i care there, plus no DRM and other BS.

But most of the time the best deals are still on Steam.

 

[Aangster]

Despite Valve's slow drive to upgrading Steam's UI design on all fronts (much needed), the competition has a long way to go. Of late, Uplay's made some nice changes.

However, it's obvious that EA Origin is an outright joke: it runs poorly, the Game Library loads slower than a malfunctioning web wrapper, and there's no snap-to-window feature that all clients (like Steam, Uplay etc.) have adopted on Windows 7 through 10.

The slide-out menus for each game are bloody clunky and there's just a bare minimum of game information. Uplay has at least, the courtesy to provide news items for each game page on the client. On Origin, there's just 'friends who play', 'achievements', and of course a page for 'extra content' to view and/or purchase.

Hell, even the writing behind patch notes have become pathetic too:

 

[Ionic]

Most stores only compete with Steam on the back of exclusives. That is to say they offer no reason for people to WANT to use their services, only reasons you HAVE to use them with regards to specific games. When it comes to actual features, the only notable competitors I can think of are GOG who mandate DRM free and work harder to ensure games run on modern hardware, and Itch.io which has great customization support for each game's webpage and fine control over what fraction of a sale a dev wants to have. However Steam still offers far more useful features than any other digital storefront on any hardware, so it gets to stay at the top.

 

[bigmit37]

Damn, I didn't know Steam had so many features.

 

[GameZone]

Everyone I know who uses Steam complains about the Steam client and how Valve hasn't changed it
They still keep only buying their games on Steam unless forced to use a different launcher

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That's the UI you are talking about, not features. Features are great, but the UI is outdated garbage. The chat UI has improved in the beta with more features. Valve us working on a new UI for the client, and a new big picture UI as well. I hope they are working on a new Android/iOS app as well.

The streaming app for Android is also great.

 

[Mivey]

Steam interface is at least 15 years past due a update

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They released a beta for a new Chat client, which also clearly uses a new UI. So - not counting for Valve Time - a visual refresh of the client shouldn't be too far off.

 

[newgamewhodis]

I know having multiple launchers is an inconvenience, but the best part of all the competition is the amount of freebies given to consumers to entice them in. UPlay, GoG, Origin and Twitch all have frequent giveaways and we're the ones who benefit.

Steam is doing well, but I do think they could do a lot to improve their online platform. As it stands, they are the most kid-unfriendly mainstream platform. The UI is a bit dense, the usernames, chats, and avatars are not censored in anyway. It makes me wary of ever letting a child play games on Steam unsupervised because of how easily it could all go wrong.