Supporting DRM-free games is key either way, but being fair there's A LOT of work to be done to make it more accessible. GOG's installers for instance are not better than compressing a game's files yourself. Certainly hope they're working on better installers. If it was in my hand I'd have them employ someone who makes game repacks. Anyway, I'll take a peek and push for Steam to tag games as DRM-free when they are.

Valve literally hosts petabytes of game data and allows any user to download them at any time. That's not nothing, data storage is very expensive, and users are charged nothing for it. They provide a service to not only the customers, but also the developers. Steam has so many backend features that allow devs to skip so many networking steps that can otherwise be a huge nightmare. Not sure why you think they are literally just a webpage that has a purchase button next to a game.

>Valve literally hosts petabytes of game data and allows any user to download them at any time. That's not nothing, data storage is No, it's really not. Azure and AWS storage is dirt cheap, especially if it's cold storage and you can have a second or two delay when retrieving the file. If it was expensive, they wouldn't be the most profitable tech company per employee. >Steam has so many backend features that allow devs to skip so many networking steps that can otherwise be a huge nightmare. No, it doesn't. It provides a small handful of APIs around friends and matchmaking, which Xbox and Epic also provide for half the fees, in addition to the generic Azure and AWS versions. >Not sure why you think they are literally just a webpage that has a purchase button next to a game. I'm a software engineer whos built an app store before and has built 3d rendering engines. I know exactly how little work it took Valve to build Steam and how much work it took Epic to build Unreal. They are not remotely comparable.

Valve purchased the rights to Counter-Strike in 2000, transitioning it from a community-made mod to a retail product. Similarly, Day of Defeat, initially a third-party Half-Life modification, was acquired by Valve, leading to a standalone retail release in 2003. In the case of Dota, Valve hired the mod’s lead developer and secured the intellectual property rights, culminating in the release of Dota 2 in 2013. These games remain exclusive to Steam.

That’s obviously bad. My comment was in response to the comment above about exclusives.

These are all Valve not selling their own games outside Steam, their own storefront. Does Epic sell Fortnite anywhere else? Metro Exodus' publisher is Deep Silver. Epic, a storefront, paid through the nose to get exclusivity on distributing someone else's product. At the last minute. They are not the same.

What is the distinction for the player? Both Counter-Strike and Control were funded by Valve and Epic, respectively. Both ended up with exclusivity. To the player, what different do the intro logos make? It sounds like you’re trying to win by technicality.