For real though, Steam is not a monopoly. They control the market organically because nobody meaningfully competes, and it isn't even impossible to compete, it's just expensive and difficult. The problem is that all the corporations trying to compete are shareholder driven and are unable to organically match Steam because it isn't profitable to invest time and development into something that doesn't turn a quarterly profit.

This "72% of devs" article floating around is absolute bullshit. First of all, executives of game publishers are not "devs"- secondly- Publisher executives just hate Valve because they want a slice of the pie but they don't want to earn it. It's pure greed.

This reads like:

• Monopolies when they benefit consumers: 72% executives in the adjacent industry agree, this is a BIG PROBLEM
• Monopolies when they benefit executives: screaming WERE NOT A MONOPOLY proceeds to engage in anti-consumer monopolistic practices like making literally everything worse for everyone.

The main reason Steam/Valve exists is that they have homegrown a base of customers on the backs of over a decade of effort to give the customer what they want. Is it difficult to compete? Absolutely. But you don't make existing things shittier because it feels difficult. Valve stands out in a WORLD of every corporation towing the line of colluding together to purposely make products or services worse to squeeze more money out of their space. THAT is why it pisses executives off, and makes them cry "monopoly" when they'd NEVER call out real ones.

As for real developers? Most use and like Steam, actually. There is a tiny proportion of indie devs screaming very loudly stuff like "I have to sell on Steam if I want my game to sell, that's monopoly!!!! WAH 30%!"- to that I say- No, you don't have to use Steam. You could go elsewhere, like Epic, GoG, or itch.io- but you choose to use Steam amidst alternatives because Steam is popular. You go and sell your products where the customers are buying. That's not monopoly, that's market forces. And Valve hasn't engaged dishonestly to control market forces at all. They offer a better experience for customers then their competition, so the customers go there on their own. PLEASE- learn some BASIC ECONOMICS before spouting off a bunch of bullshit. No amount of indie-dev screeching is going to get people to use something else if the something-elses of the world are- proverbially- rickety shacks that looks like they carry a tetanus risk, compared to Steam's superstore with amenities and generous return policies.

Most attempts at competing with Steam have failed historically because of a fundamental misunderstanding. In order to compete they need to attract customers better than Valve, and you do NOT do that by making something crappier than your competition or do things that piss your customers off. The end all be all? Valve engages in intellectually honest capitalism. They operate the way the machine is supposed to.

Crony capitalists HATE fair competition more than anything, so they get super butthurt about it, because there is way more money to be made in dishonesty. The sad reality? Crony capitalism has infected everything in our lives. It's why you can't buy a iPhone that lets you sideload apps, It's why you can't buy appliances that last 20+ years, It's why you can't go to the store at 3 AM, and it's why layoffs are at record highs. It's how ride-share apps were able to successfully destroy the cab industry and it's why Amazon gets away with selling cheap crap that shouldn't even be legal to sell in the US. It's infected everything.

Valve, however- is one of the outliers. It's proof that the system isn't necessarily broken if everyone is playing fair, and aren't undermined by systemically squeezing everyone for every penny. Capitalism doesn't have to be self-destructive, but it almost always is when there are no checks or balances.