this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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Well that's because pretty much all of the competition are terrible.
There hasn't really been much innovation in digital market space since the concept arose. Valve started it and a few other companies over the years of tried, including Microsoft and all have failed.
I think valve succeeded because they weren't trying to make a digital market place, it started out as just a distribution platform so not every decision was about how to make the most money out of the customer. You make the money on the games, not the platform and then you build up from there.
Yeah really is down to the only platform that isn't repeatedly shooting itself in the foot is GoG and their no DRM policy has a lot of major publishers saying no deal.
In all other cases it's less what Valve does right, and more what everyone around them is doing wrong.
I and I guess itch.io as well but that's mostly because of how easy it is to get a game on the platform so it's really good for small games and demos.
Gabe's strategy is public information at this point. He's gone on record several times with the information.
The focus is on what gamers want first. Reduce barriers to entry. Simplify the process. That naturally attracts customers and the money making happens as a result.
Every single other company has this reversed.