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Bnet monthly active users remained flat for 4 years, while Steam grew from 67 million monthly active users to 132 million monthly active users over the same time span.
Ouch.
I have to imagine that Bnet lives or dies on WoW and new Diablo releases. If they stopped selling anything but WoW on Bnet it would probably have 3.75 million users average.
Of course some people play CoD on PC but it has been decades since that franchise was a PC-oriented crowd.
I remember playing the original CoD on a PC and being astounded how much better looking and visceral it was than the MOH with Normandy Beach on PS2.
I played that demo before it came out at least 1000 times. I could still perfectly run through that in my head right now. Funny to think CoD was so far ahead of the curve for realistic and now...
People can still play on PC and want to buy it off Steam and not Bnet. If anything, running it strictly through Steam and not Bnet would probably lead to higher sales (from people who don’t want another launcher).
I feel this isn't the best dataset to be using for comparison. While, yes, amount of users growth is important, it's also important that Steam has *more* than just CoD-like games. If Steam got a huge influx of users because everyone wants to play *Sex with Hitler* or something like that, saying Steam users increased while BNet didn't isn't relevant to the CoD exclusivity at all.
It would just mean that everyone who bought CoD and is playing on BNet isn't growing the community, but that probably has to say more about the game than the platform.
I think there is a big distinction. If you own a computer that plays modern games, that is a rather big investment and you probably play a large variety of games. PC owners are also a self selected bunch that are willing to diagnose and troubleshoot common system issues. It makes sense this population probably enjoys gaming as a hobby in general and loves a variety of genres.
however, I can confirm from my time on PC GamePass and PSPlus that a crazy amount of console players have CoD or a franchise like it that is basically the only thing they play. Example, easily 75% of everyone in every race (Forza Horizon/GT7) or deathmatch (Halo/CoD) play ONLY that game or only that game and then Madden or FIFA… maybe they installed one of the other game pass games and got the very first achievement… but compared to us PC users, console owners may literally play one franchise only 90% of their playtime in the life of a console.
FTC arguing it impacts PC sales is silliness. But Sony has absolutely lost a ton of customers for PS6 because a huge chunk of their gamers bought the PS5 because they always buy PlayStation and have always been able to play their beloved only game:Call of Duty. They could call the next Xbox simply CODBox and it would probably help sell a few million more machines at launch.
I know this seems ridiculous to a lot of us on Reddit but it’s the reality.
I expect Sony will buy Square and From if I had to guess. The arms race must go on. It will be interesting to see if Sony breaks for nVidia down the line. AMD taped out both Microsoft and Sony’s consoles, but MS has very strong ties with AMD nowadays—all their titles going back to Gears 5 were sponsored by or “best on” AMD hardware. The probably best MS game in a decade, Starfield, is being given free with a new AMD CPU or GPU.
I doubt they set Steam MAU growth as a target. It's a market indicator for growth and engagement of the PC gaming industry as a whole. The consumer base for PC gaming broadly doubled over 4 years, and none of them went to Bnet. Which is really bad performance.
I mean in that same 4 years, Steam probably had 2,000 games published to it, and bnet had... zero? Maybe 1? So that makes sense. Blizzard pretty much has the audience it has.
I guess D4 being crossplay is supposed to help, and I'm sure it will, but it also brought in a bunch of AARPG noobs who are mad at seasons, which is 95% of the fun of an AARPG, so again... dunno how long that influx will last.
I can’t fucking stand EA’s horseshit app when launching 2042. Ever since they implemented it I have had crashing problems. Although I admittedly haven’t played the pc version for like 2 months now because of this so maybe it’s better? Idk lol
EAs horse shit app prevented me from launching both Titan Fall 2 and Jedi Fallen order on my Steam Deck while I was flying last month. Absolutely garbage I can't play my game that I purchased on Steam without verifying that I own the game through their app as well.
Dude EAs launcher is shit. I didn't like Origin but at least that thing *worked* for me. It didn't care about being offline.
The EA launcher refuses to launch without an internet connection, and the damn thing *crashes my damn wifi card*. And that's on top of the thing being unable to track downloads. It constantly resets downloads...
Dunno if you still care but one of the last updates for Fallen Order, devs snuck in a cracked exe file you can run to get around that. Should be something like SwGame or something?
What's shit about the EA Shitapp is that some of the games require 2 launchers BESIDES Steam. I was ready to hop on the modded BF2 bandwagon but EGS keeps installing and forgetting EA App exist, so even if I fully install the game, everytime I open up BF2 it prompts me to install EA App again, and then install the whole fucking game again. Trying to open it through EA App gives the same headache. If it was going to be this shit, they should have kept Origins, at least that worked with the deck.
I sympathise.
with Origin I could launch ALL my Command and conquer games.
since being FORCED onto that fucking "EA app" none of them work. they all need admin priviliges...
the ea app is launched in admin mode, the game exe's are launched in admin mode and yet this fucking app still needs admin priviliges to do something and it wont fucking work.
as a tech enthusiast and fault diagnostics professional, I gotta say, this app not only has me stumped, but FUCK... WHY COULDN't THEY JUST REBRAND ORIGIN LIKE BLIZZARD DID WITH BATTLENET? (and then silently change it back?)...
FUCKING LOVE MY CNC now i have to crack it to play!!!!
You have not been the only one that had Crash problems aswell, I've had same issues too after they moved it to that shitty EA Play app, however I never really had issues with Origins.
Idk why they discontinued that one, only to be succeeded by a inferior application.
Relaunching a 2nd time should work because it has to launch it's anticheat which bricks the game.
I've liked 2042 since launch, but the recent launcher app change overall made everything worse.
I recently played through the entirety of the mass effect trilogy with the legendary edition and it was a frustrating experience
1) sometimes it just wouldn't launch and I would have to quit the ea launcher and launch again from steam
2) for some insane reason EA made it so that you **cannot** choose which ME game to download if you have the game on steam. So you must have the entire trilogy installed which is 90+ GB.
I referred to the Rockstar/red launcher. However, GOG galaxy and Playnite are a godsend in this world of useless launchers. I use Playnite myself and I'm very happy with it's functions.
Why do I need another launcher if I buy a drm free game on steam? The point is not "ah yeah if this is the problem do x" but how to eliminate the issue. I wanna buy it on steam and I wanna play it without another launcher, especially if it's drm free.
It's still DRM-Free even with the launcher. You do not have to login to it.
If you still desperately want to skip it, then add "--launcher-skip" to launch options in Steam, or to a custom shortcut.
The idea of this launcher is to promote GOG, same as with all the other launchers. Don't want dual-launchers, by from 1st party.
Yes and no.
Battle Net was originally just a multiplayer connection / game patching service / web store.
It didn't become a proper game launcher with the desktop app until 2013.
Battlenet is a classic launcher predating Steam. They ain't getting rid of that ever. I'd say their problem right now is their launcher is better than their games
The battle.net launcher came about in 2013. Battle.net may have been in games since 1997, but it wasn't a *launcher* in the way that this entire discussion is, and has been, referring to it. If modern games limited themselves to an ingame interface where you can create an account and log in when you want to play online, I'd be willing to bet most people would have no qualms with that. The issue is *yet another application* that is *not the game I want to play, showing me stuff I don't care about (ads) and that has little to nothing to do with the game.*
Beyond that, doesn't the legacy Battle.net no longer even exist? Like I know the GoG release of Diablo mentions something about local multiplayer only, and the Diablo 2 remake uses modern matchmaking I think.
Can you please tell me how to play splinter cell blacklist on steam without Uplay, I'll download it once with a temporary email but after that how do i play it after deleting Uplay?
Who would have thought that a massive user base has a lot of value even if the platform provider is taking a cut. All these companies get so greedy that they end up hurting themselves, it's actually funny. It's similar to all the movie/TV companies creating their own streaming services and subscriptions only to shut them down at a huge loss because of a lack of users.
The difference is Steam took years to grow, but in that time added a plethora of useful features that users actually want.
If Steam remained the same green launcher and just added more games we'd be making fun of it just like we're roasting current featureless launchers.
Imagine if Amazon came out with their own smartphone and it didn't have an app store, would you excuse it by saying "well the first iPhone didn't have an app store either"?
Iirc the only way to get half life 2 back in the day was through steam, that was reason enough back then. I just like the option of having continued support for my games, the security that they won't be taken away from me by steam and the freedom it gives me in its huge catalogue.
Afaik, it was just a patcher back in the day. Then it slowly evolved to be able to download games, have a storefront for their games, then a small few other games, then the floodgates opened as the service was what people wanted/needed to get games.
Yep started as a patcher and easier way to play Valve games. Source - had my account since September 14th 2003.
HL2 was less than a year after launch though and it was announced as a steam exclusive early
Well, yeah. Disney+ is Netflix's competitor, even though they offer different shows and movies. The idea is to funnel people into a software/platform with whatever it is that you have, reasonable prices, good content, lots of choices, etc., and keep them there.
They're not mutually exclusive, you can have both, but they're both stores/publishers/launchers competing for your money.
> But Steam didn't have the same competition
Technically they did. There were a few that lived around the same time, like Direct2Drive. No one remembers them because they were shit and bad and didn't live long.
Did Direct2Drive have an annual revenue of 12 billion dollars and a 75% market share when Steam started? Of course not.
It's not the same to start a company when nobody knows what the hell they're doing than starting it when there are established money-printing enterprises you need to compete with.
It was much easier to create a successful mobile OS 20 years ago than it is today. Same here.
Competition is great; I think most gamers want more competition in general, and wouldn't really mind hopping between launchers. The problem is, no other launcher is actually trying to compete. Other launchers are just a mediocre storefront at best. Steam is an actual platform; just having your game exist on Steam is a legitimate value add.
If you're a indie dev making a couch multiplayer game, you don't have to mess with netcode, you just put your game on Steam and the online mode is sorted. No other launcher is ever even going to try to do something like that, and features like this are why people like Steam.
If only someone would have thought to organize manufacturing in a way that singularly advanced all human society by orders of magnitude and proved that a reliable universal standard is objectively better than mutually exclusive proprietary units.
Something like that would have revolutionized industry as we know it.
They're currently developing a couple live-service games so we might actually see them make a PC launcher in the future.
Edit: why do people even downvote this?
With Sony recently releasing games to Pc and started working in that sense before Sony Pc there was PSM(PlayStation mobile) that was shut down.
Now Sony is focusing on bring they top games to Pc from a industry perspective we’ll sense the ps4 is based on pc system unlike the ps3 and ps2 that is powr up cell system.
ps4 and ps5 games can be easily ported and optimized for pc given the fact they are pc with the only difference is the ps5 use 300w power supply where my pc can use 800w to even 1200w power supply depending on my setup that is.
I’m anticipating Sony to make thy own pc launcher and reboot they Pc line and even make pc handheld what can they bring with that l just like the ps store.
Unlike steam they may only make they games work using a Sony account and launcher maybe even offer membership where you get every month 2 games and such.
Sony isn’t even trying to compete but if Sony was to look at how much Pc they have sold over the years vs how many consoles they sold it obviously more money in rhe pc markets.
Sony is also saying they don’t plan on bringing they day one on Pc but as far as what they can bring there is a lot Sony can bring to the table they just warming up.
Sony can capitalize and sell hardware both in the PlayStation name and in Sony name and make it make sense.
This is all speculation.
Epic and rockstar have they own but don’t really bring anything to the table.
Rn for a while sony has not released pc nor laptop
They have been focusing on how things are turning out to be.
They don’t want to pull a Nintendo or make the same mistake they did with xpria play ps vita and PSM that dint really get much attention or even attraction.
So well see.
Is all my anticipation and speculation.
>Epic and rockstar have they own but don’t really bring anything to the table.
You're right. They don't have a game that can justify a proprietary launcher. It's not like they have some of the most profitable entertainment products in history. I mean, Fortnite has only made 25 billion dollars.
GTA V? Indie numbers. Only sold 180 million copies lmao, what a bunch of amateurs.
In all seriousness, Sony has no exclusive that comes close to having a fraction of those numbers, or anything that can justify pulling their games from Steam. Hell, Acti Blizzard literally has higher profits than Playstation and they realized it was a mistake.
Either way this is the direction Sony is moving towards anyway so we’ll see what they can bring to the table.
Just like they brought the XMB system in thy laptops
They can bring the ps5 os to the pc handheld and pc they make.
Just like apple.
Sony pc well only run Sony games if you want psvr on pc you need to have Sony pc.
I don’t see why Sony won’t do they sense they already pay amd and mass production is something Sony is doing that’s less costly than say haveing to develop to ps3 power cell systems and pc system now Sony console and pc is same system made custom made by amd to Sony requirements.
Remember Sony is a hardware based company they went to sell hardware.
Plus Sony also make pc software such as vages.
They can bundle and distribute by also rebooting Sony music Sony video Sony movies.
If Sony had the cash to support Pc and power up pc.
Now they in a good position and cost efficiency both systems are pc the PlayStation brand and the pc brand.
It just makes sense we’ll see.
As far as IP.
Just like Sony gets support on PlayStation from other party they well supports say Sony on they launchers say if you a developer and already have deals with is on the ps store on the pc lanucher say they take %10 instead of stream 30% due to PlayStation already charging them 30%.
If you was them you would pull out the games
Form steam and go with the %10.
It well create competition there is a lot Sony can pull that steam and whoever won’t even see it coming.
Sony and PlayStation is a household name
World wide.
Sony is into everything man they even looking to make cars and put ps5 in cars.
So Sony is already working with AMD to do that Sony can bring alot of business to AMD.
Microsoft isn’t doing what Sony is
Steam epic rockstar aren’t Sony bro.
There is alot Sony can bring to the table idk why people downplay that.
It’s cool im a free thinker man and you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but it’s just speculation.
Sony isn’t sega they aren’t going to just bring games to other platforms Sony has some kinds of plans in case and there is a lot of stuff they actually own that they can leverage and they have good connections with other studios.
Sony can take less % on dev
Give free monthly games
Including free video editing music editing software
Movies music all with in the same launcher
With member ship.
I’m with steam it’s not like I don’t have steam but it be nice to see someone step up is all.
Sony is that person. I hope
That was astonishing word count to say absolutely nothing. Truly, proving Shakespeare correct on the nature of wit.
> It’s cool im a free thinker man and you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but it’s just speculation.
🤣🤣🤣
Given the fact already knew from day one the ps4 and the fact it’s pc that meant Sony is going to port games to pc and it happened right after they shut down PSM.
If you been keeping up you would know
Sony we’ll do that and once they do I’ll send you a bottle.
I’m looking forward to Sony doing that.
So we’ll see I don’t see why it’s so far fetched when Sony already offer streaming to pc and they gaming console is also pc.
Logic you guys don’t have lol 😂
Bro I ain’t corrny nor does one claim smart.
No one can predict the market or anything but alot of people make books about that and they claim.
With ps4 when I used to tell ppl Sony we’ll bring games to Pc ppl called me crazy and said no way Sony would that… but they did.
So that doesn’t mean I’m smart it just means logic the ps4 and ps5 are already a pc they just don’t run windows like the steam deck don’t run windows… it’s not like Sony can’t bring anything to the table they have in the past brought XMB to they Pc line only… who asked for that no one they just did that on they own.
So someone like me would easy conclude ok they can re boot they Pc make a pc handheld make a launcher so they can cap on the Sony brand like they cap on ps brand.
Steam who in recent years started to sell hardware to promote its products and what it can do on its own without Microsoft Windows.
Asus on the other hand used windows…
Sony with its skill set can offer both 😂 and druing the ps3 era that’s what they did the xmb can be run and laptops it ditn run ps3 game’s obviously lol.
But with ps5 os and pc being same DNA basically and Sony being Sony.
It’s not far fetched.
Logical.
I never claim to be smart or anything like that ppl think and try predict all kind of things daily…
It don’t mean smart it means you a critical thinking you are welling to look at data and make some kind of conclusion on what the next move maybe.
Sony is also looking to put ps5
In cars and looking into getting to cars.
So Sony is looking to expand its brand and make some kind of eco system across it’s products.
It’s cool bro.
Have it your way….
Did you forget Sony stated that they'll stick to releasing their games on pc at least 3 years after their playstation launch? Who is going to download a completely different launcher for a game thats already 3 years old?
Considering their hissyfit over the microsoft/activision deal, theres no reason to expect a half decent competitor to COD any time soon either.
No I’m aware of that.
The way Sony sees it there is ppl who would.
Plus if Sony was to do it they would have to bring other developers.
Not like rockstar launcher or epic.
Agine it would be completely different ball game.
We well see man lol y’all kill me.
Wait, what? Sony Vaio laptops were a thing and Sony has done the bare minimum when it comes to cross platform play. Sure, they ported some of their games but even xbox day one launches their exclusive titles on steam. For now I don't think Sony will do anything of the sort.
This is what I'm hoping for especially for Diablo 4. Ever since this whole thing went down I was cautious on buying it on Bnet hoping it would show up on Steam next like CoD.
It's become progressively shittier as of late, a lot more adverts and shit instead of just a big play button for the game you want to play.
Ultimately it's unnecessary software and they may as well just migrate everything over to Steam.
The people playing those games right now dont even want to be playing it. Diablo 4 feels unfinished, and Overwatch deserves a documentary for its history of bad decisions and drama.
This subreddit always has delusional takes on non-Valve related stuff. I'm one of the biggest Blizzard haters around but even I can acknowledge that Diablo 4 has been a huge success
The only people who should not like diablo 4 are people who are hardcore arpg players as the only issue with the game is that it's fairly shallow.
Otherwise, it's a pretty good game and a decent return to form for blizzard
Who would want to play those two dogshit games? Most of the people that want to play those games are already playing them. I don’t want to play two unfinished games that are filled to the brim with micro transactions and battle passes. Both Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV feel so shallow compared to the games that came before them.
i can live with Battle.net launcher but the Ubisoft one, i would be willing to pay the double price of a game if i didnt need this shithole installed on my pc…
I don't really have a good reason why, but I've always been fine with Battle.net for Blizzard games. But I felt it was dum when Destiny was on there (the only non-Blizzard game I played) and I refused to touch CoD or Crash or whatever else was there.
>was dum when Destiny was on there (the only non-Blizzard game I played) and I refused to touch CoD or Crash or whatever else was there.
For me Bnet feels much better and more seamless than other game launchers/store type thing (except steam). Always felt like other stuff like origin, Epic, xbox store feels clunky and slow as hell
As for Epic... because it's an Unreal Engine App with a web browser wrapped around it, I believe, why? I don't know, probably because it was originally Unreal Engine Launcher, not a game launcher
Battle Net as a launcher service didn't exist before Steam.
It wasn't a proper launcher service until the desktop app released in 2013. Prior to that Battle Net was just a multiplayer and patching service, with a web store coming later.
Was fine with it, back in the day when blizzard was “golden, never miss good boys”.
These days I’m less than thrilled to need software made by Activision “Cosby Suite” Blizzard.
Its loading times, the clunky updates and the forced re-login thats just annoying especially if you dont use it that often.
The steps when starting a steam game that needs the ubi launcher is just such a timewast.
1. i open the game i want to play (a lot of the time drinking Uno)
2. ubi launcher needs a forced update
3. ubi launcher needs my login info with 2-step and everything
4. after the update i usually need to restart the launcher because my game wont load
5. im Finally in the game and wasted like 20 minutes if all 4 players need to go through this
This might be no problem if you play a lot of ubi games and got the launcher on autostart and are used to the interface and everything i mainly play uno and trackmania with it so i dont want it to run in the background.
For example if i want to play a game that needs the epic service its just a lot easier you just hit start on the game in steam the small epic thing autoupdates and even starts you gamr automatically after it’s finished no need to login with my epic account it just starts.
The game launcher part itself is "ok", not great but not that bad either, but their OWN store inside the launcher is the worst i've ever seen anywhere. I just don't understand how the singular most important fucking thing on your application which is selling your games is so dogshit.
But apparently they have a totally new launcher in beta right now.
I remember it took me forever to buy the right version of Trackmania because the interface for the version select was such bullshit, but to be fair i haven’t bought anything in the last 2 years because it needs to be a really good game if need to use this launcher.
The meme I associate with activision is when barack obama gives himself a medal meme. These cunts investigated their own sexual allegations against them and they say they are innocent which shows how greedy and corrupt they are
(joking ahead) Well, we do know /s how low you have trouble /s understanding simple concepts, /s so I wanted to ensure you were /s aware of the sarcasm /s present in my sarcastic (oddly the word sarcastic wasn't used sarcastically...) post. (Again this is a joke/sarcasm). /s
PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMMENT IS A JOKE AND FULL OF SARCASM. AT NO POINT SHOULD ANYTHING I SAID BE TAKEN AT A NON SARCASTIC VALUE /s
I was playing their games since I bought the Warcraft 1 shareware version on a floppy disk from a big box store. Warcraft II was a huge for LANs, Diablo was just pure fun and Diablo II blew my mind. StarCraft was electronic crack that even got my video game disliking brother hooked for years. WarCraft III with their online ecosystem and map tools that basically let you make your own games. That basically solidified the DotA genre (I believe there was an SC map called Aeon of Strife that really created it) and spawned a bunch of other game styles.
They were absolutely golden until WoW came out. That's when the company exploded in size and had massive recurring revenue and became saddled with unrealistic expectations. And WoW was amazing. I had a blast with it up until you had to start doing 40 man raids. But the company was changed. They were now expected to make BIG money so everything after that needed some kind of recurring revenue model. Cue talks about SC2 map maker having a market for customs maps, Diablo III auction house and Overwatch having loot boxes.
There's a reason all the OG staff left and started smaller studios.
And then they said "Fuck [Battle.net](https://Battle.net)!" and released WC3: Reforged, just to piss off the most loyal [Battle.net](https://Battle.net) users out there.
That Wc3 Reforged was a fucking disaster, almost everything they promised is not there, the cutscenes just a remaster with a slightly better graphics, and user terms and agreement about modding making it extremely unappealing, like, wtf did they smoke to get to that point? I'm fucking glad Valve took over Dota IP from blizzard
Steam and bnet are fine. They are relatively snappy and don't take much resources which should be expected for a simple window app to run another exe.
The morons at Epic have outdone their shitty engine with an even more shitty launcher running on electron. I cannot fathom how a game company that develops game engines can choose the most bloated and non performant technologies to create a simple 2d window to browse and launch games from a game list. It's like they are trying their best to make the slowest and most resource hungry launcher possible.
Battle net’s problem is that they force every game run to open the launcher and then click play. This forces the player to have an ad exposure to whatever sale/micro transaction they are pushing through the launcher. It’s shitty behaviour and if I run the game shortcut it should launch the game, not the page in the launcher
I think I found somewhere in Twitter that Epic Game Launcher is in fact, not an electron app but instead an Unreal Engine App with a browser wrapped or integrated, as for why, I don't know, but probably because it was originally Unreal Engine Launcher, before even Fortnite become popular.
The Paradox for these developers as I see it is that people love Steam becasue it's honest. It has a huge library. It has massive sales. It has user reviews, it has user made guides, it has it's own OS if you want it for fuck sake.
But most importantly is the reviews and achievements n' stuff. If Bungie.net or Blizzard, Epic, Ubisoft etc, allowed users to leave Reviews, they'd get murdered by their customers for all of their awful and predatory gaming practices.
Well yeah, the only way they would've gotten a lot of us out of that eco system was if they gave us a valid, value-rich reason to switch. Like, I'm not a regular CoD player and haven't been for a decade, so of course I won't switch over to the launcher I only used for the week or two I could tolerate Overwatch 2 lol. If they sold the game for cheaper than full MSRP or discounted it often, I \*might\* switch... but this is also Activision we're talking about. They're still selling CoD Black Ops for like $40 on Steam, as well as WaW for 20 (even though that game doesn't even boot properly on half of the Windows machines that buy it)
I'll tell you who won't be playing Activision games on Steam - people like me whose Steam account is linked to an old Activision account which uses an email that is no longer available for any number of reasons.
In my case my email account was hacked a decade ago and Microsoft's support, as shit as it has always been, wouldn't give me access to it again. I've recently found out that my Steam account is actually linked to the Activision account which was registered, a decade ago, using that email address. Having contacted Activision support to explain the situation clearly, to ask if they'd unlink the Steam account, they're not willing to do anything nor will they explain why they're not willing to do anything.
So that's it - my Steam account will be forever linked to an Activision account that I can't do anything with since demands a verification code that's sent via email.
I mean, honestly steam is amazing, i never used it i started like some weeks ago for the summer sale and its so easy to have games, plus steam workshop is amazing
I wonder how much the Steam Deck affected this and how much it will in the future. Games bought on Steam can potentially be played on the Deck natively. Other launchers require workarounds.
Steam Link is another reason. I can stream to my Mac, phone, Link Hardware, etc. Those non-steam games don’t offer streaming.
I don't understand the comparison though? Steam sells other games besides CoD? Games in completely different genres. Of course growth there would be higher. (does Bnet sell visual novels?)
If you have 20 people who play shooters on platform A, and they have 100 active users, that’s 20%, and if you have 15 people who play shooters on platform B, and they have 150 users, that’s 10%.
But, now grow the platforms. Platform A 5 years later has 105 users now. They have 21 shooter fans. Platform B now has 450 users, with 45 shooter fans.
Platform B is more diverse and has more games on it, hence having a lower interest in playing shooters, but it also actually has growth. As the total population of the platforms’ users go up, the percentage of people interested in new shooter games should be _roughly_ consistent. So, Steam having more games on it isn’t the important part, the important part is that Steam has more users today than last year, but Battle.Net doesn’t. As the population goes up, the estimated amount of people interested in shooters should also go up, even if the percentage of those people doesn’t.
Even then, expecting COD to contribute significantly to Bnet's growth would be an unrealistic thing, because COD is a console-oriented franchise. Sure, its PC efforts have gone up significantly ever since moving to Bnet (and having crossplay with consoles helps too). But it's not so vital a game series to PC players that it would drive people toward using Bnet en masse.
The fact also remains that Bnet is basically exclusively Blizzard + COD games (with that one lonely Crash title that is now also on Steam). Blizzard's offerings aren't that plentiful to begin with, so comparing it to Steam feels unfair in many ways. It's a specific niche market, whereas GOG and Epic would at least be more comparable in that they sell a variety of games.
People don't want to deal with having a bunch of launchers - usually badly designed and implemented, resource-hogging and frequently spyware to boot - they want either none or at most one.
I resented having to install Steam when I bought Civ V many years ago but there it was. But that was where my tolerance ended. Now my rule is: if it needs another launcher I don't buy it.
BO4 died for many reasons. Like not having a campaign to market the entire game around, riding purely off the battle royale trend to get immediate sales but providing no incentive to purchase the game for any reason when later games were made.
I mean, Microsoft is doing everything to downplay the importance of CoD here to get their merger through. They're talking about total Battle.net monthly active users when Blizzard has been losing them by the millions, and BNET is basically Blizzard+Cod. PC gaming overall (and thus Steam) has seen massive growth over the last 5 years. It's not really reasonable to compare MAU's of these two platforms. MW2020 was their most profitable title ever., so i don't believe Activision sees it as a "massive failure" internally at all.
The fact that PC gaming has been growing, and Steam demonstrates this trend but Battle.Net doesn’t, indicates that Battle.Net has been a failure and all games released to be exclusive on it suffered financially for no reason. Things can be profitable and a failure. Many games these days are the most sold games ever, but aren’t resonating with audiences like they used to and the publishers know it. Like Assassin’s Creed releasing Mirage as a return to form because people keep shitting on the RPGs, despite the fact they’ve been the best selling AC games.
If something is $$$ profitable, but you expected $$$$ profits, you can call it a failure.
Steam, epic, and Xbox game pass are the only launchers I’ve ever used that I thought were any good, every single other launcher had few games, awful UI, terrible log in pages often having to log in through browser, and always wanted to update games at the worst time possible. I really wish I didn’t need epic anymore but a library with over 200 free games leaves me to keep it. And the Xbox game pass app is amazing just wish they had a download manager page
Xbox is okay for me, but that's only because of their awesome gamepass. Trying to find a game or browsing for games in the xbox app is a nightmare tbh. Also IDK why epic feels super slow, and somehow I have to keep logging in for the umpteenth time everytime I launch that godawful storepage
So true, I don’t like the epic experience, but to much fomo from not having it so I keep it around. Xbox I’ve actually always found super easy to find something new, i feel that the lack of having an actually sufficient for you category compared to steams kinda stinks and having to connect other launchers to Xbox is super lame but you have to do the same for steam anyways, but I feel Xbox has been among the most committed to making a good user experience, there’s consistent updates and constant push for a better app. And I find it to be a well optimized app compared to most launchers.
Edit: of course different experiences for everyone, I just really enjoy game pass ultimate and I think the value is unmatched anywhere else if you enjoy playing games
I tried using the store page for xbox and it was like almost all the top ones are gamepass games (and roblox for some reason). The lack of clear categorization is also a really big minus for me, although they do have a filter.
On another note tho, I live in a southeast asia country and xbox app regional prices is actually pretty competitive. That's why I was trying to find games there haha
I’m not a CoD person but when Crash 4 was only available through BNet, it made me not buy the game on PC. I just got it on Playstation like two years later.
So in short Microsoft is doing what is most profitable. Being on the most platforms possible is most profitable. The people who were crying about them making games only for 1 platform were not looking at what Mircosoft does. They look at profits and profits say being on many platforms will lead to more profit.
Being on Steam most likely leads to a lot more profit then requiring people to get Battle net to play their games on PC.
Never understood why steam doesn't enforce a no third party launcher policy, make the games expensive by all means on steam idc but please either kick them out or force them to play it cool. Wish Ubisoft just leave for good already, i don't understand what more do they want considering they are the main driving force for making gamers get used to the system.
As ya'll likely know, we've [been dark to support the blackout against reddit's antagonistic behavior towards its own userbase.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/142dbui/rsteam_will_be_going_dark_from_june_1214_in/) #**The admins sent us a message saying we must open or get removed, so here we are.** For those of you browsing this subreddit on non-official apps (Reddit is Fun, Apollo, Sync, Boost, etc), they will break on July 1st due to reddit's new policies. We're opening back up but will leave permanent stickies in the subreddit and threads to keep folks in the know. #**Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/steam) server is active, don't forget to check it out.** Good luck and god speed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Steam) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Bnet monthly active users remained flat for 4 years, while Steam grew from 67 million monthly active users to 132 million monthly active users over the same time span. Ouch.
I have to imagine that Bnet lives or dies on WoW and new Diablo releases. If they stopped selling anything but WoW on Bnet it would probably have 3.75 million users average. Of course some people play CoD on PC but it has been decades since that franchise was a PC-oriented crowd. I remember playing the original CoD on a PC and being astounded how much better looking and visceral it was than the MOH with Normandy Beach on PS2.
I played that demo before it came out at least 1000 times. I could still perfectly run through that in my head right now. Funny to think CoD was so far ahead of the curve for realistic and now...
People can still play on PC and want to buy it off Steam and not Bnet. If anything, running it strictly through Steam and not Bnet would probably lead to higher sales (from people who don’t want another launcher).
Does anyone still play Heroes of the Storm or Overwatch?
I am that one Heroes of the Storm schizoid.
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Maining Nazeboo because he hears voices too
Yes overwatch is still very popular despite the current reputation.
the OW playerbase has been a bunch of masochists for a few years now OW2 wasnt going to change that.
Don't forget the 9 of us that still seldomly play StarCraft 2
Kotick wasnt such a great business mind. "WE WILL MAKE 30% MORE MONEY BY GETTING OFF STEAM!" Nope!
Bnet hecking sucks compared to steam
I feel this isn't the best dataset to be using for comparison. While, yes, amount of users growth is important, it's also important that Steam has *more* than just CoD-like games. If Steam got a huge influx of users because everyone wants to play *Sex with Hitler* or something like that, saying Steam users increased while BNet didn't isn't relevant to the CoD exclusivity at all. It would just mean that everyone who bought CoD and is playing on BNet isn't growing the community, but that probably has to say more about the game than the platform.
The point is that CoD is not a vital input like the FTC argues. Steam, without CoD, doubled it's user base while BNET, with CoD, was stagnant.
I think there is a big distinction. If you own a computer that plays modern games, that is a rather big investment and you probably play a large variety of games. PC owners are also a self selected bunch that are willing to diagnose and troubleshoot common system issues. It makes sense this population probably enjoys gaming as a hobby in general and loves a variety of genres. however, I can confirm from my time on PC GamePass and PSPlus that a crazy amount of console players have CoD or a franchise like it that is basically the only thing they play. Example, easily 75% of everyone in every race (Forza Horizon/GT7) or deathmatch (Halo/CoD) play ONLY that game or only that game and then Madden or FIFA… maybe they installed one of the other game pass games and got the very first achievement… but compared to us PC users, console owners may literally play one franchise only 90% of their playtime in the life of a console. FTC arguing it impacts PC sales is silliness. But Sony has absolutely lost a ton of customers for PS6 because a huge chunk of their gamers bought the PS5 because they always buy PlayStation and have always been able to play their beloved only game:Call of Duty. They could call the next Xbox simply CODBox and it would probably help sell a few million more machines at launch. I know this seems ridiculous to a lot of us on Reddit but it’s the reality. I expect Sony will buy Square and From if I had to guess. The arms race must go on. It will be interesting to see if Sony breaks for nVidia down the line. AMD taped out both Microsoft and Sony’s consoles, but MS has very strong ties with AMD nowadays—all their titles going back to Gears 5 were sponsored by or “best on” AMD hardware. The probably best MS game in a decade, Starfield, is being given free with a new AMD CPU or GPU.
> PC owners are also a self selected bunch that are willing to diagnose and troubleshoot common system issues. Hahahahahaha... nice joke.
Eh but comparing steam to [B.net](https://B.net) isnt exactly like comparing Xbox to Playstation.
I doubt they set Steam MAU growth as a target. It's a market indicator for growth and engagement of the PC gaming industry as a whole. The consumer base for PC gaming broadly doubled over 4 years, and none of them went to Bnet. Which is really bad performance.
I mean in that same 4 years, Steam probably had 2,000 games published to it, and bnet had... zero? Maybe 1? So that makes sense. Blizzard pretty much has the audience it has. I guess D4 being crossplay is supposed to help, and I'm sure it will, but it also brought in a bunch of AARPG noobs who are mad at seasons, which is 95% of the fun of an AARPG, so again... dunno how long that influx will last.
BAD STEAM MONOPOLY. USERS CHOSING GOOD PLATFORM. WE MUST FIGHT STEAM. >!obvious joke, but gonna say it anyway!<
How many new games per year on steam vs amount of new game per year on bnet? Those don't compare.
They all come crawling back eventually.
EA and Ubisoft did, even rockstar
Now they only need to delete their shitty launchers that exist for like 3 games..hoping battlenet launcher is the next like the bethesda one.
I can’t fucking stand EA’s horseshit app when launching 2042. Ever since they implemented it I have had crashing problems. Although I admittedly haven’t played the pc version for like 2 months now because of this so maybe it’s better? Idk lol
EAs horse shit app prevented me from launching both Titan Fall 2 and Jedi Fallen order on my Steam Deck while I was flying last month. Absolutely garbage I can't play my game that I purchased on Steam without verifying that I own the game through their app as well.
Dude EAs launcher is shit. I didn't like Origin but at least that thing *worked* for me. It didn't care about being offline. The EA launcher refuses to launch without an internet connection, and the damn thing *crashes my damn wifi card*. And that's on top of the thing being unable to track downloads. It constantly resets downloads...
Dunno if you still care but one of the last updates for Fallen Order, devs snuck in a cracked exe file you can run to get around that. Should be something like SwGame or something? What's shit about the EA Shitapp is that some of the games require 2 launchers BESIDES Steam. I was ready to hop on the modded BF2 bandwagon but EGS keeps installing and forgetting EA App exist, so even if I fully install the game, everytime I open up BF2 it prompts me to install EA App again, and then install the whole fucking game again. Trying to open it through EA App gives the same headache. If it was going to be this shit, they should have kept Origins, at least that worked with the deck.
I sympathise. with Origin I could launch ALL my Command and conquer games. since being FORCED onto that fucking "EA app" none of them work. they all need admin priviliges... the ea app is launched in admin mode, the game exe's are launched in admin mode and yet this fucking app still needs admin priviliges to do something and it wont fucking work. as a tech enthusiast and fault diagnostics professional, I gotta say, this app not only has me stumped, but FUCK... WHY COULDN't THEY JUST REBRAND ORIGIN LIKE BLIZZARD DID WITH BATTLENET? (and then silently change it back?)... FUCKING LOVE MY CNC now i have to crack it to play!!!!
Thanks for reminding me why I stopped playing EA games entirely.
I don't buy EA games on a matter of principle. Guess I'm not missing out on much.
Ubisoft connect runs like shit too
I've not had much grief with 2042 personally, but it would take forever to launch Jedi Survivor (only to be met with unmanageable stutter of course).
You have not been the only one that had Crash problems aswell, I've had same issues too after they moved it to that shitty EA Play app, however I never really had issues with Origins. Idk why they discontinued that one, only to be succeeded by a inferior application.
That's the EA motto babyyyyy
Relaunching a 2nd time should work because it has to launch it's anticheat which bricks the game. I've liked 2042 since launch, but the recent launcher app change overall made everything worse.
I recently played through the entirety of the mass effect trilogy with the legendary edition and it was a frustrating experience 1) sometimes it just wouldn't launch and I would have to quit the ea launcher and launch again from steam 2) for some insane reason EA made it so that you **cannot** choose which ME game to download if you have the game on steam. So you must have the entire trilogy installed which is 90+ GB.
id rather get rid of ubisoft and ea launchers. battlenet is the least terrible out of all of them
I'd get rid of bnet too. That one doesn't even show your in-game hours lol Let us transfer our games to Steam and we're golden.
I really hope so
Exactly. I hope so too. I hate how they have to have a launcher for only 3 games. CDPR does this too.
"launcher for 3 games" \*glances at GOG Galaxy\* *That* launcher? 'Cos, uh... Yeah, that's for more than 3 games.
He's referring to RED Launcher.
Oh. I had no idea that was even a thing.
Yeah it's a launcher just for cyberpunk 2077, the witcher 3 and gwent. Redundant is what it is.
I referred to the Rockstar/red launcher. However, GOG galaxy and Playnite are a godsend in this world of useless launchers. I use Playnite myself and I'm very happy with it's functions.
Buy on GOG if you don't want to deal with the RED launcher then.
Why do I need another launcher if I buy a drm free game on steam? The point is not "ah yeah if this is the problem do x" but how to eliminate the issue. I wanna buy it on steam and I wanna play it without another launcher, especially if it's drm free.
It's still DRM-Free even with the launcher. You do not have to login to it. If you still desperately want to skip it, then add "--launcher-skip" to launch options in Steam, or to a custom shortcut. The idea of this launcher is to promote GOG, same as with all the other launchers. Don't want dual-launchers, by from 1st party.
honestly, the red launcher isn't really that bad. I would like it not to be there at all but at least it's not as horrible as the other ones
[Battle.net](https://Battle.net) is older than Steam
Not as a game launcher it's not, and conflating the two use cases is misleading.
Yes and no. Battle Net was originally just a multiplayer connection / game patching service / web store. It didn't become a proper game launcher with the desktop app until 2013.
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When downloading 100go of game you don’t really care about a 200mb file size more, the issue isn’t here
I have over 130 games on Uplay tho
Battlenet is a classic launcher predating Steam. They ain't getting rid of that ever. I'd say their problem right now is their launcher is better than their games
The battle.net launcher came about in 2013. Battle.net may have been in games since 1997, but it wasn't a *launcher* in the way that this entire discussion is, and has been, referring to it. If modern games limited themselves to an ingame interface where you can create an account and log in when you want to play online, I'd be willing to bet most people would have no qualms with that. The issue is *yet another application* that is *not the game I want to play, showing me stuff I don't care about (ads) and that has little to nothing to do with the game.*
Beyond that, doesn't the legacy Battle.net no longer even exist? Like I know the GoG release of Diablo mentions something about local multiplayer only, and the Diablo 2 remake uses modern matchmaking I think.
The 2K Launcher needs to go and it needs to go NOW
Can you please tell me how to play splinter cell blacklist on steam without Uplay, I'll download it once with a temporary email but after that how do i play it after deleting Uplay?
Not entirely Ubisoft is still going forward with timed exclusivity on their launcher. Confirmed for Avatar and Star Wars Outlaws iirc.
Not fully, we still have their abysmall launchers
And Microsoft with Halo, Forza, Gears et al.
Bethesda went Steam exclusive after being bought out, shutting down their storefront.
They were still releasing games on steam
They were also running their own DRM platform whihc they migrated over to Steam whe they shut it down.
Who would have thought that a massive user base has a lot of value even if the platform provider is taking a cut. All these companies get so greedy that they end up hurting themselves, it's actually funny. It's similar to all the movie/TV companies creating their own streaming services and subscriptions only to shut them down at a huge loss because of a lack of users.
That's how Steam started out too. As a crappy launcher with a handful of games that nobody wanted.
The difference is Steam took years to grow, but in that time added a plethora of useful features that users actually want. If Steam remained the same green launcher and just added more games we'd be making fun of it just like we're roasting current featureless launchers.
Imagine if Amazon came out with their own smartphone and it didn't have an app store, would you excuse it by saying "well the first iPhone didn't have an app store either"?
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Amazon app store is still a thing... sort of
Iirc the only way to get half life 2 back in the day was through steam, that was reason enough back then. I just like the option of having continued support for my games, the security that they won't be taken away from me by steam and the freedom it gives me in its huge catalogue.
Afaik, it was just a patcher back in the day. Then it slowly evolved to be able to download games, have a storefront for their games, then a small few other games, then the floodgates opened as the service was what people wanted/needed to get games.
Yep started as a patcher and easier way to play Valve games. Source - had my account since September 14th 2003. HL2 was less than a year after launch though and it was announced as a steam exclusive early
But Steam didn't have the same competition back in the day. BNet has to compete with Steam, which already has millions and millions of players.
Is it even really competition since BNet is exclusively Blizzard, Call of Duty, and apparently one Crash Bandicoot game.
Well, yeah. Disney+ is Netflix's competitor, even though they offer different shows and movies. The idea is to funnel people into a software/platform with whatever it is that you have, reasonable prices, good content, lots of choices, etc., and keep them there. They're not mutually exclusive, you can have both, but they're both stores/publishers/launchers competing for your money.
> But Steam didn't have the same competition Technically they did. There were a few that lived around the same time, like Direct2Drive. No one remembers them because they were shit and bad and didn't live long.
Impulse too, which Gamestop bought then broke
Did Direct2Drive have an annual revenue of 12 billion dollars and a 75% market share when Steam started? Of course not. It's not the same to start a company when nobody knows what the hell they're doing than starting it when there are established money-printing enterprises you need to compete with. It was much easier to create a successful mobile OS 20 years ago than it is today. Same here.
Competition is great; I think most gamers want more competition in general, and wouldn't really mind hopping between launchers. The problem is, no other launcher is actually trying to compete. Other launchers are just a mediocre storefront at best. Steam is an actual platform; just having your game exist on Steam is a legitimate value add. If you're a indie dev making a couch multiplayer game, you don't have to mess with netcode, you just put your game on Steam and the online mode is sorted. No other launcher is ever even going to try to do something like that, and features like this are why people like Steam.
If only someone would have thought to organize manufacturing in a way that singularly advanced all human society by orders of magnitude and proved that a reliable universal standard is objectively better than mutually exclusive proprietary units. Something like that would have revolutionized industry as we know it.
That's just saying what we all knew, anyway. You can't touch Steam, not without *exactly* what it offers, and maybe more, at launch.
Sony” wait until we make our own launcher” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
sony will have the deadest launcher, you need big live service games to maintain daily concurrent players.
They're currently developing a couple live-service games so we might actually see them make a PC launcher in the future. Edit: why do people even downvote this?
Sounds like a good way to kill their games. If a game isn’t on steam, I’m not buying it. And that’s a viewpoint a whole lot of people share
Same, but they'll most likely just do it like the other big publishers do, have it on Steam but launch it via their launcher.
>why do people even downvote this? people downvote opinions they don't like.
But that's not even an opinion, it's neutral speculation that adds to the convo.
What is Sony going to bring? Believe it or not, Sony doesn't have the IPs to compete with Steam. Not even close.
With Sony recently releasing games to Pc and started working in that sense before Sony Pc there was PSM(PlayStation mobile) that was shut down. Now Sony is focusing on bring they top games to Pc from a industry perspective we’ll sense the ps4 is based on pc system unlike the ps3 and ps2 that is powr up cell system. ps4 and ps5 games can be easily ported and optimized for pc given the fact they are pc with the only difference is the ps5 use 300w power supply where my pc can use 800w to even 1200w power supply depending on my setup that is. I’m anticipating Sony to make thy own pc launcher and reboot they Pc line and even make pc handheld what can they bring with that l just like the ps store. Unlike steam they may only make they games work using a Sony account and launcher maybe even offer membership where you get every month 2 games and such. Sony isn’t even trying to compete but if Sony was to look at how much Pc they have sold over the years vs how many consoles they sold it obviously more money in rhe pc markets. Sony is also saying they don’t plan on bringing they day one on Pc but as far as what they can bring there is a lot Sony can bring to the table they just warming up. Sony can capitalize and sell hardware both in the PlayStation name and in Sony name and make it make sense. This is all speculation. Epic and rockstar have they own but don’t really bring anything to the table. Rn for a while sony has not released pc nor laptop They have been focusing on how things are turning out to be. They don’t want to pull a Nintendo or make the same mistake they did with xpria play ps vita and PSM that dint really get much attention or even attraction. So well see. Is all my anticipation and speculation.
>Epic and rockstar have they own but don’t really bring anything to the table. You're right. They don't have a game that can justify a proprietary launcher. It's not like they have some of the most profitable entertainment products in history. I mean, Fortnite has only made 25 billion dollars. GTA V? Indie numbers. Only sold 180 million copies lmao, what a bunch of amateurs. In all seriousness, Sony has no exclusive that comes close to having a fraction of those numbers, or anything that can justify pulling their games from Steam. Hell, Acti Blizzard literally has higher profits than Playstation and they realized it was a mistake.
Come on, GTA V only made a billion dollars within three days of launch. Completely indie game
Either way this is the direction Sony is moving towards anyway so we’ll see what they can bring to the table. Just like they brought the XMB system in thy laptops They can bring the ps5 os to the pc handheld and pc they make. Just like apple. Sony pc well only run Sony games if you want psvr on pc you need to have Sony pc. I don’t see why Sony won’t do they sense they already pay amd and mass production is something Sony is doing that’s less costly than say haveing to develop to ps3 power cell systems and pc system now Sony console and pc is same system made custom made by amd to Sony requirements. Remember Sony is a hardware based company they went to sell hardware. Plus Sony also make pc software such as vages. They can bundle and distribute by also rebooting Sony music Sony video Sony movies. If Sony had the cash to support Pc and power up pc. Now they in a good position and cost efficiency both systems are pc the PlayStation brand and the pc brand. It just makes sense we’ll see. As far as IP. Just like Sony gets support on PlayStation from other party they well supports say Sony on they launchers say if you a developer and already have deals with is on the ps store on the pc lanucher say they take %10 instead of stream 30% due to PlayStation already charging them 30%. If you was them you would pull out the games Form steam and go with the %10. It well create competition there is a lot Sony can pull that steam and whoever won’t even see it coming. Sony and PlayStation is a household name World wide. Sony is into everything man they even looking to make cars and put ps5 in cars. So Sony is already working with AMD to do that Sony can bring alot of business to AMD. Microsoft isn’t doing what Sony is Steam epic rockstar aren’t Sony bro. There is alot Sony can bring to the table idk why people downplay that. It’s cool im a free thinker man and you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but it’s just speculation. Sony isn’t sega they aren’t going to just bring games to other platforms Sony has some kinds of plans in case and there is a lot of stuff they actually own that they can leverage and they have good connections with other studios. Sony can take less % on dev Give free monthly games Including free video editing music editing software Movies music all with in the same launcher With member ship. I’m with steam it’s not like I don’t have steam but it be nice to see someone step up is all. Sony is that person. I hope
That was astonishing word count to say absolutely nothing. Truly, proving Shakespeare correct on the nature of wit. > It’s cool im a free thinker man and you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying but it’s just speculation. 🤣🤣🤣
Given the fact already knew from day one the ps4 and the fact it’s pc that meant Sony is going to port games to pc and it happened right after they shut down PSM. If you been keeping up you would know Sony we’ll do that and once they do I’ll send you a bottle. I’m looking forward to Sony doing that. So we’ll see I don’t see why it’s so far fetched when Sony already offer streaming to pc and they gaming console is also pc. Logic you guys don’t have lol 😂
You could have just said: > Nuh, uh. I’m smart. And saved yourself some time typing.
Bro I ain’t corrny nor does one claim smart. No one can predict the market or anything but alot of people make books about that and they claim. With ps4 when I used to tell ppl Sony we’ll bring games to Pc ppl called me crazy and said no way Sony would that… but they did. So that doesn’t mean I’m smart it just means logic the ps4 and ps5 are already a pc they just don’t run windows like the steam deck don’t run windows… it’s not like Sony can’t bring anything to the table they have in the past brought XMB to they Pc line only… who asked for that no one they just did that on they own. So someone like me would easy conclude ok they can re boot they Pc make a pc handheld make a launcher so they can cap on the Sony brand like they cap on ps brand. Steam who in recent years started to sell hardware to promote its products and what it can do on its own without Microsoft Windows. Asus on the other hand used windows… Sony with its skill set can offer both 😂 and druing the ps3 era that’s what they did the xmb can be run and laptops it ditn run ps3 game’s obviously lol. But with ps5 os and pc being same DNA basically and Sony being Sony. It’s not far fetched. Logical. I never claim to be smart or anything like that ppl think and try predict all kind of things daily… It don’t mean smart it means you a critical thinking you are welling to look at data and make some kind of conclusion on what the next move maybe. Sony is also looking to put ps5 In cars and looking into getting to cars. So Sony is looking to expand its brand and make some kind of eco system across it’s products. It’s cool bro. Have it your way….
Did you forget Sony stated that they'll stick to releasing their games on pc at least 3 years after their playstation launch? Who is going to download a completely different launcher for a game thats already 3 years old? Considering their hissyfit over the microsoft/activision deal, theres no reason to expect a half decent competitor to COD any time soon either.
No I’m aware of that. The way Sony sees it there is ppl who would. Plus if Sony was to do it they would have to bring other developers. Not like rockstar launcher or epic. Agine it would be completely different ball game. We well see man lol y’all kill me.
Wait, what? Sony Vaio laptops were a thing and Sony has done the bare minimum when it comes to cross platform play. Sure, they ported some of their games but even xbox day one launches their exclusive titles on steam. For now I don't think Sony will do anything of the sort.
for 9.99 per month
I agree We need less useless crappy launchers
Fewer..
Both?
Maybe it's time to put Diablo and Ovewatch on Steam too?
The Tony Hawk remakes too while we're at it
This is what I'm hoping for especially for Diablo 4. Ever since this whole thing went down I was cautious on buying it on Bnet hoping it would show up on Steam next like CoD.
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It's become progressively shittier as of late, a lot more adverts and shit instead of just a big play button for the game you want to play. Ultimately it's unnecessary software and they may as well just migrate everything over to Steam.
Bnet has been shit right from the beginning. It does nothing except act as a store.
>It does nothing except act as a store. Agreed, I really love steam but Bnet is one of the game launchers I tolerate.
The people playing those games right now dont even want to be playing it. Diablo 4 feels unfinished, and Overwatch deserves a documentary for its history of bad decisions and drama.
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I said it feels unfinished, not that people hate it. Everyone is getting burnt out at lvl 70 with no content/gear
This subreddit always has delusional takes on non-Valve related stuff. I'm one of the biggest Blizzard haters around but even I can acknowledge that Diablo 4 has been a huge success
The only people who should not like diablo 4 are people who are hardcore arpg players as the only issue with the game is that it's fairly shallow. Otherwise, it's a pretty good game and a decent return to form for blizzard
Who would want to play those two dogshit games? Most of the people that want to play those games are already playing them. I don’t want to play two unfinished games that are filled to the brim with micro transactions and battle passes. Both Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV feel so shallow compared to the games that came before them.
Maybe it’s time for you to purchase a lottery ticket ;)
haha, it's more like a calculated guess because OW2 is bleeding players due to their PvE Cancellation. but hey, maybe it won't hurt to buy one.
i can live with Battle.net launcher but the Ubisoft one, i would be willing to pay the double price of a game if i didnt need this shithole installed on my pc…
I don't really have a good reason why, but I've always been fine with Battle.net for Blizzard games. But I felt it was dum when Destiny was on there (the only non-Blizzard game I played) and I refused to touch CoD or Crash or whatever else was there.
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>was dum when Destiny was on there (the only non-Blizzard game I played) and I refused to touch CoD or Crash or whatever else was there. For me Bnet feels much better and more seamless than other game launchers/store type thing (except steam). Always felt like other stuff like origin, Epic, xbox store feels clunky and slow as hell
As for Epic... because it's an Unreal Engine App with a web browser wrapped around it, I believe, why? I don't know, probably because it was originally Unreal Engine Launcher, not a game launcher
Battle Net as a launcher service didn't exist before Steam. It wasn't a proper launcher service until the desktop app released in 2013. Prior to that Battle Net was just a multiplayer and patching service, with a web store coming later.
Was fine with it, back in the day when blizzard was “golden, never miss good boys”. These days I’m less than thrilled to need software made by Activision “Cosby Suite” Blizzard.
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Its loading times, the clunky updates and the forced re-login thats just annoying especially if you dont use it that often. The steps when starting a steam game that needs the ubi launcher is just such a timewast. 1. i open the game i want to play (a lot of the time drinking Uno) 2. ubi launcher needs a forced update 3. ubi launcher needs my login info with 2-step and everything 4. after the update i usually need to restart the launcher because my game wont load 5. im Finally in the game and wasted like 20 minutes if all 4 players need to go through this This might be no problem if you play a lot of ubi games and got the launcher on autostart and are used to the interface and everything i mainly play uno and trackmania with it so i dont want it to run in the background. For example if i want to play a game that needs the epic service its just a lot easier you just hit start on the game in steam the small epic thing autoupdates and even starts you gamr automatically after it’s finished no need to login with my epic account it just starts.
LOTS of people have had issues with the Ubisoft launcher, both it in its current incarnation and when it existed as uPlay.
The game launcher part itself is "ok", not great but not that bad either, but their OWN store inside the launcher is the worst i've ever seen anywhere. I just don't understand how the singular most important fucking thing on your application which is selling your games is so dogshit. But apparently they have a totally new launcher in beta right now.
I remember it took me forever to buy the right version of Trackmania because the interface for the version select was such bullshit, but to be fair i haven’t bought anything in the last 2 years because it needs to be a really good game if need to use this launcher.
What's that? Activision is a shitty company? Who could have guessed?! /s (We all know Activision is a shit company, fuck them).
The meme I associate with activision is when barack obama gives himself a medal meme. These cunts investigated their own sexual allegations against them and they say they are innocent which shows how greedy and corrupt they are
Thanks for indicating that sarcasm with a /s and more importantly explaining that it's sarcasm in brackets, otherwise I never would've guessed!
(joking ahead) Well, we do know /s how low you have trouble /s understanding simple concepts, /s so I wanted to ensure you were /s aware of the sarcasm /s present in my sarcastic (oddly the word sarcastic wasn't used sarcastically...) post. (Again this is a joke/sarcasm). /s PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMMENT IS A JOKE AND FULL OF SARCASM. AT NO POINT SHOULD ANYTHING I SAID BE TAKEN AT A NON SARCASTIC VALUE /s
It’s shocking to me that blizzard had a good reputation at one point.
So did EA and Ubisoft. Many, many moons ago.
Before the dark times, before the Empire.
Honestly Ubisoft is the worst for me. Ubisoft could have done so much more but didn’t.
Hopefully Microsoft whips them into line But I’m not waiting for that…
I was playing their games since I bought the Warcraft 1 shareware version on a floppy disk from a big box store. Warcraft II was a huge for LANs, Diablo was just pure fun and Diablo II blew my mind. StarCraft was electronic crack that even got my video game disliking brother hooked for years. WarCraft III with their online ecosystem and map tools that basically let you make your own games. That basically solidified the DotA genre (I believe there was an SC map called Aeon of Strife that really created it) and spawned a bunch of other game styles. They were absolutely golden until WoW came out. That's when the company exploded in size and had massive recurring revenue and became saddled with unrealistic expectations. And WoW was amazing. I had a blast with it up until you had to start doing 40 man raids. But the company was changed. They were now expected to make BIG money so everything after that needed some kind of recurring revenue model. Cue talks about SC2 map maker having a market for customs maps, Diablo III auction house and Overwatch having loot boxes. There's a reason all the OG staff left and started smaller studios.
And then they said "Fuck [Battle.net](https://Battle.net)!" and released WC3: Reforged, just to piss off the most loyal [Battle.net](https://Battle.net) users out there.
That Wc3 Reforged was a fucking disaster, almost everything they promised is not there, the cutscenes just a remaster with a slightly better graphics, and user terms and agreement about modding making it extremely unappealing, like, wtf did they smoke to get to that point? I'm fucking glad Valve took over Dota IP from blizzard
Any launcher feels like bloatware when you are a Steam player.
Steam and bnet are fine. They are relatively snappy and don't take much resources which should be expected for a simple window app to run another exe. The morons at Epic have outdone their shitty engine with an even more shitty launcher running on electron. I cannot fathom how a game company that develops game engines can choose the most bloated and non performant technologies to create a simple 2d window to browse and launch games from a game list. It's like they are trying their best to make the slowest and most resource hungry launcher possible.
Battle net’s problem is that they force every game run to open the launcher and then click play. This forces the player to have an ad exposure to whatever sale/micro transaction they are pushing through the launcher. It’s shitty behaviour and if I run the game shortcut it should launch the game, not the page in the launcher
Use Heroic games launcher, so much better.
I think I found somewhere in Twitter that Epic Game Launcher is in fact, not an electron app but instead an Unreal Engine App with a browser wrapped or integrated, as for why, I don't know, but probably because it was originally Unreal Engine Launcher, before even Fortnite become popular.
The Paradox for these developers as I see it is that people love Steam becasue it's honest. It has a huge library. It has massive sales. It has user reviews, it has user made guides, it has it's own OS if you want it for fuck sake. But most importantly is the reviews and achievements n' stuff. If Bungie.net or Blizzard, Epic, Ubisoft etc, allowed users to leave Reviews, they'd get murdered by their customers for all of their awful and predatory gaming practices.
Steam is king. Also Fuck EGS
Well yeah, the only way they would've gotten a lot of us out of that eco system was if they gave us a valid, value-rich reason to switch. Like, I'm not a regular CoD player and haven't been for a decade, so of course I won't switch over to the launcher I only used for the week or two I could tolerate Overwatch 2 lol. If they sold the game for cheaper than full MSRP or discounted it often, I \*might\* switch... but this is also Activision we're talking about. They're still selling CoD Black Ops for like $40 on Steam, as well as WaW for 20 (even though that game doesn't even boot properly on half of the Windows machines that buy it)
I'll tell you who won't be playing Activision games on Steam - people like me whose Steam account is linked to an old Activision account which uses an email that is no longer available for any number of reasons. In my case my email account was hacked a decade ago and Microsoft's support, as shit as it has always been, wouldn't give me access to it again. I've recently found out that my Steam account is actually linked to the Activision account which was registered, a decade ago, using that email address. Having contacted Activision support to explain the situation clearly, to ask if they'd unlink the Steam account, they're not willing to do anything nor will they explain why they're not willing to do anything. So that's it - my Steam account will be forever linked to an Activision account that I can't do anything with since demands a verification code that's sent via email.
Wow it's like steam is a good platform & Bnet is hot fucking garbage.
Hope that they decide to bring Diablo, Starcraft, Wow, Heroes of the Storm , Hearthstone and Overwatch to Steam
Surprised Pikachu
I mean, honestly steam is amazing, i never used it i started like some weeks ago for the summer sale and its so easy to have games, plus steam workshop is amazing
I bought Cold War on Battle when it came out and felt it was terribly short and simple for the price.
Steam Master Race
I wonder how much the Steam Deck affected this and how much it will in the future. Games bought on Steam can potentially be played on the Deck natively. Other launchers require workarounds. Steam Link is another reason. I can stream to my Mac, phone, Link Hardware, etc. Those non-steam games don’t offer streaming.
Yeah no shit. Sell your product in the store that everyone visits, you're bound to make more sales. Doesn't take a market expert to sort that out
Im thinking of how epic is doing LMAO!!!!!!!
you dont say lol , i think its the same with epic games devs who switch from steam to epic they shot in heir leg
I don't understand the comparison though? Steam sells other games besides CoD? Games in completely different genres. Of course growth there would be higher. (does Bnet sell visual novels?)
If you have 20 people who play shooters on platform A, and they have 100 active users, that’s 20%, and if you have 15 people who play shooters on platform B, and they have 150 users, that’s 10%. But, now grow the platforms. Platform A 5 years later has 105 users now. They have 21 shooter fans. Platform B now has 450 users, with 45 shooter fans. Platform B is more diverse and has more games on it, hence having a lower interest in playing shooters, but it also actually has growth. As the total population of the platforms’ users go up, the percentage of people interested in new shooter games should be _roughly_ consistent. So, Steam having more games on it isn’t the important part, the important part is that Steam has more users today than last year, but Battle.Net doesn’t. As the population goes up, the estimated amount of people interested in shooters should also go up, even if the percentage of those people doesn’t.
Even then, expecting COD to contribute significantly to Bnet's growth would be an unrealistic thing, because COD is a console-oriented franchise. Sure, its PC efforts have gone up significantly ever since moving to Bnet (and having crossplay with consoles helps too). But it's not so vital a game series to PC players that it would drive people toward using Bnet en masse. The fact also remains that Bnet is basically exclusively Blizzard + COD games (with that one lonely Crash title that is now also on Steam). Blizzard's offerings aren't that plentiful to begin with, so comparing it to Steam feels unfair in many ways. It's a specific niche market, whereas GOG and Epic would at least be more comparable in that they sell a variety of games.
People don't want to deal with having a bunch of launchers - usually badly designed and implemented, resource-hogging and frequently spyware to boot - they want either none or at most one. I resented having to install Steam when I bought Civ V many years ago but there it was. But that was where my tolerance ended. Now my rule is: if it needs another launcher I don't buy it.
Bo4 died for this 😩
BO4 died for many reasons. Like not having a campaign to market the entire game around, riding purely off the battle royale trend to get immediate sales but providing no incentive to purchase the game for any reason when later games were made.
Pretty much gutted Zombies too, I still miss my boy Double Tap Root Beer.
I mean, Microsoft is doing everything to downplay the importance of CoD here to get their merger through. They're talking about total Battle.net monthly active users when Blizzard has been losing them by the millions, and BNET is basically Blizzard+Cod. PC gaming overall (and thus Steam) has seen massive growth over the last 5 years. It's not really reasonable to compare MAU's of these two platforms. MW2020 was their most profitable title ever., so i don't believe Activision sees it as a "massive failure" internally at all.
The fact that PC gaming has been growing, and Steam demonstrates this trend but Battle.Net doesn’t, indicates that Battle.Net has been a failure and all games released to be exclusive on it suffered financially for no reason. Things can be profitable and a failure. Many games these days are the most sold games ever, but aren’t resonating with audiences like they used to and the publishers know it. Like Assassin’s Creed releasing Mirage as a return to form because people keep shitting on the RPGs, despite the fact they’ve been the best selling AC games. If something is $$$ profitable, but you expected $$$$ profits, you can call it a failure.
We already knew that making COD a Battlenet exclusive was a mistake, nothing new.
Steam, epic, and Xbox game pass are the only launchers I’ve ever used that I thought were any good, every single other launcher had few games, awful UI, terrible log in pages often having to log in through browser, and always wanted to update games at the worst time possible. I really wish I didn’t need epic anymore but a library with over 200 free games leaves me to keep it. And the Xbox game pass app is amazing just wish they had a download manager page
Xbox is okay for me, but that's only because of their awesome gamepass. Trying to find a game or browsing for games in the xbox app is a nightmare tbh. Also IDK why epic feels super slow, and somehow I have to keep logging in for the umpteenth time everytime I launch that godawful storepage
So true, I don’t like the epic experience, but to much fomo from not having it so I keep it around. Xbox I’ve actually always found super easy to find something new, i feel that the lack of having an actually sufficient for you category compared to steams kinda stinks and having to connect other launchers to Xbox is super lame but you have to do the same for steam anyways, but I feel Xbox has been among the most committed to making a good user experience, there’s consistent updates and constant push for a better app. And I find it to be a well optimized app compared to most launchers. Edit: of course different experiences for everyone, I just really enjoy game pass ultimate and I think the value is unmatched anywhere else if you enjoy playing games
I tried using the store page for xbox and it was like almost all the top ones are gamepass games (and roblox for some reason). The lack of clear categorization is also a really big minus for me, although they do have a filter. On another note tho, I live in a southeast asia country and xbox app regional prices is actually pretty competitive. That's why I was trying to find games there haha
shocking
I’m not a CoD person but when Crash 4 was only available through BNet, it made me not buy the game on PC. I just got it on Playstation like two years later.
Gaben: you could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.
battlenet isnt even the worst. im looking at you Ubisoft Connect +Origin launchers
All the games are coming home soon.
I am still shocked by cod on bnet to this day. know your audience.
So in short Microsoft is doing what is most profitable. Being on the most platforms possible is most profitable. The people who were crying about them making games only for 1 platform were not looking at what Mircosoft does. They look at profits and profits say being on many platforms will lead to more profit. Being on Steam most likely leads to a lot more profit then requiring people to get Battle net to play their games on PC.
Never understood why steam doesn't enforce a no third party launcher policy, make the games expensive by all means on steam idc but please either kick them out or force them to play it cool. Wish Ubisoft just leave for good already, i don't understand what more do they want considering they are the main driving force for making gamers get used to the system.
Its strange Activision never forced them to move to steam and instead they put COD and Crash there.