Tim Sweeney, the big boss of Epic Games, has once again taken aim at Valve. His main complaint is that Steam lacks massive titles like Fortnite or Genshin Impact, which he claims limits its reach to new audiences. The executive proposes that Valve's platform be more open and collaborate with other stores, just as they and Microsoft do. For players, this dispute could translate into more purchasing options and more competitive prices if competition truly intensifies.
The engineering behind closed stores 🛠️
From a technical standpoint, Sweeney's criticism targets Steam's distribution model. While the Epic Store allows interoperability with external services and uses Unreal Engine to simplify ports, Valve maintains a more hermetic ecosystem based on its own SDK and achievement system. The absence of titles like Genshin Impact is not a whim, but rather a business decision: miHoYo chose to launch its game directly without going through the 30% standard Steam commission. If Valve reduced that percentage or relaxed its conditions, the catalog could grow. However, Gabe Newell's company shows no intention of yielding on that point.
Sweeney asks for third-party games to fill his own store 🤔
It's curious that Tim Sweeney criticizes Steam for not having Fortnite when his own flagship game is conspicuously absent from all third-party stores. Epic demands temporary exclusivity from developers in exchange for a better revenue split, but then calls for openness from others. It's like a neighbor asking to borrow your pool while locking theirs with a padlock. Meanwhile, players are still waiting for someone to explain why we can't have all games on a single platform without having to pray to three different gods.