Steam Is Successful Because It’s “Not a Shit Service,” Says Baldur’s Gate 3 Dev
It’s no secret that Steam is one of the biggest platforms in today’s digital gaming market. While it’s not technically a monopoly because there are other competitors, players clearly prefer Valve’s platform over others like Epic Games.
Michael Douse, head of publishing at Larian Studios — the team behind Baldur’s Gate 3 — recently shared his thoughts on the topic.
Steam’s Success Comes from Not Being a Shit Service
This discussion began after a survey found that 72% of developers believe Steam is a monopoly, and in reply to a post on X (formerly Twitter), Douse said, “It’s almost as if it isn’t providing a shit service defined by public shareholder KPIs.”
In other words, Douse suggested that Steam’s success comes from offering a good, straightforward service rather than one built around investor demands. He also hinted that other platforms might struggle because they focus too much on those performance targets.
Despite the ongoing debate about whether Steam dominates too much of the market, it continues to be one of the most popular and trusted store for both developers and players.
In the same thread, a user asked what would happen to Steam after Gabe Newell, the president of Valve, leaves. Douse replied that “a post-Gabe world is a terrifying one.”
In related news, 40% of games released on Steam in 2025 have earned less than $100, not even enough to recover the platform’s $100 listing fee. Meanwhile, around 20% of Steam releases this year have disclosed using generative AI, marking an 800% increase compared to 2024.
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Steam hosts your game and provides you with cloud saves and backwards compatibility for free once your game is up. What are the other publishers offering?
“This discussion began after a survey found that 72% of developers believe Steam is a monopoly”
Not devs. Industry executives.
My account was hacked. It was back in 5 hours later, after my complaint.
I always laugh when I read dumb comments like Steam is a monopoly. They aren’t, but they have a service that can’t be beat. I have gotten free games on epic and then bought them on steam when they came on sale because I liked them, I wanted them on steam. I love that Epic gives free games away but their platform just lacks so much including user reviews. I will go to another platform like Steam just to see what people say about the game. Funny too, when a game on steam is getting review bombed, there’s usually a good reason.
“40% of games released on Steam in 2025 have earned less than $100” is deceiving since a TON of games released right now are AI spam hoping for a few dollars. It used to be more difficult to get listed on Steam and that has attributed to a lot of spam in the form of undeveloped games from free toolkits available all over. Even some that are good, lack the community of players to keep it going and no one write decent bot code anymore.
I will agree that the 30% cut most stores charge seems insane unless they are hosting your game servers etc, but a bunch of games they’d only be storing and distributing install files.