As Borderlands 4 eyes Steam, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford addresses prediction Steam may be "dying" by now: "I’m a Steam customer, but sure wish they had more and better competition"
Aug. 21, 2024Pitchford reckoned Steam would feel more pressure from stores like Epic
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Five years ago,GearboxbossRandy Pitchford predictedthat, “when we look back at Steam in five or 10 years, it may look like a dying store and other, competitive stores, will be the place to be,” alluding primarily to the then-fresh Epic Games Store and its more generous developer revenue split. Cut to today and not only is Steam quite lively,Borderlands 4is eyeing Steamandthe Epic Games Store, whereas Borderlands 3 was briefly an Epic exclusive. As some onlookers readied their eggs, Pitchford addressed his inaccurate prediction online, defending his stance as pro-competition.
“Yeah, Steam is the leading store for PC games and Epic is not pressing their advantage (which is a shame),“Pitchford said in a tweet. “I’m a Steam customer, but sure wish they had more and better competition that was more favorable to artists, designers, and creators than to the retailer. I will continue to support competitors to Steam and also support Steam.”
Separately, Pitchford added, “I don’t think I am anti-Steam as much as pro competition. It’s frustrating how much Steam takes given what they provide. I will happily support competitive platforms that are more favorable to artists and developers and creators than favorable to the retail operators.”
At base,Valvegets a 30% revenue cut of Steam game sales, whereas theEpic GamesStore takes 12%and offers six-month exclusivity dealsthat give developers 100% of the revenue. Epic boss Tim Sweeney has trumpeted this selling point for years, frequently mirroring Pitchford’s stance on competition and supporting creators. The Epic Games Store has also continually pumped out free games to win players over. Despite this, the Epic Games Store still wasn’t profitable as of late last year and hasn’t dealt a major blow to Steam’s PC dominance.
Plenty of developers like Steam, of course; just recently the creator of beloved shipbuilder Cosmoteerargued Steam’s cut is worth it for the “free advertising” the storefront offers. Last year, Valve assured devs and usersSteam should not be “pay to win,“outlining the filters and algorithms that help games get noticed on Steam. Earlier this month,Steam added a new “Trending Free” chartto keep free games and demos from pushing other games down the coveted trending tab.
Borderlands 4 is set on an “all-new planet” rather than series mainstay Pandora.
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