>>The reason Steam and Netflix are so good and continue to exist in such a good state is exactly because of the competition.
I don't believe in this case that is demonstrably true. What has improved for me as a consumer with either platform since competition came - other then less content?
In particular with Steam, I don't believe there has been a single improvement relevant to me. Uplay, ea origin, battle.net are purely net negatives to me, in their own right and in their impact on steam.
Steam's refund policy used to be abysmal until Origin added no-hassle refunds. Within about 6 months Steam changed to the policy they have now.
Big Picture Mode only came about because they tried developing Steam Machines to compete with Microsoft potentially locking everything into the app store.
I don't think UPlay and Battle.net have caused any changes though, lol. Their only attempts at competition have been game exclusivity.
> Steam's refund policy used to be abysmal until Origin added no-hassle refunds
Didn't the refund policy come after they lost a court case in Australia [0]. Sure they could have made it country-specific but that would a) have been an incredibly bad look and b) promptet similar lawsuits in other countries with a semblance of consumer protection laws and c) probably doesn't actually lose tham that much money as it also means that people are less reluctant to purchase.
I don't believe in this case that is demonstrably true. What has improved for me as a consumer with either platform since competition came - other then less content?
In particular with Steam, I don't believe there has been a single improvement relevant to me. Uplay, ea origin, battle.net are purely net negatives to me, in their own right and in their impact on steam.