Behold, the Big Three™

Well yes, there are only 3 major platforms left: Playstation, Nintendo, and Steam, and unless someone makes a very serious mistake, I think little will change in the future.
 
Mr Moose said:
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MCC is on Steam, saved you the purchase of a Switch 2.
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I have it on there. Only one way to play Mario Kart World, though!
 
And NVIDIA probably as big or important as any of these guys. As they are the undisputed kings of cloud gaming. They practically got a monopoly on the gpu market as well. In theory these guys are also a platform holder as cloud gaming is provided by most of these platform holders.
 
I think for steam to be in the big three they would need to be a producer of games not just a delivery platform.
 
AJUMP23 said:
I think for steam to be in the big three they would need to be a producer of games not just a delivery platform.
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I get that argument, but at the same time when Steam has more games than the other "bigs" combined, including direct ports from those "bigs", then I'd say Steam earned its spot on the podium.
 
Topher said:
I get that argument, but at the same time when Steam has more games than the other "bigs" combined, including direct ports from those "bigs", then I'd say Steam earned its spot on the podium.
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The others all produce games. I think valve is working on hl3 but they do not create games anymore. They aren't really even a publisher. They are a distributor that takes 30% for the privilege of hosting your game.

HW is not custom like a console. They do have the deck. But I don't see that as a console.
 
AJUMP23 said:
The others all produce games. I think valve is working on hl3 but they do not create games anymore. They aren't really even a publisher. They are a distributor that takes 30% for the privilege of hosting your game.

HW is not custom like a console. They do have the deck. But I don't see that as a console.
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I mean.....yeah, they are not a console platform because they don't do what those console companies do and that's not why they are successful. They created the best gaming community of all of them if you go on steam and look at each game that has its built in forum and support sections. So we can judge these companies a number of different ways, including the fee rates that they all charge and we can look at online fees just as easily. But to suggest Steam doesn't deserve to be mentioned with the others doesn't make a lot of sense to me when they are consistently in the conversation.
 
Topher said:
I mean.....yeah, they are not a console platform because they don't do what those console companies do and that's not why they are successful. They created the best gaming community of all of them if you go on steam and look at each game that has its built in forum and support sections. So we can judge these companies a number of different ways, including the fee rates that they all charge and we can look at online fees just as easily. But to suggest Steam doesn't deserve to be mentioned with the others doesn't make a lot of sense to me when they are consistently in the conversation.
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They can be mentioned. Just maybe as a provider. Not a platform. You don't play games on a steam.

Don't let my antiquated notions get in your way old man.
 
I probably give PlayStation and Steam around the same amount of money. The difference is that every 6 months it's a full priced game for PS and it's about a billion $5 games on Steam.
 
People have been attached to Xbox for nearly a quarter of a century.

Is it coming to an end? Yes. Do topics like this help the overall gaming community? No.

I think it just creates more animosity at a time when that's the last thing we need. The console wars have been dumb since SNES and Genesis, but the heights of which have never been more true than now.

I think there is a lot of mental illness in gaming and the console war preys on that. Console wars are by nature tribal and people want to feel a sense of belonging when they don't otherwise have that. So before making topics like this, maybe consider for a second that despite the console wars being one of the stupidest things imaginable (literally plastic boxes), that some people are absolutely going to go through it.

They fear losing their community. So that's my advice to OP and those who have championed this thread by liking it.

My challenge to those impacted, find better footing. You should never have staked your personality on a plastic box. You shouldn't tie your personality to anything that is external from you...
 
Microsoft will stick around just to keep the gaming market in-line and it be left out, the game situation is good, actually good hardware, actual numbers on subscribers, if you want to connect the dots I think the Xbox brand did a lot for Microsoft over the years.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Sorry to bother but could you please define platform for me?

Because imo the platform is the place where you play, the PC. Steam is just a storefront and distributor, just like GOG. I dunno, it would be like calling PSN a platform, when the plaform imo would be whatever Sony console you are accessing PSN from.
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I'm no expert in PC gaming since I don't game on PC but don't you use Steam to launch games?

I would say it more than just store front at that point, it also people get pissed if the game Epic exclusive.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Sorry to bother but could you please define platform for me?

Because imo the platform is the place where you play, the PC. Steam is just a storefront and distributor, just like GOG. I dunno, it would be like calling PSN a platform, when the plaform imo would be whatever Sony console you are accessing PSN from.


Nah fuck that, the more the merrier. The more competition, the better things are for the consumer.
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I'll jump on the platform thing. PC and playstation are hardware platforms but they are pretty different in that a ps is an integrated assembly as a product, but PC is more like a collection of standards. So right there, ps and pc as hardware platforms are not really analogous.

What happens if steamos has arm translation, and comes built into a standalone headset? What is left of the pc, then? Is it reasonable to consider steam itself the platform?

For me, steam is "where I play". I use gog a little. Steam handles shit front to back and it's pretty much a self contained experience. I'm not so much about having "all my games in one place". It's more about having a cohesive "place" to play, shop, check reviews, and all that other stuff.

Then it has tools built in like the amazing steam input and proton. There is backend stuff for publishing and developers. API's for outside stuff. Forums, self-publishing, steamVR, and on and on and on.

You could fairly reduce it to a launcher and a store. That was early steam almost 20 years ago but it expanded into a whole platform.

And about PSN being a platform ... good question. If you could boot up a playstation app on pc and it was indistinguishable from a ps5 - is the platform psn or pc? It's the platform psn (that can clearly exist without pc) on the platform of pc. PSN is sort of like steam at that point.

That's all I got.

edit: forgot the steam key system, music player, weird micro-economies, integrated browser, recording and screenshotting, shareplay stuff... it's sprawling.
 
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I play my Xbox soooooo much more than my PS5, its wild to see threads like this.

Is OP on some insecurity flex? - Looking at their recent posts it looks like you have some serious bug to bear L LakeOf9 - You ok?
 
Man, I wish xbox fanbase held strong during xbox one era.

These days Playstation/ Nintendo regularly pull off worse shit than what xbox attempted back then. Yet their fanbase just laughs it off.

Anyways, whatever happens to xbox, they have my full support, down to last console they release. They simply make best games out of all 3.
 
simpatico said:
I still don't see Nintendo as a competitor to Steam or Playstation. If Switch didn't exist, most of those customers would not have bought a PS5 or Steam Deck. Would probably just go without dedicated gaming hardware. Maybe an iPad gets bought or something. Switch doesn't replace Steam Deck whatsoever and vice versa.
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Let's see what the numbers say:
  • PS2 - Sony - >160 million
  • NDS - Nint. - 154 million
  • NSW - Nint. - 152 million
  • *STM - Valve - 132 million MAU
  • GB/C - Nint. - 118 million
  • PS4 - Sony - 117 million
  • PSX - Sony - 102 million
  • Wii - Nint. - 101 million
  • PS3 - Sony - 87 million
  • X360 - Msft. - >84 million
I rhink you are really underestimating Nintendo. People buy their shit.
 
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Little Chicken said:
Microsoft have bought joy to millions of attractive, successful budget-conscious consumers. Bravo! :messenger_clapping: :messenger_clapping:
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And then they had to fire everybody because those attractive successful customers spent money on clothes, laser treatments, hair dye or investments instead of games.

Then they had to turn to install bases that actually spend money on games at Playstation, Nintendo and Steam.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
Man, I wish xbox fanbase held strong during xbox one era.

These days Playstation/ Nintendo regularly pull off worse shit than what xbox attempted back then. Yet their fanbase just laughs it off.

Anyways, whatever happens to xbox, they have my full support, down to last console they release. They simply make best games out of all 3.
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You should be wishing that the Xbox One/Don Mattrick were different.

The last time anyone made a Xbox One level mistake it was called Wii U:

-Retarded confusing name

-Weaker system with unwanted, expensive hardware pack-in

-Exclusive to Xbox One: presentation about draconian DRM changes

Wii U and Xbox One jointly handed the victory to PS4 on a silver platter. I don't spend much time saying "I wish Nintendo fans held strong during Wii U era", but I do think about how I'm glad Nintendo learned lessons from it (which MS did not from their own experience, at least not the important ones, like I wonder how many console launches in a row the biggest software company in a world can faceplant their biggest AAA IP launch game)
 
BlackTron said:
"I wish Nintendo fans held strong during Wii U era", but I do think about how I'm glad Nintendo learned lessons from it (which MS did not from their own experience, at least not the important ones, like I wonder how many console launches in a row the biggest software company in a world can faceplant their biggest AAA IP launch game)
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Nintendo fans did purchase Wii U though.

How do you think it reached 12 million sold?
 
vaibhavpisal said:
Nintendo fans did purchase Wii U though.

How do you think it reached 12 million sold?
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Based on your logic, your initial statement that you wish Xbox fans held strong during Xbox One era doesn't make any sense. How else did it reach approx. 50 million units lifetime?

Of course both these consoles were disappointments for their respective companies, but your context-sensitive logic is collapsing on itself.
 
I would put mobile, ie Apple + Android, as a massive fourth pillar of interactive entertainment. maybe even 4+5 if we don't combine the two platforms.
 
Topher said:
True. I think most folks look at Steam as the single most important platform on PC. And I can't think of any other company that represents PC gaming more than Valve.



Isn't that three?
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Microsoft? They did indeed develop the Direct3D and the Windows API, which all PC games are developed for.
 
LakeOf9 said:
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This is it. The core gaming industry has rallied around three platforms, each with more than 100 million active users, each selling billions of games, each giving third parties large, receptive audiences to sell to. There are differences in all of them of course - other than the exclusives unique to each platform, they each specialize in different things; Steam and PC gaming is open, flexible, and all about giving users and developers options. PlayStation is the go to, premier, default console option. If you want to play games but don't want to muck with PCs, PlayStation is the way to go. Nintendo is the go to, premier, default portable and family-friendly option, prioritizing local multiplayer, user friendliness, and toy style hardware gimmicks.

With Xbox on the way out, and Steam starting to proliferate the platform beyond just PCs thanks to Steam Deck, SteamOS, and rumoured upcoming Steam OEM consoles, as well as Switch 2 anticipated to set sales records, and absorb a lot of third party support Nintendo didn't get before, plus PlayStation's ongoing dominance, means these three platforms are it. The big three for the industry.
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100% want this so there will be no more arguments for additional large acquisitions. Everyone gets a store they are attached to and software co gets control of software (AAA).
 
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