Honestly? You almost feel sorry for Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford. Not only did he post there after the Borderlands movie flop, but now everyone is making fun of him for making an ill-considered prediction five years ago: the resources of the Epic Games Store and its willingness to invest them could now make Steam look like a “dying store.”
And then Borderlands came back to Steam. Five years after Borderlands 3 was announced as an Epic Games Store exclusive (for the first time), Borderlands 4 was first announced last night at the Gamescom Opening Night Live event. It may be coming to Epic, but this time it’s not exclusive. You’ll be able to pick up the game on day one on Steam if that’s your preferred store.
The internet is digging up Pitchford’s 2019 tweetstorm about the rosy future of the Epic Store compared to Steam. “From a track record perspective, I expect Epic’s investment in technology to significantly outpace Valve’s,” Pitchford wrote in April of that year. “When we look back at Steam in five or ten years, it might look like a dying store and other, competing stores will be the place to be.” A little later, he wrote, “If I were to bet on it (and remember, I’m in a pretty good spot with a great view of that competition), Epic will inevitably surpass Valve in terms of features and quality of service.”
From a track record perspective, I expect Epic’s investment in technology to significantly outpace Valve’s. When we look back at Steam in five or ten years, it may look like a dying store and other, competing stores will be the place to be.13 April 2019
Which hasn’t quite proven true over the last half decade. Steam is perhaps more dominant than ever, and the internet as a whole is – for reasons both reasonable and unreasonable – extremely hostile to the idea of switching your preferred store from Steam to Epic (or any other launcher).
Observers have made this clear in numerous posts, poking fun at Pitchford’s prediction. “Randy ‘Nostradamus’ Pitchford,” wrote one amused commenter on Reddit. “It could happen any minute now!” wrote another. “If Randy says my name is anything, I’d double check my birth certificate,” said a user named ares0027, summing up the general tenor of the internet reaction to Pitchford’s revealed prophecy.
Others have simply poked fun at the Epic Games Store’s relative lack of features compared to Steam, as well as Steam’s (perceived) inactivity, which doesn’t seem to have dented its dominance. “I’m just curious what technology Epic has invested in over the past few years?” wrote one user, to which another responded, “Introducing ‘Shopping Cart®’ – now you can pay for multiple items at once, a truly revolutionary technology!” The EGS famously launched without the ability to add multiple games to the cart at once.
“It’s like other stores are actively trying to be fucking worse than Steam,” wrote Extreme_Isopod_9414, to which others responded that Valve’s storefront doesn’t actually have to do anything to beat the competition. It’s a strategy that one user named NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea aptly called “Sun Tzu’s art of not being a fucking idiot.”
You know what I mean. To be fair to Pitchford, he made this prediction just months after the EGS launched in late 2018. Innovative projects like the Steam Deck were just a glint in Valve’s eye and no one yet realized that Epic’s strategy would revolve more around giving out free games and buying exclusive rights than interesting technical investments. Still, I don’t think you’d have to be a genius to predict that Steam wouldn’t become a “dying store” within just five years. At least some the mockery feels a little deserved.
