For a lot of PC gamers, Steam is the definitive platform of choice for buying and installing PC games. It's hard to argue with Steam's extensive library and frequent, generous sales. For many years, Steam was not only the best game browser available to PC fans, but practically the only choice. Things have changed, though. Steam has increasingly steep competition from some other platforms, but none are as influential a rival to Steam as the Epic Games Store. Epic Games has a lot more to offer than Fortnite; it's become an extremely successful platform by distributing games just as efficiently as Steam can.
In fact, some would argue that Epic Games is an even better platform that Steam at this point. Epic is a pretty cunning business, snatching up exclusive rights to selling new PC games for months or more before other platforms like Steam can sell them. Another familiar business tactic of Epic's is regularly offering free games to its users. That perk alone is compelling reason for anyone to give the Epic Games Store to try. With Epic's browser established as a central part of the PC market, Steam needs to find more ways to compete with it. One good way that Steam could do that it by pushing out as many free games as Epic does.
Steam's Relationship with Free Games
There's some good reason that Steam shouldn't be afraid to try pushing out more free games. In fact, it recently did offer its users free games for a very brief window. Both Little Nightmares and Company of Heroes 2 were just offered for free to Steam users, but players only got a couple days to claim a copy. While it wasn't the same as the Epic Games Store's free games — Steam offered these two games as a part of a broader sale — it's a good start for Steam. Next time it should offer games like this over a larger window.
It's worth nothing that Steam does have a couple major games available for free, developed by its parent company Valve. Team Fortress 2 was once one of the biggest FPS games on the market, and to this day it's still free-to-play on Steam. Although it still has a thriving player base, Steam and Valve don't much advertise it. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is also available for free on Steam, and still has lots of fans, but Steam doesn't make a big deal out of it. The crucial difference is that Epic constantly has new, popular games to offer to free, while Steam still leans on some of its oldest classics.
The Battle Between Epic and Steam
After rising to fame on the back of Fortnite, Epic built up the necessary resources to offer the free game program that helps make its store popular. It's a good success story — so good, in fact, that it's surprising that Steam hasn't tried harder to compete with that model. For so long, Steam was the best platform for access to great games, and Valve definitely had the money to reach out to developers on its platform and strike deals for free offerings. Instead, Steam has mostly stuck to its guns, rather than trying to imitate or counteract Epic Games' free games in any major way.
Steam's sweeping sales are great, but it has to keep up with the times. It can't rest on its laurels and assume that it'll always persevere in the face of Epic Games, an eager and opportunistic competitor that's clearly working hard to corner the PC market. The Epic Games Store can't just be viewed as a gateway to Fortnite; it's just as capable a platform as Steam. If Steam wants to compete, it needs to examine what Epic is doing that's working and do what it can to replicate or even top those strategies.