Steam Should Be REMOVED!
19Well, this is an incredibly dumb question.
"Delete one forever."
Ah, another interaction bait, but I reacted to it indirectly. So, I totally did not take the bait.
For real though, no. I don't think I want to delete any of them. They all contributed to gaming in some way or another. I'll just let them delete themselves, but if I do have to choose, it's Xbox. They are barely a player in this industry nowadays. They have pretty much given up, and they are safe to remove from the current lineup.
"Easily Steam."
I'm sorry, what?
"They don't produce games anymore."
First off, Steam doesn't produce games. Valve produce games. Second, we're talking about a whole platform here, not what the games that the companies can output. While the games do contribute to the platform, Steam and Valve for that matter have this unique position of not needing exclusive games because PC as a platform is in and of itself a selling point, especially for someone like me whose job is primarily on PC.
"They don't innovate in actual gaming technology."
Now, this one is just flat out wrong. If it weren't for the Steam Deck using a Linux-based operating system, gaming on Linux would not be as good as it is right now. The Steam Deck in general leads to so many clones of it. Granted, it's derived from the Switch, but unlike the Switch, the Steam Deck is a way more open ecosystem. It's pre-installed with Linux. That's how open it is.
"Just a storefront that became overly dominant."
Yeah, and they are overly dominant for a good reason. The competition sucks.
"If Steam goes away, someone will pick up the slack."
No, or at least not as competently because it's a lot of slack to pick up if Steam goes away, and none of the other distributors can do that.
"Valve hasn't even published a game in how long?"
Irrelevant because again, the selling point for Steam isn't the game. It's the whole PC platform.
"I'm not getting rid of any of the 3 biggest publishers in gaming."
Two, because Xbox has practically given up right now.
"Without the Switch, there would not be a Steam Deck."
Yes, but I'm not going to remove Nintendo for that, either. I know this is supposed to be subjective, but I do think that Xbox is the best answer. Say what you want about PlayStation and Nintendo. Their market is way more significant than Xbox right now.