Randy Pitchford says Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands show customers turn up 'for the games, not the storefront,' but would still like Steam competitors to not 'shoot themselves in the foot'

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford reflects on his prediction that Steam would be 'dying' by now, acknowledging that Epic's push for a competitor has failed, while Steam maintains its dominance despite its perceived developer-unfriendly practices.

Borderlands 4 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands boss Randy Pitchford has offered greater insight into his poorly-aged claim that Steam would look like a 'dying' store by now thanks to Epic's investment in technology. While he admits his long-term hope for the Epic Game Store was "misplaced or overly optimistic," Valve rivals "with much more developer-friendly models continue to shoot themselves in the foot" - and that's why the opportunity to disrupt the PC gaming retail space remains.

"If Epic successfully pressed its advantage, that may have been the case. But Epic did not," he says. "So, famously, Steam does very little to earn the massive cut they take and continues its effective monopoly in the West while would-be competitors with much more developer-friendly models continue to shoot themselves in the foot. I am a Steam customer and Steam developer that will continue to root for and support competition."

Pitchford then says that Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands "clearly" demonstrate that "customers show up for the games, not the storefront." But, the industry would rather keep Steam's monopoly intact than take the risk of supporting more "developer and publisher-friendly stores," so here we are.

"It's all very interesting and there is a huge amount of opportunity in the PC gaming space for retail disruption, but no one seems to be able to make it happen," he adds.

While Pitchford's initial claims are old, they've been doing the social media rounds once more as Borderlands 4's reveal shows that the loot 'em up is coming to Steam on launch. On that, the Gearbox boss says that, as a Steam Deck customer, his "bias for personal interest and convenience is fighting against my wish for a more developer-friendly alternative" on PC. He also reiterates that Borderlands 3 and Wonderlands initially validated his hopes for Epic's Storefront, but his long-term hopes were "misplaced or overly optimistic."

"Moving forward, we'll continue to support Steam (as we have for literally every PC games we've launched since Steam came into existence," Pitchford says. "Meanwhile, I sincerely hope Epic keeps up the fight and makes headway. Epic is going to have to prioritize the store and try some new initiatives while also doubling down on earning pivotal exclusives if it is going to have a chance."

Meanwhile, as Fortnite returns to mobile, Tim Sweeney says Epic Games "probably lost over a billion dollars of revenue" because the battle royale was blocked from the iPhone four years ago.