By Todd Russell
It’s interesting to see Amazon flummoxed that they couldn’t compete against Steam in the PC games marketplace. They have tried to garner interest in Luna (https://luna.amazon.com/home), their gaming service, in Prime Gaming (https://gaming.amazon.com/home) to seduce gamers over to their platform over using Steam.
Michael Hoglund asks: “What do you think, gamers? Why did Amazon fail to capture an audience on the PC marketplace? Let us know below in the comments or on social media. I’ll make sure to check out the conversation.” – Amazon admits defeat to Steam, “Goliath lost.” | Windows Central
Michael, the simple answer involves one word that many tech companies fail to understand or respect: time.
When you fail at something in life or business it usually boils down to giving up too soon. That’s not always the case but I’d argue that Amazon already has something valuable game-oriented that Steam doesn’t have — and can’t compete against easily — and that’s Twitch. They have gamers coming to them streaming games every second of every day. This is and continues to be Amazon’s foot in the door to gamers.
They need to work Twitch better than they are. Promote that door opener and use that to integrate better with Luna and/or whatever other promotions they can to drive gamers to their platform as an option. They need to replicate what they can do to compete against Steam.
They are doing at least one thing right on this front, they partnered with GOG, which is different in one very good way than Steam: Unlike Steam and Epic, GOG Provides Offline Installer For Games Purchased Through Their Store
Amazon also sells physical products on the internet better than anybody else, period. Steam can’t and doesn’t compete here either. At some point if the worm known as physical games turns, Amazon is prime, pardon the pun, positioned to capitalize on it.
Time.
Yes, time is everything. And time changes everything. Steam is on top in 2025, but there are good reasons not to like Steam. A big one is that everything is digital. Every game we have there isn’t physical, isn’t owned, it’s essentially in a digital locker that someday in the future we can be locked out of playing. This world of gaming isn’t ideal and definitely doesn’t align with gaming history. There once was a time all our gaming was physical, in the form of cartridges, discs and cards … but that gaming world has faded in current times.
I think there might be a time that this changes in the future. I don’t know what the new format will be, but gamers like to own stuff. They don’t like to rent it. Maybe the current young gamers don’t get this, but in time they will. Someday they will understand when you own nothing, you own … nothing. It sounds like a simple concept, but renting your entertainment is fraught with perils.
We’ve covered this topic again and again, but most passionately here: OPINION: Sony reminds us that the illusion of “owning” Digital Movies and TV Series are lessons in Hollywood Thievery.
Michael, the reason I like using Steam over the other online game stores is simple: using multiple stores for the same thing sucks and Steam is the biggest, has the most gamer friends using it and, well, it’s good at what it is. I once thought the same about Google search, but stopped using that over a year ago. Google got too big and too stupid and what they did well: targeted search results, became more about ads.
If I were Amazon, I wouldn’t give up. I’d pour more money into Twitch and make Twitch the game store. Why do we need Luna or Prime Gaming when we already have Twitch? Let Twitch Games become the Amazon storefront for digital games. Move what Luna does into Twitch and give active Twitch streamers FREE cloud streaming. The more you stream, the more gamers you have, give those streamers access to more games they can stream and play with their audiences. Give free games through Twitch in addition to Prime members that streamers can giveaway to viewers. Make Twitch the Amazon be-all, end-all for games.
Sadly, I don’t think Amazon will listen. They will keep Twitch at an arm’s length and continue to treat it like some bastard child that costs them a ton of money. They will sprinkle a few dollars on it, while chasing to be the owner of James Bond for a billion dollars instead. Think I’m kidding? No, I’m not: James Bond Deal Cost Amazon MGM Studios $1 Billion. Now What?
Let’s figure out why spending a billion dollars to whore out James Bond is more valuable? Yes, I get it, Bond is a great franchise, but is creative control over Bond more valuable than investing more into becoming the next Steam?
Or maybe Amazon will do another Beast Games with Mr. Beast. That’s where they think games are at. Great, that’s entertainment, it’s fleeting. Becoming the digital storefront of choice, the main competitor to Steam is much more valuable and less fleeting, but they don’t seem to understand this. They want the prize, but don’t want to compete for it in a meaningful way.
Most gamers I know aren’t giving Luna the time of day. It’s actually a decent cloud streaming service and like your article mentioned, Michael, it’s doing something Steam isn’t doing. My advice for Amazon is not to give up too soon. They probably will, maybe they already have, I don’t know. What I do know is time changes things.
Steam is vulnerable. Maybe it doesn’t seem that way, but they are definitely vulnerable as a PC game storefront. There can be meaningful competition, especially from tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google and Amazon. They just have to exercise some patience, and these large companies often are way too impatient when it comes to competing.
Don’t give up, Amazon. You have Twitch. Gamers love Twitch. The jewel is in your treasure chest. Use it more wisely, until somebody else takes it from you.