Epic is anti-consumer and also anti-Linux, they don’t make any effort to support other platforms, the app is shit.
Meanwhile, Steam is
Actively working with the FOSS community to help preserve old games
Kernel improvements for better graphics performance
Lots of VR and HDR work
Many contributions to the open-source AMD drivers
Has been supporting Linux gaming for a decade with no signs of backing down
They have a portable Linux gaming console experience, and it’s intentionally left wide open for users to mess with
They’ve taken several community features and built them into the OS
Their DRM is weak and unintrusive
Their anticheat is ununtrusive
The sales are pretty good
They have tons of features for users:
Family sharing
Remote Play Together
Remote Play
Streaming
Community forums for every game
Mod workshop
Matchmaking
Steam Chat / Voice Chat / Streaming
The only appealing thing for EGS is, EGS takes a lower cut from the developers who just pockets it and doesn’t even result in lower prices for users. As a Linux user, praise our Lord GabeN for all the good Valve has done for gamers. Even for the developers, most are quite happy with the services they get back from that 30% cut.
I’d say the dislike is mainly that for the users, EGS doesn’t bring in anything new or interesting or useful that Steam didn’t already do well, and goes directly against a lot of the good Steam has been doing. It’s just a store that makes big developers slightly more happy.
And all that forever too. The developers don’t pay a dime after Steam’s cut to keep the game alive and downloadable and playable. Even Steam keys, you can sell as many as you want outside of Steam, for free.
The devs can just raise the price by 30% if they feel they really need the money. I’ll pay the extra to have it on Steam and just work out of the box in Proton. Unlike Apple, it’s not a monopoly, nothing stopping anyone from just distributing on their own.