Is PC Gaming Reaching a Singularity?

Editor’s Note: While there is mention of the use of piracy in this article, Phenixx Gaming nor its staff are promoting or advertising such means.

I realized something a couple of nights ago. Toward the end of 2024, Rockstar Games finally ported the original Red Dead Redemption to PC and released it on Steam and Epic. Ubisoft has been adding Steam achievements to much of its catalog for a while now and has pledged to release Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Steam and Epic on day one. Just a couple of weeks ago, EA re-released complete editions of The Sims and The Sims 2 on Valve’s storefront. That got me to thinking: Is PC gaming as a whole approaching some kind of singularity?

I’m sure most PC gamers know that many major game publishers have their own proprietary launchers for their games. Ubisoft, Rockstar, and EA are on that list, although EA has finally decided to pull the plug on its Origin software this coming April and focus on its so-called “EA App.” There’s a rather famous line from Futurama that explains why certain publishers traditionally avoid Steam, which involves a desire to create their own exclusive environments that feature a certain form of card-based gambling and employees of “the oldest profession,” if you catch my drift.

However, it’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that even the most stubborn game publishers are beginning to realize that they can’t afford to ignore Steam’s stranglehold on the PC for much longer. I know remakes and remasters have been appearing on Steam in droves for years. However, I suspect that PC gaming as a whole is approaching a point where many publishers will seriously rethink their decisions to use proprietary launchers and DRM as opposed to just releasing their games on Steam. Other than Epic, the odds of anyone else challenging Steam are low.

Why could such a momentous shift in game policies be happening, then? Well, I’d say there are three main reasons that I call “the three ‘P’s:” Preservation, pandering, and profits. I’ll use the Steam re-releases of The Sims 1 & 2 as an example to explain what I mean. For years before they appeared on Steam, these two games were unavailable for consumers to legitimately purchase digitally. This meant that anyone who wanted to play these titles on modern hardware and who didn’t have their physical installation discs from 20-plus years ago had no practical choice but to pirate them.

Barring the (rather unlikely) possibility that Sims fans could find a halfway decent price for the original physical installation discs in an online auction or something, “Sailing the High Seas” was the only course available to them once EA removed the original games from sale on its Origin storefront. There aren’t many massive game publishers out there who approve of piracy (nor do we), and certainly not EA. Does anyone remember Spore’s 5-installation limit? It seems EA has finally woken up and realized what’s likely the easiest way to eliminate the need for people to pirate their older games, at least in this instance.

By releasing their popular older games on Steam and Epic, EA and their fellow obscenely large game publishers can also pander to their longtime fans or, to phrase that less diplomatically, “cash in on the nostalgia crowd.” I’ve believed for years that if EA released the first two Sims games on Steam to run on modern versions of Windows, and didn’t charge too much for them, they’d be able to rake in profits by the boatload. All while simultaneously appealing to their older fans and new generations alike, since many Sims fans want to share these games with their children. Well, that’s exactly what EA has now done.

I’m sure certain publishers that have used their proprietary game launchers might consider it a hit to their pride if they were to “capitulate” and start (or resume) releasing their games on Steam again. Nevertheless, in light of recent significant releases, I’m increasingly hopeful that the mega-publishers will soon no longer see Valve and its venerable storefront as the enemy. Of course, there is still the entirely valid concern shared by many (myself included) that Steam should be kept in check before it becomes an absolute monopoly, but I think that’s a discussion for another article and another time.