Yes, though fwiw steam provides (in my opinion) more benefits to gamers and games than the apple appstore does to generic apps trying to do all manner of things.

And additionally steam isn’t a walled garden, there is actual choice, and steam goes out of its way to be usable on multiple platforms. Very different situation to the locked down apple ios ecosystem.

Valve even allows you to install GoG launcher and games on your Steam Deck

They could probably lock this hardware down to only allow steam games, but they don't

Agreed.

Steam is also a monopoly but it doesn't abuse it's monopoly. E.g. impose terms like games can't release on other stores for a lower price &c.

Nothing stopping a competitor from coming in with a superior game store.

Steam is the clear winner but they aren't a monopoly...

https://www.gog.com/en/ https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/

With their market share they are by definition of monopoly. Monopoly doesn't mean "only store front", it just means majourity market share to the point they control the market.

People forget there's nothing inherently wrong with monopolies. It's only when they abuse their monopoly position that there's issues.

Steam's customers aren't really the end users, though

Steam's customers are game publishers. Steam provides a service to connect publishers to their audience. Their business model is not "takes money from customers in exchange for goods". It is "takes a cut of each sale that a publisher makes on their platform"

Given that there is no real friction for end users to install Epic Launcher or GoG launcher, is Steam really a monopoly to their customers, the publishers?

If Steam tries to muscle a publisher, they can refuse to publish on Steam and still have options. When popular games aren't on Steam, it does seem like people have absolutely no problem installing another launcher/storefront to access it

Look at the massive success of Fortnite, which is only on the Epic Launcher

I’m worried that this outcome will be applied too broadly and affect Steam. Sure Steam is not perfect, but its dominance is in large part to them offering a superior product. Admittedly I’m not a game developer so the 30% cut doesn’t affect me directly, but I think it’s fair to say that Valve’s success has been a net positive to PC game devs.

Valve remains as one of the rare early tech company successes that has not suffered from enshitification the way so many others have. A key to that is that they have found a way to make a ton of money, and their leadership is happy to be very rich without continuing to expand and grow at all costs. If that business model is threatened, I’m not convinced that gamers and game devs would necessarily be better off.

As far as I know, purchases made through the Steam store is 30%; unless you are a larger publisher and have a different deal.

Players/studios aren't forced to use Steam as a middleman for installing/distributing games on PC.

30% on sales up to 10 million, 25% on additional sales up to $50 million, 20% on sales above that.