Steam has been the dominant platform for digital distribution since, well, forever. Steam got its foot in the door before digital distribution was the major market it is today, and as such, it has established a near-monopoly on the service.

Now however, some real competition has emerged in the form of EA’s Origin service. EA poses a real threat right out of the gates as they have control over some major releases such as Mass Effect and Battlefield 3.

EA has made its intentions clear, removing these titles from the Steam service and selling them though Origin instead.

Naturally, Valve has been checking out the competition, but until now they’ve been extremely tight-lipped on the subject.

Valve boss Gabe Newell told PCGamer that he took the Origin service for a test drive, and has a few things to say about it, “I think it does some things well. I think there are still some areas where, as a customer, I’d like to see it improve. It’s not that different from any other system like this. There are positive things and negative things.”

Despite currently being the undisputed king, Valve doesn’t plan to rest on their laurels, and will approach the situation with humility, noting that the market changes significantly when serious competitors emerge.

“I and everyone at Valve know that you’re only as successful as what you’ve done lately. So the idea that Steam is somehow the answer to digital distribution ignores the fact that every two or three years, something is going to change dramatically,” Newell said.

Origin is guaranteed at least some success due to its exclusive content, the real question is whether or not it can steal customers from Steam for its non-EA content.  However, with a lot of gamers switching entirely to digital and using Steam as a kind of online game library, the question becomes, do gamers even want competition?

Source: CVG