Definitely not true. There are Steam fanboys and any competition is obviously seen as a personal attack, not better for the industry. We're still living in console wars. There are tons of people who would love if Nintendo and Xbox ceased to exist too. It's pure childish brand war.
NFUN posted...
epic games has been paying for exclusivity which is rustling people's jimmies
This is the bigger factor though I think. Gamers HATE the notion that developers are motivated by money. The marketing all their lives said that developers make games for the love of GAMERS. Any peek into the actual business side of things makes them go nuts. It's like Santa Claus isn't real.
So there's paying for exclusivity directly, which Epic has done a few times, but the much more common thing is that a dev willingly stays off Steam because the revenue cut is too high. That still ends up being "exclusive" to Epic, but without direct action by Epic. Gamers are still furious at that, despite they themselves enforcing a culture of "wait until it's 75% off".
Developers are reacting to frugality and lack of respect from gamers, and Epic is simply giving devs what they want.
It's fun to think about it as a war or Epic as some EA style boogeyman, but at the end of the day, gamers know this is about their own behavior and actions. That's why it's so infuriating. They are being asked to change their own behavior.