To people wanting to build platforms: what do Roblox and Steam, two antecedents everyone points to as what they want to be for their domain, have in common? Enormous head starts while everyone else ignored and underestimated them.
Roblox quietly launched in the 2000’s and many of my colleagues only discovered them this past year, Steam grew during the “PC gaming is dead” era. Both had AGES to entrench
Steam had a killer app (counter strike and half life 2), and Roblox didn’t, but they had enough time unopposed to build up despite that.
If you have no killer app (no the platform itself doesn’t count) and you have well funded competitors RIGHT NOW, what makes you think you’ll get people to magically show up and pay you (or virtual landlords on your service) for the privilege of creating value for you?
Especially if they have to work in some new format you made (one that’s therefore immature)?Witness Epic’s long hard battle, and they don’t need people to write new content from scratch in a new format.
Sure, someone will probably win the new platform crown. BUT! They might not be able to secure those fat margins investors have come to expect.
And that’s the thing. You’re not building the next Steam or Roblox, that era is past. The rules (and opportunities) are different now
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