Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brimstone

Melo

@letitmelo.bsky.social

I legitimately didn't know they were competing with Steam and it's crazy to me that they burnt so much money on what sounds like something with very little (or wildly misguided) market research.

Ethan Evans, former Amazon VP

As VP of Prime Gaming at Amazon, we failed multiple times to disrupt the game platform Steam. We were at least 250x bigger, and we tried everything. But ultimately, Goliath lost. Here's why:

The 15+ year long attempt to challenge Steam started before I was VP of Prime Gaming, but we never cracked the code. Not under my leadership or anyone else's.

The first way we tried to enter the online-game-store market was through acquisition. We acquired Reflexive Entertainment (a small PC game store) and tried to scale it. It went nowhere.

Then, after buying Twitch, we created our own PC games store. Our assumption was that gamers would naturally buy from us because they were already using Twitch. Wrong.

Finally, we built "Luna," a game streaming service that let people play without a high-end PC. Around the same time, Google tried the same thing with their
product "Stadia." Neither gained significant traction. The whole time, Steam dominated despite being a relatively small company (compared to Amazon and Google).

The mistake was that we underestimated what made consumers use Steam

It was a store, a social network, a library, and a trophy case all in one. And it worked well.

At Amazon, we assumed that size and visibility would be enough to attract customers, but we underestimated the power of existing user habits We never validated our core assumptions before investing heavily in solutions. The truth is that gamers already had the solution to their problems and they weren't going to switch platforms just because a new one was available

We needed to build something dramatically better, but we failed to do so. And we needed to validate our assumptions about our customers before starting to build. But we never really did that either.

Just because you are big enough to build something doesn't mean people will use it

October 28, 2025 at 10:23 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

Flare

@flarechess.bsky.social

BLUESKY GIVEAWAY:

- 1 Bigscreen Beyond 2e: @vrchat.com Edition (no 10 years of VRC+, sorry).

As long as Bigscreen can ship to you, you're eligible.

RULES:
- must be following me on Bluesky
- must RT this post

you must be comfortable with me ordering it for you!

Bigscreen Beyond 2e: VRChat Edition Shopping screen

September 11, 2025 at 8:07 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

A9TD:永久凍土

@a9td.bsky.social

🐺

August 21, 2025 at 9:12 AM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

If you see this, I implore you to post from your device without context

July 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

Kodey Yotey

@kodeyyotey.bsky.social

Waking up from an amazing dream to a bright new day of possibilities. Thank you for making the last night so wonderful!

#FuralitySomna

@jakewerepanther.bsky.social
@mansterzs.bsky.social
@isamuthefox.bsky.social
@brimstonebro.bsky.social
@furality.org

June 11, 2025 at 8:31 AM

Reposted by Brimstone

Furality

@furality.org

Registration for Furality Somna is open RIGHT NOW!!

We have a few changes this year, so make sure to check out the video! 🌌

Link to register in reply!

(1/2)

April 28, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

⛅️ 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒅𝒆𝒓 • 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞𝟐𝐃 𝐀𝐫𝐭

@powdersworkshop.bsky.social

🔖 Badge Raffle 🔖

This was so much fun last year I thought you all might enjoy doing it again here on Bluesky! Comment your fav snack for brownie points 🍉✨

➕ Follow, ♻️ Repost & 💗 Like to enter~!
Ends May 14th (3 weeks!)

April 23, 2025 at 8:15 PM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

You know, sometimes I think there's not enough yellow in furry. That's why you should come watch me be a yellow dog with other yellow dogs!
twitch.tv/brimstonebro

March 8, 2025 at 6:16 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

Legacy

@legacytwotails.bsky.social

Meet my newest and biggest project to date, the Astrawolf!

Coming soon to #VRChat !
How soon you may ask? 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟭𝟰𝘁𝗵!

Save the date~

March 5, 2025 at 6:49 PM

Reposted by Brimstone

Chise

@sailorrooscout.bsky.social

Figured I would put this out there.

TransGENIC mice are NOT TransGENDER mice.

TransGENIC refers to an organism or cell whose genome has been genetically altered.

We use them to model human diseases & develop new treatments.

This is yet another attempt to push anti-trans & anti-science rhetoric.

March 5, 2025 at 11:20 PM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

It's been a whole year since I started dating this boy and my life has never been filled with more love. Happy Valentine's Day ❤️🖤

February 15, 2025 at 8:03 PM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

I'm not sure if my royal skills can help in theme park management but I'll do my best!
twitch.tv/brimstonebro

February 8, 2025 at 3:07 AM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

I promise to play nice with the monsters~
twitch.tv/brimstonebro

February 7, 2025 at 3:35 AM

Brimstone

@brimstonebro.bsky.social

I know I know I'm pretty late but man it's been a lot these past few weeks. So I'm chilling out with some League come join if you want~
twitch.tv/brimstonebro