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Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

Pika-Cthulhu

Arcane
Joined
Apr 16, 2007
Messages
7,421
Competition is great, exclusivity is the opposite of competition. I can understand Epic offering rewards for develops to sign on to a deal getting some payola for the lost sales incurred from not launching on all platforms (are they just fucking out Steam or itch.io, gog and Discord too, the one with more generous percentages for devs?) to help build some market share. The only 'competitive' advantage they have is cash to bribe developers to exclusive deals. Offer fewer service, fewer titles, less transparency, little customer service and appear to be appealing to the appalling attitude that developers have cultivated amongst themselves and their crony presstitutes that customers should shut up about bugs and broken games and keep buying the shit being shoveled out, this 'toxic' culture of uneducated unsophisticated unenlightened criticism from the masses is not officially sanctioned by the clergy who crib from the PR clowns.

Want more competition? Support gog, itch.io, humble bundle, Discord (unsure on their practices, rarely use, T&C is like Google Light WE HARVEST YOUR DATA NOM NOM) or any other third party that offers actual competition to steam and NOT exclusivity deals that hampers competition. Competition grows markets and creativity, exclusivity retards growth and inures a false sense of success. Epics play is anti consumer, Steam at least feigns to support consumers, Epic is straight out slapping their cock in your face and telling you to bend over you little cuck bitch.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Valve has been building and supporting Steam for like what, over 15 years?
15 years and it still won't start on the first try after you turn on your PC. Process hangs on "Connecting steam account", you have to kill it manually and relaunch. When it finally launches you are stuck with a busy cursor icon like it's mining bitcoins in the background for no reason. I looked up these issues on the internet and I'm not the only one who has them.
Software worth billions and they don't care about fixing it, what do they even do at work, it's not like they are busy making video games.
works fine for me, maybe you're just retarded idk
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
Valve has been building and supporting Steam for like what, over 15 years?

Good fuck them and their 15 years.

Steam was launched as DRM bullshit for half life 2. For half its life it was shit bloatware that barely run.
Since 2-3 years you can't even stop updates anymore because they decided people "should update their games" which means fuck modding.
Since DOTA only thing they care about is how to fuck you out of money.
Since start they never allowed to sell their own games on any other platform.

I welcome new stores and competition.
This will be a good lesson for velve jews that customers aren't your bitches.

In the end we will reach same place we had decades back. Companies will have their own stores and you will be launching exe.
Discord already basically killed their social platforms and it is not connected to any platform holder.

Anyone selling game in 2019 already knows that releasing game on steam doesn't mean sales. You need social interaction or maybe some small pr campaign to sell something. Gone are the days where you could release a game and it would sit for days sometimes week on new releases because how few games were released.

And it is all for the better. Because game developers need to first establish community around their game to sell something instead of larping jew on street selling sousages.

Actually Discord is a sales platform now. https://discordapp.com/store
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
All Ubisoft games have required the U-Play client for about five or so years now. That you can open the U-Play client through the Steam or Epic client is of trivial importance.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
Crushed under the weight of "Increasing store taxes"? I'm pretty sure Steam's slice of the pie has only gone down since they said they'd reduce it at certain milestones, and I'm also pretty sure that Steam's 30% is a hell of a lot less than making physical copies and distributing them to actual stores. Sure, Epic takes less of a cut, but it seems strange to act like the 30% from Steam means games can't be profitable. And of course that's not even mentioning dodging "Timed exclusives are anti-consumer" with the answer of "Let me answer that by saying we only take 12%!". I mean shit, even at my most Steam-rabid it's not like I didn't want games to show up on shit like GoG too. I may prefer Steam but what kind of a fucker do you have to be to WANT exclusives, let alone try justifying them?
You know, the thing about all these Epic Games bribing developers nonsense stuffs don't bother me. What bothers me is suddenly, there's a surge of idiots float to surface and praise Epic for "diverging Steam's monopoly in PC gaming".

Valve has been building and supporting Steam for like what, over 15 years? It has built in mod support, it has discussion board which is the quickest way to troubleshoot issues you have in a game and usually a very good place to discuss story or various subjects about (lesser known) games themselves, it has very good and functional friend list and chat/group chat system, it paved the way for QoL features in PC gaming like taking screenshot, FPS counter, one button invite/join multiplayer session, it has Big Picture and Steam Link which is incredibly useful for people who occasionally wanna get lazy like me. And then there's stuffs like Linux advocate with Steam Play, Steam OS, Steam Machines even though most of them didn't take off; amazingly customizable storefront where you can search games based on their tags, categories, discovery queue, curator (I wouldn't have tried Telepath Tactics had it not been recommended by codex curator), people who have way too much free time can even customize their own library with grid view. And of course refund that can be requested through like 4 clicks, straight inside the client. Valve did everything to cater to their own userbase, and despite not being the perfect client, I can safely say it's the most customer friendly one. They didn't buy off GOG

Meanwhile the Epic Games Store had a lot of potential to build off Steam's foundation, but Epic chose to push out a barebone client that doesn't really have anything new to offer. All their talk is about how much revenue developers get by selling games through them. They preferred having their dick sucked by developers instead of sucking customers' dick, which means they can't give less fuck about customers' comfort since they have enough fuck you money to bribe developers. I don't blame the devs because a lot of them probably needs Epic's money to fund their projects, but oh boy it's difficult not to label Epic "pathetic" after these moves.

The Division 2 joining the list sets a very dangerous precedent. More AAA devs switching to Epic means less way for customers to know what bullshit the dodgy ones are hiding behind their "games" since there's no convenient forum, clear refund policy and user reviews, so they will have an easier time to get away with whatever can cause a mass outrage. But then again people made a huge fuss about Forza Horizon 3 and it's a Windows Store exclusive so time will tell.
If Division 2 is an Unreal title it is a no-brainer decision to sell it only on the Epic store for the first month due to the different store cut.

I get that exclusives are annoying, but I don't see any of you upset that you can't buy Half-Life on the Microsoft Store. Steam has had exclusives for a very long time. Don't let impotent rage turn you into a hypocrite.

Remember that when Valve takes 30%, there is a publisher usually taking 30% of what remains and the government taking a percentage as well. The store fragmentation could lead to lower fees, but it will also favor studios large enough to have a dedicated business person to be chasing down publishing deals and supporting every storefront. Whether or not that additional revenue will offset the cost of complexity will depend on the size of the studio.

As with any disruption, there will be winners and losers. For a small dev team a cheque from Epic for $100,000 can mean a guarantee of breaking even and the ability to do a second game. It's hard to fault 3 guys working in their basement from taking such a deal. Though one would like them to be direct about the decision instead of pretending they did it for altruism.
 
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Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,046
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Half-Life is a Valve product. In the case of Ubisoft, why not sell it exclusivity on their own store for 100% profit? Also, it's not on the Unreal engine. Their own in-house engine is called Snowdrop.
 

Thane Solus

Arcane
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
1,681
Location
X-COM Base
Half-Life is a Valve product. In the case of Ubisoft, why not sell it exclusivity on their own store for 100% profit? Also, it's not on the Unreal engine. Their own in-house engine is called Snowdrop.

Should be by default on their store. So Ubisoft in their wisdom they sell you double DRM Online lol, and when they sell on other stores, it still requires their launchers, so they also promote their shitty store. Win! win! (for them)

https://store.ubi.com/eu/home

I am not a huge fan of Steam, but man, the templates for these fucking shitty stores, they all look like mobiles pages, and they sell PC Games, absolutely clueless (Epic and Ubi stores).
 

Mark Richard

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
1,192
You know, the thing about all these Epic Games bribing developers nonsense stuffs don't bother me. What bothers me is suddenly, there's a surge of idiots float to surface and praise Epic for "diverging Steam's monopoly in PC gaming"
What about the multitude of Steam users complaining about publishers that have merely traded exclusivity on Steam for exclusivity on Epic Games? It sure looks like exclusivity was all fine and dandy when it didn't affect their chosen platform, but now they're not on the right team there's an uproar.

Valve did everything to cater to their own userbase, and despite not being the perfect client, I can safely say it's the most customer friendly one.
Let's expand on 'not perfect' for a moment. They were one of the last to implement a solid refund policy, beaten to the punch years before by stores such as GOG and Origin. When EU laws were updated, Steam added a mandatory waiver to every purchase which required users to sign away their right of withdrawal. When Steam had technical issues that spread users' personal data around a couple of years ago, the only party to be informed was an unaffiliated gaming website.

The Division 2 joining the list sets a very dangerous precedent. More AAA devs switching to Epic means less way for customers to know what bullshit the dodgy ones are hiding behind their "games" since there's no convenient forum, clear refund policy and user reviews, so they will have an easier time to get away with whatever can cause a mass outrage. But then again people made a huge fuss about Forza Horizon 3 and it's a Windows Store exclusive so time will tell.
The Epic Games store has not earned consumer trust and should be treated with scepticism. The lack of user reviews worry me the most. Despite the dim view many have of them (including some developers themselves), user reviews are essential in today's climate where the next update can save or destroy a game. Consumers supporting Epic Games at this juncture are counting on trickle-down-benefits from keeping a publisher happy. Such benefits could well turn out to be a mirage when publishers continue to place their own consumer base far below shareholders and journalists on their list of people to appease.
 

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,080
You know, the thing about all these Epic Games bribing developers nonsense stuffs don't bother me. What bothers me is suddenly, there's a surge of idiots float to surface and praise Epic for "diverging Steam's monopoly in PC gaming"
What about the multitude of Steam users complaining about publishers that have merely traded exclusivity on Steam for exclusivity on Epic Games? It sure looks like exclusivity was all fine and dandy when it didn't affect their chosen platform, but now they're not on the right team there's an uproar.
Still don't understand the difference between Epic paying developers for exclusivity and developers only releasing on Steam all by their own volition?
 

Hellion

Arcane
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
1,582
It should be noted that developers (mostly indie, so far) and publishers have already started sending us review codes that activate on the Epic Launcher instead of Steam, for games that are "timed exclusives". Meaning that they're being released on Epic Store next week but on Steam on January 2020 for example.
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
I wonder if Epic Store codes are going to be sold in other stores like Steam and Uplay allow.
 

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,080
It's actually amazing that they apparently didn't think to put these things in their store before launching.

Fuck off, you fucking incompetent arrogant idiots.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
It's actually amazing that they apparently didn't think to put these things in their store before launching.

Fuck off, you fucking incompetent arrogant idiots.
Developers -- especially indie developers who make 3-4 hour "games" -- despise Steam's refund policy. Actually surprised Epic changed it, must have been a lot of consumer backlash.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
Well naturally, of course they'd have to. Did you think devs would eat said costs by taking away from the higher percentage split they're getting?

017.jpg
 
Unwanted

a Goat

Unwanted
Dumbfuck Edgy Vatnik
Joined
Jun 15, 2014
Messages
6,941
Location
Albania
Tbh steam is shit(why is this shit so slow? was it written in java or something?) but it's not like chinksteam is going to be better
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Tbh steam is shit(why is this shit so slow? was it written in java or something?) but it's not like chinksteam is going to be better
Try upgrading your ten year old CPU.
 

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