Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[RoSoDude]

Infinitron we need your thread-splitting proclivities now more than ever. I just want to talk about this game that I'll wait until 2020 to decide if it's worth buying anyway.

 

[MuscleSpark]

And you are steam nigger because you behave like slave to corporation.

Or maybe you are the Steam nigger, rising up against your masters who have clothed and taken care of you for the past decade, because of some falsely perceived notion of unfairness. You would've killed yourself by now, you pathetic waste of oxygen, if it weren't for Gaben graciously bestowing Steam upon you.
You dumb fucking nigger.

Spoiler

Just kidding though.

 

[racofer]

Look, another nigger moving threads around.

 

[GrainWetski]

How many of those things were available on Steam from the start? Serious question.

Refunds certainly weren't. Plus, as it turns out you're not supposed to use the refund option as a way to test the games: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ed-posts-allowed.57009/page-1286#post-5984163

Regardless, his point was that competition is good. Even if Epic is not great now, any competition is good.

But I guess steamtards can't get that through their thick skulls, they just see it as a threat to lord emperor Gaben. Like OMG it's not even better than Steam, like why does it even exist???!!!!

If they're putting in so little effort that they can't even be on par with Steam from 5 years ago let alone 12 years ago, why should anyone support them? What they might do in the future when they realize only sucking developer dicks doesn't work is irrelevant right now.

Guys, if we just give them all our money, they'll be on par with supposedly godawful Steam in a decade or two. You just have to trust these guys that abandoned PC gaming because of "muh piracy" in the past. Like, OMG Steam bad, mm'kay?

Infinitron we need your thread-splitting proclivities now more than ever. I just want to talk about this game that I'll wait until 2020 to decide if it's worth buying anyway.

It looks like a generic console turd of an FPS like seemingly every FPS these days. What more is there to talk about? How much aimbot is built into the game?

 

[Paul_cz]

How many of those things were available on Steam from the start? Serious question.

Refunds certainly weren't. Plus, as it turns out you're not supposed to use the refund option as a way to test the games: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ed-posts-allowed.57009/page-1286#post-5984163

Regardless, his point was that competition is good. Even if Epic is not great now, any competition is good.

But I guess steamtards can't get that through their thick skulls, they just see it as a threat to lord emperor Gaben. Like OMG it's not even better than Steam, like why does it even exist???!!!!

I have seen this argument so many times and somehow it never stops being utterly moronic. Epic competes with steam 2019. Not steam 2004. They should have came out of the game swinging, fully featured to actually convince anyone to use them. Instead they bribe. Pathetic.

 

[Atlantico]

Epic might be competition, but not the competition we need.

gog.com isn't competition to Steam. To be very charitable, it complements Steam. Fills a role Steam doesn't.

That's not competition. Neither Steam nor gog.com offered any kind of refunds, until they had competition which did.

Origin was first to offer this and the rest is history... So we had to wait until 2015, how many years after Steam was created, and fucking EA had to show the way. That's how awesome gaben and gog.com are without actual competition. Stumped by fucking EA.

I would cut Epic some slack for figuring out in days what Steam took years to do, but if you disagree, please take Gabe's cock out of your mouth while replying.

I don't even get why you'd want to defend one over they other. They're all scum to me.

I have seen this argument so many times and somehow it never stops being utterly moronic. Epic competes with steam 2019. Not steam 2004. They should have came out of the game swinging, fully featured to actually convince anyone to use them. Instead they bribe. Pathetic.

You seem as likely a leader for the Steam faggot brigade as any... have you ever considered just not buying anything from this "Epic" store and/or not get triggered on the internet over a fucking storefront?

 

[J_C]

How many of those things were available on Steam from the start? Serious question.

Refunds certainly weren't. Plus, as it turns out you're not supposed to use the refund option as a way to test the games: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ed-posts-allowed.57009/page-1286#post-5984163

Regardless, his point was that competition is good. Even if Epic is not great now, any competition is good.

But I guess steamtards can't get that through their thick skulls, they just see it as a threat to lord emperor Gaben. Like OMG it's not even better than Steam, like why does it even exist???!!!!

I have seen this argument so many times and somehow it never stops being utterly moronic. Epic competes with steam 2019. Not steam 2004. They should have came out of the game swinging, fully featured to actually convince anyone to use them. Instead they bribe. Pathetic.

Yes, all that "But Steam didn't have these features when it came out" argument is bullshit. If a company starts making cars today, it doesn't create a Ford T-modell, it creates one with all the modern shit. Because companies have figured out how to make cars in the last few decades. What, shall we wait 10 years until Epics reaches Steam's current state?

 

[passerby]

I doubt that Epic bribed anyone, imo some publisher suits want all this sweet 18% difference in store cut for themselves, while being ignorant enough to not realise that it'll cost them more than 18% in lost sales.
Instead of exclusivity they should temporarily discount everything on Epic 18%, to pressure steam to reduce the cut too.

Instead they'll loose money and come to conclusion that they can't sell without steam, learn the wrong lesson and that will be the end of this "fight".

 

[Duraframe300]

 

[GrainWetski]

I doubt that Epic bribed anyone, imo some publisher suits want all this sweet 18% difference in store cut for themselves, while being ignorant enough to not realise that it'll cost them more than 18% in lost sales.
Instead of exclusivity they should temporarily discount everything on Epic 18%, to pressure steam to reduce the cut too.

Instead they'll loose money and come to conclusion that they can't sell without steam, learn the wrong lesson and that will be the end of this "fight". Amazing how clueless people in charge can be.

I know for a fact that they're throwing around a lot of money for their exclusives. It should be fairly obvious to everyone. Not sure about Ubisoft as they're a special kind of retarded, but definitely all the other devs/publishers.

If only they were throwing that money at for example SEGA/Atlus for ports of games like Persona 5 instead of games about to be released on Steam in a month nobody would have a problem with Epic.

 

[JarlFrank]

Epic might be competition, but not the competition we need.

gog.com isn't competition to Steam. To be very charitable, it complements Steam. Fills a role Steam doesn't.

That's not competition.

Uuuuuuh it's a storefront that offers a fundamentally different service than Steam does, while also offering some of the same games Steam does.

So the customer has an actual choice between two different platforms that offer different things.

Rather than, you know, two platforms that offer the exact same thing.

That's how you do competition. "Hey, we got this business model that some people like, while the others have that other business model some people like. Neither of us claims exclusives, instead games can appear on both stores and it is up to the customer to decide which service he prefers."

Doing the exact same thing as Steam except with less features than Steam but baiting people with exclusives isn't real competition, because any sane customer would choose Steam over Epic. So Epic's strategy is to not allow any other choice for the games they offer, i.e. exclusives. Shitty business practice.

CD Projekt, on the other hand, offers their own games on Steam too, along with their own platform GoG. People choose which platform to buy these games on based on their personal preferences on what they want from a store.
You know. Customers having an actual choice that actually makes a difference. Two platforms offering the same service (selling games) but with different features (Steam's client and all that comes with, GoG's DRM free installers).

What actual choice does the Epic store offer to consumers? What is its strategy of competition? Exclusivity? Yeah, that's not a consumer-friendly way of competition, it's a way of forcing consumers who want a certain game to use their store, not trying to convince people to go to their store by better service.

The way competition in the free market usually works is that you offer a similar service but with different - or simply better - features. Epic doesn't do that. They offer a worse service than any of the other available stores, their only perk being some exclusives.

Which is essentially a monopoly for selling a certain product (say, the new Metro) for a certain time. People who want that product have no other choice than to buy from Epic. Which is kinda like if there's only one burger joint in town, but its burgers are shit, but if you want burgers you have no other choice than to go to that joint. That joint also uses bribe money to prevent other restaurants from offering burgers so it stays the only restaurant in town to sell burgers, thereby preventing competition in the field of burgers. Other restaurants have better service and better food, but if you want a burger, you have to go to them.

 

[passerby]

I know for a fact that they're throwing around a lot of money for their exclusives.

If you know, I'll take your word for it. If true than their strategy is to sell and make the platform more attratctive than steam to publishers, not to users. We will se how it works out.

 

[Duraframe300]

Now he's justifying overcharging customers



That whole thread is hilarious with everyone calling him out on it.

 

[Mark Richard]

Don't these people know there are rules in war? The implementation of this exclusive throws consumer confidence into chaos. The game was available for purchase on Steam, not to mention is out in a couple of weeks, and Deep Silver didn't let a little thing like a truckload of Metro Exodus advertising materials with Steam's logo stop them from pulling a fast one. So there's no basic guarantees anymore. Even days from release, games could vanish from the store and appear as an exclusive elsewhere.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

I like GoG and have written in several posts in this thread that GoG is good and the kind of competition Steam needs.

No DRM, installer you can download and put on your external HDD to keep forever, client-free. GoG is great, and it offers something Steam doesn't (while Steam also offers things GoG doesn't).

The alternative to Steam already exists. And it's the second-biggest retailer for PC games out there, next to Steam. Sure, Steam is still the largest but GoG isn't small.

Suddenly appears Epic, with a store that doesn't offer half the things Steam offers, doesn't offer anything GoG offers, and cares less about customers than about attracting developers, and even offers devs exclusive deals which is inherently limiting competition by its very nature. Neither Steam nor GoG have ever been about exclusivity.

Epic might be competition, but not the competition we need.

This pretty much sums up the whole fiasco with Steam Vs. Epic and their chink overlords. GoG is great and I like Steam. But I refuse to use the Epic store and give the chinks at Tencent my information.

 

[MuscleSpark]

Both a car and a food metaphor in the same paragraph, impressive. I love those.
Nevermind that the situation is more akin to McDonalds bribing and giving kickbacks to meat suppliers so that they are the only ones provided with hamburger meat and therefore the only place where consumers can eat hamburgers.
That's okay though because consumers don't have the right to buy any product in any store of their choosing anyhow.

 

[Atlantico]

it's a storefront that offers a fundamentally different service than Steam does, while also offering some of the same games Steam does.

A fundamentally different service? No, not really - in fact it's fundamentally very similar, fundamentally they're both storefronts for video games on the internet. There is overlap of games is in certain categories, mainly indies, oldies and the irrelevants.

Where they do not overlap at all, is in new modern AAA titles. And since Steam doesn't give a shit if an older game runs on modern systems, Steam isn't really competing in the oldies category either - whereas gog.com makes sure the games are tried, tested and supported on modern Windows.

In reality, Steam does AAA and gog.com does older titles. They most certainly do not compete - in what, indie titles?

Elex?

Doing the exact same thing as Steam except with less features than Steam but baiting people with exclusives isn't real competition, because any sane customer would choose Steam over Epic.

Good, great. Well then. Problem solved!

Why are you then going apeshit on the internet over this horrible shit-store that nobody will use because "any sane customer would choose Steam over Epic".

 

[Alienman]

Don't these people know there are rules in war? The implementation of this exclusive throws consumer confidence into chaos. The game was available for purchase on Steam, not to mention is out in a couple of weeks, and Deep Silver didn't let a little thing like a truckload of Metro Exodus advertising materials with Steam's logo stop them from pulling a fast one. So there's no basic guarantees anymore. Even days from release, games could vanish from the store and appear as an exclusive elsewhere.

Count me to one of those customers. Been following a war-game named Hell Let Loose. It's on the Unreal engine. It's not out yet, it's indie, multiplayer and would fill a niche on EPIC store. So now I'm waiting for the store switch announcement. I even made thread about it on their Steam forum, no dev answer, and I have seen them answer in other threads. I expect Phoenix Point (which I have mentioned before) making the switch too. It's not on Unreal, but they have showed that they are eager to take any form of exclusivity deal if it gets them money...

 

[sullynathan]

Suddenly appears Epic, with a store that doesn't offer half the things Steam offers, doesn't offer anything GoG offers,

This is where you're wrong. Epic offers the biggest game on the market to their customers neither STEAM nor GOG have that, they can use that muscle and money made to do what they want.

The dozens of millions that play fortnite didn't give a shit to download epic games launcher to play said game. As long as they provide the most basic launcher features and fortnite stays as a success, their store will grow.

 

[passerby]

I honestly hope it'll happen like you are saying and Fortnite players will drive Epic Shop success.
While I'll stay on steam, the 30% cut is parasitic, I just hope that after Steam reduces the cut, the publishers willingness for exclusivity deals will end.

 

[Alfgart]

What a retarded comparison. Seeing how much of a moron this guy is, no wonder his Epic Store is such a piece of shit

 

[Paul_cz]

You seem as likely a leader for the Steam faggot brigade as any... have you ever considered just not buying anything from this "Epic" store and/or not get triggered on the internet over a fucking storefront?

Have you considered not sucking Sweeney's and Galyonkin's tiny mutant chineserussimurican dick so hard? It's been flaccid for hours.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Look, another nigger moving threads around.

My favorite is when a post gets moved into a hidden forum and then I get a million alerts related to it that don't actually tell me what's happening when I look at my alerts since it's a secret. I like to think it's people agreeing with my post and commenting on what an excellent person I am.

 

[Reinhardt]

Infinitron we need your thread-splitting proclivities now more than ever. I just want to talk about this game that I'll wait until 2020 to decide if it's worth buying anyway.

So it was you. Snitches get stitches!

 

[cvv]

Don't these people know there are rules in war?

I agree with that. Epic has already made several obvious mistakes. Jumping into the fray with a barebones product. Signing an exclusive that was already being sold on Steam. And now Sweeney sounds almost butthurt in hit tweet. All this suggest this whole adventure was incredibly poorly planed and thought through. They want to take on Gaben with that sloppy approach? God help us.

One thing should be p. clear tho - even if Epic did hit the ground running with an equally robust product and they only poached "fair" exclusives like Ashen, announced well in advance, there still would've been rage. If Epic fails and the next challenger learns from their mistakes they'll still catch huge flak simply for dragging people away from Steam. Gaben's consumer lock-in is stronk.