Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Multi-headed Cow]

Kids have never liked playing FPS games before, this is unprecedented

Exactly. Being called a quad camping cocksucker is much more wholesome than flossing.

 

[RolePlayer]

I don't mind if Steam becomes mostly an indie/small/medium size developer platform. That's actually one of the beauties of Steam. It does a great job rewarding developers that are just making flat out great games (the system allows great games to rise to the top) regardless of how unknown that game/developer might be at the time of release. This allows developers to focus all of their resources on making the best original games/experiences that they can and not worrying about participating in shady business practices to market their game, or falling into a pattern of releasing endless sequels out of fear people won't find/try their new IPs.

Let Epic become the AAA platform and compete with the other AAA publishers that have their own platforms.

I'm fine with the next Terreria, Factorio, Stardew Valley, BattleBrothers, DoS2, Rust, Gary's Mod, and many more examples popping up on steam. There's more quality titles than any one man has time for at this point on steam anyway.

 

[V_K]

A gift that keeps on giving.

 

[fantadomat]

A gift that keeps on giving.

And zero sales will be lost.

 

[Dexter]

All the "Epic paid Randy a ton of money to release Boringlands 3 Exclusively for 6 months on the Epic Games Store™, STEAM IS DONE, ONLY INDIES WILL RELEASE THERE!" takes on the last two pages are pretty hilarious, can't deny.

 

[glass blackbird]

All the "Epic paid Randy a ton of money to release Boringlands 3 Exclusively for 6 months on the Epic Games Store™, STEAM IS DONE, ONLY INDIES WILL RELEASE THERE!" takes on the last two pages are pretty hilarious, can't deny.

what the hell are you talking about? all i said is that without doing that nobody would give a shit about their store at all. i don't think steam is going anywhere, and i don't even know if epic doing this will work, but i do know that its the only conceivable way to make their shitty store a going thing

 

[Silentstorm]

Huh, i was looking at the Steam Forum for a game, you know, the kind of thing that Epic doesn't allow, and i chuckled when i saw someone asking the developer of a future indie game to not let the game be an Epic exclusive.

Wow, didn't realize that there are some forums where people are just asking developers to not do that now, anyways, the developer said there was nothing to worry, though, to be fair, i doubt point'n click adventure games other than ones with a bigger budget or names like Rob Gilbert attached to them are something Epic cares about.

Btw, the game is Gibbous A Cthulhu Adventure:

Just some Lovecraft inspired game with multiple characters that actually looks decent, and if the developer isn't lying, absolutely won't be on Epic.

 

[Infinitron]

The other Outer, also: https://www.fig.co/campaigns/outer-wilds/updates/912

Outer Wilds Nearing the Finish Line
POSTED: 05/11/2019

Outer Wilds will first be released on XBox One and on PC via the Epic Games Store, with additional platforms coming later. Rest assured that we read all of your comments and our goal is to bring the game to your preferred platform as quickly as possible. We will keep you up to date with the latest info here.

Throughout the development of the game, we’ve welcomed helpful partnerships with Annapurna Interactive, XBox, and Epic to support us and keep our small studio running long enough to ship the game at the level of quality that it is today. Each of these partnerships has enabled us to make the game better and more accessible for everyone who will play it.

We greatly appreciate the support that you have given us over the years, even when we weren’t able to share all of the details going on behind the scenes. We’ll share an update on the release date soon. We thank you for sticking with us, and we look forward to seeing you play Outer Wilds!

 

[GrainWetski]

Hadn't heard of it before and now they made sure I never will again. Thankfully it looks like shit.

 

[Metro]

Anyone who goes Epic exclusive = not buying their game until it's at least 50% off. And preferably via Humble where I can direct all the money to charity versus the developers.

 

[Cromwell]

Rest assured that we read all of your comments and our goal is to bring the game to your preferred platform as quickly as possible.

:D

Throughout the development of the game, we’ve welcomed helpful partnerships with Annapurna Interactive, XBox, and Epic to support us and keep our small studio running long enough to ship the game at the level of quality that it is today.

For a backer financed Game.

 

[DalekFlay]

If you promised Steam to backers, then backers should get Steam codes day one. It's ridiculous to justify any other course of action. As everyone reading this thread knows I don't give a fuck about Steam, but if I was promised a DRM free GOG code and didn't get one I'd be fucking livid. Same applies here.

 

[Melcar]

No refunds?

Sent from my Redmi 4A using Tapatalk

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone who goes Epic exclusive = not buying their game

ftfy

 

[glass blackbird]

The Phoenix Point people did offer refunds and said that even if they refunded their entire kickstarter they'd still break even with how much Epic paid them, which seems like really bad PR to be honest. Like at least be apologetic lol

 

[Parabalus]

 

[Reever]

I like how every single one of those games that epic "funded" have the same wording in their announcement. "It's okay, guys. You might see this as a bad thing but in reality we're only making the game better and more accessible." I wonder if Epic's feeding them these lines and telling the developers that it will help diminish the push-back.

 

[Melcar]

I like how every single one of those games that epic "funded" have the same wording in their announcement. "It's okay, guys. You might see this as a bad thing but in reality we're only making the game better and more accessible." I wonder if Epic's feeding them these lines and telling the developers that it will help diminish the push-back.

That is probably what Epic is telling them when they sell out as well. "Don't worry guys. We are only making your game more AWESOME".

 

[Steamboat Willie]

That is probably what Epic is telling them when they sell out as well. "Don't worry guys. We are only making your game more AWESOME".

Oh there's no doubt these $$$ deals come with all sorts of PR obligations to pimp the Epic Store.

 

[Boleskine]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019...-absorb-pc-gaming-exclusives-large-and-small/

Epic’s store continues to absorb PC gaming exclusives large and small
Ghost Recon, Outer Wilds are the latest games to avoid Steam.
Kyle Orland - 5/13/2019, 10:57 AM

Enlarge / Breakpoint is the first Ubsioft game in recent memory to never be made available on Steam.

Gamers hoping to stick with Steam and avoid Epic's major effort to compete in PC game distribution will have to ignore two more major upcoming PC titles, at least for a little while.

The first newly announced exclusive, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, doesn't come as much of a surprise. Following The Division 2's last-minute move to the Epic Games Store in January, Epic and Ubisoft announced in March that the publisher would be bringing "several major PC releases" to Epic's store instead of Steam. Since then, Ubisoft moved historical real-time strategy title Anno 1800 away from Steam to the Epic Games Store ahead of its April 16 launch.

For those two titles, Ubisoft was put in the awkward position of having to honor Steam pre-orders that were made before the store transition took place. Breakpoint will be the first Ubisoft title in recent memory to never be available on Steam, however. The game is currently available only via Epic and Ubisoft's own UPlay store.


Enlarge / In the universe of Outer Wilds, a mysterious banjo's signal can be picked up from your home planet.

Alongside the Breakpoint announcement, long-delayed indie title Outer Wilds has also announced it will be coming first to the Epic Games Store on PC and to Xbox One on consoles. Developer Mobius Digital says additional platform support will be "coming later" and that "our goal is to bring the game to your preferred platform as quickly as possible."

Mobius, which partially crowdfunded the buzzworthy time-looping space exploration game through Fig, had previously planned to release PC, Mac, and Linux versions of the game on Steam, even creating a preview page for the game on Valve's platform. In announcing the move to Epic, though, Mobius said it "welcomed helpful partnerships with Annapurna Interactive, Xbox, and Epic to support us and keep our small studio running long enough to ship the game at the level of quality that it is today."

That strongly suggests that Outer Wilds was part of Epic's stated position of providing "some combination of marketing commitments, development funding, or revenue guarantees" to get games exclusively on its own platform.

Last month, Epic CEO and cofounder Tim Sweeney taunted Valve a bit by saying Epic would stop buying up exclusives "if Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached. Such a move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming and would have a sweeping impact on other platforms for generations to come. Then stores could go back to just being nice places to buy stuff, rather than the Game Developer IRS."

The latest exclusivity announcements come following recent word that Borderlands 3 will be an Epic exclusive through April 2020 and that Rocket League will be coming to Epic's store following the company's purchase of developer Psyonix.

 

[The Decline]

And nothing of value was lost.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Look on the bright side long enough and hard enough and you'll eventually go blind.

 

[Reever]

Ghost Recon, Outer Wilds are the latest games to avoid

I fixed the subtitle.

 

[Jenkem]

Ubisoft just wants people to use Uplay, and they know if a game is on Steam as well then people will just buy it on there. By partnering with Epic, they not only get cash from Papa Tim but they essentially get more people to just buy it off of Uplay because of the hatred of Epic Store..

4D Chess by Yves Guillemot

 

[DalekFlay]

Aren't Ubisoft games purchased on Steam still Uplay anyway? With Borderlands I get that you're trading Steamworks for a barely developed Epic Store, which sucks for online gamers, but with an Ubisoft title you might as well be buying from Uplay anyway.