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Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

Outlander

Custom Tags Are For Fags.
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Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Zero games in epic store i want to pirate so it's even less games i want to buy.

Wtf, i must give money for classic RPG's: M&M1-6, W1-7, GoldBox to GoG, Steam?! Do Bradley, Caneghem still get extra shekel?!

Are you saying that I can just waltz in to my local book store and leave with a copy of Don Quixote without paying because Cervantes won't see a dime from it? Cool!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

Yes.

Dude that's an ebook. Horrible things, I avoid them whenever I can.
 

Curratum

Guest
Zero games in epic store i want to pirate so it's even less games i want to buy.

Wtf, i must give money for classic RPG's: M&M1-6, W1-7, GoldBox to GoG, Steam?! Do Bradley, Caneghem still get extra shekel?!

Are you saying that I can just waltz in to my local book store and leave with a copy of Don Quixote without paying because Cervantes won't see a dime from it? Cool!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

Yes.

Dude that's an ebook. Horrible things, I avoid them whenever I can.

Then you can just download the text and print it for around three dollars worth of ink.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Zero games in epic store i want to pirate so it's even less games i want to buy.

Wtf, i must give money for classic RPG's: M&M1-6, W1-7, GoldBox to GoG, Steam?! Do Bradley, Caneghem still get extra shekel?!

Are you saying that I can just waltz in to my local book store and leave with a copy of Don Quixote without paying because Cervantes won't see a dime from it? Cool!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

Yes.

Dude that's an ebook. Horrible things, I avoid them whenever I can.

Interestingly enough, computer games are also entirely digital. Buying them from Steam or GoG does not even give you a boxed copy! It is an entirely digital good! Just like that ebook you can download for free because its author is long dead and wouldn't see a single cent if you purchased the book.

Downloading M&M1-6, Wiz1-7, GoldBox etc from an Abandonware site is pretty much the same as this.
 

Outlander

Custom Tags Are For Fags.
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Joined
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Messages
4,479
Location
Valley of Mines
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Zero games in epic store i want to pirate so it's even less games i want to buy.

Wtf, i must give money for classic RPG's: M&M1-6, W1-7, GoldBox to GoG, Steam?! Do Bradley, Caneghem still get extra shekel?!

Are you saying that I can just waltz in to my local book store and leave with a copy of Don Quixote without paying because Cervantes won't see a dime from it? Cool!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

Yes.

Dude that's an ebook. Horrible things, I avoid them whenever I can.

Interestingly enough, computer games are also entirely digital. Buying them from Steam or GoG does not even give you a boxed copy! It is an entirely digital good! Just like that ebook you can download for free because its author is long dead and wouldn't see a single cent if you purchased the book.

Downloading M&M1-6, Wiz1-7, GoldBox etc from an Abandonware site is pretty much the same as this.

Yes, but:

Reading an ebook and reading an actual book, even if it's the same content, it's not the same experience.

Playing a boxed version of the game and playing a digital version of the game it's the same content and exactly the same experience.

I get that the actual book has costs attached to it, such as manufacturing, logistics, shop and employee costs, etc, and digital games usually don't, unless work is being done to them to keep them updated, which frankly, usually doesn't happen.

But it just seems silly to me to think that, for example, if all Megadeth members die in a plane crash, then all their CDs should automatically be made free. Somebody will still have rights on their content, for whatever reason.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
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Apr 29, 2019
Messages
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I mean, i have used EGS to get some freebies and the same goes for a lot of people, so they aren't exactly wrong about that.

Curious about something, people seem to mention the 2017 numbers for Steam, did we never hear what they were in 2018 and still nothing of last year?
 
Joined
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I mean, i have used EGS to get some freebies and the same goes for a lot of people, so they aren't exactly wrong about that.

Curious about something, people seem to mention the 2017 numbers for Steam, did we never hear what they were in 2018 and still nothing of last year?
Given the source of the 2017 Steam numbers was a rough estimate and wasn't counting free to play purchases/DLC/etc and was pulled from Steamspy who was datamining for Epic apparently (I think? I don't really remember) that's probably why we haven't heard shit for 2018 and 2019.
 

DalekFlay

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New Vegas
"selling point", as in the main thing about a product that makes people want to have/use it. In this case they're attracted by the freebies and become regular customers.

Epic's theory is people will use the client to get the freebies and some exclusives and then transition into becoming regular customers. However I see no reason for this to play out in practice long-term unless Epic drastically improves the client (which they're barely bothering to do at the moment), or offer some other consistent incentive. I'd like to be a fly on the wall during their long-term planning meetings, because I have a feeling they're missing the crucial step between "force people to come here" and "everyone switches to Epic!"
 

FeelTheRads

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Messages
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"selling point", as in the main thing about a product that makes people want to have/use it. In this case they're attracted by the freebies and become regular customers.

What? Noooo. All those companies that use sales and give stuff for free to attract customers? Never ever worked before.

However I see no reason for this to play out in practice long-term unless Epic drastically improves the client

It's hardly about the quality of the client. It's much more about force of habit. Valve held customers despite having a much shittier client at launch. Steamtards will say that they won't move because the Steam client is much better, but they wouldn't have cared about any those things if Valve never improved the client and still stayed with what they had. Do you really think that people who've been for years on Steam and have friends and hundreds of games there would instantly move to Epic even if it had a much better client? You've seen people here saying it's either Steam or pirate. That has nothing to do with the quality of the client, it's all about force of habit.

Epic is probably betting more on getting new customers than stealing old ones.
 

DalekFlay

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It's hardly about the quality of the client. It's much more about force of habit.

The Steam client, whatever you or I might think of it, offers a lot of people a lot of features they genuinely love. In any event, whatever you want to ascribe Steam loyalty to, the point remains the same. Epic seem to be playing the "get people in and then turn them into real customers" game, but I'm not sure how they plan to actually do the second part. I don't think your theory of it all being about new customers holds water, since the exclusives game is all about making people switch from other platforms, and since they've been very open about wanting to knock Steam down a few pegs.
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
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Apr 18, 2008
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13,716
I don't think your theory of it all being about new customers holds water, since the exclusives game is all about making people switch from other platforms,

How is it all about making people switch? New customers also have only one choice if they want that exclusive so they become Epic customers.
And of course they'd want to get customers from Steam too if they can. But new customers count as that too. Somebody who comes first to Epic is one less person that goes to Steam first and possibly stays there.

The Steam client, whatever you or I might think of it, offers a lot of people a lot of features they genuinely love.

It does now. It didn't at the start. And people still stuck with it. If it was never updated, and people stayed there (because they didn't have any other choice) do you think they'd have jumped to Epic if they came up with a better client?
 

flyingjohn

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I don't think your theory of it all being about new customers holds water, since the exclusives game is all about making people switch from other platforms,

How is it all about making people switch? New customers also have only one choice if they want that exclusive so they become Epic customers.
And of course they'd want to get customers from Steam too if they can. But new customers count as that too. Somebody who comes first to Epic is one less person that goes to Steam first and possibly stays there.

The Steam client, whatever you or I might think of it, offers a lot of people a lot of features they genuinely love.

It does now. It didn't at the start. And people still stuck with it. If it was never updated, and people stayed there (because they didn't have any other choice) do you think they'd have jumped to Epic if they came up with a better client?
You do understand that steam launched in 2003 when none of the modern features were a thing and even then was better then any alternative that existed both in features and usability?
Also Valve didn't have several billions at the bank compared to epic today.
People switched to steam because they were the only ones offering a digital platform and not screaming "PC IS DEAD BECAUSE OF PIRACY".
 
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Epic's theory is people will use the client to get the freebies and some exclusives and then transition into becoming regular customers. However I see no reason for this to play out in practice long-term unless Epic drastically improves the client (which they're barely bothering to do at the moment), or offer some other consistent incentive. I'd like to be a fly on the wall during their long-term planning meetings, because I have a feeling they're missing the crucial step between "force people to come here" and "everyone switches to Epic!"
The strategy seems to be working according to the infographic T_T posted last page. "Everyone switching to Epic" is not a realistic idea in the short or long term so I imagine the short term is to get a foothold in the market (achieved?) and long term is to become Gaben's biggest headache, and they're improving the client when it becomes necessary.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
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Apr 29, 2019
Messages
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Fortnite and freebies are making people use EGS just to either play or get free stuff, and then hopefully play said free stuff, overtime, i imagine they want to create the habit of using EGS on their users just as people got used to other clients before.
 

Ismaul

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The Steam client, whatever you or I might think of it, offers a lot of people a lot of features they genuinely love.

It does now. It didn't at the start. And people still stuck with it. If it was never updated, and people stayed there (because they didn't have any other choice) do you think they'd have jumped to Epic if they came up with a better client?
At the start, it offered an easy way to keep your Valve games up to date so you could play with others using the same version. This is what it was made for in the first place, and it was a first.
 

Drakron

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Joined
May 19, 2005
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The strategy seems to be working according to the infographic T_T posted last page. "Everyone switching to Epic" is not a realistic idea in the short or long term so I imagine the short term is to get a foothold in the market (achieved?) and long term is to become Gaben's biggest headache, and they're improving the client when it becomes necessary.

You mean the 251 million spend in a entire year and that is spending, that includes taxes and all that.
It says the majority of EGS revenue was on ... Fortnight (680 vs 251) and they are taking a loss, this was predicted but it also says the current model is NOT sustainable, but hey ... its not like GOG existed or anything and the truth is, NOTHING is too big too fail, I never expected EGS to close within a year but lets see what happens in 3-4 years, ESPECIALLY if the big players all start having their own exclusive stores with their own launchers.
 

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