Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[normie]

act like everyone is this principled Steam loyalist who will go without and "stay strong."

that's only you, though, for the sake of a retarded strawman

the fuck is your malfunction? we've already been over this with you, and like a jew you insist on rattling on with the same old nonsense with even more audacity, though you conceded the argument before

 

[DalekFlay]

that's only you, though, for the sake of a retarded strawman

the fuck is your malfunction? we've already been over this with you, and like a jew you insist on rattling on with the same old nonsense with even more audacity, though you conceded the argument before

Yeah dude, it's "only me" who sees that exclusives have worked to push consumer behavior in gaming for 30 years. I'm just alone here on my little island called reality.

I don't know what you think I conceded, but I never changed my stance on this stuff.

 

[DeepOcean]

This piece of shit doesn't have even a shopping cart and people are being banned for buying too much stuff, yeah, that is real, and there are cucktards that think it is a great idea for us to be forced into buying into this piece of shit.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

imagine unironically buying products from an anti-linux company

 

[Black Angel]

Point is, exclusives work because they wear people down and get them to eventually buy a Playstation/Xbox/Nintendo or now install a new client. Sales work to get people to buy something. These are tactics as old as trading for grain, and you guys make me laugh when you act like everyone is this principled Steam loyalist who will go without and "stay strong." Nope, consumer behavior is very predictable, and they don't do that shit. There's a handful of wackos on the GOG forum who supposedly have never played anything with DRM on it, but how big a difference are they making in the industry? Like a grain of sand in an ocean, it's pointless.

Not only you insist on the narrative that everyone who are irritated by Epic's shenanigans are "Steam loyalist", but you even doubt how big a difference DRM-free products made in the industry which supposedly renders GOG obsolete or whatever? And all your arguments supposedly means Epic will be some sort of salvation, despite fuck-ups after fuck-ups from being proven to be a literal spyware, putting games not yet released on a discounted pre-orders (which even double as being questionable in terms of legality), and outright banning users who bought multiple games during sales?

Guys, what's lower than Epic Cum Dumpster™? Any suggestion? Epic Cock Sleeve™?

 

[Grauken]

Whatever you think of Epic you guys have to give up this dream that exclusives don't work and the games will sell bad. I doubt Metro's numbers are that different than they would have been otherwise, and Borderlands 3 is going to sell like gangbusters for Epic. People will bitch and complain, but exclusives have been used in gaming for 30 years for a reason.

Unlike consoles, exclusives on Epic will only help to sell those specific exclusives, then people go right back to their portal of choice, which in most cases will be Steam. This is pretty much unlike consoles, where once an exclusive has made you buy the console in the first place, you already commited a large chunk of money to be part of that ecosystem and then will likely go on buy some of the smaller titles on that platform, which is the point. Exclusives on Epic will not make people buy some of the smaller, non-exclusive titles, so really, what's the long-term gain for Epic.

 

[passerby]

Exclusives on Epic will not make people buy some of the smaller, non-exclusive titles, so really, what's the long-term gain for Epic.

It's enough if most people will be buying exclusives, selling significant numbers of non exclusives is a lost cause.
Long term goal for Epic is to have a healthy venue to sell teir own, or published by them games without Steam cut and make some extra money by offering the same service to third parties.
It should be more successful with it than Origin, if there will be 10x more exclusive releases and reasons for customers to visit it regularly.

The only real fuckup is not matching at least GoG Galaxy in shop/app usability before they started, blows my mind a bit to be honest.

 

[StrongBelwas]

I imagine Epic assumes that companies that do well on the store will release future titles only on EGS and direct customers there to get the larger cut, no pile of money for exclusivity on their part required(At least that is the only realistic goal I can think of, Epic can't break even on most exclusives even if they weren't taking such a small cut.) The question is just how well does the game need to do for the publisher to feel safe doing that? Doing decently + a big ol sack of cash is one thing, but risking it with no back up plan is another thing entirely.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

imagine unironically buying products from an anti-buyers company

ftfy.

 

[Grauken]

imagine unironically buying products from an anti-buyers company

ftfy.

This. A company that shows open disdain for customer reviews basically says they don't give a fuck about customers

 

[DalekFlay]

Not only you insist on the narrative that everyone who are irritated by Epic's shenanigans are "Steam loyalist", but you even doubt how big a difference DRM-free products made in the industry which supposedly renders GOG obsolete or whatever? And all your arguments supposedly means Epic will be some sort of salvation, despite fuck-ups after fuck-ups from being proven to be a literal spyware, putting games not yet released on a discounted pre-orders (which even double as being questionable in terms of legality), and outright banning users who bought multiple games during sales?

Guys, what's lower than Epic Cum Dumpster™? Any suggestion? Epic Cock Sleeve™?

Dude I hate all these fucking clients, you're not paying attention. If I'm a fanboy of anything it's GOG, but they have like a 4% market share. I can't pretend people give a shit about stuff they don't give a shit about.

If I had my way all these bullshit clients and social features would be shot into the sun, but I can't have my way. Consumers gonna consumers, and they like clients and Facebook shit, and so here we are. My only points in this thread have been: 1) exclusives work, and you guys are fucking stupid if you don't think Epic is doing the one thing that could take market share from Steam, and 2) I don't really care which bullshit client I have to use and ignore while I play my singleplayer shit, because they're all bullshit.

 

[Metro]

Exclusives "work" inasmuch as it'll certainly get you 100% of sales during the period of exclusivity. The larger question is do they "work" over the long haul. Console exclusivity is an entirely different animal. If the end goal is for Epic to generate sustainable success in order to turn a profit then I don't see how their paying for exclusives work out in their favor. They've got little to no positive press and a metric ton of negative press. You also have to wonder what their short-term profits are like having to subsidize developers/publishers in order to get exclusive rights and even just to put their games on sale.

We've yet to see whether exclusives "work" for PC.

 

[DalekFlay]

Exclusives "work" inasmuch as it'll certainly get you 100% of sales during the period of exclusivity. The larger question is do they "work" over the long haul. Console exclusivity is an entirely different animal. If the end goal is for Epic to generate sustainable success in order to turn a profit then I don't see how their paying for exclusives work out in their favor. They've got little to no positive press and a metric ton of negative press. You also have to wonder what their short-term profits are like having to subsidize developers/publishers in order to get exclusive rights and even just to put their games on sale.

I agree actually, yeah. They'll have to improve their client a lot, offer more and more sales, keep the exclusives going for a while and improve their PR. These are all tall orders. I'm just saying exclusives are the only thing that could shake the tree, and now they need to do the rest of the work. They've got enough of a war chest I'm sure to have a good bit of time, but we'll see.

 

[Dexter]

Exclusives "work" inasmuch as it'll certainly get you 100% of sales during the period of exclusivity. The larger question is do they "work" over the long haul. Console exclusivity is an entirely different animal.

Exclusives "work" on consoles because the platform owners either have bought and integrated developers entirely into their corporate structure and publishing strategy (what Microsoft is doing right now with Obsidian, InXile, Ninja Theory etc.) or are wholly paying for the development of AAA-type games and offer much bigger bribes than "Epic" can afford. Some of these products are planned out, developed, marketed and released over the duration of an entire console's lifespan. Epic doesn't even have "Exclusives" in the way consoles do, they have a 6-12 month period of Sales exclusivity achieved through bribes, which isn't the same as having to buy a Nintendo console for Mario or Zelda or PlayStation for... Uncharted and God of War I guess? Most publishers and independent developers rightfully rather release their games on most available platforms, since they naturally usually want to reach the broadest amount of customers possible and make the most profit, unless there's a mountain of bribe money that looks mightily attractive and could put a stop to that.

In any way, as long as they continue with this business practice I will treat games only appearing on the Epic Store the same way I treat games releasing only on Xbox or PlayStation, which is largely ignore their existence and not pay them much mind. I've done this consistently for almost three decades, no matter how many "Halo's", "Dark Souls" and "Red Dead Redemption's" they dished out and tried to get me "hyped" about, and I don't see this changing any time soon because some idiots love to guzzle Tim Sweeney's cum.
If they want me to purchase their products it's going to be on my terms and not theirs and they know where to reach me e.g. see what Microsoft is doing with Halo now.

 

[DalekFlay]

The point is more that exclusives make you do something you don't really want to do in order to play them. No one WANTS to spend another $400 on a console when you already own a modern one. They do it to play X and Y game they can't play otherwise. If a console doesn't have enough exclusives then it doesn't sell as well, because less people feel the need to buy it. There's a shit-ton of other factors going on of course, but these companies wouldn't bankroll exclusive games if they weren't essential to success.

Epic wants you to get games on their store instead of Steam, something most people don't want to do for various reasons. Exclusives will push people to do it.

 

[Grauken]

That is true, I thought I was finished with

stuff, but now

 

[Belegarsson]

Thing is, their realistic expectation should just be to co-exist with Steam, not siphoning their userbase, because no one in their right mind will abandon their huge existing library to play the new, fresh games in the market. People can have more than one platform, but once they invest in those even with just a little amount, no way they would leave them behind.

That's why I think the idea of Epic's platform exclusive is dumb. People who are disgusted with their moves are the ones that can't be swayed easily and they will have a hard time convincing that potential userbase to come back in future. People who couldn't hold their horse and decided to cave in for two or three Epic exclusives, are they truly stable playerbase or once they get bored with Satisfactory, WWZ or whatever the sensation of the month that was, they would just leave the Epic launcher in the dust and continue with Steam games that's holding their attention for a long time? Of course I'm talking out of my ass here because I don't belong to the crowd that's into those games, but the way Epic store's operating is like testing out a pair of anti-heat boots on lava. Of course, their attitude don't help.

 

[Ismaul]

Point is, exclusives work because they wear people down

The point is more that exclusives make you do something you don't really want to do in order to play them.

Good point. Against Epic. A despicable strategy.

And you're here defending it. Why? Because "it works" and "it's the only way to enter the market and compete with Steam". While the first might be true, it's not the only thing that works. And the second is blatantly false: you can compete by providing a better product for the customer. And that works.

I can't believe you aren't paid for this shilling.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Epic wants you to get games on their store instead of Steam, something most people don't want to do for various reasons. Exclusives will push people to do it.

True, people who want to get game X that's unavailable outside of Epic will go to Epic to buy it, outside of a (probably not very big) group that will wait out the exclusivity period to get it on Steam later, ignore it because of exclusivity/Epic store or pirate it. I think the question people are asking is why would anyone who didn't want to go to Epic in the first place but did just for one specific exclusive buy other games there. It's not like they're going to be wooed by the store once they get there because the store is bare-bones at best and the customer already has a game library tied to another platform with better features. If you buy a console, you invested into that console and are more likely to buy other games there because of that sunk cost, if you installed the Epic store only because it had one game you wanted what exactly is keeping you there after beating that game?

 

[hajro]

That is true, I thought I was finished with

stuff, but now

 

[FeelTheRads]

Epic doesn't even have "Exclusives" in the way consoles do

Well, I guess that's settled then?

If Steam doesn't have exclusives, then Epic doesn't have them either since they both serve the same platform: the PC.

In the meantime I still can't play some games I want without using Steam, but hey... umm... at least they have a nice attitude? Oh yeah, and Gaben's dick tastes so sweet. PC MASTER RACE COLLECTING TRADING CARDS AND PARTICIPATION AWARDS!!!!

 

[Grauken]

That is true, I thought I was finished with

stuff, but now

Eh, no, not worth it

Oh yeah, and Gaben's dick tastes so sweet.

It's okay, nobody's judging you here

 

[DalekFlay]

Good point. Against Epic. A despicable strategy.

And you're here defending it. Why? Because "it works" and "it's the only way to enter the market and compete with Steam". While the first might be true, it's not the only thing that works. And the second is blatantly false: you can compete by providing a better product for the customer. And that works.

I can't believe you aren't paid for this shilling.

I'm not defending it really. I just think it makes business sense, and was the only way to compete with Steam. That doesn't mean I like it. As I said in the posts you quoted but you edited out, I hate all these fucking clients and wish they'd die in a fire.

 

[Ismaul]

So you're just taking le piss by being a contrarian.

Please cunt-in-you.

 

[passerby]

We are not contrarian for the sake of it, we are just reasonable. I also find it offputting how perspective of the other clients of the store is not even worth of discussion here.

In general people and companies that create goods turn less profit then freeloaders ( taxes ) and distribution, while provide all creativity and take all financial risk, because we are living in a society. In case of digital distribution it's only even more absurd.