Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Mustawd]

Did Epic get bought by the Chinese?

Pretty close.

http://fortune.com/2018/05/17/data-sheet-tencent-fortnite-china/

Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games, the North Carolina maker of the runaway hit Fortnite. Breakingviews cites analysis from researcher SuperData that Fortnite alone rang up sales of $223 million in March—also not a typo. Tencent plans to bring the game to China.

Whether that is Steam's or the dev's fault changes nothing to me. If the Epic client is less heavy, or even better, if they have a culture of not bundling those with the store's games, that would be a point in their favor that Steam lacks.

Well, the point is that it is developer directed to have DRM. So wether or not a game has DRM, it’s really platform agnostic if you’re comparing the Epic store and Steam. I mean how lightweight is the Epic store going to be if a game requires DRM?

With the exception of patches, none of those things interest me as a buyer.

Linux users would disagree with you. Maybe to you personally none of those features matter, sure. But for a general buyer, the support Steam provides can lead to a wider variety of games than otherwise would be available without said support.

 

[Alex]

With the exception of patches, none of those things interest me as a buyer.

Linux users would disagree with you. Maybe to you personally none of those features matter, sure. But for a general buyer, the support Steam provides can lead to a wider variety of games than otherwise would be available without said support.

Good for them, but why am I supposed to care? I don't like Steam, I don't like the client or the overlay games sold in it come bundled in it. If a new rival might do things differently, I don't see why I shouldn't be looking forward to it. The news about the Chinese might mean Epic won't be that rival, but hopefully someone will come about eventually.

 

[Mustawd]

With the exception of patches, none of those things interest me as a buyer.

Linux users would disagree with you. Maybe to you personally none of those features matter, sure. But for a general buyer, the support Steam provides can lead to a wider variety of games than otherwise would be available without said support.

Good for them, but why am I supposed to care? I don't like Steam, I don't like the client or the overlay games sold in it come bundled in it. If a new rival might do things differently, I don't see why I shouldn't be looking forward to it. The news about the Chinese might mean Epic won't be that rival, but hopefully someone will come about eventually.

I was just commenting on your “as a buyer” line. It’s one thing to say you individually don’t care. I was just saying other buyers might see benefit. But fair enough if you don’t see value in it.

 

[Metro]

With the exception of patches, none of those things interest me as a buyer.

Linux users would disagree with you. Maybe to you personally none of those features matter, sure. But for a general buyer, the support Steam provides can lead to a wider variety of games than otherwise would be available without said support.

Good for them, but why am I supposed to care? I don't like Steam, I don't like the client or the overlay games sold in it come bundled in it. If a new rival might do things differently, I don't see why I shouldn't be looking forward to it. The news about the Chinese might mean Epic won't be that rival, but hopefully someone will come about eventually.

Location:
São Paulo - Brasil

 

[Lutte]

If a new rival might do things differently, I don't see why I shouldn't be looking forward to it. The news about the Chinese might mean Epic won't be that rival, but hopefully someone will come about eventually.

As if companies didn't try? I mean, beside gog, which originally was meant for old games but now sells a decent amount of new stuff (since they started using it to promote twitcher), there's the Microsoft store, which MS always intended for all sorts of developers (zero curation, anyone can publish anything there at any given point as long as it's not porn), there's Humble (which sometimes redistributes stuff on their own platform, not everything is a steam key), there's Origin, which also has opened to third party developers, there's itch.io which has an indie developer focus. How many platforms do you fucking want ?

Steam remained undefeated because no matter its weak points it's just less worse than the alternatives and most people are happy with it, not because there's a lack of competition (and real competition certainly won't come from fucking chink malware of all places). That you're the one individual bitching about unnoticeable memory footprint of a client in a world that has so many games developed with absolute garbage like unity, let's just say, the bloat ship has sailed and there are worse worries than the 100mb taken by steam in a world where web browsers with a few tabs open will take GBs. Game devs don't sell games for potatoes with less than 1gb of ram. Not since they've started using Unity, UE4, and I've even spotted the occasional Electron+JS indie. Success of internet shops does not depend on the vocal whiners.

 

[Nano]

It's a common misconception that to release on steam you need to tie the game to Steam's DRM and infrastructure. There's a few games on steam that can run without the steam client running. If a game launches only with the steam client it's because the dev wanted it, whether for the DRM or for the many frameworks Steam provides.

It doesn't matter that some Steam games don't have DRM. What people who say this don't seem to realize is that the game *installers*, which are often just as important as the games themselves, are always tied to Steam.

 

[Lutte]

What people who say this don't seem to realize is that the game *installers*, which are often just as important as the games themselves, are always tied to Steam.

lol no they're not. The only important bits are the redistribuables for runtimes which you can execute yourself from within the game folder. There's nothing special about modern game installation process, I've moved my steam library back and forth from systems even running what was originally installed on windows, into a linux wine prefix to run windows-only games through wine without ever an issue. Just tried it again running a game I hadn't played in a while that's DRM free and it ran on wine no installation process required not even of the redists since it relied on stuff wine already implemented, no steam launched, no previous launch of the game in the pristine wine prefix. If you want to backup the DRM free games just clone their folder you fucker. What do you think the _CommonRedist folders within game folders are for? All steam's "installation" process does is run what's inside for you.

 

[kalganoat]

ruins your PC gaming

 

[Dexter]

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/c...top_with_this_always_online/eckm02v/?sort=new

 

[Rahdulan]

Calling out bullshit in that thread is real.

 

[GrainWetski]

Developers this and that. Still forgetting about the by far most important part of the equation, the consumers.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

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?

 

[unfairlight]

I do think that Steam decreasing it to 20 or 15% would be very positive and something they could easily afford, though.

 

[Metro]

They act as if Epic were in the position Valve was that it wouldn't be charging 30% -- yeah, right. Never mind the price-gouging for shitty cosmetics in Fortnite.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Don't install Chinese spyware on your computer no matter how much free shit they offer you

 

[Turjan]

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.

Not only that. Steam gets 0% if the developer sells Steam keys (which are free to the developer) on other stores, and the developer can still use Steam for all download, update and customer service needs.

 

[Alienman]

Everyone that defends EPIC seems to forget that for some reason.

 

[Rahdulan]

They don't. Fact is Epic store simply brings nothing for the customer. It's not like that beneficial split for devs will come my way in the form of reduced prices or anything.

 

[Puteo]

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.

Not only that. Steam gets 0% if the developer sells Steam keys (which are free to the developer) on other stores, and the developer can still use Steam for all download, update and customer service needs.

Yeah, steam is fine about propagating their own service because distribution cost for them is so close to 0 as to be irrelevant, it's more important for them that they retain their quasi-monopoly.

However if a dev wants to use the "here's your cd-key" feature in Steam to give keys to a copy of the game on another distribution platform to steam owners they get very ornery and have outright refused usage of it to devs in the past. They are just as anti-competitive as any other monopolistic company out there, the difference is just that they are more clever in accepting things that traditional companies would knee-jerk deny but actually benefit them.

Ultimately, you don't need to use the Epic store to benefit from it as a consumer, I certainly don't plan to. It's already pressured Steam to introduce the milestone system for devs; some of which will pass that on to end-users through better discounts. Epic is going to be subject to that same competitive pressure as well. No one cares how friendly a store is to developers if it's so unfriendly to users they don't want to buy from it.

 

[Turjan]

They don't. Fact is Epic store simply brings nothing for the customer.

Nearly nothing. Today it's "Super Meat Boy" for free, in case you still don't have that one.

 

[Astral Rag]

Meh.

 

[Metro]

Free copy of Meat Boy would be great... if this were 2010.

 

[Astral Rag]

Nothing will convince me to install a new platform. Steam, Gog installer or bust.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

However if a dev wants to use the "here's your cd-key" feature in Steam to give keys to a copy of the game on another distribution platform to steam owners they get very ornery and have outright refused usage of it to devs in the past.

And how is that not going to be abused if they let you generate keys to baypass the store completely and sell the steam key somewhere on top of that? There is anti-competitive and there is "I wouldn't let you fuck me in the ass".

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's already pressured Steam to introduce the milestone system for devs; some of which will pass that on to end-users through better discounts. Epic is going to be subject to that same competitive pressure as well. No one cares how friendly a store is to developers if it's so unfriendly to users they don't want to buy from it.

I highly doubt that Epic's announcement put any pressure on Steam. No business would react to 'good intentions' of another business until said intentions start bearing fruit. The pressure comes from the AAA developers who don't need Steam as much as the mid-size and indie developers. They have games that everyone wants, so they will sell them on their own for a year or so and let Steam handle the discounted sales at best. Steam will lose billions (literally) this way, which worries them a lot more than anything Epic can do in the next 5 years.

https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-wont-launch-on-steam/

The Fallout 76 beta FAQ states, among other things, that "the B.E.T.A. [that's a Fallout-style acronym for Break it Early Test Application] and the game will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and on PC (via Bethesda.net only)." The Fallout 76 purchase page also bears only a generic "PC game" logo, with no mention of Steam. And today, Bethesda confirmed that neither the beta nor the full game will be released on the platform.

"The PC version of Fallout 76, for both the B.E.T.A. and the launch, will be available only via Bethesda.net, not on Steam," a Bethesda rep said in an email.

That comes as a real surprise: Bethesda would obviously like to push more widespread adoption of its own launcher, but foregoing the biggest, most popular PC digital distribution platform on the planet is a ballsy move. That's not to say it won't happen eventually, but it may be quite a wait if it happens at all—Fallout Shelter was released on Bethesda.net in July 2016, but didn't make it to Steam until March 2017...

https://www.pcgamesn.com/age-of-empires-definitive-edition/age-of-empires-definitive-edition-steam

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition isn’t being kept off Steam by Valve, and could eventually come to the platform. According to PC Gamer, a Microsoft spokesperson suggested it was possible that the remastered RTS will make its way to the platform eventually.

The statement says that offering other Microsoft games, such as Quantum Break and Gears of War 4, on the platform “has already improved both the store and Windows 10 by accelerating support for features like unlocked frame rate, and making the overall consumer experience better.” Microsoft also say that competition between digital marketplaces is “good for the industry and good for gamers.”

Crucially, the statement doesn’t say Age of Empires will never make its way to steam. Microsoft say that “before selling on another store front, we want to make sure customers have the best experience, and other store fronts need to fully support Windows 10 before we bring Age of Empires: Definitive Edition over.”

Translation: before selling it on Steam we'll milk it ourselves in our own store.

I wouldn't be surprised if CD Projekt negotiated long and hard before agreeing to sell Cyberpunk on Steam right away.