Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[rusty_shackleford]

steam: supports linux, actively employs programmers to work on the kernel/graphics drivers/compatibility layers
epic store: does not support linux, actively employs programmers to write spyware to spy on you for their chinese masters

And who's really gaming on linux ? With the colossal amount of money gabe accumulated he could have made it a standard, instead it's still the subpar choice by far and not a real option.

No Frenchies need apply

 

[Alienman]

Giving away free games is now bad because Epic does it. Cool story, bro.

Yes, that is exactly what I mean...

 

[Sranchammer]

steam: supports linux

 

[J_C]

steam: supports linux

Which part is so funny?

 

[Perkel]

Which part is so funny?

That part where support of Linux by steam is something important.

 

[J_C]

Which part is so funny?

That part where support of Linux by steam is something important.

Your are probably right. Only a niche segment of gamers play on linux. Hopefully we also get less and less niche RPGs because only a small segment of gamers play them. Why care about them?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

EGS offering a refund for the difference between a user's purchase amount and the recently-lowered amount of the game is an interesting move. Mainly because it's the first move EGS makes that affects the consumer directly and beneficially and isn't practiced by any other digital distributor (that I know of, at least).

In reality this is EGS's first foray into trying to be competitive; by offering something good that the others don't.

Sadly it's just a PR-move to gain favorable reactions and boost their market share, but the key element will be seeing how the other digital distributors respond to this.

And for the record once again: I was originally in favor of EGS because it had the potential to be a worthwhile rival to Steam, thereby introducing proper competition in an almost monopolistic market. That opinion quickly changed once the specifics of EGS became known, and it has remained such. I don't think Steam is any better in concept, but at least it has usable features and is therefore better in practice. And I agree with Fronzel Neekburm on those who defend Steam vehemently because they fear losing their Steam catalog... because that made me realize that the Steam catalog is their own personal Social Credit-system: They don't dare put it at risk or they'll lose everything, so it must be defended at all costs.

 

[cosmicray]

And who's really gaming on linux ? With the colossal amount of money gabe accumulated he could have made it a standard, instead it's still the subpar choice by far and not a real option.

They provide alternative option and that's what matters. Pushing linux hard won't do any good. And if it's not a gradual process, it won't work. Shoving Linux down people's throats will backfire.

Holy shit, is it really Gabe?

 

[Markman]

0.89% of Steam users game on Linux.
Its a piss in the ocean.
More suprisingly is 4% of Mac users. What the fuck are they playing?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Linux went from being unable to play most modern windows titles to playing a massive majority of the steam catalogue at the same speed(or faster) with a single press of a button in about 2 years. The only games that don't work for me are the few online games that require rootkits "anti-cheat" garbage.
It's quite obvious why they did this after the initial failure of steam machines and are preparing to release another version of them.

 

[Burning Bridges]

What the fuck are they playing?

I am friends with one guy who regularly plays X-Plane 11 on a Macbook, but only this 1 game.

When I tell him of other games he just asks "what's this?"

 

[Burning Bridges]

steam: supports linux

Which part is so funny?

Even more so why does it have a ZDF logo? Is Sranchammer secretly watching Lügenpresse?

 

[Reinhardt]

Who cares about free shit if there is still zero interesting games in epic store. Free shit is still shit.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yes, that is exactly what I mean...

No, you mean Epic is so bad that nobody buys so they have to give away games for free. Herp derp, I don't like it so everything they do must be because they're so bad. Meanwhile when somebody else gives away free games they do it out of the goodness of their hearts alone with no ulterior motive.

Holy shit, is it really Gabe?

No, it's Bill.

Sadly it's just a PR-move to gain favorable reactions and boost their market share

Everything a company does that benefits the customers is primarily intended to benefit the company. And the two are not mutually exclusive. Making your customers happy is in itself a move that benefits your company.
Even giving away free games, when anyone does it, not only Epic, it's not out of charity.

 

[cosmicray]

0.89% of Steam users game on Linux.
Its a piss in the ocean.
More suprisingly is 4% of Mac users. What the fuck are they playing?

It's a survey, not actual statistic.

No, it's Bill.

I meant the guy in red shirt. Probably not.

 

[Dexter]

And I agree with Fronzel Neekburm on those who defend Steam vehemently because they fear losing their Steam catalog... because that made me realize that the Steam catalog is their own personal Social Credit-system: They don't dare put it at risk or they'll lose everything, so it must be defended at all costs.

What does that even mean? Why would anyone "fear losing their Steam catalog"? They already own the games, why would they lose them? What does their "Steam catalog" have to do with a "Social Credit-system"? Social Credit is used by a Totalitarian government to measure the "social reputation" of its citizens based on their level of obedience to the state. Steam is a Digital Distribution service for games. Put what at risk? Lose everything? Are you drunk?

Also it's still funny to me that some of the inmates itt after almost 2 years and 200 pages of repeating the same shit over and over again still haven't figured out that people aside from using Steam would also still preferably use other services like GOG, Battle.Net, Xbox Live, maybe even uPlay or Origin before they touch EGS. It's funny because we've been over this on page 2: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...le-war-comes-to-pc.125953/page-2#post-5913151

Although the situation since then has changed somewhat favorably for Gabe with Destiny 2 moving to Steam, Bethesda moving Fallout 76 to Steam and Microsoft releasing their Halo: Master Chief Collection on Steam. Even EA has started re-releasing their games on Steam with for instance Jedi: Fallen Order being a big hit and the C&C Remastered Collection coming up: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_Remastered_Collection/

There must be something special about Epic Games Store that doesn't have anything to do with Steam, but what is it?

 

[Burning Bridges]

There must be something special about Epic Games Store that doesn't have anything to do with Steam, but what is it?

Epic Games Store is what's wrong with it.

 

[Alienman]

No, you mean Epic is so bad that nobody buys so they have to give away games for free. Herp derp, I don't like it so everything they do must be because they're so bad. Meanwhile when somebody else gives away free games they do it out of the goodness of their hearts alone with no ulterior motive.

The thing is, that is the only thing they do. I would respect them much more, even with Tencent investment money if they took all that spent money on free games and other shit and actually built a store that sold stuff.

 

[Belegarsson]

There must be something special about Epic Games Store that doesn't have anything to do with Steam, but what is it?

EGS attracts the snowflakes that think they're fighting the good fight against the monopoly, cuz every Goliath must be taken down by a David. I have freaking 7 launchers on my computer including one solely for Guild Wars 2, I even used to use Desura, I don't give a shit about the number of launchers. What I give a shit about is Steam is the only one that automatically runs whenever I boot up my PC, and EGS is trying to be one with 90% less effort.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

EGS attracts the snowflakes that think they're fighting the good fight against the monopoly,

While failing to understand what a monopoly even is.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Imagine been excited about couple of free games when torrenting exists for 15 years.

 

[Suicidal]

Registered on Epic to get the free GTA 5. I guess the CCP owns all my personal information and browsing history now, to which I say:

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

 

[DalekFlay]

What does that even mean? Why would anyone "fear losing their Steam catalog"? They already own the games, why would they lose them?

Chances of Valve going out of business in my lifetime is insanely small, but let's not pretend you "own" anything on Steam (or Epic) and that you can't lose it. Steam can take your entire library away from you at the drop of a hat if they want to, and there are horror stories out there of people insulting the wrong tranny and losing their games. Client based DRM has downsides.

 

[Dexter]

Chances of Valve going out of business in my lifetime is insanely small, but let's not pretend you "own" anything on Steam (or Epic) and that you can't lose it.

You own what you buy, Gobbledygook about "Subscriptions" in the Terms of Service doesn't change that or the nature of the purchase of a product in exchange for money.

For more details check that long thread about a recent legal decision you were a participant in: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...le-of-digital-games-valve-will-appeal.129830/

Steam can take your entire library away from you at the drop of a hat if they want to, and there are horror stories out there of people insulting the wrong tranny and losing their games.

That's literally not a thing that Steam does. You can call whoever you want a tranny and won't lose any of your games. At most you'll get a forum ban for the specific game if a Moderator is asshurt and at worst a wider-ranging forum ban from Steam Discussions for a period. Even in cases of illegal activity like credit card fraud e.g. see her for instance they usually don't outright disable someone's account, but put it in a "restricted" Mode where no new purchases and similar can be made.

Removing thousands of games worth a lot of money over a word would be a really easy lawsuit for them to lose and set a precedent, which is why they don't really want to get there.

 

[Fishy]

What does that even mean? Why would anyone "fear losing their Steam catalog"? They already own the games, why would they lose them?

Chances of Valve going out of business in my lifetime is insanely small, but let's not pretend you "own" anything on Steam (or Epic) and that you can't lose it. Steam can take your entire library away from you at the drop of a hat if they want to, and there are horror stories out there of people insulting the wrong tranny and losing their games. Client based DRM has downsides.

I'll take the upsides any day personally. I've lost far more games to shitty floppies/discs having gone wrong than I lost to digital distribution failing me. Heck, GOG even provided me with legit on-demand copies of that stuff I lost to faulty physical media.

I used to care about my "collection" and being sure my stuff was mine forever. Since then, there are enough games out in the world for me to entertain myself without *needing* to replay the same thing over and over, and I got a job that allows me to afford rebuying some stuff here and there if need be. Also, I'm old enough to be fully aware that *I* won't last forever. Let's say Steam disappeared overnight, from the top of my head, I'd rebuy the Souls games wherever they'd pop up, and probably pick up SOTS: The Pit on GOG but... I think that's it. The rest I'm happy to have played through once, but don't feel any particular need to revisit immediately.

All in all, I'd probably be more upset with GOG going away as even though I have spent far less overall, I have plenty of old classics there that I revisit from time to time and I'd have to bother with abandonware sites and DOSBOX config again. Meh.

There's something to be said for game preservation, but again, digital distribution (in the form of abandonware sites and torrents) does it better than me and my physical media.