Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Unkillable Cat]

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?

Not this time.

My statement is based on two facts that I should have tried to cram in there somehow: As Steam is the leading digitial distributor on PCs and has put in all these community-related shared features, people are using the platform as a status symbol. Gaining those Steam levels, owning the hottest titles, showing off various achievements etc. Some people have spent years (or even decade(s)) working on their online profile on Steam, and spent (tens of) thousands of dollars on it. They have committed, they have invested and they want to protect their investment... while simultaneously stroking their e-peen.

But that's not all, the social element of Steam means that whomever you add as a Friend there can see what you own and what you're playing... and act on it. Many years ago I had the misfortune of not only being the victim of a shaming attempt, but also accused of theft by a ex- Steam (and ex-real-life) friend as well... because I had the gall to criticize a freshly-released game that the friend was praising to high heaven. The friend responsed to my criticism by checking if I owned the game on Steam, saw that I didn't and proceeded to publicly accuse me of piracy, because he (falsely) thought I was playing the game. He didn't stop to think I might be playing it on another platform, or been following the discussion closely, or possibly even watching YT-videos of the game. No, because I hadn't bought the game on Steam I was a filthy pirate and deserved to be shamed. So yeah, if a digital distribution platform can socially condition morons into trying to snitch on their fellows, it's a Social Credit-system with parallels to that used by a Totalitarian government to control its citizens.

The second fact is that I'm not just old-fashioned, I'm borderline archaic. I believe that a man should only need to own the game in his hand, and own a machine capable of running it, to be able to play it. Any extra step interfering in that process is needless IMO and should be abolished. Obviously this does not apply to online games, but the sacrifice of the extra step there is inferred. Steam goes directly against this by acting as a gatekeeper, and those are not infallible. Not even something "as big as Steam". IIRC Steam has still not explained what it will do for its customers if it somehow ends up dead and permanently offline, so I'll remain both pessimistic and sceptical of it.

 

[Alienman]

That Steam problem sounds rather specific though. Also there is a private mode. I think new accounts starts in private mode now and you have to make an effort to show off your games.

 

[DalekFlay]

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.

People say they've done it. Wouldn't surprise me if they were being over-dramatic, but Steam and the rest have the power to do it, which is the point. I'm fine with saying "there will likely be no negative repercussions of giving them this power," but to act like you own things on there and it isn't a concern at all is putting on horse blinders. You're giving Valve a lot of power over you and your money, you just presumably trust them with it.

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.

Physical media sucks, I'll take the upsides of digital any day. Digital doesn't require DRM though, as seen on GOG.

 

[Dexter]

I'm fine with saying "there will likely be no negative repercussions of giving them this power," but to act like you own things on there and it isn't a concern at all is putting on horse blinders. You're giving Valve a lot of power over you and your money, you just presumably trust them with it.

I'm not fine with saying that at all. What I'm saying is that when I'm entering a purchase agreement and buy a product it's mine by law. It doesn't really matter what Steam pretends happened by ticking a small box, they can't contravene applicable law handling commerce, similar to how they had to offer a way for people to refund or they would've been in legal trouble too. This is even more clear for people going to a store around the corner and paying $30 to buy The Orange Box, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Kingdom Come: Deliverance or whatever or ordering it from Amazon (entering a purchase agreement in exchange for a working product) and then using the key on Steam. No matter how you twist and turn it, that's not "buying a Subscription" by any normal law regulating commerce. I'm not saying they don't have the power or ability to do it, I'm saying that it would be illegal if they did and they would regret it very quickly. Again, we've been over this before: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-valve-will-appeal.129830/page-7#post-6318777

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm not fine with saying that at all. What I'm saying is that when I'm entering a purchase agreement and buy a product it's mine by law. It doesn't really matter what Steam pretends happened by ticking a small cross, they can't contravene applicable law handling commerce, similar to how they had to offer a way for people to refund or they would've been in legal trouble too. This is even more clear for people going to the store and paying $60 to buy The Orange Box or Kingdom Come: Deliverance or whatever or ordering it from Amazon (entering a purchase agreement in exchange for a working product) and then using the key on Steam. I'm not saying they don't have the power or ability to do it, I'm saying that it would be illegal if they did and they would regret it very quickly. Again, we've been over this before: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-valve-will-appeal.129830/page-7#post-6318777

I think this really depends on the situation. If they actually took your games away for petty reasons, and you had the money to sue them, they would likely see a significant challenge (especially in Europe). However if they close down? Sell to another company? Or if you move regions to where certain games are not offered for legal reasons? I don't think it's anywhere near as simple in those cases. I know when Direct2Drive closed down and changed hands a lot of people lost their games, and this has happened on other less popular sites too. If you change regions most movie services will restrict your library to the new region.

Now... do I think Steam is closing down in my lifetime? Will Gaben retire and sell to Microsoft? Damn near certainly no, but the threat is there, which is all I am asking you to acknowledge. I hesitate to say "I own this no matter what" when there's so many variables at play.

 

[ultimanecat]

I’d say the bigger threat is Steam undergoing some massive change that fucks over your library in some way. GabeN has come down against his staff at least once and is responsible for Steam’s current policy of mostly letting people release whatever games they want. I know some people who identify closer to the developer side of things (i.e. bloggers, journalists, indie wannabes) are screaming for curation for a number of reasons both financial and political, but as a player and consumer I appreciate the variety and knowledge that nobody at Valve is forcing devs to make concessions on ideological grounds. But that can’t last forever, and I’m pretty sure once Gabe is out Steam will probably get lamer in any number of ways, and some of it will probably affect the games I already have.

 

[Razzoriel]

Gabe is the last person alive stopping a flood of censorship in the industry. When he's gone, Steam will become Epic Games 2.0.

 

[Lutte]

If you've got some length of steam library and wanna back it up while knowing there's a way to use it, google a certain 'rin' website that has a popular hl1 mod name as subdomain and download all you need there to do generic cracking and emulation of steam. I keep a backup of my lib along with a folder full of that stuff just in case.

Steam's DRM is, for now, the most inoffensive and most easily generic-cracked stuff out there. If there's ever a change to it then keep the backed up library out of sync.

There's also a decent amount of games that don't have any DRM at all on the platform.
https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

Some game developers also give you prebuilt Steam-free executables, like egosoft for the X series.
https://www.egosoft.com/download/x3ap/bonus_en.php

X3: Albion Prelude 3.3 - NoSteam executable

This executable allows you to play X3: Albion Prelude without having to run the Steam client. See this FAQ article for further information. The NoSteam executable is available only to users who have either X3: Terran Conflict or X3: Albion Prelude registered in their forum profile.

Pretty nice people.

Overall, I don't really fear for my steam library as per games that are either drm free or only use steamworks stuff. I would worry more about people who use scheisse like Denuvo. Or always online garbage like Diablo 3. Steam going under isn't an apocalyptic event for your games. Blizzard would be if you're one of those shit tasters who like their new stuff.

 

[Perkel]

Civilization VI free now on epic. I think it comes with only one DLC. Either way nice.

 

[Naraya]

Free shit is still shit.

 

[karoliner]

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?

I don't think is a big number but some people play on a Windows virtual machine inside their Linux installation.

 

[Nano]

Epic and Imgur appear to have a unique definition of the word 'ad'

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Epic means the ads inside the posts, but you almost never see those anyway because they only show up under a minimum word count and everyone adds filler to the posts to avoid it.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Free shit is still shit.

ya i keep getting the free games every week but i don't even know why I do this, it's just a bunch of garbage that I'll never play. probably gonna uninstall epic entirely

epic games more like epic fail lmao

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/epic-stores-free-games-end-up-selling-better-after/1100-6477948/

Epic Store's Free Games End Up Selling Better After The Giveaways, Says Tim Sweeney
Having a game featured for free on the Epic Games Store has helped sales after the fact, according to Epic's founder.

The Epic Games Store has continued giving out free games weekly since its inception, and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney says game developers are seeing better sales after they've put their game up on the store for free.

In an interview as part of our Play for All coverage, Sweeney explains that giving players the choice to try a genre for free has led to many recognizing their love for it, and inspired additional sales as a result. He doesn't mention specifics, but does say that developers have noticed an increase in sales across other platforms and stores after their games have been included as part of the free initiative.

"You're not going to go out and buy if you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory but if you get it for free you realize it's an awesome game," Sweeney explains in the interview, which you can watch above.

"People have discovered a lot of great games that way. It's been a benefit for game developers. Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it's been a really positive thing and it's brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that's been a wonderful thing for the company."

Sweeney also explains in the interview that Epic wants to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS and Android in the future, and the wonderful story of how his now-infamous plasma ball ended up in the middle of his office floor. If you want that exact office for your digital meetings, you can grab it here too.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm sure indie games especially love being an Epic giveaway, just to get word of mouth. The percentage of idiots who would boycott a game over that is infinitesimally small.

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[Irata]

Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it's been a really positive thing and it's brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that's been a wonderful thing for the company.

He gives these developers a lump of cash and then people go and spend money at a competitor's store. I can't see how he's thrilled about that.

 

[J_C]

Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it's been a really positive thing and it's brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that's been a wonderful thing for the company.

He gives these developers a lump of cash and then people go and spend money at a competitor's store. I can't see how he's thrilled about that.

And even though the game is free on Epic's site, people rather spend money and buy it in another store. :D Hilarious.

 

[Belegarsson]

SEGA and CA went to the dark side

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/a-total-war-saga-troy-on-epic-games-store/

Here it is: A Total War Saga: TROY is an Epic Games Store exclusive for 12 months – and will be available for free if you claim it in the first 24 hours.

That’s right – we’re giving away TROY for free, to keep, as long as you claim it in the 24 hour window!

We’re really excited about TROY, and we’re even more excited that this will give more of you the chance to play and enjoy it than might have had it otherwise. While we know that some of you won’t like the Epic Games Store exclusivity, we feel like this is a great opportunity for us in a lot of ways, and we’re hoping that you’ll take some time to hear us out and for us to answer what some of the questions we think you might have.

First of all: this is an opportunity for TROY specifically, and we have no plans for future games to be Epic exclusives. As developers we truly value our existing fans, but at the same time we want to reach new audiences and have as many people as possible experiencing the thrill of Total War for themselves. As a business that means putting Total War onto new platforms so that it can reach more players. This is part of that and in principal we’d like future Total War titles to be simultaneously available, from launch day, on as many store fronts as possible.

Right now, this is a one-time, one-year exclusive deal for TROY. We’ve always said that Saga titles allow us to experiment, and this is an experiment on a grand scale. TROY seemed like a good game to try this out with, especially as pre-orders aren’t live on Steam yet, so no one’s already put money into a store they’ll have to wait 12 extra months for it to appear on.

So now that’s out the way, here’s a little more backstory. Epic approached us and asked if TROY could be an Epic exclusive, as part of a commercial deal. That’s not to say that we immediately signed on the dotted line, or that money was the only reason that we did this (it’s not!). It was a difficult decision, and you can be assured that there were a lot of differing opinions in the studio, and a lot of discussions about it – which largely focussed on what it would mean for you, the players.

However, ultimately we considered two things. First we’re at a time when we’re looking to invest more into the ongoing development of Total War this felt like an opportunity to really move the franchise forward by getting it in front of more people. Secondly, Epic were paying for our players to have our latest release free on day one. For Total War’s 20th birthday, that felt like an opportunity too good to pass up.

As mentioned, and like others in the industry, a key reason for exploring other digital stores is that we don’t want to be limited just to Steam. We also want to diversify our business. In fact, we want to get our games onto as many stores as possible. Long term, we want to expand where players find Total War. This deal gives us a great way to try out other platforms, such as Epic – to see what works for us and what doesn’t. It allows us to get a feel for the development required to expand to other platforms, and it’s relatively risk-free for you, too, as the game’s available for free when claimed in the first 24 hours.

This opportunity allows expansive back-end infrastructure development that will allow us to expand into multiple stores. That means we can have more resources, push ourselves further, be more creative, make more Total War. We’re always looking to evolve and improve on our games and this deal gives us a lot of ways to do that – as we said, fresh perspectives, money that we’ll be putting back into the studio, new ways to expand.

You might not immediately see a big change, but we’re confident you will over time – and we guarantee there are a lot of things behind the scenes being made possible due to this, which we wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to do. Some of this is long-term – but there are short-term benefits to you, as well as us.

Making it available for free, for everyone to keep, during the first 24 hours – wouldn’t have been possible without this deal.

Finally, we’ve got just one favour to ask – however you feel about this, please keep any criticism to the studio as a whole, and don’t take it out on individual employees that you might find on various social media platforms.). We get it. It’s unexpected. But they’re not going to be able to change anything, and probably weren’t the ones who made the decision regardless.

We really think you’ll love TROY, and hey, it’s free so definitely give it a shot, redeem your 24 hour freebie and enjoy the game. If not, it’ll just be a year until it’s available on Steam. Ultimately, we think that this is good for our players, good for Creative Assembly, and therefore good for Total War.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Aemar]

CUCKS.

(Trailer looks shit anyway, so who cares about Troy?)

 

[GrainWetski]

As developers we truly value our existing fans, but at the same time we want to reach new audiences and have as many people as possible experiencing the thrill of Total War for themselves. As a business that means putting Total War onto new platforms so that it can reach more players. This is part of that and in principal we’d like future Total War titles to be simultaneously available, from launch day, on as many store fronts as possible.

In fact, we want to get our games onto as many stores as possible.

Do they even read what they write?

 

[Infinitron]

Another store entering...: https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/16/my-games-will-launch-global-game-store-in-q4/

With the standard 70/30 revenue split, huh. The Russian company behind Armored Warfare and Owlcat Games.

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/bastio...h-10-revenue-split-to-game-developers-3004112

MY.GAMES Store to offer 90/10 revenue split to game developers

2 June 2020 - International gaming company MY.GAMES has announced a new commission plan for developers choosing to distribute their titles via the MY.GAMES Store platform. The new option offers a revenue split of 90/10, where 90% of the revenue goes to the developer and 10% to the platform. The new revenue split applies to all purchases that have been made via the developer’s own advertising campaigns.

To qualify for the increased revenue, developers must first generate a trackable link through the “Developer Account” area on the MY.GAMES Store. The link can then be used in any advertising campaigns on platforms including Facebook, Google, streaming channels and blogs. Purchases that are then made using the link will automatically provide 90% of revenue to the developer.

Through the “Developer Account” area, developers can also monitor all of their game’s important metrics including click-through-rates, registrations, paying users and returning user numbers. With this data, the developer can maximize the effectiveness of their ad campaigns, as well as accessing the higher revenue split.

“This month marks the one year anniversary of MY.GAMES. We want to celebrate a fantastic first year by sharing our success with our developers,” said Rodion Kotelnikov, Head of MY.GAMES Store. “We will increase revenue share to all teams willing to promote their games on our platform. The metadata we provide will give them clear evidence of traffic generated by their marketing strategies.”

MY.GAMES Store launched in beta in December 2019 providing a platform for all MY.GAMES titles including the hugely popular Conqueror’s Blade and Warface franchise. The marketplace continues to grow, offering more than 150 titles from over 50 studios and publishers. Since launch registered users have continuously grown, tripling in numbers during Q1 of 2020.

As well as the new commission for developer generated traffic, MY.GAMES Store is offering the standard 70/30 revenue split for earnings generated by the platform. This revenue is reinvested into new development of the platform and attracting new users through various activities.

“We have put our heart and soul into developing a smart publishing approach for MY.GAMES Store, with the goal of being the best platform for both developers and players around the world,” said Vasily Maguryan, MY.GAMES CEO. “Although MY.GAMES is a year old, our team has been in the games market for over 13 years. During this time, we have worked with hundreds of different companies and developers. This wealth of experience was essential for us when deciding what MY.GAMES Store should be like to become one of the most competitive platforms on the market.”

 

[Drakron]

SEGA and CA went to the dark side

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/a-total-war-saga-troy-on-epic-games-store/

I suspect is the following ... Thrones of Britannia did poorly, Three Kingdoms did OK but not well and its on the shadow of Warhammer and I suspect that they dont have much confidence in Troy, the whole press release was "P-p-please give Troy a chance" being way too apologetic, EGS have became NetFlix of gaming in the sense they throw money at everything in hope its a success and became a dumping ground of games were the publisher doesnt have much confidence on the title and cashes out.

They wont do it with Warhammer 3 because thats big money and EGS is like cancer and you can tell that with that press release.

 

[LESS T_T]

Epic money shower

- Pay tens (or is it reached hundreds?) of millions of dollars to dev/pubs to release their games on EGS exclusively for a period
- Pay some millions of dollars to devs/pubs to giveaway their games on EGS, now even new releases
- Offer generous (favorable revenue splits, IP rights to devs) publishing deals to some studios
- Spread $10 coupons during big sales
- Giveaway millions of dollars without any conditions to game and open source software devs to fund their development (Epic MegaGrants)
- Pay some (probably also millions of) dollars to Unreal assets developers to giveaway their assets every month