Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[J_C]

Also what "features" you speak of.
Workshop ? Which is inferior version of Nexus
frends/chat/voice chat which is inferior version of discord ?
"community" which is retarded brother of gamefaqs community ?
or screenshots you can make by pressing printscreen or in any other overlay like msi afterburner.

Which are all external sites/software, which you have to use in addition to Steam. And while they are not perfect in Steam, they are working and useful. Compared to Epic's non existent features.

 

[J_C]

But that's just wrong. Steam is a storefront, simple as that. Valve offers a thing called Steamworks. Steamworks is an optional set of tools that developers can use to integrate their games with Steam's features. Part of the Steamworks catalogue is a thing called Steamworks DRM, which, again, just like all Steamworks features, is entirely optional.

See https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features

Conclusion: Steam fully supports DRM-free titles, and there's a couple of them on the Store.

Can you install game without Steam ? No.
GOG provides you installer so even if there is no GOG anymore you will be able to install properly game and play.

That is definition of DRM free.

Go to Steam, right click installed game and select Backup Game files. There, you can save the game, and if it has no DRM from the developer, you can use it later without Steam being online. It is basically the same as having an installer on GOG.

 

[Duraframe300]

Simple Question: Name one thing that Epic does better than Steam for you the customer.

IMO they are on a level with Origin and Uplay, if not worse. Shiling for that shit is among the worst thing you can do as a pc gamer. And I dislike Steam to begin with.

 

[Infinitron]

Proof that Epic store isn't the competition PC game storefronts need, but a fucking leech that tries to gather users by holding games hostage with exclusivity deals.

Competition = you can choose between several stores for the same game (like you can choose between Steam and GoG depending on your preferences).

This isn't competition this is being assholes.

inb4 Realms Beyond Epic exclusivity

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

There are, not denying that. But they are the exception rather than the rule. Here is an example of me trying to launch a copy of Quake I bought off of steam, without having steam running. And it is especially unlikely for any modern games to launch without steam.

That'd be because Bethesda wriggled around in there and got Steam Cloud support for it, presumably. Since the Steam store page for Quake 1 mentions it supports it.

Dunno. But rollback exists to mitigate the problem, although it doesn't solve it. Yes it's shit that you can't disable updates. I don't think the solution is moving to a platform with 90% less features though.

Technically if a developer has previous patches listed on Steam it does kinda solve the problem, because those are frozen in place and if you tell it to stick to that version then you won't update when new versions roll out. Caves of Qud does this because they knock out a new patch every week and it can fuck over saves, so you can park your ass on one version of the game if you don't want to deal with your software being updated.

 

[Dexter]

Option 1: form own opinion based on gameplay videos or Let's Plays.
Option 2: fake and paid reviews by the journalists.

Option 3: get a general idea of what the game is like based on Steam reviews.

I generally tend to go with the first option but I'd much prefer having the third than not. So fuck off with that Codex elitist attitude, every once in a while there's a bunch of good user reviews out there which are definitely more trustworthy than the alternative.

I think I'd put User reviews and Gameplay/Let's Play or similar about on the same Level, only with personal Recommendation/Word of Mouth above it. Not sure why the sudden edge-lordery about it. If a game has Overwhelmingly/Mostly Negative reviews there's usually a good reason for it and it's a reason to skip (it's like the equivalent of movies being rated between 1-4 on IMDb). If it's Mixed that's at least a reason to look closer at other stuff available and read some reviews as to why. It's funny to me how suddenly every hater finds User reviews worthless, while in the Pillars of Eternity, Divinity, Star Control, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Kingdom Come etc. threads every Micropoint shift in the rating was being analysed.

Regarding reviews by "journalists", at this point I don't even bother anymore since I don't really even regularly visit bigger gaming sites anymore.

Why are you arguing niggers? GoG is the best option even with the knee bending,steam is shit while epic is an epic shit!

GoG is run by SJWs, they have community representatives on RetardEra and ban people for posting anything "offensive". They're also a lot more strict with what they let on their platform and didn't even let games like Hatred on their Store since they didn't want to invite "controversy", even though they were fellow Poles with the media against them, while Gabe in the end did the right thing. They've also directly sold out their userbase and own employees several times over SJW bullshit on Twatter. Why the fuck would I spend any more of my money there?

Go to Steam, right click installed game and select Backup Game files. There, you can save the game, and if it has no DRM from the developer, you can use it later without Steam being online. It is basically the same as having an installer on GOG.

You don't even have to do any of that. Just install any DRM Free game and you can start it from the Installation folder, you can also move it around or zip it or whatever and start it later.

 

[Paul_cz]

That sounds so great. So customer. Much friendly. Wicked tongues would say it's just smarmy corporate speak and it's easy to be magnanimous when there's noone to fight against. But that's just mean.

Now calm down already ok? Let's give it a time. I suspect in a while we'll see how strong Valve's commitment to NEVER EVER pay for exclusives is, now that it actually makes a business sense.

Jesus christ you so edgy

Them not paying for exclusives was a GOOD thing, and it is not their fault nobody could provide a service as good as them. Epic certainly fucking doesn't, the only thing they do is bribe left and right to prop up their piece of shit store.

Seriously as a PC gamer, every game being restricted to a single store due to bribed for exclusivity is the last thing you should want.

 

[SpoilVictor]

While I agree that Steam needs nudge in the right direction, I'm not sure that, what Epic is doing will do the job. In the end it will probably result in exclusivity wars, both Valve and Steam snatching games for themselves. So pro-choice. Maybe Valve will be forced to actually start making games, but who cares anyway. Also not every game Steam lost is bad for them: when Fallout 76 fiasco hit I bet guys at Valve were dying from laughter that it's not their shit to clean.

What Steam got right (from their perspective) was turning Steam into quasi-social thing with all that crap like badges, levels, custom profiles. All features that one might use if retarded. But that helped to bind customers to brand and hold them by the balls.

Epic on the other hand started with bare-bones offering (if you consider all that shit "features" Steam have necessary to sway customers), poor support (from what I've heard), secured few smaller games and now Metro, what already caused backlash and bad blood in gamers community.

Other question is if Metro is a big game? Is it really? I don't have any numbers for the series so I don't know. EA could pull it off and back out of Steam 'cause it's EA. FIFA, Sims or BF are juggernauts and ppl will go wherever those games go. Ubisoft on the other hand made uPlay (why not try to cut middleman) but still apparently didn't consider their franchises strong enough to abandon Steam. But for some reason DeerpSilver did. I really would like to know how much chink dollars were on table.

 

[Cross]

If they're willing to pay for no name indies from the nichest of niche genres, that means potentially any upcoming game can turn out to be an Epic exclusive.

It's extremely likely the exclusivity deal with Epic restricts developers from speaking out about sales figures, so we probably won't know for a long time if it pays off for them.

 

[Dexter]

Valve should do the same with In The Valley of Gods, leave it to be multiplatform for PS4, XBox One, Switch, Epic Store, Windows Store, than one week before release take it down from all stores except Steam, it would be amazing to see.

Nobody cares about "In The Valley of Gods", remember it's not a Valve game, but made by those hacks at Campo Santo.

This will most likely resolve itself within 1-2 years when the first results and comparisons of business numbers are in, the giddiness and "hype" of "NEW STORE" has gone down and Epic can't perpetually throw out Fortnite cash to pay every developer for "Exclusivity" either.

Most likely either of two things will happen:

1) All the devs giddy to "try something new" get their business numbers in and/or compare with their launches on Steam and will most likely discover that it might not be worth it. What Epic is trying to do, is the equivalent of some new well-funded Online Store trying to take on Amazon. They might get some nice "Exclusive" products and try to entice people, but the other Store has all the user-base, payment info, convenience and product one could ever want, it'll be an extremely tough endeavor: https://steamcharts.com/

2) Once they get a tidy library of games above 200-300 they'll run into the same problems Steam has with curation and they will become even less attractive for developers hoping to ride the early PR wave and attention this might give them. It's one thing to be featured on the front page of the new, shiny "Epic Games Store" while there's like 10-20 games being sold, but as people have noted they don't even have a Search or Sort feature yet, let alone anything similar to Steam Genres and Tags: https://www.epicgames.com/

 

[Paul_cz]

What Steam got right (from their perspective) was turning Steam into quasi-social thing with all that crap like badges, levels, custom profiles. All features that one might use if retarded. But that helped to bind customers to brand and hold them by the balls.

Pretending these are the only features Steam has is very disengenious. Steam has actually valuable features, like free basic online features including matchmaking servers etc., free cloud hosting for unlimited save games, free cloud screenshot hosting, free mod hosting, no-questions-asked automated refunds, steam input, proton etc.

 

[unfairlight]

Go to Steam, right click installed game and select Backup Game files. There, you can save the game, and if it has no DRM from the developer, you can use it later without Steam being online. It is basically the same as having an installer on GOG.

You can also use various Steam emulators to avoid using Steam to launch games that do use Steamworks.

Just install any DRM Free game and you can start it from the Installation folder, you can also move it around or zip it or whatever and start it later.

Not always, with a lot of them you have to delete steam related .dll files to launch the game.

 

[SpoilVictor]

Pretending these are the only features Steam has is very disengenious. Steam has actually valuable features, like free basic online features including matchmaking servers etc., free cloud hosting for unlimited save games, free cloud screenshot hosting, free mod hosting, no-questions-asked automated refunds, steam input, proton etc.

Yep, my bad. I got focused on all that meta-game, external gratification shit. Maybe it isn't best accneted in my post, but I don't see Steam as evil, scourge of PC gaming, monopoly or any other kind of tyrant. Yes, they grew fat and lazy, overconfident too, and it is about time for someone to slap them and wake up.

 

[Paul_cz]

about time for someone to slap them and wake up.

I mean, steam is still most feature packed, customer-oriented shop/platform on the market. Even that said there are certainly things that could be better and competitors could capitalize on.
Too bad Epic just decided to wave the fortnite moneybags around instead of offering anything meaningful to customers other than forced exclusivities.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

free mod hosting

It's actually a little bit snazzier than that since it automatically downloads updates to your subscribed mods, which depending on the mod can be really useful. Of course there's also the potential cvv argument of "I liked an older version of a mod and the modder made it worse and now Gaben is literally mod-raping me" but more often than not I'd rather have the latest version of shit, and having Steam automatically scooping updates is a lot easier than going through a long list of Rimworld mods to see what got updated manually for example.

 

[Perkel]

Pretending these are the only features Steam has is very disengenious. Steam has actually valuable features, like:
- free basic online features including matchmaking servers etc.,
- free cloud hosting for unlimited save games,
- free cloud screenshot hosting,
- free mod hosting,
- no-questions-asked automated refunds,
- steam input,
- etc

- welcome to 98 ? You do undestand that games outside of steam have free online ? Or this is some kind of retarded argumet that consoles have paid online and PC gamers should be happy they have it for free ?
- Your 8MB memory card probably is sweating bullets if this is actual argument for you.
- screenshot hosting lol nigga please
- free mod hosting lol. Look at internet nigga. Everyone of them is free. And unlike Steam workshop they can host big files, multiple versions of each mod and shitload of other things people need.
- for a few times before you get message that they won't honor refund anymore. Only shop that has true no question asked policy is gog. Also Steam refund is not automated mate. You need to write message to support and get response back from support. It is fast though faster than gog at least.
- they literally switched off support of pads for games and programs outside of steam a year or so ago, so unless you are retarded you should either use win10 build in xbox drivers or ds4windows.
- etc indeed.

 

[Sentinel]

- they literally switched off support of pads for games and programs outside of steam a year or so ago, so unless you are retarded you should either use win10 build in xbox drivers or ds4windows.

what?

 

[Perkel]

- they literally switched off support of pads for games and programs outside of steam a year or so ago, so unless you are retarded you should either use win10 build in xbox drivers or ds4windows.

what?

Previously you could use ps4 pad via steam drivers for any game (not just steam)
They switched off that function like a year ago.
I know because i spend like few days fighting with steam to get emulators working with ps4 pad via steam drivers.

 

[Night Goat]

So more Epic exclusives: Metro: Exdous which brings all the rage, and now Operencia: The Stolen Sun, a turn-based dungeon crawler even. What's next? Owlcat's next game and Kingdom Come 2 go Epic? Larian's next game? (Though it looks like their publishing director is not fond of this kind of thing.)

And That's A Good Thing.

It was only a matter of time before studios started getting the idea to make their games Epic-store exclusive - after all, they get to keep more of the profit, and you don't have those pesky refund policies and user reviews getting in the way of customers blowing money on bad games. And if someone putting out games that anyone really cared about decided to do that - say, Capcom - Steam could be in trouble. But these are not games that have legions of diehard fans who will willingly switch platforms for them. Metro is something you might pick up when it's on sale and you have nothing else to play, and Operencia - it's fucking nothing. I'm not gonna mention it again because it's so utterly insignificant. So Metro will bomb because all those people who would have (eventually) bought it are gonna pirate it or just not play it instead, and then in the future when suitists who are selling something people might really be interested in consider ddoing the same thing they'll have second thoughts.

 

[Duraframe300]

 

[Agame]

And That's A Good Thing.

It sure is, I hope this Epic Games platform is a glorious crash and burn so we have less of this BS in the future. Its a little sad Metro has to be the one to take the bullet as I still have fond memories of the first game. But the new game looks shit anyway so let it be DOA along with all the other crap they push on here. The only way people learn is through pain and suffering.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

I wonder if there are legal restrictions on the cash companies get from Epic for exclusive deals. Say a company decides to take the cash injection for 1 year then turns around and invests that into making a new game, can they sell that game on steam or will it have strings attached to be epic exclusive. Make game, get hype, cash in on epic, make sequel, sell on steam

 

[Alienman]

I have a feeling the current spending by EPIC is fast and loose, and the one year thing is the only real string attached.

 

[J_C]

Pretending these are the only features Steam has is very disengenious. Steam has actually valuable features, like:
- free basic online features including matchmaking servers etc.,
- free cloud hosting for unlimited save games,
- free cloud screenshot hosting,
- free mod hosting,
- no-questions-asked automated refunds,
- steam input,
- etc

- welcome to 98 ? You do undestand that games outside of steam have free online ? Or this is some kind of retarded argumet that consoles have paid online and PC gamers should be happy they have it for free ?
- Your 8MB memory card probably is sweating bullets if this is actual argument for you.
- screenshot hosting lol nigga please
- free mod hosting lol. Look at internet nigga. Everyone of them is free. And unlike Steam workshop they can host big files, multiple versions of each mod and shitload of other things people need.
- for a few times before you get message that they won't honor refund anymore. Only shop that has true no question asked policy is gog. Also Steam refund is not automated mate. You need to write message to support and get response back from support. It is fast though faster than gog at least.
- they literally switched off support of pads for games and programs outside of steam a year or so ago, so unless you are retarded you should either use win10 build in xbox drivers or ds4windows.
- etc indeed.

Perkel's answer for EVERY argument: "LOL, who cares about that"

It's pretty easy to just sweep off every Steam feature this way, don't you think? It seems you are actually happy that the Epic store hasn't got ANY features which makes gaming a bit more convenient. I hope you will be up in arms if Epic tries to incorporate some of these "useless" features to their store.

 

[LESS T_T]