V_K
Arcane
The way I see it, the complaints are just stupidly worded. The legal issue here is not the change of platform, but rather the refusal of refunds.
I don't like how backing a game became synonymous to "pre-ordering". It never should have been. On the other hand, I would prefer developers giving projects for free. The initial asking price would have been bigger, but at least it would be seen as a proper patronage rather than a several years long pre-order.Lower percentage FROM WHAT? It's crowdfunded game. People already "bought" it for full price and more on kickstarter. Without steam cut.
If the game was already "bought", why Epic gives a shit if backers got their game via Steam?
"Watching Valve let", "Valve is allowing".
How is Valve even involved here?
The game isn't even on their platform yet
Quite a few Epic Store 'exclusives' are surprisingly coming to the Microsoft Store
Exclusive may mostly mean 'not on Steam.'
Buried in the deluge of E3 news this week was a story that caught my eye: Metro Exodus is available to buy on the Microsoft Store. Wait—the same Metro Exodus that became an Epic Store exclusive earlier this year, shortly before it was released?
Metro Exodus isn't alone. There are actually quite a few Epic exclusives either already on the Microsoft Store or coming to the store in the future. "Exclusive" may have less to do with only being available through Epic's launcher, and more to do with not being available on Steam, obviously Epic's biggest competitor.
Currently, Metro Exodus and Operencia: The Stolen Sun are available to buy from the Microsoft Store (Operencia's actually been there since April), and both are available in the Xbox Game Pass for PC. And their exclusivity windows definitely haven't run out: Operencia actually has a Steam page, with a release date of 2020 listed. You can also pre-order The Outer Worlds.
Another Epic exclusive, Afterparty, is coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Julian Gollop's Phoenix Point will be available for both the Microsoft Store and Game Pass in September. If these other games are an indication, I'm guessing Afterparty will be on the MS Store proper, too.
Finding these games is a bit confusing. I first looked for them in the new Xbox beta app, which serves as an interface for Game Pass and also a new, game-focused skin for the Microsoft Store. It's the same store underneath, but without all the random apps and movies and stuff mixed in. But when I searched for Metro Exodus, it at first insisted I had to have the Xbox Game Pass to buy it. Later, that button mysteriously changed to a simple "Buy."
These games may only be on the Microsoft Store because they're a part of Game Pass, but the fact remains you can buy them separately. It's an alternative to purchasing them from the Epic Store—though maybe not a great one, as reviews on Metro Exodus point to some crashing issues. Microsoft recently said it's opening up its Windows store to support Win32 games, rather than just UWP. But both Operencia and Metro are UWP games.
Another possible explanation is that Epic simply doesn't consider the Microsoft Store much competition, and considering it's reviled as much or more than Epic's launcher, that's probably fair. But it just goes to show that in the 2019 PC store wars, nothing is staying the same for very long.
Steam is not about to remove the ability for devs to put up a page before a game is released. That'd be bad for the store.
They can't say, "if you're going to go with an Epic exclusive, you can't put a page up", Steam can't know in advance and enforce it. They also can't close pages when the exclusive is announced, because that would hurt their community waiting for the game on Steam, and hamper a future release on their platform.
The same can be said for forums. Sure, others use Steam to exploit advertising and outsource their community, but if Steam removes those features for the games that go exclusive after the page is up and the forums have activity, then it's Steam users getting shafted by Steam. Steam can't block Epic / devs from fucking users, but it would be really bad if Steam started to take action that hurt its own users directly. It is morally better to suffer harm / not act to prevent it than to commit it directly.
Anyways, for Steam, users coming to Steam for the Epic games ads or for their forums means those users are Steam users first. It's also free PR when Epic users must come to Steam for support. Plus, Steam has the moral high ground doing nothing.
I don't forsee at thing changing in how Steam deals with this.
It'd set a way worse precedent for Steam if they went on the offensive and started taking down pages that their users use.this still sets a poor precedent for Steam
No one is suggesting that they need to take down their store pages.It'd set a way worse precedent for Steam if it went on the offensive and started taking down pages that their users use.this still sets a poor precedent for Steam
Steam's reaction to Epic's tactics can in no way harm their users, otherwise they'd be just like Epic, but worse in the eyes of some vocal people, being in the "dominant oppressor" position.
PHANTOM BRIGADE TO LAUNCH AS EARLY ACCESS ON THE EPIC GAMES STORE
Today we’re announcing that our upcoming title Phantom Brigade will launch as Early Access first on the Epic Games Store.
As with our previous announcement for Industries of Titan, Phantom Brigade will be on the Epic Store for one year as Early Access. After that, we’ll launch a full 1.0 release on both the Epic Games Store and Steam.
Launching this way with two stages gives us the opportunity to spend more time perfecting the details of the game, and making sure that we can do the full launch with the strongest product possible. We really love how Phantom Brigade is looking right now, and we can’t wait to show you more in the coming months. And if you’re excited to see it, don’t worry! We’ll have a new game play video for you in the coming days.
Keep an eye on the Brace Yourself Games & Phantom Brigade Twitter accounts for more updates and release info in the future!
Great. Early access with zero infrastructure in place for the players to report bugs. Genius!
Chad JenkinsLast Monday at 10:55 PM
I wouldn't say you gain nothing from it. There's plenty of games that simply wouldn't be financially viable, or made without EGS backing them.
Chad JenkinsLast Monday at 10:56 PM
The other thing, is that a lot of publishing deals have some really serious restrictions, you don't get money for "free". They tend to want some control of the project to protect their investment.
Chad JenkinsLast Monday at 10:57 PM
In this case, they're not exerting any control over the project. Or making any demands on it.
Chad JenkinsYesterday at 9:00 PM
The big difference here, is that Epic is giving a deal that's much closer to the margins and what you could optimally get if you self published.
Other storefronts are very much take it or leave it. You've got no real room to negotiate unless you're someone like EA.
Then if you go into things like traditional publishing, they exert control over your project. They'll dictate things to you for example, and maybe even make you ship before you're ready.
Chad JenkinsYesterday at 9:11 PM
Anywho, the main point here, is they compete where the competitor is weakest. Until they can get a foothold
They're using their Fortnite windfall to give developers an amazing deal
Be on our store exclusively for a year, is all their asking.
Chad JenkinsYesterday at 9:13 PM
Then there's guarantees, payback, and high cuts
This stuff happens behind the scenes all the time, it's just well, public with EGS.
I hope that storefronts will start competing on quality, content and how well they treat developers. If you're not happy with their business practices, by all means tell them, don't use their store. Let them know they need to compete on that axis too to get your business.
They won't be able to throw money at folks forever
Oh God, i hope this happens, and this reminds me that i should check the road map to see if Epic is planning to make forums for games or not, i mean, they already said they won't allow for reviews which is another great way of warning people if an Early Acess game is really bad, but i am now curious if they will go as far as not having forums as well.Great. Early access with zero infrastructure in place for the players to report bugs. Genius!
It'll be hilarious if the developers outright tell them to just use the Steam forums.
The retards think selling overpriced and underpowered hardware means they "deserve" their cut.strange how "people" on twitter saying shit like "STEAM SHOULD LOWER THEIR PERCENTAGE" never mention Xbox or Sony, which has the same percentage.