The Outer Worlds Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Roguey]

This "Epic is a piece of shit" meme needs to die. It's no more a piece of shit than any capitalist cashgrab corporation is a piece of shit and less than some. Steam is the really big steaming stinking pile of shit in the middle of the room. Epic at least gives the devs a fairer slice of the revenue and gives them better deals in other ways as well.

tl;dr anything that chips away at Steam's dominant market position is an improvement

Epic is an utterly terrible store and the only thing it has going for it are Tim Sweeney's crony capitalism exclusives, something Steam never did to other online stores (they didn't need to; they became a monopoly by being the best store).

 

[Quillon]

they didn't need to; they became a monopoly by being the only store

fix'd

 

[jewboy]

The voices in my head force me to pirate all my games, but what is so bad about Epic compared to Steam? Is the DRM worse?

 

[Roguey]

fix'd

For a bit, yeah, but Direct2Drive launched in 2004 and Gamersgate in 2006.

 

[Zombra]

If only there were already a thread about the Epic Store.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If only there were already a thread about the Epic Store.

Being exclusive to a chinese botnet platform is an important aspect of the game worth discussing in its own thread.

 

[Quillon]

fix'd

For a bit, yeah, but Direct2Drive launched in 2004 and Gamersgate in 2006.

I barely remember D2D and gamersgate not at all. Steam really must have shown great resilience not to use questionable practices against these giant competitors, hats off to Gaben, our lord and savior!

 

[Nano]

Fun fact: Valve got a lot of hate back in the day for making Half-Life 2 exclusive to Steam. HL2 is also a big reason for why Steam is the dominant store.

 

[Infinitron]

Fun fact: Valve got a lot of hate back in the day for making Half-Life 2 exclusive to Steam. HL2 is also a big reason for why Steam is the dominant store.

What really solidified Steam's dominance is the insane sales they started doing starting from around 2010. Faced with $5 game after $5 game, an entire generation of hardcore, oldschool "What do you mean, there's no box and manual?" PC gamers said goodbye to their CD drives forever and never looked back. (The few who missed the memo like jewboy here find the whole Epic vs Steam thing a bit incomprehensible)

Which brings us back to the original topic. As soon as it sinks in that Microsoft is offering games for $5 a month, you might see that sort of generational shift again.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

If only there were already a thread about the Epic Store.

Being exclusive to a chinese botnet platform is an important aspect of the game worth discussing in its own thread.

Not when the "exclusive" isn't actually exclusive. Microsoft Store is a option , gamepass is a thing nd that already make any Pirate argument invalid because you dont even need buy the game..

We really dont need more discussion about Epic games bullshit that dont exist in other places.

 

[Nano]

$5 games are much worse than piracy for developers.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Things like gamepass aren't comparable. Outside of a handful of titles(mostly ones published by Microsoft themselves), there will be very few games that are day one releases. It's basically shaping up to be a way to have access to a large amount of games that are more than a couple years old that you otherwise would have never played.

If only there were already a thread about the Epic Store.

Being exclusive to a chinese botnet platform is an important aspect of the game worth discussing in its own thread.

Not when the "exclusive" isn't actually exclusive. Microsoft Store exist and gamepass is a thing. We really dont need more discussion about Epic games bullshit that dont exist in other places.

Windows is also a botnet platform

 

[FeelTheRads]

$5 games are much worse than piracy for developers.

No waaaaaaay. But muh 75% steams sales and buying keys at 90% off from key stores. How can I save PC gaming if I'm not buying games for $3.
Certainly buying all games for pocket change is good for the customers and why we're getting better and better games and no awful things such as always online DRM and microtransactions.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

$5 games are much worse than piracy for developers.

No waaaaaaay. But muh 75% steams sales and buying keys at 90% off from key stores. How can I save PC gaming if I'm not buying games for $3.
Certainly buying all games for pocket change is good for the customers and why we're getting better and better games and no awful things such as always online DRM and microtransactions.

Can you provide some evidence of a correlation between higher funding and better quality games?

 

[Prime Junta]

Can you provide some evidence of a correlation between higher funding and better quality games?

Tough call.

I think it is possible to demonstrate a correlation between funding and any games at all however.

Edit: more seriously though, I think games as a subscription might actually be better for developers, especially indie/B-tier ones. As I mentioned I went and plonked 4 bucks for 3 months of the M$ service. Then I proceeded to download and try out a game I had been a bit curious about but nowhere near so much I'd have bought it at full price. I played it for a few hours up to the point it was clear what it's all about and that it's really not my thang, then uninstalled.

It was interesting, I appreciate what the game was trying to do, and I was left feeling pretty good about the experience even if I don't intend to ever finish it. If I had bought it I would've been a bit pissed off; I have a couple in my Steam library like that. And I think the devs got a few pennies from that since they scored a download.

If this is at all like some subscribers behave, it ought to level the playing field. It makes it easier to just try something out, which means that non-AAA games ought to be getting more attention. At the current price level my yearly subscription -- once the launch discount passes -- is about 44 euros, which is less than the price of one major game. It's a good deal, and it just might be a better deal for studios making the kinds of games RPG Codex is supposed to root for.

 

[Danikas]

$5 games are much worse than piracy for developers.

No waaaaaaay. But muh 75% steams sales and buying keys at 90% off from key stores. How can I save PC gaming if I'm not buying games for $3.
Certainly buying all games for pocket change is good for the customers and why we're getting better and better games and no awful things such as always online DRM and microtransactions.

Most of the games in Codex top 50s were done by small teams with very small budgets compared to present AAA games.

 

[AwesomeButton]

$5 games are much worse than piracy for developers.

Not if they've been already paid for.

In my view, Epic and Obsidian have made their deal, between themselves, in their mutual interest, not being concerned with the actual customers' interest at all. If that's the way we are playing, I am in a position to pursue my interest just as well as, if not more efficiently than, they are able to pursue theirs.

I've paid and paid gladly whenever I've seen value, and I will continue to. But this case of TOW just stinks.

P.S. Sure, as many people, I've bought and supported games which I've later regretted having supported, but that's part of life. It wasn't a decision forced on me by anyone.

 

[Infinitron]

AwesomeButton I'm fairly certain that The Outer Worlds wouldn't have launched on GOG even if Epic had never entered the picture, though (you said GOG or Piratebay).

 

[Prime Junta]

I've paid and paid gladly whenever I've seen value, and I will continue to. But this case of TOW just stinks.

If you're concerned about value I really don't get it, what with the XBox Live beta and all. It's practically free.

 

[AwesomeButton]

AwesomeButton It's extremely likely that The Outer Worlds wouldn't have launched on GOG even if Epic had never entered the picture, though (you said GOG or Piratebay).

Yes, I remember there was never word of a GOG release, even before the exclusivity deal. However, it would have been a first for Obsidian, when you come to think of it, so I don't think it was very likely.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I've paid and paid gladly whenever I've seen value, and I will continue to. But this case of TOW just stinks.

If you're concerned about value I really don't get it, what with the XBox Live beta and all. It's practically free.

That's exactly what I meant when I said above that instead of creating yet another account just for one single game that comes for free with the account, I'd rather pirate the game and donate the $5 to someone. The scale is such that this would not make any tangible difference to Microsoft or Obsidian.

 

[Doktor Best]

My god boys, pirate the game or throw down 5 bucks. Play it. Dont play it.


Nobody gives a shit. Really. I promise.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Fun fact: Valve got a lot of hate back in the day for making Half-Life 2 exclusive to Steam. HL2 is also a big reason for why Steam is the dominant store.

What really solidified Steam's dominance is the insane sales they started doing starting from around 2010. Faced with $5 game after $5 game, a whole generation of hardcore, oldschool "What do you mean, there's no box and manual?" PC gamers said goodbye to their CD drives forever and never looked back. (The few who missed the memo like jewboy here find the whole Epic vs Steam thing a bit incomprehensible)

Which brings us back to the original topic. As soon as it sinks in that Microsoft is offering games for $5 a month, you might see that sort of generational shift again.

5$ a month is waaaay different than 5$ for a game. You are at the mercy of Microsoft to offer the games you want to play.

 

[Prime Junta]

That's exactly what I meant when I said above that instead of creating yet another account just for one single game that comes for free with the account, I'd rather pirate the game and donate the $5 to someone. The scale is such that this would not make any tangible difference to Microsoft or Obsidian.

Ah OK sure, yeah it's somewhat annoying to set up the account and install the client and what have you.

(Man you're spoiled though, whining about shit like this. Back in the day we had to write our own GPU drivers. In ink. That we prepared from the blood of our firstborn.)

Thing is, it's not the only potentially interesting game in there. There's close on a dozen in the "hmm interesting" category there.

https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-game-pass-pc-list

 

[Yosharian]

My god boys, pirate the game or throw down 5 bucks. Play it. Dont play it.


Nobody gives a shit. Really. I promise.

And yet you're posting about it