Poll: EA Origin PC Client and Others

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Epic recently made some comments that make my regular apathy turn to disfavor. I don't care for companies trying to earn virtue points from the puritans by putting out there that they don't allow porn games.


Hopefully nothing I'm interested in will be exclusive there. Like they said, the pc platform is a free one so we can get stuff elsewhere, I plan to.

 

[Mad World]

Let's be real though- to make a competitor to Steam and be anything less than ruthlessly aggressive, is already admitting defeat to steam. Epic's probably found the only way possible to really shake it up, such is the iron grip Steam holds over game distribution at the moment.

It can be done. Instead of being dicks and forcing consumers to use their platform if they want to play certain games, they can give them incentive - make them want to use it. Steam is known for selfishly taking a very high cut of sales that come from games that are sold on the platform. If Epic can significantly undercut the competition, publishers will go with them.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Ubisoft didn't stop selling games on Steam when they made Uplay. You can use Uplay on all devices. Origin is why the Mass Effect, Dead Space and Dragon Age series, among others are left unfinished on Steam.

And Metro now. Lol. Stupid Epic store.

Except, ME,DS and DA belong to EA.

Developers are explicitly choosing Epic.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Let's be real though- to make a competitor to Steam and be anything less than ruthlessly aggressive, is already admitting defeat to steam. Epic's probably found the only way possible to really shake it up, such is the iron grip Steam holds over game distribution at the moment.

It can be done. Instead of being dicks and forcing consumers to use their platform if they want to play certain games, they can give them incentive - make them want to use it. Steam is known for selfishly taking a very high cut of sales that come from games that are sold on the platform. If Epic can significantly undercut the competition, publishers will go with them.

That's exactly what EPIC is doing and why developpers/publishers are siding with them.

Where have you been? Steam takes 30% and Epic 12%. The problem is,epic store is barebones atm.

 

[Trunkage]

Epic recently made some comments that make my regular apathy turn to disfavor. I don't care for companies trying to earn virtue points from the puritans by putting out there that they don't allow porn games.


Hopefully nothing I'm interested in will be exclusive there. Like they said, the pc platform is a free one so we can get stuff elsewhere, I plan to.

Can anyone pinpoint to me when this shift happened?

Most people were anti-shitware a la Digital Homicide but a few years later crap porn games are 'fReE sPeeCh'.

Companies generally don't want to be attached clusterfrags. Why would they want a game that is bad and had porn in it?

Also, as a parent, I do want a platform that is more appropriate for young kids. There may be a market desire for one of these platforms to be kid friendly

 

[Squilookle]

Let's be real though- to make a competitor to Steam and be anything less than ruthlessly aggressive, is already admitting defeat to steam. Epic's probably found the only way possible to really shake it up, such is the iron grip Steam holds over game distribution at the moment.

It can be done. Instead of being dicks and forcing consumers to use their platform if they want to play certain games, they can give them incentive - make them want to use it. Steam is known for selfishly taking a very high cut of sales that come from games that are sold on the platform. If Epic can significantly undercut the competition, publishers will go with them.

That's fine for attracting developers to your platform, but it does absolutely nothing to bring in new customers. At this stage if something is available on Steam, lazy idiots just get it there even if there are better deals for the game on GOG or Origin etc. If you want customers to sit up and notice you, you pretty much have to go Epic's route. There's really no other way.

 

[gorfias]

The fewer clients I have to install to run games, the better. The fact that so many games need a stupid client now to play in the first place is pretty pathetic.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Epic recently made some comments that make my regular apathy turn to disfavor. I don't care for companies trying to earn virtue points from the puritans by putting out there that they don't allow porn games.


Hopefully nothing I'm interested in will be exclusive there. Like they said, the pc platform is a free one so we can get stuff elsewhere, I plan to.

Can anyone pinpoint to me when this shift happened?

Most people were anti-shitware a la Digital Homicide but a few years later crap porn games are 'fReE sPeeCh'.

Companies generally don't want to be attached clusterfrags. Why would they want a game that is bad and had porn in it?

Also, as a parent, I do want a platform that is more appropriate for young kids. There may be a market desire for one of these platforms to be kid friendly

The head of epic made some comments recently.

It wasn't about games that were bad AND had porn in them. The two were separate issues.

He was saying something along the lines of "we will use human judgement to only allow what we deem as good games on the platform, also not porn games".

Basically even if the porn game was good, it'd still be disallowed, and this was put out as though it's a virtue and not hilariously repressed and regressive.


If you're a parent, it's your job to ensure your kids have access to age-appropriate entertainment. Everyone else shouldn't have to limit themselves just so that your kids will be 0.000001% less likely to encounter some bad polygons. I'm sure you won't uninstall steam because it does have porn too.

 

[votemarvel]

Forgive me but having the mindset of 'Steam or no sale' is the same as a console fanboy mindset.

It's not the same. For example, Epic Games is coming in last minute and taking games away that were initially planned for Steam, GOG, etc. Metro Exodus, for example, was simply a matter of greed. You can tell that is is because it was a last-minute decision. A good game would be available on ALL digital platforms. I can absolutely see why some people don't want to buy games on multiple platforms; ease of access (from one platform), superior features of one's current platform, and greed on the part of publishers changing their mind last minute are all very legitimate reasons with respect to why someone would not want to buy a game that's on another digital distributor.

However, if someone wants to actually make a better digital platform without obtaining titles via greed, I'm all for it. I'm by no means a Steam fanboy; I think that Gabe is kind of a **** for not giving us our promised/deserved Half-Life 3, and for taking a huge cut of game sales on Steam. However, going about it the way that some are (Epic Games, for example) is just plain wrong.

I completely agree that selling a game, well the pre-orders, and later making it a Epic exclusive is a shabby move. Whether that be Metro Exodus or The Final Season of the Walking Dead.

However the Steam or no sale mindset is exactly the same as the console fanboy mindset. They both refuse to look outside of that specific platform to purchase their games.

Is Steam currently the most feature rich DRM on the market? Yes it is indeed, which is why I add my purchases from other stores to it when I know I am going to be grabbing a lot of screenshots.

In the end why choose a gaming platform where its greatest strength is its versatility and then give yourself an artificial limit? Valve isn't a consumer champion, they aren't your friend, they will screw you over just as happily as EA, Ubisoft, Sony, or Microsoft will do.

 

[wings012]

Not to take it further off topic, but that?s exactly why I?m not as big a fan of digital purchases as many of you. Call me old fashioned, but the convenience of digital is far outweighed by the myriad ways in which we can be suddenly reminded that we don?t necessarily own the games we buy. I always said, as long as I?ve a functioning console and the disc in hand, I can play any game I ever purchased, whereas digital is dependent upon some faceless entity not losing my records of purchase and/or even being in existence a decade or two from now if I want to play my older games

But the thing is about physical purchases nowadays is that they aren't actually physical purchases in many cases. Many physical purchase games require online registration/verification and sometimes the data isn't even on the disc so you need a download. Heck with the size of games nowadays I don't think you can games on discs anymore short of dual-layered BDs. I haven't owned a console in ages so I can't really speak for those, but the last time I bought a physical PC game was Deus Ex Human Revolution and it required Steam activation anyway.

The physical games of yesteryear just don't really exist anymore, so might as well just go digital. Going physical in this day and age just results in having to wait longer for a box and disc that don't do anything and you're still dependent on faceless entities.

 

[Mad World]

That's exactly what EPIC is doing and why developpers/publishers are siding with them.

Where have you been? Steam takes 30% and Epic 12%. The problem is,epic store is barebones atm.

I'll elaborate on what I meant. Epic should improve upon their service and give consumers a reason to use their client. Yes - they're undercutting Steam, and that's good. However, they need to improve upon the actual client (for example: adding features).

That's fine for attracting developers to your platform, but it does absolutely nothing to bring in new customers. At this stage if something is available on Steam, lazy idiots just get it there even if there are better deals for the game on GOG or Origin etc. If you want customers to sit up and notice you, you pretty much have to go Epic's route. There's really no other way.

No - it's not the only way. Epic needs to make a good client that has more features than Steam. For example, Steam doesn't allow you to pick any number when limiting your download speed; it stupidly restricts you to specific amounts that it has preset. That's something that Epic could add.

I completely agree that selling a game, well the pre-orders, and later making it a Epic exclusive is a shabby move. Whether that be Metro Exodus or The Final Season of the Walking Dead.

However the Steam or no sale mindset is exactly the same as the console fanboy mindset. They both refuse to look outside of that specific platform to purchase their games.

Is Steam currently the most feature rich DRM on the market? Yes it is indeed, which is why I add my purchases from other stores to it when I know I am going to be grabbing a lot of screenshots.

In the end why choose a gaming platform where its greatest strength is its versatility and then give yourself an artificial limit? Valve isn't a consumer champion, they aren't your friend, they will screw you over just as happily as EA, Ubisoft, Sony, or Microsoft will do.

It's not the same as the fanboy mindset. Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move, so I am glad that at least some people possess the restraint to say, "No - screw you guys; we're not buying your game."

Also, it's not crazy to think that people want to keep all of their games on one platform for simplicity's sake.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move,...

Deep Silver pulled the move, not Epic. Epic dangled the hook, but Deep Silver took the bait.

 

[Mad World]

Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move,...

Deep Silver pulled the move, not Epic. Epic dangled the hook, but Deep Silver took the bait.

You mean that Deep Silver approached Epic? If so, I'll look into that.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move,...

Deep Silver pulled the move, not Epic. Epic dangled the hook, but Deep Silver took the bait.

You mean that Deep Silver approached Epic? If so, I'll look into that.

Not so much about who approached whom. But Metro Exodus is exclusive because Deep Silver chose to make it exclusive. It's their game, they pulled it from Steam. Epic offered them financial incentive sure, but Epic didn't make the game exclusive, Deep Silver did.

 

[Mad World]

Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move,...

Deep Silver pulled the move, not Epic. Epic dangled the hook, but Deep Silver took the bait.

You mean that Deep Silver approached Epic? If so, I'll look into that.

Not so much about who approached whom. But Metro Exodus is exclusive because Deep Silver chose to make it exclusive. It's their game, they pulled it from Steam. Epic offered them financial incentive sure, but Epic didn't make the game exclusive, Deep Silver did.

Well, of course Deep Silver did; they're the publishers. I blame both. Epic Games, I'm sure, went out of their way to contact Deep Silver and propose the idea. Deep Silver, with those dollar signs in their eyes, were happy to oblige.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So...this isn't a great look for Origin:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/16/ea-origin-bug-exposed-hackers/

 

[votemarvel]

It's not the same as the fanboy mindset. Not in this case, anyway (or in the case of Metro Exodus); it's the principle of the matter. Epic pulled a scummy, selfish move, so I am glad that at least some people possess the restraint to say, "No - screw you guys; we're not buying your game."

Also, it's not crazy to think that people want to keep all of their games on one platform for simplicity's sake.

It's exactly a fanboy mindset. They refuse to see fault in something or when they do acknowledge it the old chestnut of "It doesn't affect me so I don't care" that comes out to play.

Steam fanboys refuse to buy some games for no other reason that it isn't on Steam. People have a valid reason for not wanting to use the Epic Store launcher as it isn't fit for purpose at the moment. As I've mentioned elsewhere I know someone who refuses to get Mass Effect 3 on PC, and he's a massive 'fanboy' of the franchise, for no other reason he can't buy it on Steam.

Of course it isn't crazy to want to keep things organised but by only being willing to buy games from one store, you are blocking one of the reasons to be gaming on a PC in the first place.