Yay...?(!) (Outer Worlds 12 months exclusive to Epic... and Windows...)

[Worgen]

You must be buying a lot of shit games to have your steam store be such a sewage fountain. I mean I don't see any of that crap on my steam store. This is totally worth trying to fuck up the pc gaming experience. Instead of trying to make a better service, epic is doing this in the most underhanded way they can. Fuck epic.

My steam front page is the same recent releases as anyone elses, the problem lies in trying to search for anything and having to wade through 10 pages of knockoffs, asset flips, and imitators. At this point, if a storefront is willing to actually determine what content they are willing to sell by evaluating each title's merits... they are a better storefront better than Steam. And I don't care what tactics Epic uses to try and undermine Steam... at this point Steam has earned it by sheer indifference. They don't care about the customer, I don't care about their success or failure.

I think you might just not be using search right then, I have no trouble finding results. But Im getting more and more pissed at epic, to the point where I think valve should start swinging their dick around and forcing games to be exclusive to them. If epic are going to be douche bags then valve should probably be too.

Minor pount of contention - epic isn't really forcing any of the game makers to go with them, they're BRIBING them with bigger cuts of the sale price. That isn't a bad thing, and neither would valve doing it right back. More money in developer/producer pockets means more games/higher quality/more content for the consumer. And hopefully fewer instances of game programmers subsisting on wheatabix.

There are plenty of reasonable things to hate epic for, but not throwing devs over a barrel (or using a smaller barrel at least) shouldn't be one.

I doubt that, if it was just the higher cut on the epic store then I doubt we would be seeing 1 year exclusivity deals since exclusivity hurts pretty much everyone involved unless they are being paid for that. We are seeing the start of the console wars on pc, anyone who gives into that annoys me so fuck any dev that falls for it. Its one thing if its being made by the owner of the store but just bribing people for exclusives is taking us to a bad place.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Well guess I'm getting it on Windows store then.

EPIC is getting really annoying by constantly pulling shit like this, Valve should make a contract saying once your game is said to be on steam, it's going to be on Steam, no callbacks because this isn't a kindergarten.

 

[Elfgore]

Eh? I already got the Epic Store thanks to Slime Rancher, so no skin off my back. I'll be getting it on launch as planned, same goes for The Sinking City and maybe Control.

 

[sXeth]

Remember when PC gaming didn't have its own 'console wars'?

Uhhh... Windows v Mac vs Linux. One sided as all get go for gaming generally, but definitely there.

Also both Intel v AMD, and Nvidia vs AMD. Never to the point of exclusive software (that I'm aware of. Although I got Far Cry 1 because my nVidia could run it and college buddies whatever flat out couldn't, despite being equivalent cards), but definitely getting major support priorities and bug fixing or exclusive features.

 

[EvilRoy]

You must be buying a lot of shit games to have your steam store be such a sewage fountain. I mean I don't see any of that crap on my steam store. This is totally worth trying to fuck up the pc gaming experience. Instead of trying to make a better service, epic is doing this in the most underhanded way they can. Fuck epic.

My steam front page is the same recent releases as anyone elses, the problem lies in trying to search for anything and having to wade through 10 pages of knockoffs, asset flips, and imitators. At this point, if a storefront is willing to actually determine what content they are willing to sell by evaluating each title's merits... they are a better storefront better than Steam. And I don't care what tactics Epic uses to try and undermine Steam... at this point Steam has earned it by sheer indifference. They don't care about the customer, I don't care about their success or failure.

I think you might just not be using search right then, I have no trouble finding results. But Im getting more and more pissed at epic, to the point where I think valve should start swinging their dick around and forcing games to be exclusive to them. If epic are going to be douche bags then valve should probably be too.

Minor pount of contention - epic isn't really forcing any of the game makers to go with them, they're BRIBING them with bigger cuts of the sale price. That isn't a bad thing, and neither would valve doing it right back. More money in developer/producer pockets means more games/higher quality/more content for the consumer. And hopefully fewer instances of game programmers subsisting on wheatabix.

There are plenty of reasonable things to hate epic for, but not throwing devs over a barrel (or using a smaller barrel at least) shouldn't be one.

I doubt that, if it was just the higher cut on the epic store then I doubt we would be seeing 1 year exclusivity deals since exclusivity hurts pretty much everyone involved unless they are being paid for that. We are seeing the start of the console wars on pc, anyone who gives into that annoys me so fuck any dev that falls for it. Its one thing if its being made by the owner of the store but just bribing people for exclusives is taking us to a bad place.

Well... Yeah. Like I would debate whether this kind of exclusivity really causes much of a problem given the low barrier to entry (signing up for an account vs buying a console - is the reason penguin island shut down really because they forced you to make an account to play?) but without a doubt epic is paying enough to offset potential sales drops, plus more to make it worth their while. Why else would they agree to exclusivity? "Do it or we won't let you ever release on the epic game store" "alright, i guess we'll make due with steam, humble, gmg, gog, maybe talk to blizzard..."

If nintendo said timed exclusive or you'll never see the light of day on the switch, I can see it working because there are only so many home/mobile consoles. Completely losing access to such a large audience is a huge threat. If you said valve threatened to permanently bar a game from steam, thats also a credible threat, since they have such a huge install base. Right now all epic has is money and bad press to their name. Not many options for leverage.

 

[meiam]

Remember when PC gaming didn't have its own 'console wars'?

Uhhh... Windows v Mac vs Linux. One sided as all get go for gaming generally, but definitely there.

Also both Intel v AMD, and Nvidia vs AMD. Never to the point of exclusive software (that I'm aware of. Although I got Far Cry 1 because my nVidia could run it and college buddies whatever flat out couldn't, despite being equivalent cards), but definitely getting major support priorities and bug fixing or exclusive features.

I mean... not really, the most significant exclusive to mac must be something like... I dunno marathon maybe? I don't think there's ever been any significant exclusive for Linux.

 

[sXeth]

Remember when PC gaming didn't have its own 'console wars'?

Uhhh... Windows v Mac vs Linux. One sided as all get go for gaming generally, but definitely there.

Also both Intel v AMD, and Nvidia vs AMD. Never to the point of exclusive software (that I'm aware of. Although I got Far Cry 1 because my nVidia could run it and college buddies whatever flat out couldn't, despite being equivalent cards), but definitely getting major support priorities and bug fixing or exclusive features.

I mean... not really, the most significant exclusive to mac must be something like... I dunno marathon maybe? I don't think there's ever been any significant exclusive for Linux.

You can just google "Mac Exclusive Games", it'll give you a fairly big list just immediately to scroll through, and a wikipedia article.

As to significant? Depends who you ask really. I wouldn't call most Xbox v PSwhatever exclusives significant personally. A lot of tech demos and a shit ton that are basically mirror equivalents of each other make up the bulk of it.


Linux is a tricky one, because there are Linux "exclusive" games. But Linux is open source, and you can run Linux on either of the other two pretty easily as a result. I think its even an automated function in Windows where Microsoft will literally install the Linux emulator or whatever because its open source so they have free access to it.

Other then a few die hard anti-corporation developers, there's also no real incentive to only develop on Linux. Its a niche market, none of the for-profit purveyors of Linux distros are exactly rolling in cash to throw at them, etc. And a lot of general tools you might want to use to create your game are Windows or Mac based themselves, so you end up in that ecosystem anyways.


As Apple goes, if they did start actively pursuing the gaming market, it'd basically be what Steamboxes should've been. Which is one or two spec sets and certifying that X game(s) will run on those hardware. And probably not anything easily modifiable. Which I'm sure they probably could do, but don't seem to have any interest in trying to. I'd guess that a decent chunk of developers might have issues adapting to whatever restrictions or concepts Apple puts out as well, in the same sort of struggles Nintendo's had over the years and probably that would eliminate it as well.


Nvidia is the probably main culprit of course. From having their own console, to throwing money at developers for priority support or showcasing Nvidia only features, and "Made for NVidia" stickers and splashscreens. They might not manage actual exclusivity as of yet, but they sure push that illusion as hard as they can.

 

[Tayh]

I always felt it would be nice if Steam had some healthy competition because, let's be honest, they've become pretty complacent but I was thinking that that competition would mean that something more user friendly with greater quality would come along and not just a platform that hold exclusives hostage. But then, why would anything nice ever happen?

Because if you didn't actively force consumers to use your platform, then you would never be able to steal any users from steam, and your platform would fade into obscurity and die.
So in order to compete with steam, you have to be like steam, and that means platform exclusives.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

So basically, Epic can't truly compete by offering a decent service to gamers, so they have to resort to buying exclusive rights to aggressively force gamers to use their shitty platform. I'd rather buy it on Microsoft's shitty Store than use Epic. In fact, this shit has cemented my decision to never touch their fuckin' Store. I'm actually pretty pissed right now and quite surprised by my own reaction to this news.

So hear me out for a really spicy hot take: I think Epic has realized the important truth about gamers. The truth that we don't really care much for customer service, healthy market place competition or all those other things we like to blab about, because at the end of the day we are really tribal. We stick to the game series we like, the store front we like and the group of people we like and that's more important to us then customer service, healthy market place or whatever.

So Epic has rightly figured out that the best place to get its store running and accrue a player base is to make sure it gets exclusivity on all the new and hot games. Because as players we are much more likely to migrate to Epic Store if the game we really want is exclusive to it then if we heard a bunch of nice stuff about how Epic Store has a great search function or intuitive wishlist.

And in the end we can't fault Epic for making developers some really juicy offers to make their games exclusive. We should be faulting the publishers and developers who says their game will be on Steam (or GoG or Origin) and then retract that statement by going Epic exclusive. Epic is only conducting business in a normal fashion, it is the publishers and developers who are making promises and not keeping them.

 

[Saelune]

And in the end we can't fault Epic for making developers some really juicy offers to make their games exclusive. We should be faulting the publishers and developers who says their game will be on Steam (or GoG or Origin) and then retract that statement by going Epic exclusive. Epic is only conducting business in a normal fashion, it is the publishers and developers who are making promises and not keeping them.

Actually we can fault Epic for being evil, we can just also fault publishers and developers for being evil too.

 

[meiam]

Epic could have taken a nicer route. Let's say the deal didn't involved paying for exclusive, it could have just been paying to have it on the storefront, the game company could then have come out and simply said "hey if you buy the game trough epic, we get more of the money ourselves rather than valve (who don't make game anymore) but you have the choice". Hell they could have gone even further and let you transfer game from steam to epic and vice versa. That's a lot nicer of a competition.

But nah, exclusive it is.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Actually we can fault Epic for being evil, we can just also fault publishers and developers for being evil too.

What evil is Epic committing? They are using absolutely legal deals to ensure traffic to their storefront. These deals are, at worst, inconvenient for the customer who is used to getting their games at another storefront. But Epic is not forcing you to do anything. They are, very literally, making deals that means you have to use their storefront if you want to enjoy your leisure activity. Video games are not a human right and if it is evil to challenge a monopoly in leisure products, then the very concept of evil has become as watered down as to become meaningless.

 

[EvilRoy]

Epic could have taken a nicer route. Let's say the deal didn't involved paying for exclusive, it could have just been paying to have it on the storefront, the game company could then have come out and simply said "hey if you buy the game trough epic, we get more of the money ourselves rather than valve (who don't make game anymore) but you have the choice". Hell they could have gone even further and let you transfer game from steam to epic and vice versa. That's a lot nicer of a competition.

But nah, exclusive it is.

Why would epic want to be nice about it? They are trying to head to head with a company that borders on virtual monopoly of online videogames. They have to hack out a territory, or die. Those are the options. Their opponent has every single advantage imaginable, up to and including being defended by a lot of people in spite of them neither offering a particularly high quality experience nor treating game makers particularly well. The gloves are gonna have to come off for this I'm afraid. Take solace at least in the fact that this fight will feed money into the pockets of the actual game makers, in exchange for a pretty minor inconvenience for you.

 

[Saelune]

Actually we can fault Epic for being evil, we can just also fault publishers and developers for being evil too.

What evil is Epic committing? They are using absolutely legal deals to ensure traffic to their storefront. These deals are, at worst, inconvenient for the customer who is used to getting their games at another storefront. But Epic is not forcing you to do anything. They are, very literally, making deals that means you have to use their storefront if you want to enjoy your leisure activity. Video games are not a human right and if it is evil to challenge a monopoly in leisure products, then the very concept of evil has become as watered down as to become meaningless.

Who cares if its legal!? Its shitty, anti-consumer, and utterly greedy. More likely what Epic is doing will only motivate Steam to resort to even more anti-consumer methods, not improve them. People need to not automatically assume any competitor to Steam is inherently a good thing.

 

[Hawki]

If it's Epic getting a monopoly on certain games vs. Valve's "anything goes, quality control be damned," then I'm not really buying the whole "Epic being evil" argument, especially since it's giving developers a larger cut.

Oh, and about the idea of a "PC console wars" thing. Guys, newsflash. Downloading a new launcher is much easier (and cheaper) than forking out hundreds of dollars for a new console because you really want one (or more) of its exclusives.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Eh, I already decided not to buy anything from the Epic store after the whole Metro Exodus thing. So that's a lost sale from me.

 

[Bombiz]

wait can someone tell me what's wrong with the epic store? like is it that bad? is it worse than origins and uplay? like why are people so upset at the epic store?

Eh, I already decided not to buy anything from the Epic store after the whole Metro Exodus thing. So that's a lost sale from me.

why? what's wrong there? what did epic do that was bad there?

 

[Bombiz]

Remember when PC gaming didn't have its own 'console wars'?

this was gonna happen eventually. steam couldn't be dominate forever. also we kinda already had this with GOG, uplay, and origins

 

[Bombiz]

Well, there probably goes my purchase entirely.

Instead of trying to make a better service, epic is doing this in the most underhanded way they can. Fuck epic.

This, and don't forget the spyware.

spyware??? what?

Epic could have taken a nicer route. Let's say the deal didn't involved paying for exclusive, it could have just been paying to have it on the storefront, the game company could then have come out and simply said "hey if you buy the game trough epic, we get more of the money ourselves rather than valve (who don't make game anymore) but you have the choice". Hell they could have gone even further and let you transfer game from steam to epic and vice versa. That's a lot nicer of a competition.

But nah, exclusive it is.

do you honestly think that valve would just allow that to happen? am I crazy for thinking valve would say no to that? have they even done anything to that extent before?

 

[Saelune]

Remember when PC gaming didn't have its own 'console wars'?

this was gonna happen eventually. steam couldn't be dominate forever. also we kinda already had this with GOG, uplay, and origins

GoG and Uplay aren't being dicks about it the way Origin and Epic is. I can play the whole AC series on Steam, and CD Projectk Red puts its games on Steam! Hell, you can buy the Witcher series on Steam then wait for Steam Connect to give you it on GoG too, for the extra cost of nothing!