News Epic Games Store

[Ge0force]

Well when you got no user reviews you gotta make your own I guess.

This is both sad and hilarious. Also lol @ the quote of WilliamXMS, since he probably got a game key for free

Edit: a whopping 31 people played it online so far

So, Bee Simulator isn't great, Superliminal reviews weren't hot either, Rune 2 doesn't have a future, Yaga never got the spotlights and probably will be buried in a week.

Damn this week is looking good for EGS and its exclusives.

I don't feel sorry for any of these devs to be honest. They got money from Epic anyway. Who cares if people actually play their games?

 

[C-Dub]

Epic sure knows how to pick 'em.

Shenmue III next week. The press have had daggers drawn for that one since time immemorial.

 

[Cordelia]

Wait, so that neat perspective puzzle game that I saw on reddit several years ago suddenly released and it is an EGSclusive?

I must be living under a rock.

 

[Trisolarian]

Wait, so that neat perspective puzzle game that I saw on reddit several years ago suddenly released and it is an EGSclusive?

I must be living under a rock.

Yes, I know. I had my eye on it too and my eye is mostly on my backlog these days lol.

 

[fantomena]

So Epic moneyhat of Bee Simulator has gone well

Bee Simulator review – the buzz around town

The plight of the bumblebee is turned into a video game but can it compete with Untitled Goose Game for best animal sim of the year?

metro.co.uk

And that is the only text based review I can find of the game so far.

 

[Cordelia]

No review?

 

[fantomena]

Well I just deleted all EGS exclusives from my HDD that I got from the high seas. I have no time to play any of them due to so many other games to play first, so by the time I have time for them, they will be out on Steam and I can buy them then.

 

[Deleted member 113]

No review?

No developer.

Sorry, that was mean. But considering they announced their closure a day after launching the game, before even sending game keys to those who pre-ordered the game from their website, and didn't refund (apparently they got keys for soundtracks, but not the game), something tells me they didn't put much thought and effort into this launch.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Ok just to make sure I'm not reading this wrong, Human Head took an exclusivity deal only to still close and basically get bought out by Bethesda?

Well what the fuck was the Epic paycheck for then? A yacht for the owners of the studio?

 

[lashman]

Ok just to make sure I'm not reading this wrong, Human Head took an exclusivity deal only to still close and basically get bought out by Bethesda?

Well what the fuck was the Epic paycheck for then? A yacht for the owners of the studio?

good question

it was either that ... or paying off debts

clearly most of it (if any) didn't go into development of the game

 

[Deleted member 113]

Ok just to make sure I'm not reading this wrong, Human Head took an exclusivity deal only to still close and basically get bought out by Bethesda?

Well what the fuck was the Epic paycheck for then? A yacht for the owners of the studio?

And the guy who ran the studio, Chris Rhinehart, will run the new one as well.

You know, the guy who said that Epic's money would allow them to launch the game they wanted, and grow the studio, featured in this video (that aged rather well):

 

[Stone Ocean]

So TLDR they conned Epic to pay their bills so they could sell out to Bethesda.

Randy Pitchford would be proud.

 

[Deleted member 113]

So TLDR they conned Epic to pay their bills so they could sell out to Bethesda.

Randy Pitchford would be proud.

I would "applaud them" as well... if people didn't spend their hard-earned money on their game (some a year ago, by pre-ordering from their website), and now they're probably left with a buggy, unsupported game.

If Timmy cares so much about gamers, and the quality of the games he provides on his platform, he needs to start thinking about refunding people, if the game is going to be dropped like that.

 

[Ge0force]

Well I just deleted all EGS exclusives from my HDD that I got from the high seas. I have no time to play any of them due to so many other games to play first, so by the time I have time for them, they will be out on Steam and I can buy them then.

By the time these EGS exclusives are out on Steam, there will be plenty of other great games to play as well. I'm just skipping them completely. F*ck moneyhatting on my favorite gaming platform.

 

[lashman]

 

[sauce]

This Rune 2 situation is such a mess lmao. That publisher got straight up conned

 

[bobnowhere]

Because passing support to those unfamiliar with the codebase always goes well!

 

[texhnolyze]

This is hilarious.

 

[Alexandros]

Seeing games bomb on EGS will never not be funny. The thought of Tim Sweeney burning through cash for shit games that bring in shit revenue makes me smile everytime.

 

[Arulan]

I have enough reasons to want the Epic Games Store to fail on the quality of the service provided and the company's policies already, but I think having a clear example that buying exclusives and giving out free games (with even a small fortune for a budget) doesn't mean success on PC would be a great deterrent for future bullshit. And perhaps encourage better efforts by potential competitors.

 

[Alexandros]

I have enough reasons to want the Epic Games Store to fail on the quality of the service provided and the company's policies already, but I think having a clear example that buying exclusives and giving out free games (with even a small fortune for a budget) doesn't mean success on PC would be a great deterrent for future bullshit. And perhaps encourage better efforts by potential competitors.

Absolutely. EA returning to Steam already sent a very strong message, Epic failing to make a dent by spending tons of cash on exclusives will communicate to everyone in the industry that you have to offer actual incentives to customers instead of trying to force them to buy from you.

 

[Ge0force]

Absolutely. EA returning to Steam already sent a very strong message, Epic failing to make a dent by spending tons of cash on exclusives will communicate to everyone in the industry that you have to offer actual incentives to customers instead of trying to force them to buy from you.

Well said. That's what this anti-Epic outrage is all about, not Steam fanboyism.

 

[C-Dub]

Well said. That's what this anti-Epic outrage is all about, not Steam fanboyism.

I don't like the Steam fanboy framing, because not everyone who is complaining about EGS uses Steam as their first choice to buy games. I certainly don't.

All other things being equal, I try to buy games on GOG before I do on Steam. Of course there are reasons I would prefer Steam, such as price, or missing features on the GOG version (ala No Man's Sky), but if I see a game I like the looks of I do usually have a little gander on GOG to see if it's there first.

This really is about depriving people of choice because Tim Sweeney has some beef against Valve for some reason. It's also about wrecking promising Kickstarters by trying to buy backers into a store they'd rather not use because they don't trust it. It's also about spreading FUD and lies and bullshit talking points in the same disingenuous manner that the industry has talked about used games and online passes in the past, and how what Epic is doing is the "multi store future".

In short, EGS is just another example in a long line of clusterfucks like OnLive, Google Stadia, Xbox One Always On DRM, "You will get a second job to buy PS3", "used games are killing the industry", "online passes are there because servers are expensive and we want to run our own costly implementation so we can harvest your data", "you will pay £60 for N64 games because we're Nintendo and cartridges are expensive" with the industry pleading poverty to justify such bullshit time and time again.

 

[Ge0force]

Interesting how none of the 4 new games released on EGS this week made it in the top sellers top 20:

Top Sellers Top 20

www.epicgames.com

 

[Eferis]

Interesting how none of the 4 new games released on EGS this week made it in the top sellers top 20:

Top Sellers Top 20

www.epicgames.com

Oooh, so that's why I couldn't find Yaga on PC. I tried it out on iPad and I was wondering why they were releasing it in 2020 on PC. LOL. Keep up with the good marketing work, Epic.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Epic's "beef" with Valve is quite simple really: They want Steam's market. All of it.

This entire situation is about Epic trying to carve Steam's skin and wear it so they have an extra source of big money when Fortnite dies.

 

[lashman]

Epic's "beef" with Valve is quite simple really: They want Steam's market. All of it.

This entire situation is about Epic trying to carve Steam's skin and wear it so they have an extra source of big money when Fortnite dies.

yup, pretty much this .... Tim even said so himself

 

[Tizoc]

Patiently waiting for the epic experiment to unravel, fail and to see how they back paddle/pedal.

 

[lashman]

Patiently waiting for the epic experiment to unravel, fail and to see how they back paddle/pedal.

the sooner the better for everyone (well, maybe not Tim )

 

[Ge0force]

Epic's "beef" with Valve is quite simple really: They want Steam's market. All of it.

This entire situation is about Epic trying to carve Steam's skin and wear it so they have an extra source of big money when Fortnite dies.

With big publishers like MS, EA and Bethesda returning to Steam, and several other publishers speaking out against exclusivity, I'm pretty sure this isn't gonna happen.

I also believe that the deal between Epic and Ubisoft is timed.

 

[ISee]

Epic's "beef" with Valve is quite simple really: They want Steam's market. All of it.

I'd still like to know what triggered Tim to start his war of his though. Epic rushed to the market, without even close to having a client, infrastructure or an idea what they were doing. Its like one day Tim woke up and said:"I'm going to destroy Steam. Let's do this!". Certain that the only thing he need to do is buy positive press, games and outsmart criticism thanks to his superior intellect of being a dick.
Looking at his tweets, conversations and way he reacts to things like the "30% cut is standard" article. I wouldn't be surprised if this was (in parts) the reaction of a salty millionaire, instead of a thought out, long term plan.

I half expect a one, final burst of action by Epic before they go back to being irrelevant as a store again.

 

[beep boop]

The whole thing with Rune II and how few actually small studios manage to chart on Epic has me thinking that neither cash injections nor a different cut will do a lot if a studio’s condition is so volatile that it barely gets a game across the line before collapsing. The cut is a nice bonus, but I do wonder if the post-release sales outside of the top sellers have been sustainable enough given how little talk there is about some of them, e.g Kine and such. I guess Kine also got a deal with Google and some of the others were part of that Apple gaming subscription. Sounds like there are a lot of business decisions being made very late in the game to pull in more financing.

 

[C-Dub]

Even if Ubi's is timed, I doubt those games will come to Steam unless Ubisoft has a change of strategy, They have been building up Uplay for years, and were going to leave Steam sooner or later. Epic just gave them free money to do something they were going to do anyway. Watch them stop selling games on Epic once the deal is up.

 

[Digoman]

Between the one month for Red Read 2, Outer Worlds on Gamepass, and I think all the other recent releases failing to make an splash, it has been a good month for us that don't like what Epic is doing. The Game Awards will probably the big indicator of their are going to do going forward.

One of the only good things that can come out of this mess is that, if Epic fails even after paying way too much for the exclusives, maybe will send a strong enough signal so we don't have to deal with this for a while, just like when Microsoft tried to charge for online.

Looking at his tweets, conversations and way he reacts to things like the "30% cut is standard" article. I wouldn't be surprised if this was (in parts) the reaction of a salty millionaire, instead of a thought out, long term plan.

I half expect a one, final burst of action by Epic before they go back to being irrelevant as a store again.

Oh, it certainly has a lot to do with being salty. When Epic was bailing on PC calling us all pirates, Valve tried a different approach and made a lot of money because of it. And going by his tweets, Sweeney doesn't appear to like be shown he was wrong about something....

 

[Stone Ocean]

I'd still like to know what triggered Tim to start his war of his though. Epic rushed to the market, without even close to having a client, infrastructure or an idea what they were doing. Its like one day Tim woke up and said:"I'm going to destroy Steam. Let's do this!". Certain that the only thing he need to do is buy positive press, games and outsmart criticism thanks to his superior intellect of being a dick.
Looking at his tweets, conversations and way he reacts to things like the "30% cut is standard" article. I wouldn't be surprised if this was (in parts) the reaction of a salty millionaire, instead of a thought out, long term plan.

I half expect a one, final burst of action by Epic before they go back to being irrelevant as a store again.

They were probably expecting Fortnite revenue dropping relatively soon and wanted a safety net as fast as humanly possible while they still had their war chest to push their way into the market.

Fast forward a year, Fortnite revenue dropped off a cliff compared to last year.

 

[ISee]

Even if Ubi's is timed, I doubt those games will come to Steam unless Ubisoft has a change of strategy, They have been building up Uplay for years, and were going to leave Steam sooner or later. Epic just gave them free money to do something they were going to do anyway. Watch them stop selling games on Epic once the deal is up.

EA had a couple of rather disappointing outcomes and is coming back to Steam. Ubi also started to have some rather disappointing outcomes lately.
I'm not saying you are wrong, you are making sense. Just saying that there is some hope.

 

[Ge0force]

Even if Ubi's is timed, I doubt those games will come to Steam unless Ubisoft has a change of strategy, They have been building up Uplay for years, and were going to leave Steam sooner or later. Epic just gave them free money to do something they were going to do anyway. Watch them stop selling games on Epic once the deal is up.

You may be right, but I'm not so sure. Ubisofts games were selling millions on Steam. While moving to Epic gave them many new uPlay users, I also believe they lost a lot of sales because their recent games didn't get exposure from Steams discovery and wishlist. I'm also pretty sure that their uPlay+ subscription is a huge flop.

That's why I think that Ubisoft will return to Steam, unless their upcoming games will do exceptionally well on uPlay and/or EGS. While the latter seems unlikely, Ubisofts games are permanently listed in the top sellers top 20 on EGS.

Only time will tell of course.

 

[Cordelia]

To be honest I just want to see how the three most controversial EGSclusive (Phoenix Point, Ooblets, and Shenmue 3 in my opinion) will perform.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Yeah Phoenix Point is the interesting one for me. I would have got it day one but am passing on it now. schadenfreude will kick in if its a bomb.

 

[Eferis]

Phoenix Point

I'm looking forward to it!

On gamepass.

From Day 1 purchase to Day 366 purchase thanks to Epic, from Day 366 purchase to I'll play it Day 1 and never buy it again thanks to Microsoft.

 

[Kyougar]

Even if Ubi's is timed, I doubt those games will come to Steam unless Ubisoft has a change of strategy, They have been building up Uplay for years, and were going to leave Steam sooner or later. Epic just gave them free money to do something they were going to do anyway. Watch them stop selling games on Epic once the deal is up.

I could see a Steam (re)release for Anno with a new DLC

 

[lashman]

I could see a Steam (re)release for Anno with a new DLC

lol, no ... it's ubi, remember?

they'll probably just make the store page for it public again

and it'll still be full price ... and you'll still have to buy the season pass

 

[Kyougar]

lol, no ... it's ubi, remember?

they'll probably just make the store page for it public again

and it'll still be full price ... and you'll still have to buy the season pass

The intelligent thing to do would be to rerelease the game when there is either a new expansion/DLC announced or dropping. So that the buzz from the semi-niche audience is the biggest.

 

[C-Dub]

EA had a couple of rather disappointing outcomes and is coming back to Steam. Ubi also started to have some rather disappointing outcomes lately.
I'm not saying you are wrong, you are making sense. Just saying that there is some hope.

You may be right, but I'm not so sure. Ubisofts games were selling millions on Steam. While moving to Epic gave them many new uPlay users, I also believe they lost a lot of sales because their recent games didn't get exposure from Steams discovery and wishlist. I'm also pretty sure that their uPlay+ subscription is a huge flop.

That's why I think that Ubisoft will return to Steam, unless their upcoming games will do exceptionally well on uPlay and/or EGS. While the latter seems unlikely, Ubisofts games are permanently listed in the top sellers top 20 on EGS.

Only time will tell of course.

I hope both of you are right. Ubisoft are definitely less stubborn than, say, EA, who took a very long time to turn around. But they may try one more roll of the dice with the release of games next year not being on Steam before they come crawling back.

You could argue that Ubisoft's recent games performed badly on all platforms, so it'd take a PC-specific flop for them to take notice.

To be honest I just want to see how the three most controversial EGSclusive (Phoenix Point, Ooblets, and Shenmue 3 in my opinion) will perform.

I don't know too much about Phoenix Point and Ooblets, only that Phoenix Point is coming to Game Pass so that will have an impact (and as such it probably won't be a particularly good stick to beat Epic with anyway), and Ooblets may get sympathy purchases but will probably fail to "cut through" to a mainstream audience due to its lack of visibility. To be honest, I see it as Game Pass bait too.

Shenmue III is going to sell badly on PC, no roundabout way about it. Deep Silver were obviously drawn to the game through it's hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, but frankly that's all the money that game is ever going to make. The fact that all the parties involved in developing and releasing the game have proven themselves to be dishonest and rather scummy has put a big cloud over this game.

 

[Ge0force]

It seems Epic's "top sellers" list is broken; games are being shown on the front page as top selling, while they aren't in the top 20. I'm really curious if Rune II is actually doing well on EGS.

 

[lashman]

I'm really curious if Rune II is actually doing well on EGS.

i very seriously doubt it

 

[kio]

It seems Epic's "top sellers" list is broken; games are being shown on the front page as top selling, while they aren't in the top 20. I'm really curious if Rune II is actually doing well on EGS.

Maybe epic is counting backer's keys activations as sales...

 

[C-Dub]

Thanks for Beta testing the upcoming Steam version for us, EGS and RGL customers.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I've always considered EGS Exclusivity to be nothing but Early Access for the Steam release.
Wait a year and you get to clear some of your backlog AND get a patched and tested game at Steam release. Win/Win Thanks Tim!

 

[Ge0force]

Epic got an award for studio of the year