News Epic Games Store

[madjoki]

Insecure by Design, Epic Games Peer-to-Peer Multiplayer Service

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not reflect the opinions or views of my employer. All research was conducted independently. As someone who enjoys games that involve logistics, a recently-released game caught my eye. That game was Satisfactory, which...

billdemirkapi.me

Epic: Lets' encode IP address with custom encoding to make it more "secure". It's industry standard after all, we can't improve upon it.

Valve: Let's use SteamIDs as IP address and use custom VPN to route P2P-packets so no user will ever see real IP. In 99.99% cases, no one will see difference or only minor lag improvement. 0.01% of saved from being ddossed/doxed/whatever.

 

[eonden]

Epic: Lets' encode IP address with custom encoding to make it more "secure". It's industry standard after all, we can't improve upon it.

Valve: Let's use SteamIDs as IP address and use custom VPN to route P2P-packets so no user will ever see real IP. In 99.99% cases, no one will see difference or only minor lag improvement. 0.01% of saved from being ddossed/doxed/whatever.

Valve has experience getting DDS'd on CSGO and Dota. Epic doesn't see it as being DD'd and just extra servers to the stack because they think their game is that popular.

 

[fantomena]

I think Im gonna buy Airborne Kingdom as it is a full EGS exclusive afaik. I have no problem waiting for games to hit Steam, but unless something has changed, that game won't hit Steam.

Edit: This seems to be a somewhat accurate of freebie list.

 

[Arc]

The next preview image shows axes which could certainly refer to The Long Dark as its logo has an axe. If that's tomorrow's game then I am inclined to believe the list is legit.

 

[Wok]

.

1. Cities: Skylines
2. Oddworld: New n Tasty
3. The Long Dark
4. Defense Grid 1
5. Alien: Isolation
6. Metro 2033
7. Tropico 5
8. Inside
9. Darkest Dungeon
10. My Time in Portia
11. Night in the Woods
12. Stranded Deep
13. Solitairica
14. Torchlight II
15. Jurassic World Evolution

Potential list of free games:

Jurassic World Evolution
Conan Exiles
Darkest Dungeon
Nights in the woods
Oddword new and tasty.
Wargame: Red Dragon

Reposting for comparison.
Madjoki's list is included in the other list, except for Conan and Wargame, which I guess he added to the list because they were delayed.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

So many of those games have been in bundles already.

 

[Wok]

With proper formatting:

• 2020/12/17: Cities Skylines
• 2020/12/18: Oddworld New 'n' Tasty
• 2020/12/19: The Long Dark
• 2020/12/20: Defense Grid The Awakening
• 2020/12/21: Alien Isolation
• 2020/12/22: Metro 2033
• 2020/12/23: Tropico 5
• 2020/12/24: INSIDE
• 2020/12/25: Darkest Dungeon
• 2020/12/26: My Time at Portia
• 2020/12/27: Night in the Woods
• 2020/12/28: Stranded Deep
• 2020/12/29: Solitairica
• 2020/12/30: Torchlight II
• 2020/12/31: Jurassic World Evolution

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

This was posted on Reddit two days ago.

 

[Wok]

The next preview image shows axes which could certainly refer to The Long Dark

Right.

For comparison, yesterday:

This was posted on Reddit two days ago.

It is possible to know when the Reddit post was last edited?

 

[Stone Ocean]

With proper formatting:

• 2020/12/17: Cities Skylines
• 2020/12/18: Oddworld New 'n' Tasty
• 2020/12/19: The Long Dark
• 2020/12/20: Defense Grid The Awakening
• 2020/12/21: Alien Isolation
• 2020/12/22: Metro 2033
• 2020/12/23: Tropico 5
• 2020/12/24: INSIDE
• 2020/12/25: Darkest Dungeon
• 2020/12/26: My Time at Portia
• 2020/12/27: Night in the Woods
• 2020/12/28: Stranded Deep
• 2020/12/29: Solitairica
• 2020/12/30: Torchlight II
• 2020/12/31: Jurassic World Evolution

Even their free games are becoming unimpressive.

"Here's 15 games that you can get for like a dollar each 5x a year"

 

[Xclash]

Fortnite money doesn’t go as far as it used to.

 

[madjoki]

Darkest Dungeon is only good. Probably cheaper to get Game+DLC to Steam than DLC from Epic.

 

[Arc]

Fortnite money doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Lawsuits are expensive.

 

[gabbo]

Lawsuits are expensive.

If only Apple hadn't taken them to cour... oh wait.

 

[Wok]

I have updated my faces of Tim: :happy_tim: :sad_tim:

 

[inky]

Shit list if I say so myself. Portia is the standout.

Darkest Dungeon is only good. Probably cheaper to get Game+DLC to Steam than DLC from Epic.

Works out like that for a lot of games. Jurassic World is currently 90% off on Steam for example, with the DLC editions at 75%

 

[Nabs]

That list is pretty disappointing.

 

[Joe Spangle]

I have updated my faces of Tim: :happy_tim: :sad_tim:

I think we need one of these as a like reaction.

 

[Mor]

EGS sure has accelerated the "open the gates" process as just today there have been 3 multi-store releases.

The freebie, Among Us and Medieval Dynasty.

You can bet your ass that their strategy will be multi-store and part of PC ecosystem as another piece, the exclusivity thing seems more doubtful each day it passes.

 

[Kyougar]

Fenyx Rising is also on sale on ubi store, where you can add 21% on top of the current discount to get it even lower with a coupon code displayed on their front page. I guess barring valhalla, their new releases this year doesn't sell very well at all.

hmm, what changed recently that would tank most of their franchises?

 

[Wok]

Tomorrow's game is supposed to be Defense Grid. The hint is not obvious to me.

 

[Mor]

Tomorrow's game is supposed to be Defense Grid. The hint is not obvious to me.

this

 

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

I've mentioned this before, but the Epic Games Store needs a community. It needs an actual tangible place endorsed by Epic where people can talk about EGS itself, the games on EGS, Epic Games as a publisher, and things like that. Their "no forums" thing probably seemed like a good idea given the bad PR over certain games having their forums derailed by bad actors, but this whole ball of yarn ties into a fundamental erosion of community spaces.

Social media and Reddit and Discord are not true community spaces. They are extremely transient. Social media is the same. Especially Twitter. Steam's main forum, and the fact every single game gets a forum is incredibly instrumental in how people put down roots on a platform. Steam becomes a home, more than just a digital distribution platform. People feel like their reviews, their forum threads, etc. are contributing meaningfully to a wider community that they are a part of. When they make a thread warning of a bug, or providing a solution to a technical issue, they are performing a public service. When they make a thread talking about how amazing they find a game to be, and others share their thoughts, their roots in the community deepen. They make friends.

tl;dr, without these community building tools, the EGS will always be flawed at its core. Yes, a lot of Steam loyalty is built on first to the party, baby duck syndrome, and inertia. But there's more to it than that. Steam has something that none of the other big platforms do. (Ubisoft does run forums for their own games, but they're not integrated into the launcher the way Steam does it.) It has an honest, tangible community that you can see, interact with -- it's not siloed off in Discords, or bubbling impotently on twitter.

 

[Kyougar]

I've mentioned this before, but the Epic Games Store needs a community. It needs an actual tangible place endorsed by Epic where people can talk about EGS itself, the games on EGS, Epic Games as a publisher, and things like that. Their "no forums" thing probably seemed like a good idea given the bad PR over certain games having their forums derailed by bad actors, but this whole ball of yarn ties into a fundamental erosion of community spaces.

Social media and Reddit and Discord are not true community spaces. They are extremely transient. Social media is the same. Especially Twitter. Steam's main forum, and the fact every single game gets a forum is incredibly instrumental in how people put down roots on a platform. Steam becomes a home, more than just a digital distribution platform. People feel like their reviews, their forum threads, etc. are contributing meaningfully to a wider community that they are a part of. When they make a thread warning of a bug, or providing a solution to a technical issue, they are performing a public service. When they make a thread talking about how amazing they find a game to be, and others share their thoughts, their roots in the community deepen. They make friends.

tl;dr, without these community building tools, the EGS will always be flawed at its core. Yes, a lot of Steam loyalty is built on first to the party, baby duck syndrome, and inertia. But there's more to it than that. Steam has something that none of the other big platforms do. (Ubisoft does run forums for their own games, but they're not integrated into the launcher the way Steam does it.) It has an honest, tangible community that you can see, interact with -- it's not siloed off in Discords, or bubbling impotently on twitter.

There is another important aspect to Forums: Visibility and presence of your platform.
When you search about bugs/solutions/tips/walkthroughs/general game information, you will always find: Steam.
It burns the notion in your mind that you will always find Information and solutions and the game itself on Steam.

 

[FunnyJay]

Yes, a lot of Steam loyalty is built on first to the party, baby duck syndrome, and inertia.

I remember back when GOG ran those Insomnia sales, where you had to keep checking the current deal, and it had to sell out before the next deal was released. That was when I realized how lovely the GOG forums have the possibility to be as well.

I missed a deal on Arcanum, and posted about it, and a few minutes later someone gifted me a copy no questions asked.

Those sales really strengthened the community at GOG, more than any coupon ever can do.

And of course, make you never forget about Jack Keane!

 

[Alexandros]

Yes, a lot of Steam loyalty is built on first to the party, baby duck syndrome, and inertia.

I don't think it is. In fact there were several other services that either predate Steam or launched during the same period.

Digital distribution of video games - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Steam loyalty was built over time because Steam provided (and still provides) the best service. In the early days of digital distribution I used most of these services, mostly Stardock's, EA's and Direct2Drive. I first started using Steam with The Orange Box. After a while I focused on Steam because it was ahead of everybody else and rapidly increasing its distance from other competitors.

 

[Digoman]

Steam itself if a story of how you can "turn things around" even if you have a bad start. Counter-strike players were furious when migrating from WON(?). I think I wasn't able to play Half-life 2 at least one day at launch because the servers were overloaded, and so on. But things got better, the advantages become more obvious and yes, Valve never tried to make the community go somewhere else.

EGS "no forums and no reviews" was probably Epic reacting to what was the "hot discussion" at the time (like always) and they are now to stubborn to change course. I find hard to believe that anyone that is a "medium to heavy" Steam user don't know how insanely useful these tools are, even with all their problems.

 

[Stone Ocean]

EGS "no forums and no reviews" was probably Epic reacting to what was the "hot discussion" at the time (like always) and they are now to stubborn to change course. I find hard to believe that anyone that is a "medium to heavy" Steam user don't know how insanely useful these tools are, even with all their problems.

EGS's entire initial pitch was for publishers and developers, not users. Hey here's a store where we give you more money per sale, curate garbage (not your game tho, we totes promise we'll let that in), get rid of those pesky reviews and forums so people don't need to worry about pointless things such as the game working and also here's a big fucking bag of cash.

 

[Alexandros]

EGS's entire initial pitch was for publishers and developers, not users. Hey here's a store where we give you more money per sale, curate garbage (not your game tho, we totes promise we'll let that in), get rid of those pesky reviews and forums so people don't need to worry about pointless things such as the game working and also here's a big fucking bag of cash.

Exactly. Customers were an afterthought because everyone involved in the store's planning phase thought of them as mindless cattle that could be herded into the store as long as developers were onboard.

 

[Digoman]

EGS's entire initial pitch was for publishers and developers, not users. Hey here's a store where we give you more money per sale, curate garbage (not your game tho, we totes promise we'll let that in), get rid of those pesky reviews and forums so people don't need to worry about pointless things such as the game working and also here's a big fucking bag of cash.

Oh, I know. I just meant that it was the hot topic at the time with review bombing and the "white supremacist" steam forums being discussed in several places and a lot of people were jumping in the defense of the "poor" publishers. So Epic did what it always do and jumped on the bandwagon that was already moving.

Customers were always the lowest of the priorities. Ditching customer reviews in special was incredible stupid considering almost every fuc**** store have them. But I guess given the state of several of their exclusive games, it was kind of a necessity.

 

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

Customers were always the lowest of the priorities. Ditching customer reviews in special was incredible stupid considering almost every fuc**** store have them. But I guess given the state of several of their exclusive games, it was kind of a necessity.

Valve adapted to the review bombing issue (which is increasingly becoming a concern now that China review bombs things at the drop of a hat) by implementing protections against off-topic reviews. Which are working fairly well. Valve found a technical solution to a human problem. And it seems like they've gotten more aggressive with forum bans for racism and stuff. Things were... really, really bad when Wolfenstein: Youngblood came out. Nazis, Nazis everywhere.

But the Steam review system and the Steam forums and the easily accessible news page for each game has a striking impact on the ability of developers to communicate the improving status of their game to potential customers. Whether this has a meaningful impact on sales vs not having reviews at all is probably a whole discussion in and of itself, but a good example is this game:


Remothered: Broken Porcelain had a complete shitshow of a launch. Completely broken game. People were very unhappy. The consensus quickly went around that this was a bad game. And the issue with EGS is that turning this around PR-wise would be quite difficult.

But on Steam, look at those reviews. Recent reviews are up to 83% positive. It was in the 40-50% range before. People click on the game, and that gives them pause. Hmmm... maybe they fixed it? So they go into the Steam forums, and they read the threads asking, "What's your opinion on the game after the... TWENTY ONE PATCHES it has received since launch?" Wanna see the changelogs? They're right there. And opinions vary on whether it is "fixed", of course. But they're not relying on a Metacritic page that won't paint a true picture of a game getting post-release support. They're not going off to Reddit hoping that a game with terribly negative reception has enough people who have played the updated version to get a good picture of its state.

Steam's ability for a game's fans to interact with the developer, and interact with potential new fans in an organic way is like nothing else in the industry. Developers shouldn't be relying on Discord of all things for bug reports. Oh, sure Discord has some advantages like easy video posting for showing a bug in action and stuff. But nothing beats a proper forum with dedicated subforums and topic threads.

 

[Ge0force]

[UWSL]You can bet your ass that their strategy will be multi-store and part of PC ecosystem as another piece, the exclusivity thing seems more doubtful each day it passes.[/UWSL]

I seriously doubt this. There's no indication that EGS is doing well without the aid of coupons or exclusives. They even removed their list of best selling games from the front page.

Epic is still focusing on new features and services for developers, while barely improving the store for consumers. No doubt the number of moneyhats will decrease over time, but I'm pretty sure plenty of deals for future games have already been made. I also expect them to expand their publishing label, resulting in lots of permanent exclusives from popular developers.

I think Im gonna buy Airborne Kingdom as it is a full EGS exclusive afaik. I have no problem waiting for games to hit Steam, but unless something has changed, that game won't hit Steam.

It will only be a full EGS exclusive if people buy the game on EGS. Afaik, there's no exclusivity deal involved for this game, but the developers own decision to boycott Steam. It's up to you to support this decision or not.

 

[Mor]

I seriously doubt this. There's no indication that EGS is doing well without the aid of coupons or exclusives. They even removed their list of best selling games from the front page.

Epic is still focusing on new features and services for developers, while barely improving the store for consumers. No doubt the number of moneyhats will decrease over time, but I'm pretty sure plenty of deals for future games have already been made. I also expect them to expand their publishing label, resulting in lots of permanent exclusives from popular developers.

No indication, just following my instinct and gut, so far I haven't been that wrong with this topic, if anything I have been short within their actions by slowing down some things

 

[fantomena]

It will only be a full EGS exclusive if people buy the game on EGS. Afaik, there's no exclusivity deal involved for this game, but the developers own decision to boycott Steam. It's up to you to support this decision or not.

The devs stated in a Tweet it would be full exclusive regardless of sales long time ago.

Anyways, I got a review code for it so I don't need to buy it.

 

[Arsene]

It will only be a full EGS exclusive if people buy the game on EGS. Afaik, there's no exclusivity deal involved for this game, but the developers own decision to boycott Steam. It's up to you to support this decision or not.

They flat out said lifetime exclusivity was apart of their contract. Doesn’t matter if they regret or change their minds they literally cant release on Steam unless Epic voids their contract.

 

[Ge0force]

No indication, just following my instinct and gut, so far I haven't been that wrong with this topic, if anything I have been short within their actions by slowing down some things

You've been right about many things, and I hope you're right about this as well. Exclusivity should never become the norm for "competition" between storefronts on pc. If EGS becomes just another storefront without exclusivity deals, I don' tmind it's existence at all.

They flat out said lifetime exclusivity was apart of their contract. Doesn’t matter if they regret or change their minds they literally cant release on Steam unless Epic voids their contract.

I wasn't aware of this. I always thought this was the only EGS exclusive game without contract, which also would explain the lifetime exclusivity instead of the usual 12 months. Oh well, it's their loss. If a game isn't released on a platform/storefront I want to support, I'll just ignore the game or pirate it. The latter never happened so far, because there are so many great games to play on pc!

 

[Alextended]

What's "lifetime" in terms of software? Death of the devs or just forever?

 

[madjoki]

Dev claimed that, but is it true? Sounds silly the demand from Epic (with no additional money).

 

[Joe Spangle]

Didn't Raw Fury have one of those edgy twitter guys being a bit dickish when the eggs store started? telling people to just deal with it etc?

 

[Ge0force]

Didn't Raw Fury have one of those edgy twitter guys being a bit dickish when the eggs store started? telling people to just deal with it etc?

Yep that's them. The PR guy was a jerk to me as well on Twitter when I posted that I was disappointed with one of their games going EGS exclusive.

I do like them for publishing great and rather unique indie games tho. At least they dare to take risks.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

 

[CommodoreKong]

Doesn't the Epic Games client use UE4? Maybe it doesn't have a frame rate limit?

 

[Ge0force]

Sending your personal data to the Chinese government needs a lot of cpu power

/s

 

[Swenhir]

There's been a lot of misinformation about that launcher, I'd really wait and see there. Reddit is very, very fond of getting angry about things that turn out to be hoaxes or missing context.

 

[Mor]

There's been a lot of misinformation about that launcher, I'd really wait and see there. Reddit is very, very fond of getting angry about things that turn out to be hoaxes or missing context.

while it is true that CPU load is heavier with EGS than other launchers, as you say, Reddit is not the place to look at for information of any kind when it's a hot topic like this one.

 

[Swenhir]

while it is true that CPU load is heavier with EGS than other launchers, as you say, Reddit is not the place to look at for information of any kind when it's a hot topic like this one.

 

[fantomena]

No wonder EGS yet has a shopping cart system, they probably tested it and this is how it went in their offices:

 

[Alexandros]

I do find it rather funny that the less 'bloated' client is much more of a resource hog than the more 'bloated' one.

 

[C-Dub]

while it is true that CPU load is heavier with EGS than other launchers, as you say, Reddit is not the place to look at for information of any kind when it's a hot topic like this one.

Basically this. There's already people going on about the China nonsense again - you can't trust Reddit to have a level-headed discussion.

What we know is that the client is a CPU hog. That could be as much Epic's incompetence as it is some sort of scheme to harvest our data or whatever. Hopefully they fix it.

 

[Ge0force]

Seems the joke I made earlier may have been true after all :

"It is also reported that EGL sends 14x as much data as Steam and NVIDIA Experience while working in the background"

Epic Games Launcher makes AMD Ryzen CPUs run hotter even without any game running - VideoCardz.com

Game launcher caught making Ryzen CPUs hotter. Epic Games Launcher increases the temperature of AMD Ryzen CPUs, even when idle It appears that Epic Games Launcher is making some Ryzen processors run hotter, as reported by multiple users on Reddit and verified by Hot Hardware. The applications...

videocardz.com

Perhaps another test routine they forgot to remove?