News Epic Games Store

[Ex-User (307)]

I can't really call anyone who supports companies buying their way into the market, and making shady exclusivity deals, left wing. That's the opposite, in fact, because they are saying companies are free to do whatever they want against the consumers' benefit.

I’m not saying they’re genuine portrayals of coherent left-wing thought.

That’s why I called them milquetoast leftists! Their arguments about Steam are often couched in vaguely left-wing concerns about diversity, the “little-guy” getting shut out, and technolibertarianism run rampant.

But when the cards are down...they’re just modern neoliberals, using those arguments out of convenience because it makes them seem more legitimate.

It sounds a lot better to say “Diverse and vulnerable game creators are getting squeezed out of the market” than to say “Fuck y’all, I want my game to be the only one on the market.”

I guess what I’m saying is that a lot of these people are functionally concern-trolls, masquerading as leftists to further their own bottom line. Somewhat akin to the “woke brands” on social media trying to seem like they’re hip and with the latest social movements.

 

[NarohDethan]

Yeah, Epic isnt run by libertarian techbros. Tim and co. are the human personification of the Monopoly guy, with the twist of also being massive hypocrites.

 

[lashman]

 

[prudis]

 

[gabbo]

That's pretty much a yes to lashman's post without realizing it.

 

[lashman]

That's pretty much a yes to lashman's post without realizing it.

gotta love how Tim is just making up shit as he goes along now

"co-exclusives" ... what the fuck does that even mean? it either IS exclusive or ISN'T ... there is no middle-ground here

 

[gabbo]

gotta love how Tim is just making up shit as he goes along now

"co-exclusives" ... what the fuck does that even mean? it either IS exclusive or ISN'T ... there is no middle-ground here

'Exclusive' has lost its meaning at this point in the EGS situation. And not by accident. Way more wiggle room if you can literally control the language of your discussion.

 

[lashman]

'Exclusive' has lost its meaning at this point in the EGS situation. And not by accident. Way more wiggle room if you can literally control the language of your discussion.

pretty much ... his bullshit "co-exclusive" is just a PR-friendly way of saying "we paid for it not to be on steam"

 

[beep boop]

Tim's really knocking it out of the park on Twitter lately. Let's see how long this hot streak continues.

 

[Le Pertti]

I think they just mean "exclusive" as just not being on Steam.

 

[tmarg]

The legal distinction is probably what matters at this point. Paying to specifically keep people from doing business with a competitor is illegal, so they're getting as close to it as they can. From a PR standpoint I can't imagine anyone is really being fooled.

 

[lashman]

Tim's really knocking it out of the park on Twitter lately. Let's see how long this hot streak continues.

yeah, the more he talks, the more bullshit everyone can see coming from him

I think they just mean "exclusive" as just not being on Steam.

"exclusively not on steam"

From a PR standpoint I can't imagine anyone is really being fooled.

let's hope not

 

[tmarg]

I think most people have known what they're up to from the start. They've just been willing to accept it because they've bought into the "Valve is bad and lazy" narrative.

 

[lashman]

I think most people have known what they're up to from the start. They've just been willing to accept it because they've bought into the "Valve is bad and lazy" narrative.

i really hope so ... because seeing some people talking about that stuff and pretty much repeating whatever bullshit Tim is spewing this week on twitter and reddit - i'm almost fooled into believing they actually think it's true

 

[Swenhir]

Co-exclusives, right up there with the peacekeeper missile and clean coal on my list of favorite oxymoron.

 

[Ex-User (307)]

gotta love how Tim is just making up shit as he goes along now

"co-exclusives" ... what the fuck does that even mean? it either IS exclusive or ISN'T ... there is no middle-ground here

I guess hypothetically, “co-exclusives” already exist like how we have games that are “console exclusive” to one of the three consoles, but openly on multiple PC launchers.

But it’s a really stupid distinction, since we know that this is about specifically excluding Steam. As far as I know, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have all had console exclusivity agreements (whether time limited or not), but I can’t think of them excluding a specific platform.

Getting more Byzantine than console exclusivity is quite the (negative) accomplishment.

 

[lashman]

Co-exclusives, right up there with the peacekeeper missile and clean coal on my list of favorite oxymoron.

emphasis on "moron"

Getting more Byzantine than console exclusivity is quite the (negative) accomplishment.

it sure is!

 

[m_dorian]

Sweeney insults our intelligence with his bad takes, whether he's commenting about Epic crunch or defending his crappy EGS deals he proves to be a huge a-hole.

 

[lashman]

Sweeney insults our intelligence with his bad takes, whether he's commenting about Epic crunch or defending his crappy EGS deals he proves to be a huge a-hole.

he absolutely does ... every single time

 

[gabbo]

i really hope so ... because seeing some people talking about that stuff and pretty much repeating whatever bullshit Tim is spewing this week on twitter and reddit - i'm almost fooled into believing they actually think it's true

I'm sure they do on some level. Not the saviour of PC gaming aspects, but the better deal for devs, angry fans, crunch being worth it. those, yeah.

 

[lashman]

I'm sure they do on some level. Not the saviour of PC gaming aspects, but the better deal for devs, angry fans, crunch being worth it. those, yeah.

disgusting

 

[Deleted member 113]

It could be worse.
You could have people pretty much attributing the 35th anniversary celebrations of the Ghostbusters franchise, including the upcoming movie sequel, the remastering of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and the inclusion of the Ghostbusters car in Rocket League, to... Epic.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game General Discussions :: Steam Community

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

steamcommunity.com

There's not many things that make me lose my cool, but the stupidity of this one was too much for the "Ghosthead" in me.

 

[Ge0force]

Sweeney insults our intelligence with his bad takes, whether he's commenting about Epic crunch or defending his crappy EGS deals he proves to be a huge a-hole.

And yet hundreds of thousands of people decided to support Sweeney, his store and his sh*tty moneyhatting strategy. It's sad, but not unexpected really. Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon were very successful on the Windows Store as well, despite uwp and shitloads of technical issues. But despite the success of these games, Microsoft did another U-turn in our favor. So I'm still not convinced that Epic will gain the loyalty of the pc community with their current strategy.

 

[bobnowhere]

Also, don't think he understands math and percentages. It's closer to 25% more.

 

[gabbo]

disgusting

I mean, that's just my opinion, but Tim's communication doesn't read like carefully chosen PR statements. It reads like someone fully invested getting defensive, but inadvertently leaving in ambiguity because they don't know the best way to communicate their strategy - he is the tech and business lead after all, his areas of expertise aren't in marketing.

 

[Ex-User (307)]

I really hope the momentum for an “alternative” place to consume games can actually be that new Xbox/Windows store. It actually looks sleek, like a functional client and Game Pass is great.

It looks like a lot of things that the Epic Store...isn’t.

 

[ISee]

Microsoft is going to offer Metro Exodus for 1€ to the pc community today. They will talk about win32 games coming to the win store, they will talk about their first party games being available on Steam, in addition to game pass.

Maybe it's me being drunk from "schadenfreude", but metro exodus on PC, for 1€, not on the EGS is the biggest middle finger Microsoft can throw at epic. It's kind of beautiful.

 

[lashman]

Microsoft is going to offer Metro Exodus for 1€ to the pc community today. They will talk about win32 games coming to the win store, they will talk about their first party games being available on Steam, in addition to game pass.

Maybe it's me being drunk from "schadenfreude", but metro exodus on PC, for 1€, not on the EGS is the biggest middle finger Microsoft can throw at epic. It's kind of beautiful.

it really is, lol

 

[teezzy]

How long can I be expected to wait for The Outer Worlds to pop up on Steam?

Not necessarily interested in any monthly service (including GamePass), and obvs. fuck EGS.

I like having all my games on Steam, tbh. Nothing personal, Xbox.

 

[lashman]

How long can I be expected to wait for The Outer Worlds to pop up on Steam?

12 months, as with pretty much everything else (except Blands 3)

 

[teezzy]

12 months, as with pretty much everything else (except Blands 3)

Thanks!

Y'know, at the risk of sounding like a sycophant, that wait won't be so bad. It usually takes me about a year or (in most cases) years to get around to playing any new games to begin with. It's the principle though, y'know. Hopefully Outer Worlds (or any game, really) doesn't hit Steam at a full $60 after the dumb exclusive deal.

I play 'em like I play my women: old and cheap.

gets banned from Era

 

[Ge0force]

Gets banned from Era

You'll feel better, trust me

 

[BernardoOne]

So Ubisoft games returned to the store after three weeks of being unavailable and....



they are being pulled again!

 

[Ge0force]

So Ubisoft games returned to the store after three weeks of being unavailable and....



they are being pulled again!

My glass sphere is telling me that Ubisofts games will be back on EGS when their fire sale is over.

 

[Deku]

Looks like Ubi games are back now. But for how long this time?

 

[Alexandros]

And yet hundreds of thousands of people decided to support Sweeney, his store and his sh*tty moneyhatting strategy. It's sad, but not unexpected really. Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon were very successful on the Windows Store as well, despite uwp and shitloads of technical issues. But despite the success of these games, Microsoft did another U-turn in our favor. So I'm still not convinced that Epic will gain the loyalty of the pc community with their current strategy.

They won't, I'm confident of that. As long as the core community opposes Epic they will not be able to gain a foothold until they start providing customers with actual incentives.

 

[ISee]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

 

[NarohDethan]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

No, i dont want to pop a vein

 

[SRossi]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

no. fuck them.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I'm not. I'm just going to read about what was revealed on here.

 

[JMTHEFOX]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

I'm watching it on Twitch. I'm praying for some multi-store launches for the games announced there.

 

[Swenhir]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

Why would anyone sit through this willingly?

 

[ISee]

I'm watching it on Twitch. I'm praying for some multi-store launches for the games announced there.

Im praying for the audience to be as negative as possible.
But I also expect fanboys and payed chills to sit there, so...

Why would anyone sit through this willingly?

Seriously, I don't even know.
To make fun of it, while drinking whiskey I suppose.

 

[Digoman]

Still deciding if I should suffer through the "EGS Show" or not (I already have a nasty cold so a little more physical pain isn't going to make a difference).

On the "bright" side, with the awful regional prices games like KH3 have these days I would have to way to get it anyway.

So, are they going to simply play dumb or will Day9 make some stupid comment about being about the games and not the stores? Also, I'm really curious if they are going screen who gets in the audience

 

[Alexandros]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

I am, hoping for boos.

 

[Nabs]

I personally can't wait for the Epic Direct. Direct to the recycling bin.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

You know you're on an awesome message board when you go away for a few days and then want to quote EVERYONE while you were gone.

Most of these people complaining aren’t libertarian techbros. I don’t think you’d accuse the people writing op-eds at The Verge, Kotaku, Polygon or Ars Technica of being techbros. And I don’t think most people would categorize Tim or Sergey themselves as fitting in the techbro culture. Nor are many of the game developers who we see writing 400 tweet “Tweet threads” against Steam.

In fact, I might go so far as to say that the common theme with many of Steam’s current detractors is a kind of milquetoast, convenient Anglophone leftism. One of their regular accusations against Steam is in fact saying that they’re a fake libertarian meritocracy.

These people don’t actually want a free market, they want a market that’s open to them.

I honestly believe that such behaviour is caused by the fact that the game industry is relatively young and grew up in a relatively awkward way.

Back before the 200x indie boom, the barrier to entry was very high, and in some cases close to insurmountable.
Gaming was a niche, and by and large gamers were "hardcore" gamers, somehow expressing their (our) appreciation by considering the famous names (Miyamoto, Garriot, etc.) as actual idols, basically rockstars that the outer world had never even hear of.

That (my) generation grew up dreaming of becoming game devs, only few got to, and some of them became entitled.
Suddenly they only knew what was going on behind the scene, and everybody else had to STFU.

These people now are completely convinced they know better, even if their (legitimate) point of view is often more narrow (or biased, or oriented to something else) than ours.

So on one hand they managed to get where most of us couldn't, and therefore they think we don't know shit and we need to just buy whatever crap they tell us.
On the other, they never had any manager handling them. There's a reason why most old-school devs are generally nice persons compared to new ones: it's their social media manager talking.

I’m not saying they’re genuine portrayals of coherent left-wing thought.

That’s why I called them milquetoast leftists! Their arguments about Steam are often couched in vaguely left-wing concerns about diversity, the “little-guy” getting shut out, and technolibertarianism run rampant.

But when the cards are down...they’re just modern neoliberals, using those arguments out of convenience because it makes them seem more legitimate.

It sounds a lot better to say “Diverse and vulnerable game creators are getting squeezed out of the market” than to say “Fuck y’all, I want my game to be the only one on the market.”

I guess what I’m saying is that a lot of these people are functionally concern-trolls, masquerading as leftists to further their own bottom line. Somewhat akin to the “woke brands” on social media trying to seem like they’re hip and with the latest social movements.

Yeah, Epic isnt run by libertarian techbros. Tim and co. are the human personification of the Monopoly guy, with the twist of also being massive hypocrites.

I can agree to all of this. Thanks for the input.

I'll try to get my terminology right, but yeah, neoliberal is more accurate than libertarian techbro.

I said the same thing a week ago but I don't have a blue checkmark, so shrug

That's pretty much a yes to lashman's post without realizing it.

gotta love how Tim is just making up shit as he goes along now

"co-exclusives" ... what the fuck does that even mean? it either IS exclusive or ISN'T ... there is no middle-ground here

The legal distinction is probably what matters at this point. Paying to specifically keep people from doing business with a competitor is illegal, so they're getting as close to it as they can. From a PR standpoint I can't imagine anyone is really being fooled.

George Orwell warned us against doublespeak and fakenews propaganda, yet here we are being inundated by it.

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

Speaking of people being fooled bought off from a PR standpoint....

 

[Ge0force]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

Not watching it. Epic can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Firewithin]

Anybody else going to watch the


^PCGAMER _{financed by Epic} ^{presents: PCGAMING SHOW}_{powered by Epic Game Store} ?

I'm not sure I have enough alcohol at home to sit through it.

luckily im at work and cant watch moneyhat the show

 

[Ge0force]

I am, hoping for boos.

Please capture these moments for me