News Epic Games Store

[PC-Patriot]

... and i'm just a lazy bastard who wants to have most of his library in one place no, really ... that's basically the only reason why i was buying their games on steam (and why i won't continue to buy them on udontplay)

I don't think it is "lazy" or unfair to want your games on one client. I think it is that old fashioned term called "practical common fucking sense". I tried Origin for a while a few years ago. Here is a comparison of the differences between steam and origin.

Launching a game from steam = bringing the steam client up (it runs on windows startup because all my games are there) launch the game, game launches straight away with no need to update it.

Launching a game from Origin = Launch Origin (cannot run it on windows startup cos I have a low end pc and cannot run 200 clients at the same time). Log into Origin .... Origin needs an update .... update Origin ....... have to find login details again to login. At least 20 mins later finally at the game selection screen, pick game ...... game needs updating ....... fucking give up, close Origin and play something from steam.

The key benefit to me is that steam keeps ALL my games updated so they are ready to play when I want to play them. This is primarily why I will never use another client it doesn't matter what game these fuckers make exclusive to their store it will not get me using their store.

 

[beep boop]

I've made my peace a while ago with not having a single service for all my games. But at this point my position is basically anything but EGS. Steam offers me great services, GOG has made strides with Galaxy 2.0 and Uplay is not half bad either, while itch.io is a great place for independent games and player-developer interaction. Origin and Bnet are the odd ones out, but I rarely use either anyway. EGS does nothing for me while also engaging in practices that affect the wider PC space in ways I don't appreciate.

 

[lashman]

I've made my peace a while ago with not having a single service for all my games. But at this point my position is basically anything but EGS. Steam offers me great services, GOG has made strides with Galaxy 2.0 and Uplay is not half bad either, while itch.io is a great place for independent games and player-developer interaction. Origin and Bnet are the odd ones out, but I rarely use either anyway. EGS does nothing for me while also engaging in practices that affect the wider PC space in ways I don't appreciate.

i feel like that's the case for the majority of the people who don't want to use Tim's shitty store/launcher

 

[Gengis Khan]

I've made my peace a while ago with not having a single service for all my games. But at this point my position is basically anything but EGS. Steam offers me great services, GOG has made strides with Galaxy 2.0 and Uplay is not half bad either, while itch.io is a great place for independent games and player-developer interaction. Origin and Bnet are the odd ones out, but I rarely use either anyway. EGS does nothing for me while also engaging in practices that affect the wider PC space in ways I don't appreciate.

I have games all across the popular services (mostly because of gifts and freebies, admittedly) and I'm not a "Steam or burst" guy.
But make no mistake: I still buy most of my stuff on Steam and in the past five-six years I must have used Uplay or Origin for ONE purchase each.

While on Steam I'm open to plenty of "exploratory purchases" even for stuff I don't particularly care about, I will still avoid anything on these EA and Ubisoft services unless I perceive it as an absolute "must have". Which by my standards tend to be pretty fucking rare, by the way.

For the EGS is different. I will actively go out of my way to avoid anything they'll sell exclusively, no matter how appealing to me.
And yes, it's a matter of principle.

 

[lashman]

 

[LEANIJA]

I never minded having extra clients so much... just the way Epic is doing their business. But even if they hadnt gone with all the poaching of exclusives, I wouldnt use their store, because I reached critical mass of accounts and clients. Let's dive into that:

WoW/BattleNet: thats where my usage of client/accoung-based gaming basically started. I was so used to having to use CDs/DVDs to play games, and when I started playing WoW in 2007, I really liked that it just didnt need the CD to be in the drive... and when they launched the BNet client, I used that almoist instantly. I have some other games on there, but only play WoW.

Steam: thats where I keep the majority of my games and play them. Started using it in 2011. Wasn't happy about it first, but I needed an account to play my retail copy of Magicka, but soon noticed that it's a great client and the store with regular sales convinced me to keep using it. The constant influx of updates and new features just makes it the best there is, by a countrymile.

Origin: also started using that in 2011, when it was still called EA Download Manager, I noticed I could activate my retail Dragon Age code there and I wouldnt have to use the DVD, so I started using that back then, and have played EA games on there every now and then over the years. It's however not a great client, and the library is super slow. I prefer not having to use it. Their subscripting service is a good offer, but not for me, ultimately.

UPlay: when they started UPlay, it wasn't great, but eventually it got tolerable and I have pretty much all my Ubisoft games there. If only for the main reason that Humble, Fanatical, GMG offered UPlay keys and those places are where I generally buy games. Then at some points I had enough games in my UPlay library to justify buying directly from their store (the UPlay points 20% discount is nice, too). I do like Ubisofts games to some extent (AC:S, FC4, Rayman Legends, for example), but I really dislike their rampant greed.

Windows Store/XBox client: I had a MS account for years for some reason, and I tried the new Xbox client. Its okay. I like their subscription offer, but its not for me. I prefer owning my games.

BethesdaNet: a bad publisher with some great games by its studios.. Its really weird that they decided to use their own client for their small library of games. Well, at least they get released on Steam, too. I wont be using that client since its on par with the EGS in terms of how useless it is.
I do have a BethNet account since I used their forum once or twice (especially when they decided to apply German laws to Austria and released Wolfenstein New Order censored/regionlocked here....)

GOG: good store, mediocre client, Galaxy 2 is a good idea, and I hope Steam will shamelessly copy it somehow . I dont buy many games there though, just older ones that didnt come to Steam yet, and I usually purchase them again on Steam once they do.

I recently switched back to Linux anyway, and all of these services - except Steam of course - don't have Linux clients, but BattleNet runs fine thanks to WINE/Lutris. It's worth pointing out, to those who dont know, that Steam offers Proton which enables Windows games to run on Linux, and so far most of them ran just fine. But I'm not sure if I would wanna jump through hoops to get UPlay, Origin etc to run just to play their games.

EGS has shown me and plenty of others, that there are always more games to play than we have time anyway, and missing out on a few particular games isn't such a big deal. Well, thruth be told, that was clear for me for a long time anyway. I always hated exclusivity, including first-party-exclusivity. I had considered buying a PlayStation plenty of times, usually when highly praised PS-exclusives came out, but I haven't given in so far, and I don't think I will. As good as those games might be, so many more good games exist on PC. And the same is true for EGS: regardless of how many exclusives they secure, as long as they dont find a way to actively remove games from my Steam account (and I believe if they legally could do that, they would. For that matter, I am curious how they will handle Rocket League on Steam later on) ... then I do not see any reason to buy anything there. And I hardly see any reason to support developers/publishers who took their deal and later release on Steam. I don't need to reward that behaviour, these people aren't my friends, and if they sent me a clear message that my purchase doesn't matter to them, then so be it.

 

[Ge0force]

I've made my peace a while ago with not having a single service for all my games. But at this point my position is basically anything but EGS. Steam offers me great services, GOG has made strides with Galaxy 2.0 and Uplay is not half bad either, while itch.io is a great place for independent games and player-developer interaction. Origin and Bnet are the odd ones out, but I rarely use either anyway. EGS does nothing for me while also engaging in practices that affect the wider PC space in ways I don't appreciate.

I love how you don't even mention the Windows Store

 

[beep boop]

I love how you don't even mention the Windows Store

Oh right, that thing. Jesus. You know what, game pass is great value but they'll have to make things work and walk back on UWP for me to seriously consider it. The Messenger and Forza seem to run okay but everything else I tried has been unpleasant.

Lack of resolution settings and needing to win+shift+enter every other game because there's no setting for it is really something else. This is super niche, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why Undertale couldn't be installed on my system through GP/winstore. Turns out I had it installed through Steam already. No error codes, nothing. The install button just didn't work. My Life at Portia also wouldn't download for some reason or another after my initial download was interrupted by a restart. Cue over an hour of troubleshooting which could've been solved by me deleting the folder for the game, but unfortunately Windows doesn't let you access it even with elevated privileges.

 

[Chudah]

Wake me up than Ubi's strategy backfires with plummeting PC sales, they're crawling back to Steam and 30% is realistic again.

I'm going to suggest that Ubisoft wants back on Steam, but they don't want to pay the 30% cut (which is more likely 20% with how their games sell). So they're trying to pressure Valve into lowering their cut, yet again. I don't think EGS is working out well for them (although I'm sure U-Play is seeing record sales).

 

[madjoki]

People should really play Borderlands 2 copy they already own as protest against BL3 exclusivity on release day.

I'm going to suggest that Ubisoft wants back on Steam, but they don't want to pay the 30% cut (which more likely be 20% with how their games sell). So they're trying to pressure Valve into lowering their cut, yet again. I don't think EGS is working out well for them (although I'm sure U-Play is seeing record sales).

Probably. I think many Ubi games would reach 20% tier, much better than the standard 30%, but it's still long way to there.
But when will EGS save consoles?

 

[lashman]

But when will EGS save consoles?

hopefully very soon

 

[Rosenkrantz]

I'm going to suggest that Ubisoft wants back on Steam, but they don't want to pay the 30% cut (which is more likely 20% with how their games sell). So they're trying to pressure Valve into lowering their cut, yet again. I don't think EGS is working out well for them (although I'm sure U-Play is seeing record sales).

Valve ain't gonna give them 12% cut, not because they don't want it (and they obviously don't), because it's impossible to sustain the mammoth like Steam on that cut. If Ubi wants to start tantrums over 20% cut then I'm all in to see them being humbled the hard way.

hopefully very soon

Do it! I wanna see gears of mind spinning in console gamers heads before they accuse Sweeney of treachery and anti-competitive business practices.

 

[LEANIJA]

People should really play Borderlands 2 copy they already own as protest against BL3 exclusivity on release day.

I'm gonna play some games that arent bland.

 

[beep boop]

Didn't The Division 2 (PC) outsell the first one? Or was that just on Uplay? I think Ubisoft will eventually just go Uplay only rather than return to Steam.

 

[Chudah]

Didn't The Division 2 (PC) outsell the first one? Or was that just on Uplay? I think Ubisoft will eventually just go Uplay only rather than return to Steam.

We never got EGS numbers for The Division 2, but I do believe it outsold the first one, likely because it's a better game. Still, if they were just going to sit on U-Play, why even discuss Steam's cut at all? Activision and EA don't seem to care all that much since abandoning the platform..

 

[lashman]

Didn't The Division 2 (PC) outsell the first one? Or was that just on Uplay? I think Ubisoft will eventually just go Uplay only rather than return to Steam.

yeah, i'm pretty sure they aren't coming back to steam any time soon (if ever) ... 12 months or not

 

[Gengis Khan]

Didn't The Division 2 (PC) outsell the first one? Or was that just on Uplay? I think Ubisoft will eventually just go Uplay only rather than return to Steam.

I'm not sure, I've heard that it started stronger at first but it declined way faster than the original.
Also, they were happy about how much the sales on Uplay increased but they've been purposefully vague about the EGS performances.

I've also noticed this bizarre trend in most news where the EGS is involved: the reports seem to be willing to trip over each other to tell everyone how everything is fine and how well Epic is doing... But then these games seem to completely disappear from any public discourse.
It's true to some extent for the bigger names, but when it comes to the smaller titles it's immediately noticeable: no one on Youtube or reddit seems to be even aware that games like Operencia or that Bugbear racing game ever released.

 

[Ge0force]

Didn't The Division 2 (PC) outsell the first one? Or was that just on Uplay? I think Ubisoft will eventually just go Uplay only rather than return to Steam.

That was just on uPlay. If I remember correctly, The Division 2 sold similar numbers than The Division 1 at launch, which is nothing to write home about I guess.

 

[madjoki]

The Division 1 probably didn't sell that much at launch. They said 2 sold 6x on uplay yeah.

 

[beep boop]

We never got EGS numbers for The Division 2, but I do believe it outsold the first one, likely because it's a better game. Still, if they were just going to sit on U-Play, why even discuss Steam's cut at all? Activision and EA don't seem to care all that much since abandoning the platform..

Sustain the narrative and "disrupt" Steam, position Uplay as a better alternative for their games and have less pushback for not releasing their stuff on Steam once this idea takes root.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Catching up on yesterday's convo about Borderlands 3.

Epic can sell whatever. But will the game have a sustainable multiplayer ecosystem on Epic. That we have yet to see.

 

[Chudah]

Sustain the narrative and "disrupt" Steam, position Uplay as a better alternative for their games and have less pushback for not releasing their stuff there once this idea takes root.

But how much pushback are they really getting right now? Most people are just happy to have an alternative to EGS.

 

[lashman]

Most people are just happy to have an alternative to EGS.

yeah, sadly

 

[beep boop]

But how much pushback are they really getting right now? Most people are just happy to have an alternative to EGS.

That was a great play, but I'm sure there's a not insignificant share of users who didn't come along to Uplay.

 

[madjoki]

That was ubisofts plan all along.

 

[Dandy]

Wake me up than Ubi's strategy backfires with plummeting PC sales, they're crawling back to Steam and 30% is realistic again.

That would be nice. I think it will likely just drive more people to buy from Uplay, which means more money for them though.

 

[Chudah]

That was a great play, but I'm sure there's a not insignificant share of users who didn't come along to Uplay.

Oh, I'm sure, and more power to them. I actually love how they're using the EGS for their own benefit (basically taking the cash, then getting most of the sales on their own launcher). But I don't think they're going to hurt Steam as much as they think they will. And it seems that most Japanese devs/pubs are sticking with Steam, which is all I really care about.

 

[lashman]

That was ubisofts plan all along.

of course it was ... they've been treating steam users worse and worse with each release for a good while now ... so yeah, we all knew it was going to happen eventually

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Steam didn't have Ubi for years and survived, now Ubi are gone Steam will still survive and i can't really be mad at Ubi taking Tim's money knowing full well they already had a store of their own that people used. It was Win/Win for Ubisoft, essentially they got paid to make their games exclusive to UbiStore.

 

[TioChuck]

SInce Uplay, the only way to buy Steam version of Ubisoft games were through Steam, leaving Steam they didn't gain Uplay users, they lost the Steam users, I'm extremily curious to see what will heppen for then from now on, Anno, even with the limited Steam sales, doesn't look like sold much, with the free week, discounts and all.

 

[Alexandros]

The last game I bought that wasn't a Steam game is Starcraft 2. Every 3 years or so so I pay EA 4 euros and mop up any worthwhile singleplayer content they have (which is not much) and I'll be adopting the same strategy for Ubisoft if they leave Steam for good. I use the Steam Controller for 100% of my gaming (I don't own any consoles) and I have no desire to change configurations and jump through hoops every time I want to play a non-Steam game.

 

[Swenhir]

Steam’s Business Model Is “Unrealistic” – Ubisoft

gamingbolt.com

I guess this is merely friendly PR in exchange for the big checks. He doesn't even specify what about Steam's BM is unrealistic. He sounds like a Mafia boss trying to make protection money sound ethical. But then again, Ubi's foot has a history of belonging in their mouth.

 

[lashman]

Ubi's foot has a history of belonging in their mouth.

more than any other publisher out there (especially when it comes to PC)

 

[Chudah]

I guess this is merely friendly PR in exchange for the big checks. He doesn't even specify what about Steam's BM is unrealistic. He sounds like a Mafia boss trying to make protection money sound ethical. But then again, Ubi's foot has a history of belonging in their mouth.

Shhhhh!!! Don't you dare insinuate Sweeny is a mob boss! That man is a saint. A SAINT!!!

 

[Trisolarian]

I guess this is merely friendly PR in exchange for the big checks. He doesn't even specify what about Steam's BM is unrealistic. He sounds like a Mafia boss trying to make protection money sound ethical. But then again, Ubi's foot has a history of belonging in their mouth.

Lol no one with a brain believes that this guy is speaking from anyplace except one were they want more money.

 

[Gengis Khan]

I was just lurking "elsewhere" that new thread about how low on average new games on Steam make in revenue (let's overlook who started it!).

I have to say I'm a bit confused about the conclusions some users are drawing there. "This just proves that devs should definitely take the EGS exclusivity deal!".
Don't they realize that most of these games LOWERING the average are precisely the ones that will NEVER get an exclusivity deal (or any sort of release, really) on the EGS?

 

[Firewithin]

like more and more devs coming out and basically throwing egs under the bus

 

[Kuro]

About BL3 and more casual PC gamers, I don't know anyone that's going to wait for it to come to their store of preference outside these forums.
Very much a product of hype and people will (rightfully so) feel like they're missing out if they're not on it day 1.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Don't they realize that most of these games LOWERING the average are precisely the ones that will NEVER get an exclusivity deal (or any sort of release, really) on the EGS?

Those are empty talking points, I think the majority of posters realize that Epic only wants games with a relatively large pre-release following, but if you can bark on Steam a little bit, why not to use an opportunity.

 

[Trisolarian]

Those are empty talking points, I think the majority of posters realize that Epic only wants games with a relatively large pre-release following, but if you can bark on Steam a little bit, why not to use an opportunity.

Bark on steam all they like, most of us have only ever used Uplay begrudgingly and that isn't going to change. I guess they have a store in their client or something, idk, never used it.

Btw, not a threat or anything but any game that doesn't come to steam, steam usually has an alternative game that is very close to what is missing, outside of ULTRA AAA releases.

I was just lurking "elsewhere" that new thread about how low on average new games on Steam make in revenue (let's overlook who started it!).

I have to say I'm a bit confused about the conclusions some users are drawing there. "This just proves that devs should definitely take the EGS exclusivity deal!".
Don't they realize that most of these games LOWERING the average are precisely the ones that will NEVER get an exclusivity deal (or any sort of release, really) on the EGS?

As far as 'who' started that thread, I've always liked them and I haven't been involved in anything more than reading the silliness for the past few months, so I think everyone should give them the benefit of the doubt. They were an legit member of PC focused monthly threads before EGS blew shit up.

 

[Knurek]

What a bunch of whiny martyrs.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

The last game that I bought that wasn't on Steam was Destiny 2. I also have a subscription to Origin Access, but haven't play anything in a long time. I was sorta interested in uPlay Access or w/e, but that shit is too expensive.

 

[lashman]

I was sorta interested in uPlay Access or w/e, but that shit is too expensive.

it really is ... and it also quickly adds up

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I buy games from not-steam all of the time, and frankly I'm not going to stipulate to the argument that buying a steam key from humble / gmg / fanatical is still buying "from steam".

 

[Gengis Khan]

I buy games from not-steam all of the time, and frankly I'm not going to stipulate to the argument that buying a steam key from humble / gmg / fanatical is still buying "from steam".

Financially it definitely isn't.
Technically speaking it's still "embracing the service". But I'm absolutely fine with that, since Steam gained its right to be considered the "default" PC gaming service by coming first and staying on top of the game for 16 fucking years.

EDIT: Also, by becoming more and more open and customer-friendly over time, rather than going in the opposite direction.

 

[Ge0force]

There are just too many good games on Steam, and too many similar games as well. I can't imagine that anyone who wants to play games doesn't find a game to buy.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Financially it definitely isn't.
Technically speaking it's still "embracing the service". But I'm absolutely fine with that, since Steam gained its right to be considered the "default" PC gaming service by coming first and staying on top of the game for 16 fucking years.

EDIT: Also, by becoming more and more open and customer-friendly over time, rather than going in the opposite direction.

Yes, but by acknowledging "steamworks" as the same thing as "sold on steam" you're automatically conceding a very debatable point, that it is solely about a "30% valve cut!".
A title can be steamworks and sold at the same RRP / MSRP on publisherhomepage.com for a 100% revenue share (minus whatever payment processing solution overheads they might have) as long as it is also sold on steam at an industry standard retailer margin. By doing so it still also allows for retail competition if that same publisher does what a publisher should want to do, which is make its product as widely available as possible.

It negates the actual customer benefits of having steamworks titles being, well, steamworks titles, and lets the people who for whatever reasons have an existential concern with steam in and of itself play the "just a launcher bro!" game.
Those self same people would absolutely lose their shit if - say - EA or Activision no longer supported PSN / XBL standard features in order to roll their own solution, and "just a different sign in bro!" lost them access to their friends lists, cloud saves, matchmaking, chat features, etc etc etc

 

[Kyougar]

I don't think the "casual crowd" plays on pc. Maybe I'm being elitist but my understanding of the pc gaming crowd is that we are more educated than the average gamer(tm) hence why things like gfwl or uwp failed.
Plus, the success of BL2 in the past can be seen as a perfect storm kind of thing. It was a fresh experience that didn't have any rival at the time. it was juvenile and edgy enough to be on par with the attitude at the time and Gearbox had all the goodwill on their side. Now though? It's another generic experience in a crowded market and genre that still uses the same comedic 'edgyness' that stopped being relevant 5 years ago and Gearbox lost any goodwill it had after 2 gigantic flops, a lot of lies and the never-ending controversies surrounding it's ceo.

The casual gaming crowd on PC is twenty times bigger than the console crowd. But I think what you mean and what the industry and market research firms mean are quite different.
Some Simulation games sell more than quite a few console exclusives. A big chunk of League of Legends / Dota / World of tanks and other gaas games are casual gamers.

Regardless, Blands3's success is not granted. The last Bland was mediocre and the market and taste of the consumers are quite different then when Blands 2 came out.

 

[Copons]

I recently switched back to Linux anyway, and all of these services - except Steam of course - don't have Linux clients, but BattleNet runs fine thanks to WINE/Lutris. It's worth pointing out, to those who dont know, that Steam offers Proton which enables Windows games to run on Linux, and so far most of them ran just fine. But I'm not sure if I would wanna jump through hoops to get UPlay, Origin etc to run just to play their games.

I think this is SO important, and so underestimated by the majority!

Having Linux support for the client and for games via Proton might seem small potatoes, but it's part of the whole accessibility thing, which it's absolutely crucial.

In the web industry, we spend an absurd amount of time making sure our systems are accessible to users with various form of disabilities. Say, vision impaired folks need bigger text or even full screen reader support; other people might need to be able to navigate with the keyboard only; deafness has some requirements, autism some others.

So we usually don't think of "Linux" as an accessibility problem, but in fact it totally is.

Even if we don't consider the pro users, Linux, in its many forms, is also a cheap alternative to Win, especially in poorer markets.
Though, it's also what powers Android phones and Chromebooks.

Opening the platform to Linux (on top of Win and Mac) means that absolutely everyone can use it.

And this is where accessibility turns into cash.

If a web developer doesn't provide screen reader support, they aren't just being sloppy. They are losing a certain amount of potential customers.
Same for Steam and "frenemies".

Let's say that Windows users who only play at their desk with an Xbox controller are the 80% of the potential userbase.
Supporting Linux might increase that to 85%.
In-home streaming to the big TV to the 90%.
Custom controller mapping might add the people who have physical trouble with the standard layout, to the 95%.
And so on.

(Aside: this has a cost. Let's say... something around the 30% of the revenue )

In my entirely made up scenario, Steam has a 15% edge over the competition (any competition).
Might be more, might be less, it's not important.
What's important is that Steam has less entry barriers, and therefore can provide to a larger number (and more diverse) of customers.

I don't expect developers to be aware of all of this, it's not their job. They see the Epic offer and they accept it because who wouldn't.
Though, I would expect that publishers, who are supposed to know all the market shit, wouldn't overlook this kind of edge.

And yet.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

it happened