News Epic Games Store

[Álvaro de Campos]

And now for something completely different:

Have you heard about our Lord and Savior Sam Harris? He has this neat iOS/Android app called Waking Up, it's essentially a course on meditation and mindfulness, which you might find strange if you recognize the name considering he was one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism and a cognitive neuroscientist. Anyhow, you can do 5 days and 5 lessons of the course free of charge, so give it a try and see if you like it. Also remember, mindfulness isn't just a "hey let's take 10 minutes to relax every day", it's a skill that will accompany you throughout your whole life and aid you in dealing with suffering, if you stick to it.

 

[RionaaM]

I'm still not sure why every week or so, members of the media, and developers/publishers, keep posting statements, giving interviews, or making opinion articles on how I should be using a certain store, how it's better for me, and that I'm this and that if I don't do so. Heck, I even had the developers of Phoenix Point, Shenmue III, and Rune 2 tell me that, after I dropped some significant amounts of money on their games (especially with Shenmue III).

Really, as a potential customer, I'm the one that decides what I buy, where I buy it (or if I buy it or not), and it's extremely patronizing that all these people think they're better than me at deciding what's best... for me.

I can decide not to buy from one store, simply because I don't like the name. Or the colour of the page. I don't need any justifications for it, it's my hard earned money that I'm spending, I'm the one calling the shots on my purchases.
And price is not even the biggest decider in my options. Countless times I bought games, not from the places where it was cheaper, but because the websites I used had better customer support.

Yep. It's funny that they single-handedly decided they were entitled to choose how I should spend my hard-earned money. The day they start doing my job for me will be the day they can finally choose what to do with that money. Until then, I'll keep spending it however I please, and no amount of guilt tripping will change that decision.

Seriously, the only think you'll achieve by constantly bashing me with your annoying "Give me your money or you are a terrible person" statements is pissing me off and losing my patronage now and forevermore. For your own sake, please don't be that person.

To repeat what I said above, if you want to forget about all this EGS crap for an hour or two, and just have fun with fellow Meta members, do check blindrhythm's Co-Op thread, and show up to one of our "sessions".

You will find it's a lot of fun just playing games for the fun of it.

Tonight, we're back for another round of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
The last time, 5 minutes before the games were supposed to be starting, I was reading the instructions because it had been so long, I forgot about the controls.

I second this post. Had a lot of fun playing with these awesome folks last week, even though they kicked my butt so bad it's still hurting. So if you don't mind losing time and time again, it's totally worth joining them in today's event. Sadly I can't make it tonight, but I hope to play again with them soon.

 

[Dandy]

That RPS article tried to be semi-critical of EGS... but they dismissed the "EGS isn't great for consumers" stuff with "but curation!"

I am so over this tired complaint about Steam's curation. Do people actually just login to Steam with no clue what they want to buy, so they need to rely on recommendations? Because that seems so strange to me. I genuinely only buy games I've heard about elsewhere. I don't rely on a store to tell me what games I want.

I dunno. Maybe other folks do just browse randomly?

 

[Ge0force]

That RPS article tried to be semi-critical of EGS... but they dismissed the "EGS isn't great for consumers" stuff with "but curation!"

I am so over this tired complaint about Steam's curation. Do people actually just login to Steam with no clue what they want to buy, so they need to rely on recommendations? Because that seems so strange to me. I genuinely only buy games I've heard about elsewhere. I don't rely on a store to tell me what games I want.

I dunno. Maybe other folks do just browse randomly?

One of my colleagues doesn't visit gaming sites or forums. But yet when I advise him a game I like, chances are huge that he bought it already or has it in his wish list. When I ask him how he learned about his game, I always get the same answer: recommended by Steam on his personal store page.

Some people don't seem to understand that this store page IS Valve's way to offer curation.

 

[Samson]

No.

Tim is outright bribing media like PC Gamer and RPS to stan for EGS. Let alone companies like Ubisoft and indies like Supergiant Games.

Trump is distorting people's perceptions and receptions of plain facts while radicalizing people to commit heinous crimes in the name of white supremacy.

Not one person has died indirectly, or directly as a result of EGS. So stop it.

Lmfao, I literally said that it's not important as the Trump or Brexit, so fuck off with this shit.

Tim is absolutely taking cues from the post-factual environment that Trump (and others) have created. It's something almost all major corporations are taking advantage of, because it makes the destructive goals of late-stage capitalism even easier than they've ever been.

Are CEOs lying about video games that important in the scheme of things? No. Is this an argument that I'd lead with against EGS supporters? Nope. Is it still something destructive to the industry and something to dislike? Sure.

 

[Wildebeet]

I always took the press affinity for curation to be that more games, especially if the whole floodgates open up and everything is just here on Steam, the press' job gets a lot harder. So before when Steam was curated, they just covered what happened and every site covered mostly the same games. Now no press outlet can cover everything, and they have to actually research and choose so it's a change to their routine and it's a pain in the ass. Of course, I look at curation as the actual purpose of reviews, as opposed to an Official Record of Artistic Game Merit By Expert Game People, but that's just me.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I always took the press affinity for curation to be that more games, especially if the whole floodgates open up and everything is just here on Steam, the press' job gets a lot harder. So before when Steam was curated, they just covered what happened and every site covered mostly the same games. Now no press outlet can cover everything, and they have to actually research and choose so it's a change to their routine and it's a pain in the ass. Of course, I look at curation as the actual purpose of reviews, as opposed to an Official Record of Artistic Game Merit By Expert Game People, but that's just me.

the more cynical take, of course, would be that if a shop provides you with all the necessary tools to tailor your purchase habits to your own unique preferences, then you no longer need a 'kingmaker' role to champion titles for you and no longer feel the need to pay attention to them.

 

[bobnowhere]

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).

I don't think the 8% difference is a big thing, Ubisoft want 100% of the microtransactions like Epic offered. They believe once someone has bought the game, it's their cash. It's no coincidence Ubisoft are still launching non-GAAS games on Steam.

 

[Wildebeet]

the more cynical take, of course, would be that if a shop provides you with all the necessary tools to tailor your purchase habits to your own unique preferences, then you no longer need a 'kingmaker' role to champion titles for you and no longer feel the need to pay attention to them.

Yeah that's also a good point. I wonder if steam opening the floodgates and promising auto curation was like "robots are coming for my job!" for reviewers.

 

[C-Dub]

Yeah that's also a good point. I wonder if steam opening the floodgates and promising auto curation was like "robots are coming for my job!" for reviewers.

Possibly. I think another issue is that pundits are always angling for their next meal ticket, because we all know the punditry is underpaid and underappreciated work. How many times have we seen members of the "press" land a PR, social media, or (if they're lucky) assistant producer role in a company they said nice things about?

Valve doesn't concubine members of the press and instead hires people it thinks will add value to the company, which explains why the human centipede that is the career trajectory of games industry pundits never sees these people working there. It also explains why they're always so hostile to them in a way they aren't with other companies that do far worse.

 

[Wildebeet]

Possibly. I think another issue is that pundits are always angling for their next meal ticket, because we all know the punditry is underpaid and underappreciated work. How many times have we seen members of the "press" land a PR, social media, or (if they're lucky) assistant producer role in a company they said nice things about?

Valve doesn't concubine members of the press and instead hires people it thinks will add value to the company, which explains why the human centipede that is the career trajectory of games industry pundits never sees these people working there. It also explains why they're always so hostile to them in a way they aren't with other companies that do far worse.

That's basically IGN in a nutshell. That place is a revolving door to industry for anybody who wants to go huge on hype, console wars and review scores. No indie developer pays like 2K or Microsoft. Curation is a giant barrier to entry that I'm sure many in the big league press would rather see remain tall and wide for as long as possible until they can land a better job.

 

[Chudah]

Gonna be honest, I'm not seeing much talk about all of those Epic news stories today, not on other boards or on Twitter (usually at least one of the devs I follow would be retweeting something about it).

 

[lashman]

Gonna be honest, I'm not seeing much talk about all of those Epic news stories today, not on other boards or on Twitter (usually at least one of the devs I follow would be retweeting something about it).

hopefully everyone got bored by now

 

[Nabs]

bless up

 

[Samson]

the more cynical take, of course, would be that if a shop provides you with all the necessary tools to tailor your purchase habits to your own unique preferences, then you no longer need a 'kingmaker' role to champion titles for you and no longer feel the need to pay attention to them.

It's cynical, but I don't think it's untrue. This is probably the thing that everyone fears actually. Not just the press, but corporations and developers too.

Big video game corps want to be selling their product to as many people as possible. So they really want to be selling their product on stores that are willing to show advertisements to everyone, even people only marginally interested in it (and hell, even people actively disinterested!). Whether that be something like traditional signage in a Gamestop/Walmart, or promotional banners on a digital storefront.

Valve has a big-tech, big data, techno-libertarian dream of showing you a storefront someday that's not trying to convince you to buy things you don't actually want or need. They want to create optimized exposure to products the customers actually wants and/or that they might not know about that align with their demonstrated (and known via Big Data) preferences. The idea behind what the front-page of Steam (and its recommendation/discovery queue systems) are trying to do is very at odds with the traditional "Come buy all this useless shite you don't really need" mode of plain consumerism.

 

[lashman]

bless up

Edmund bless

 

[Knurek]

bless up

Ooh, someone is lighting up the Sweeney negotiation signal.

 

[C-Dub]

Ooh, someone is lighting up the Sweeney negotiation signal.

We can’t be cynical about all of these people. Sega said they weren’t interested in exclusivity and they were probably given an opportunity with Humankind, and have refused.

I think some companies and developers just know their (potential) audience.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Edmund McMillen and "bless" in the same sentence. What a world we live in.

 

[Trisolarian]

And now for something completely different:

Have you heard about our Lord and Savior Sam Harris? He has this neat iOS/Android app called Waking Up, it's essentially a course on meditation and mindfulness, which you might find strange if you recognize the name considering he was one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism and a cognitive neuroscientist. Anyhow, you can do 5 days and 5 lessons of the course free of charge, so give it a try and see if you like it. Also remember, mindfulness isn't just a "hey let's take 10 minutes to relax every day", it's a skill that will accompany you throughout your whole life and aid you in dealing with suffering, if you stick to it.

Sam Harris sucks, sorry not sorry.

 

[Álvaro de Campos]

Sam Harris sucks, sorry not sorry.

I understand why someone might think that, which is why thankfully there's plenty of alternatives. I just wanted to share the one I personally like the most.
I have also tried Experience Calm and Meditation and Sleep Made Simple - Headspace and can tentatively recommend those.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Yeah, personally I really like Calm

 

[MJunioR]

Humankind preview and interview – Civilization finally gets a serious rival

The makers of Endless Space try their hand at a Civilization style strategy game and discuss the temptations of Epic Games Store exclusivity.

metro.co.uk

GC: You joked about it in the demo, but would you really consider becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive?

JS: [laughs] Everybody’s been in touch. I mean, all of a sudden, in the last 18 months, we’ve had Stadia, we’ve had Epic Games, we’ve had the new console generation announced… there are so many options. That’s why we’re trying to simplify and say, ‘Look, right now we’re going to make a really good PC game’.

GC: Would you consider not doing it purely so as to not upset fans?

JS: Frankly, if somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, do you want $25 million and we’ll make you an exclusive?’ We’re going to go [makes the face anyone would make if offered $25 million].

GC: I’m not sure it’d be quite that much. [laughs]

JS: [laughs] Right! But we are a for-profit organisation and you have to assume the consequences of that. But right now we’ve had a great relationship with Steam for eight years. There’s a lot of other options out there… of course we’re talking to them. Of course you have marketing visits from people. But I don’t even know, marketing doesn’t, she’s PR [points to PR woman] and she doesn’t know… We’re talking to everybody, but I would hate to ruin our relationship with Steam or make the community angry. Thankfully I just do the writing and a bit of design. That’s not my responsibility. [laughs]

Tim getting a $30m check ready for Amplitute real quick

 

[Wildebeet]

Tim getting a $30m check ready for Amplitute real quick

I don't mind Humankind having a year of bugfixing under it's belt before I buy it on sale. Do it, Epic.

 

[C-Dub]

If Humankind wants any chance of taking on Civ, they’d be monumentally dumb to take any offer.

 

[Arsene]

Humankind preview and interview – Civilization finally gets a serious rival

The makers of Endless Space try their hand at a Civilization style strategy game and discuss the temptations of Epic Games Store exclusivity.

metro.co.uk

Tim getting a $30m check ready for Amplitute real quick

Would SEGA be down for it though? The interview with SEGA Europe a few months ago really implied they werent interested in exclusivity deals.

 

[lashman]

Would SEGA be down for it though? The interview with SEGA Europe a few months ago really implied they werent interested in exclusivity deals.

yeah ... they all "aren't interested" until they are ... just like Rebellion

 

[MJunioR]

Epic Games Store Feature Roadmap: What's Changing?

Get an update on our Trello board

www.epicgames.com

 

[PhaZZe]

Epic Games Store Feature Roadmap: What's Changing?

Get an update on our Trello board

www.epicgames.com

"Epic" copying "valve" time?

 

[MJunioR]

"Epic" copying "valve" time?

I think that they are going to compete with Valve at least on that

announce a date > delay > delay > delay > delay > change the release date so it's only known internally > hope people forget > repeat this process on almost every feature on the roadmap

On the same note, it's nice to remember that the guy that did the Mechwarriors 5 AMA after the exclusivity deal was announced guaranteed that EGS would have their 'workshop' by early 2020, and we all know how Randy trusts Tim to get some features ready for BL3 launch.

 

[Samson]

Humankind preview and interview – Civilization finally gets a serious rival

The makers of Endless Space try their hand at a Civilization style strategy game and discuss the temptations of Epic Games Store exclusivity.

metro.co.uk

Tim getting a $30m check ready for Amplitute real quick

It would actually be kind of hilarious to see someone bankroll a proper competitor to Civilization. I wouldn't be happy about it being EGS exclusive but I'd still kind of laugh to see wtf Firaxis could do.

 

[grosso_modo3]

Looked through updated epic trello. They are up to work /w some algorithms (Discover & Trending). Devs better start packing.

 

[PC-Patriot]

I think that they are going to compete with Valve at least on that

announce a date > delay > delay > delay > delay > change the release date so it's only known internally > hope people forget > repeat this process on almost every feature on the roadmap

On the same note, it's nice to remember that the guy that did the Mechwarriors 5 AMA after the exclusivity deal was announced guaranteed that EGS would have their 'workshop' by early 2020, and we all know how Randy trusts Tim to get some features ready for BL3 launch.

But but Randy Prickford told me that Borderlands 3 would force Epic to bring all these features to customers cos "reasons". I would show you the tweets where he emphatically showed how everything would be wonderful. Unfortunately I can't find them ....... it's as if someone has deleted them .......... hm odd that.

I am getting so very very tired of the bullshit this industry says and does. I think right now if there was a games industry collapse I would actually be fucking cheering it on.

 

[MJunioR]

But but Randy Prickford told me that Borderlands 3 would force Epic to bring all these features to customers cos "reasons". I would show you the tweets where he emphatically showed how everything would be wonderful. Unfortunately I can't find them ....... it's as if someone has deleted them .......... hm odd that.

I am getting so very very tired of the bullshit this industry says and does. I think right now if there was a games industry collapse I would actually be fucking cheering it on.

wait, did randy delete those tweets? can't help but laugh at all this

 

[lashman]

wait, did randy delete those tweets? can't help but laugh at all this

probably because there were some vague threats towards epic in those tweets (if they don't add all those features by the time Blands releases)

 

[MJunioR]

probably because there were some vague threats towards epic in those tweets (if they don't add all those features by the time Blands releases)

Shit still there, which makes things even better for BL3 launch

 

[lashman]

Shit still there, which makes things even better for BL3 launch

yup, that's the one

 

[PC-Patriot]

yup, that's the one

Damn it that is the last time I trust reddit, you would think I would've learnt after last time when I tried to date a lovely girl on reddit with the user name "BigDongSurprise"

 

[unknownhero]

I am getting so very very tired of the bullshit this industry says and does. I think right now if there was a games industry collapse I would actually be fucking cheering it on.

forgive the sort of off topic but my friends have a theory that this might happen soon. Reason being is because (note: they are console players primary though they do own a few games on PC) of a few factors: 1, they fear that if google stradia does well then it will encourage the others to focus on a streaming subscription only, 2: Games are taking longer to be released(with some even skipping a gen like GTA and elder scrolls), and 3: the publishers are going to push gamers too far with loot boxes and microtransactions(see the 2k20 NBA trailer that pretty much promotes a casino). They theorize that a lot of console games will then migrate to PC or just drop gaming all together. I theorize that PC gaming might head into that direction if it's revealed that epic's methods are working, at least for the bigger companies and the popular "indie" studios.

 

[lashman]

 

[Ge0force]

Is Sweeney really linking to Timdog in that Tweet?

 

[lashman]

Is Sweeney really linking to Timdog in that Tweet?

desperate times ...

 

[MJunioR]

Damn it that is the last time I trust reddit, you would think I would've learnt after last time when I tried to date a lovely girl on reddit with the user name "BigDongSurprise"

As lashman said, this tweet will age like milk in mid summer Texas down the coming weeks so Randy will almost certainly remove it. I mean, he might remove, he might not. There's basically no win situation here for him.

^{pm me bigdongsurprise reddit profile}

Poor Tim really doing his best to make up for what he said back then and get some Halo on EGS

forgive the sort of off topic but my friends have a theory that this might happen soon. Reason being is because (note: they are console players primary though they do own a few games on PC) of a few factors: 1, they fear that if google stradia does well then it will encourage the others to focus on a streaming subscription only, 2: Games are taking longer to be released(with some even skipping a gen like GTA and elder scrolls), and 3: the publishers are going to push gamers too far with loot boxes and microtransactions(see the 2k20 NBA trailer that pretty much promotes a casino). They theorize that a lot of console games will then migrate to PC or just drop gaming all together. I theorize that PC gaming might head into that direction if it's revealed that epic's methods are working, at least for the bigger companies and the popular "indie" studios.

I would really hate to see this coming true but I mean, all pieces are in place for it to happen once the new gen starts.

 

[lashman]

Poor Tim really doing his best to make up for what he said back then and get some Halo on EGS

well he certainly tried - we know that much ... Phil pretty much confirmed it

 

[Knurek]

lashman you missed a better Sweeney tweet, when he's throwing a journo under the bus:

 

[lashman]

@lashman you missed a better Sweeney tweet, when he's throwing a journo under the bus:

yeah, i saw that one as well

 

[Arsene]

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.

None of the PC people I know are buying it until it comes to Steam. But im in Canada and we’re all getting fucked over by EGS so the EGS hate is pretty common here.

 

[bobnowhere]

PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!

 

[Kuro]

None of the PC people I know are buying it until it comes to Steam. But im in Canada and we’re all getting fucked over by EGS so the EGS hate is pretty common here.

Makes sense.
Local tech forum is also pretty EGS-neutral over here, to quote someone "same shit, different icing". We still got physical PC games in stores, many people don't really like the digital future Steam brought us.

 

[Arsene]

Makes sense.
Local tech forum is also pretty EGS-neutral over here, to quote someone "same shit, different icing". We still got physical PC games in stores, many people don't really like the digital future Steam brought us.

Oh yeah physical has been pretty dead here since last gen. (At least in my province). PC gaming is pretty popular in my town but nobody really cares about PC physical. I dont even think I know a single person IRL that has a optical drive anymore.

I'm personally fine with it. We have to pay 15% taxes on games here but not digitally (except for Humble Store and Nintendo Eshop) so digital has always been the cheaper alternative for me.