Epic has not changed one single thing about Valve and that's actually great. Valve is not even responding or acknowledging any of the Tim Twitter shenanigans. I wish I would be able to hold my cool that good, when constantly provoked.
Let's also be fair about business development at valve. It does not exist. They just do stuff and do what they think is healthy for PC gaming, because PC gaming prints money for them. They also understand that piracy was the biggest thread to PC gaming and that it was about to destroy it.
They established a healthy PC client, with fair prices, mod support, online family sharing, a voice chat options, cloud saves, achievements and a fair return policy that makes preorders not a really problem. They tried to establish a console like PC distribution with Steam Boxes, unified controller support in their eco system and tried to bring out a new one to improve keyboard less gaming. They are invested in Linux support (because let's be real about what company really holds the reigns in PC gaming: Microsoft) and are investing in new, exciting technologies like VR.
I sound like a total fanboy, and maybe I am (despite buying games on GOG, whenever possible) and I understand that they are a company and only invested in PC gaming because it is how they earn money. But it is really hard to not like Valve/Steam as a PC gamer, imagine EA would own Steam and how bad things would look like then. I am very happy Valve never changed, because for some time I was very worried that they might go and start to buy games themselves. They didn't.
I also leave this (well known) email from Gabe here. It is about Oculus exclusivity.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me!
Let's also be fair about business development at valve. It does not exist. They just do stuff and do what they think is healthy for PC gaming, because PC gaming prints money for them. They also understand that piracy was the biggest thread to PC gaming and that it was about to destroy it.
They established a healthy PC client, with fair prices, mod support, online family sharing, a voice chat options, cloud saves, achievements and a fair return policy that makes preorders not a really problem. They tried to establish a console like PC distribution with Steam Boxes, unified controller support in their eco system and tried to bring out a new one to improve keyboard less gaming. They are invested in Linux support (because let's be real about what company really holds the reigns in PC gaming: Microsoft) and are investing in new, exciting technologies like VR.
I sound like a total fanboy, and maybe I am (despite buying games on GOG, whenever possible) and I understand that they are a company and only invested in PC gaming because it is how they earn money. But it is really hard to not like Valve/Steam as a PC gamer, imagine EA would own Steam and how bad things would look like then. I am very happy Valve never changed, because for some time I was very worried that they might go and start to buy games themselves. They didn't.
I also leave this (well known) email from Gabe here. It is about Oculus exclusivity.
We are happy to offset that (risk) giving developers development funds. Essentially pre-paid Steam revenue [1:1 how Epic pays for exclusivity]. However there are no strings attached to those funds - they can develop for the Rift or PSVR or whatever the developer thinks are the right target VR systems. Our hope is tat by providing funding that developers will be less likely to take on deals that rquire them to be exclusive.
Make sense?
Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me!