News Epic Games Store

[Swenhir]

The thing is, the biggest problems with Steam are on the devs side. Things like curation, visibility, what's allowed on the platform (there were a lot of issues last year with games being removed and put back with no clear reason) and others. Devs have been complaining for a long time and Valve does nothing or just things worse. And devs can't just say "I won't put my game on Steam", because if your game isn't on Steam, it pretty much doesn't exist.

That's what devs want from competition, that EGS forces Steam to look into their complaints.

And of course, money is a big incentive to them, why not? They need to survive! Have you seem the amount of mass layoffs the industry had in the last year alone? The level of uncertainty in this industry is absurd! If I owned a studio and Epic offered me a deal that would guarantee my studio to survive and make the next game, I would jump in instantly.



Alright, my bad. Pretty much all of them are also on Steam though. Because like I said before, not being on Steam is not a viable option. And that's the main issue here.

I'm sorry to interject but I have to point out the usual fallacy in saying Epic's "competition" will push Steam to improve on any kind of issue. It won't, not with moneyhats. The only reaction moneyhats invite and the only way they can be countered is by offering larger, more impactful moneyhats of your own.

Epic's tactics do not lead to any dev or customer-facing improvements.

The talk about Steam being a monopoly has been debunked by Sampson, if you are interested I invite you to read it.

It's not a monopoly, and anyone claiming it is should basically be ignored out of hand at this point.

At worst, Steam has a monopolistic position that they're not actually acting upon. Which makes sense, because Steam has basically acquired their (theoretically) monopolistic position basically by simply offering a quality product that consumers like, so the consumers flocked there and stayed there. Not by engaging in actually verified anti-competitive behavior like say, Microsoft in the mid-90s.

If Steam was actually acting like a monopoly, stores like GOG wouldn't exist anymore, and a store like the EGS would have been eliminated before it could have even drawn breath. But that didn't happen, because the store that supposedly has the monopolistic position (Steam) isn't actually doing what monopolies do: using their power to exclude competitors from the marketplace.

They're pretty simply offering a service that has acquired a critical mass of users through fairly natural popularity. Hell, they're not even doing the thing that a classic monopoly does, which is use their power to raise and manipulate pricing.

All this handwringing over Steam's monopoly comes across as highly dubious since most people complaining about it probably use (and benefit from) at least three services that are monopolistic in a given day (e.g., a certain search engine, video streaming platform and system OS).

Finally, Epic has not been moneyhatting indie games that were in dire need of exposure and funding. They were almost all proven quantities and already successful. Epic is buying games that are hyped up in order to build their userbase and most of the deals are actually with publishers, not studios.

It's not, a community manager replied to it.


Check the profile of the person commenting "arctyczyn," he's flaired as a community manager in his comments on other subs.

... Add it to the pile of issues with EGS then. I still can't believe that they screwed up this badly.

 

[Kuro]

I don't want to dogpile you because while I was asleep many people have already replied to you. I'll just address the point they didn't :
...

It's fine, I'm not taking this that seriously and find the exchanges most intriguing. Like I mentioned before but I've been on PC from era before Steam, so it's not exactly the same rose-tinted glasses for me.

Yes, I believe they paid to keep games exclusives to their launcher which is also on PC, but people make it sound like we will never get those games on PC now. Not saying this shouldn't be criticized but going back to my original point of making both of the "sides" look funny this is one of those things when people act like the game is not coming at all.

Just for the sake of discussion, I'm going to go through every game currently installed on my laptop and see what's Steam exclusive:

1. ...

I'll have to admit while the list looks great there's only 1 game I have played there (Divinity: Original Sin 2) so would assume this completely matter of taste as you mention, seems like Indies more often than not are available outside Steam too. To my experience most of my games are locked to Steam, but if we're just talking numbers then you're definitely right.

 

[Swenhir]

It's fine, I'm not taking this that seriously and find the exchanges most intriguing. Like I mentioned before but I've been on PC from era before Steam, so it's not exactly the same rose-tinted glasses for me.

Yes, I believe they paid to keep games exclusives to their launcher which is also on PC, but people make it sound like we will never get those games on PC now. Not saying this shouldn't be criticized but going back to my original point of making both of the "sides" look funny this is one of those things when people act like the game is not coming at all.

Cool, I know it sucks when people jump down your throat in droves and we're not on reddit here .

I see where you are coming from. I guess it depends how concerned you are by this particular issue which allows you to have more or less detachment from it. I still wouldn't ridicule people for caring, especially when they are right.

There's also the fact that if you truly want to be effective about boycotting those studios taking the moneyhats, then you can't buy the game when it comes out later on Steam. Doing it would defeat your original purpose. You have to follow through, or else it sends the message that moneyhatting is consequence-free.

This is what leads a good amount of people to act as if the game isn't coming out on PC because, short of pirating it, it won't for them if they want to be effective in their actions.

 

[Kuro]

Cool, I know it sucks when people jump down your throat in droves and we're not on reddit here .

I see where you are coming from. I guess it depends how concerned you are by this particular issue which allows you to have more or less detachment from it. I still wouldn't ridicule people for caring, especially when they are right.

There's also the fact that if you truly want to be effective about boycotting those studios taking the moneyhats, then you can't buy the game when it comes out later on Steam. Doing it would defeat your original purpose. You have to follow through else, or else it sends the message that moneyhatting is consequence-free.

This is what leads a good amount of people to act as if the game isn't coming out on PC because, short of pirating it, it won't for them if they want to be effective in their actions.

Wasn't my intention to ridicule but as heated people get, at least in my eyes it throws shade on the actual issues rather than bringing up a good point. Like, I've seen some posts online about this with a good point but the way they were written were downright childish "console warrior"-tier posts I can't help but to shrug.
I agree that people who feel strong about this and go on boycott will definitely have hard time, but snide remarks like "I'll be getting the free version" and promoting piracy is also one of the things that are not making your points any stronger.

 

[Swenhir]

Wasn't my intention to ridicule but as heated people get, at least in my eyes it throws shade on the actual issues rather than bringing up a good point. Like, I've seen some posts online about this with a good point but the way they were written were downright childish "console warrior"-tier posts I can't help but to shrug.
I agree that people who feel strong about this and go on boycott will definitely have hard time, but snide remarks like "I'll be getting the free version" and promoting piracy is also one of the things that are not making your points any stronger.

Agreed on all points, it's the kind of things that make our points weaker and distract from them.

On the other hand, I wish this level of critical eye was applied to the arguments and tone of the defense I often see of the EGS.

Also, stop reminding me of JW3. I really need to see it for the cinematography alone.

 

[Kuro]

Agreed on all points, it's the kind of things that make our points weaker and distract from them.

On the other hand, I wish this level of critical eye was applied to the arguments and tone of the defense I often see of the EGS.

Also, stop reminding me of JW3. I really need to see it for the cinematography alone.

You really do need to see it!

 

[BernardoOne]

Just for the sake of discussion, I'm going to go through every game currently installed on my laptop and see what's Steam exclusive:

1. Cook, Serve, Delicious! - Available on GOG
2. Crusader Kings II - Steam exclusive
3. Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten - Available on GOG, and DRM free directly from developer
4. Dungeon Warfare - Steam exclusive (Although I'm fairly certain it started life as a Flash game and can still be played)
5. Kingdom Rush: Frontiers - Available on GOG
6. Oxygen Not Included - Available on EGS (soon), other Klei games are on GOG so it will presumably also be there once it leaves EA
7. Pictopix - Steam exclusive (Yet another game that started life as a free Flash game)
8. Project Highrise - Available on GOG
9. RimWorld - Available DRM free directly from developer, and I believe Steam version is also DRM-free
10. Rise to Ruins - Available on itch.io
11. Civilization IV - Available on GOG
12. Slay the Spire - Available on GOG
13. Subnautica - Available on EGS
14. Antichamber - Steam exclusive
15. The Blackwell Legacy - Available on GOG and DRM free directly from developer
16. BLUE REVOLVER - Available DRM free directly from developer
17. Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: The Director's Cut - Available on GOG and Mac App Store
18. Caves of Qud - Available on GOG, itch.io, GOG and DRM free directly from developer
19. Cities: Skylines - Available as part of an Origin Access subscription
20. Contradiction: Spot the Liar! - Available DRM free on Humble
21. Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal - Available DRM free directly from developer
22. CrossCode - Available on GOG and on itch.io
23. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav - Available on GOG, Mac App Store, DRM free from Humble Bundle, and I'm fairly certain there was a German retail version bundled with Memoria that was DRM free.
24. Dead Horizon - Free game, on GameJolt, Newgrounds, and for $5,000 on itch.io (dev's joke)
25. Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Available on GOG
26. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy - Available on GOG
27. Figment - Available on GOG
28. Hard West - Available on GOG
29. Hidden Folks - Available on Mac App Store and itch.io
30. Himno - Steam exclusive (is a free game)
31. HIVESWAP: Act 1 - Available DRM free on Humble
32. Ichi - Steam exclusive
33. Kathy Rain - Available on GOG and Kartridge
34. Kingdoms and Castles - Available on GOG and itch.io
35. The Last Door - Collector's Edition - Available on GOG and the Windows Store
36. Lines Infinite - Steam exclusive
37. LYNE - Available DRM free directly from developer
38. Mini Metro - Available DRM free directly from developer and on GOG
39. Monster Slayers - Available DRM free from Humble, also fairly certain this is an old, old Flash game
40. Peggle Deluxe - Available on Origin
41. Peggle Nights - Available on Origin
42. Picross Touch - Steam exclusive (is a free game available via a web version)
43. Poly Bridge - Steam exclusive
44. Prison Architect - Available on GOG
45. Regions of Ruin -Available DRM free from itch.io
46. Rocket of Whispers: Prologue - Steam exclusive (really a free prologue set before the dev's other games)
47. Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut - Available on GOG
48. Shatter - Available DRM free directly from developer and on Mac App Store
49. Software Inc. - Available directly from developer
50. Stardew Valley - Available on GOG
51. Stephen's Sausage Roll - Available DRM free directly from developer
52. Subnautica: Below Zero - Available on EGS
53. Supply Chain Idle - Steam exclusive (but a free game available on Flash game sites)
54. Tex Murphy: Mean Streets - Available on GOG
55. Train Valley 2 - Steam exclusive
56. Unavowed - Available on GOG and DRM free directly from developer
57. Wayout - Steam exclusive
58. Wayward - Steam exclusive (Still in EA, developer has promised to look into a GOG release)
59. while True: Learn() - Available DRM free on Humble.

So of almost 60 games installed, only 14 are Steam exclusive (which means 76% are not exclusive), and of those 14, 4 are available via Flash/Unity web versions.

Granted it's anecdotal, but I'm fairly comfortable saying that it's an exaggeration to say that any meaningful number of games require Steam. The vast majority have GOG or Humble/developer direct versions being sold.

And here's the important part: absolutely zero of the "Steam exclusive" games I listed were paid to be exclusive.

Antichamber has Steam key + DRM free download on the Humble Store
Ichi has a DRM free download on the Humble Store.

 

[Ge0force]

No, currently it's not just a launcher. It's the only company trying to bring the concept of third-party exclusives to PC (Discord too, but that didn't work so well for them and the two are really not comparable). If you see how Epic operates, it's clear as day that their main/only goal is not to compete with other stores and clients by offering a better product people like but push them out of business and create a monopoly by buying exclusives, which is something only they can do to this magnitude, because they're currently the richest player interested in doing that. If people, who supposedly like how open, variegate and pro-consumer PC as a platform is, end up supporting Epic and their store, they're actively going against their own interests because they're making Epic more likely to succeed in creating their monopoly, with their prices, conditions and rules.

The whole point is forcing Epic to turn into another launcher by stopping them from trying and become the only launcher.

Couldn't have said it better!

 

[ISee]

Always this steam needs more curation thing.
Remember the time when physical copies were the only way to sell games? Before the power of the Internet became a wide spread thing? I doubt we would have had beautiful, independent but niche games like FTL, Undertale, Papers, Please and many more without a big, established and most importantly open internet distribution platform like Steam in the first place.
I'm not a developer and thankfully not associated with this industry, but as far as I understand it is very easy to publish a game on steam today and that's a good thing.
This, so hated, open and widely used platform allowed a new age of golden indy development and brought us many great titles.
I think Valves openes is one of the best things that ever happened to the PC community. Sure, many bad titles get released too and some sort of curation is needed, because not everything is legal in the first place. But the real problem isn't the flood of bad games, it's the tsunami of good games. Even in the indy space, people have a limited amount of money and time. Your Jump&Run might be good today and might have been great 10 years ago, but maybe it's not as good as Hollow Knight, Celeste, Shovel Knight and Cup Head? Maybe it isn't successful because even better options exist?

I said it once and I'll repeat it till the end of time: The biggest difference between PCs and Consoles isn't "power". Pc is an open platform, consoles are walled of. Steam doesn't stand in the way of this openes, that many of us love so much. This is why it gets so much support by the community.

EGS is the opposite, they want to curate everything, have a say what gets published and not, they want to monopolies the market. And people say that's a good thing, because there are asset flips on steam and because publishers get more money out of the EGS.
No, I rather take my open platform that allows ideas and niche games to exist much more easy.

 

[Le Pertti]

I think what valve is doing with trying to figure out what to show to people so everyone gets their "personal" store is the right way to go. Even if they are seen as failing by so many doesn't take away from the fact that they are so far ahead of everyone else. Only competition I can genuinely see in this front is from Google.

 

[Hektor]

PC Version of Metro Exodus bombed hard

 

[GhostTrick]

Serves them right. The writing was on the wall since the begining. Dont listen to moron console warriors on ERA telling you they did well. When you have to bleed money on a sale and resort to cryptic numbers, you didn't do well. Even WWZ, despite moving a few units, is the least selling SKU on a platform where coop shooters are usually where PC thrives the most sales wise.

 

[Arulan]

Actions have consequences.

They would have had a day-one purchase from me, but that became a hard pass after the Epic Games Store announcement. I even had a few hours to buy it on Steam, but I didn't want to support them after that. If I'm still interested in a couple of years, I may pick it up on a heavy sale.

 

[Stone Ocean]

B-but it sold 2.5x what Last Light did at launch! Epic is gloating about it so it must be a good thing!

 

[BernardoOne]

A surprise to no one. It was obvious after all their managed to get to brag about was a obscure "2.5 x Last Light" with no actual numbers revealed.

 

[Ge0force]

PC Version of Metro Exodus bombed hard

Well deserved. I hope Deep Silver and THQ Nordic think twice before making exclusivity deals with Epic for their future games.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Actions have consequences.

They would have had a day-one purchase from me, but that became a hard pass after the Epic Games Store announcement. I even had a few hours to buy it on Steam, but I didn't want to support them after that. If I'm still interested in a couple of years, I may pick it up on a heavy sale.

I had it pre-ordered. I very rarely pre-order games but this was one i was really looking forward to. I ended up refunding it (first game ever refunded on Steam) when the exclusive announcement happened. I know I would have got a Steam version but all the Exclusivity shit just doesn't sit well with me and so Im not supporting any game that takes that deal. Might get it in a few years for cheap.

 

[Deleted member 113]

Well deserved. I hope Deep Silver and THQ Nordic think twice before making exclusivity deals with Epic for their future games.

Well, considering on that shareholders conference they announced they have multiple deals of various kinds with platform holders (to cover development costs, publicity costs, ...), and even streaming platforms, I would say they are actually going to aggressively pursue deals that may see exclusive titles, or content, not only to the EGS, but also Sony and Microsoft consoles, and that Google streaming platform.

I know by now I'm a pain in the ass for repeating the same thing over and over again, but don't like this? Don't support these companies.
Why keep following them, hoping/expecting they drop you a crumb or two, and give you the honour of releasing a game on a platform you want?
Is there really any shortage of worthwhile games to play, so much that there's a need to keep following companies that took these deals, following their news, hoping they fail, or change their practices?
I think we are giving them too much publicity and importance.

By now, I really couldn't care less if a company decides to make a game exclusive to the EGS. Well, outside of crap like Phoenix Point, where I spent money under a certain pretence, and then I'm lied to, and expected to be thankful about that. In those cases, I make an exception, and will kindly tell them to fuck off, and get my money back.
If the game launches on a platform/launcher I use, it goes to my wishlist. If the game is announced as an exclusive to the EGS, I quickly forget about it, and couldn't care less if they launch on Steam in a year or so. For me, after I see it won't be available on a platform I want to use, it's gone from my mind.

There are so many developers worthy of your time and money, who struggle to get any attention and sales, why waste your time and money with companies that do the opposite?
I'm starting to think that these EGS deals are really a godsend for these companies: they get Epic's money, they get a lot of free publicity and coverage, and when they decide to release outside of the EGS, they apparently can expect to make even more money, since many are "lining up", with their money on their hands, waiting to buy them.

I really don't get this. Are so many people thankful for the opportunity to purchase these games a year later?
Is it so hard to tell these companies to fuck off, and spend your money elsewhere?

 

[Ge0force]

According to gi.biz, Satisfactory did very well on EGS:

THQ Nordic said that Satisfactory's launch performance, "exceeded management's expectations at the time of our acquisition of Coffee Stain." The Swedish developer earned SEK 98 million (€9.1 million) in revenue in the quarter.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

So, there's a chance that Metro didn't meet the expectations even with the moneyhat? Welp, play stupid games and all that.

 

[Digoman]

I really don't get this. Are so many people thankful for the opportunity to purchase these games a year later?
Is it so hard to tell these companies to fuck off, and spend your money elsewhere?

As always you are of course right about we having other options to put our money in, but it can be a little bit... frustrating when you see a media product that looks interesting but you have to opt out of consuming it. It's the part of your brain that gets "hyped" (that is heavily target by the marketing campaigns) having to be told to stand down by the part that is "reasonable"

Which is why I actually find it interesting to see how these games perform overall. Most of the "good" numbers we had are obfuscated and even then restricted to launch periods, and one curiosity I have is how is a store with such a limited catalog and no user engagement tools does in keeping up with the "long tail" PC games usually have.

According to gi.biz, Satisfactory did very well on EGS:

THQ Nordic said that Satisfactory's launch performance, "exceeded management's expectations at the time of our acquisition of Coffee Stain." The Swedish developer earned SEK 98 million (€9.1 million) in revenue in the quarter.

Eeeesh, that article has a slightly different tone that the previous tweets regarding the PC performance. Doesn't mention consoles at all and uses the "the former sold 2.5 times what Metro Last Light did in its PC launch window, while the latter was Coffee Stain's biggest PC launch to date. ". Doesn't sound biased at all....

Well, I'm sure this EGS sale will greatly help them bury the numbers even more.

 

[Deleted member 113]

According to gi.biz, Satisfactory did very well on EGS:

THQ Nordic said that Satisfactory's launch performance, "exceeded management's expectations at the time of our acquisition of Coffee Stain." The Swedish developer earned SEK 98 million (€9.1 million) in revenue in the quarter.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Overload, the awesome spiritual successor to the Descent series, done by the original developers, a game of quality, with a demo available, and even modding tools, sold like crap, and the team is no more.

No matter what the team did, they didn't get any significant coverage, and people didn't even bother to try out the demo.
They really should have released the game on the EGS, at least their game would be talked about.

See what I mean?
People complain about DLCs and microtransactions? They end up buying games that have both.
People complain about the lack of demos? They ignore games that do make demos available, and buy games that don't (some of them even have demos on consoles, but don't release them on the PC).
People complain about games releasing exclusively on the EGS? They end up talking a lot about these games, while ignoring games like Overload, who released on several platforms, and was exclusive to none.

As a side note, Overload is currently on sale on Chrono.gg.

Nexus - Support-a-Creator programs for live service games

As the Support-a-Creator platform, Nexus makes it possible for video game publishers to build in-game creator programs. Enable creator codes in your game and improve conversion, player spending, and retention.

www.chrono.gg

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Sorry but as awesome as Overload is personally i'm not a fan of the Descent series so i wasn't interested. I was well aware of it's existence and even watched a speedrun at GDQ which just cemented that the series wasn't for me.

Coverage and getting your game in front of as many customers as possible is great but you can't guarantee that people will like your game or want it. I suspect anyone who wanted a modern Descent game bought it but the market the devs hoped for just wasn't there.

 

[Ge0force]

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Overload, the awesome spiritual successor to the Descent series, done by the original developers, a game of quality, with a demo available, and even modding tools, sold like crap, and the team is no more.

No matter what the team did, they didn't get any significant coverage, and people didn't even bother to try out the demo.
They really should have released the game on the EGS, at least their game would be talked about.

See what I mean?
People complain about DLCs and microtransactions? They end up buying games that have both.
People complain about the lack of demos? They ignore games that do make demos available, and buy games that don't (some of them even have demos on consoles, but don't release them on the PC).
People complain about games releasing exclusively on the EGS? They end up talking a lot about these games, while ignoring games like Overload, who released on several platforms, and was exclusive to none.

I rather think Satisfactory was very successful because the media and influencers are promoting it as Factorio in 3D. Without Factorio's success, I'm pretty sure Satisfactory wouldn't have done so well. The same goes for WWZ, that other successful EGS game which has been promoted as "the spiritual successor or Left 4 Dead".

I do agree that people should vote with their wallets more often. I have been advocating to do this on many occasions, and I have been dogpiled for this on many occasions as well.

Many people just don't care, although these tweets about Metro Exodus give me hope that a significant amount of people DO care.

It's sad that GI.biz repeated Epic's PR nonsense about selling 2.5x more than LL during the launch window, if it's actually true that THQ said the PC version sold only slightly above expectation in the beginning of the year (which were probably the pre-orders on Steam).

 

[Derrick01]

We knew it bombed when Epic came out at GDC with that hilarious "sold 2.5x the previous game which may have only been one edition and if looking at the first week of sales" line. They've shown with WWZ they have no problems giving actual numbers when it's good.

 

[lashman]

... aaaaaaand confirmed exclusive (not that anyone was expecting anything else after that last announcement)

 

[Rosenkrantz]

... aaaaaaand confirmed exclusive (not that anyone was expecting anything else after that last announcement)

It hurts, After The Quiet Man I'd buy anything HH developed for a dollar.

 

[Ruvon]

... aaaaaaand confirmed exclusive (not that anyone was expecting anything else after that last announcement)

Sorry, can't see youtube videos at work, could you please give the name of this game ?

 

[lashman]

Sorry, can't see youtube videos at work, could you please give the name of this game ?

the new Rune

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Like I mentioned before but I've been on PC from era before Steam, so it's not exactly the same rose-tinted glasses for me.

Weird, the fact I've been PC gaming for basically forever is literally the reason I appreciate everything that Valve has done to create an actual bona fide platform specifically for PC gaming. And that's just at a consumer facing level. The money they've poured (and continue to pour) into developer and publisher benefits have also had huge (albeit mostly invisible at a glance) benefits for everyone in the space.

 

[Ruvon]

the new Rune

Thanks

It hurts, After The Quiet Man I'd buy anything HH developed for a dollar.

All I heard and read about The Quiet Man was how bad it was, so I'm not sure how to understand your message...

 

[Rosenkrantz]

All I heard and read about The Quiet Man was how bad it was, so I'm not sure how to understand your message...

I enjoy trash games, sometimes more than competent blandfests, and I usually buy them when they're very cheap (hence the Robocop reference).

 

[gabbo]

It hurts, After The Quiet Man I'd buy anything HH developed for a dollar.

Winter/Summer 2020 it is then. You'd think HumanHead would stay away from shitty publishing deals, unless they really were in dire need. If that's the case, I'm less disappointed.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Winter/Summer 2020 it is then. You'd think HumanHead would stay away from shitty publishing deals, unless they really were in dire need. If that's the case, I'm less disappointed.

They didn't make anything remotely popular since Prey, it's safe to assume they aren't in the best condition right now, so I can see why they made a deal.

 

[Arsene]

... aaaaaaand confirmed exclusive (not that anyone was expecting anything else after that last announcement)

Damn this game looks rough as hell.

 

[Ex-User (307)]

Antichamber has Steam key + DRM free download on the Humble Store
Ichi has a DRM free download on the Humble Store.

Great, so if you count those two games, plus the four that have free web versions, there’s 8 or fewer “Steam exclusives” in my current installed library of 60 games.

“Many Steam exclusives” my butt!

 

[lashman]

Damn this game looks rough as hell.

it really does

 

[TubaZef]

Pretty sure Ubisoft isnt starving, nor 4A games, Annapurna, Supergiant, etc. The only smallish studio they recruited are the Dangerous Driving guys, and they delivered a subpar product.

Ubisoft is fine of course, I wouldn't be so sure about the others, specially Supergiant. Starving is an hyperbole of course but it's not so easy to tell if a studio is going well, just look at Telltale, would you say they would close one month before it happened?

Anyway, this is going off-topic. I don't know how these deals are made, don't know if the developers are getting anything or if it's all to the publishers (when there is one). All I want to say is that the "greedy devs" argument is a big fallacy, keeping a studio is hard and very risky.
Publishers can be pretty greedy though.

 

[lashman]

oh boy ... that video is definitely NOT going to make things any better ...

 

[Alextended]

Phoenix Point all over again, hahaha. Edit: well, his statements aren't bad. The history bit doesn't mean shit and the roadmap citation was cringe. It sucks they don't honor Steam keys for those who preordered them though, I dunno why they think a second copy works as compensation. But as usual Epic is willing to fork for the refunds so oh well, another studio who prefers Epic's money over gamers' money, see how far that takes them then. I can't say this game looked exciting to me anyway (for now, who knows, I'm just going by the old and the new trailer).

 

[Xiaomi]

I do wonder if -- judging by Wingefors's hesitance to answer PC questions -- we're going to see a situation where pubs end up getting a slight bump in revenue up front compared to Steam, but lose the tail on sales over time because the store isn't really built to be browsed, sorted, and explored like Steam's. Just navigating the store now is inconvenient with the lack of clear categories and ordering; I can only imagine how hard it will be to find games once they have more than a couple hundred games on there.

 

[gabbo]

oh boy ... that video is definitely NOT going to make things any better ...

Well, I mean, they did answer the big one up front, but after that, it doesn't really help their case.

 

[Ex-User (307)]

I do wonder if -- judging by Wingefors's hesitance to answer PC questions -- we're going to see a situation where pubs end up getting a slight bump in revenue up front compared to Steam, but lose the tail on sales over time because the store isn't really built to be browsed, sorted, and explored like Steam's. Just navigating the store now is inconvenient with the lack of clear categories and ordering; I can only imagine how hard it will be to find games once they have more than a couple hundred games on there.

As much as they've poo-pooed them, I can't imagine the lack of actual social features are helping. Some amount of users on Steam are influenced by reviews, community forums, friend purchases, friend recommendations, etc.

How does Epic keep bringing people in for years to come?

 

[lashman]

Well, I mean, they did answer the big one up front, but after that, it doesn't really help their case.

yeah, it really really doens't

 

[Digoman]

oh boy ... that video is definitely NOT going to make things any better ...

Well, there are some "good" (as in direct) answers there, but man do they try to make Epic sound so wonderful . And showing the already delayed roadmap is hilarious.

Judging by the trailer (that game does not look ready to release in "Summer 2019") I'm guessing HumanHead really needed the money.

How does Epic keep bringing people in for years to come?

As long as Fortnite is popular, by throwing money at it like this loss leading sale. I don't think it's a coincidence they doing one now for a whole month just before E3 to try to get some of the "long tail" numbers up. The indie numbers in particular must be terrible if even Metro faded this fast.

On of the Steam biggest achievements is creating a true "ecosystem" where people are regularly engaged and constantly being exposed to games via the store page, friends lists and activity feeds, events, and so on. But all of that is on the consumer end that is something that Epic forgot about on their push to enter the market. Details details.

 

[lashman]

Judging by the trailer (that game does not look ready to release in "Summer 2019") I'm guessing HumanHead really needed the money.

yeah, guess so ... it really looks super-rough

 

[Ex-User (307)]

As long as Fortnite is popular, by throwing money at it like this loss leading sale. I don't think it's a coincidence they doing one now for a whole month just before E3 to try to get some of the "long tail" numbers up. The indie numbers in particular must be terrible if even Metro faded this fast.

On of the Steam biggest achievements is creating a true "ecosystem" where people are regularly engaged and constantly being exposed to games via the store page, friends lists and activity feeds, events, and so on. But all of that is on the consumer end that is something that Epic forgot about on their push to enter the market. Details details.

There has to come a point where throwing money at diminishing to non-existent returns is a bad idea. I don't know when that point would be, but it has to exist at some point.

They also still have not, hilariously, done absolutely anything at all to leverage their Fortnite player base into buying things on the store.

 

[Ge0force]

oh boy ... that video is definitely NOT going to make things any better ...

Is it me or have they hidden the number of thumbs up and down for this video?

 

[MJunioR]

Is it me or have they hidden the number of thumbs up and down for this video?

Yup, it's not visible anymore. I wonder why is that...

 

[Digoman]

yeah, guess so ... it really looks super-rough

I consider the numerous panning shots with some animations and no more than 2 seconds of continuous gameplay as huge red flags. Specially for a game that should be nearing completion.

There has to come a point where throwing money at diminishing to non-existent returns is a bad idea. I don't know when that point would be, but it has to exist at some point.

They also still have not, hilariously, done absolutely anything at all to leverage their Fortnite player base into buying things on the store.

With the amount of money they appear to have already thrown out in the exclusivity deals and in this sale, the reasonable point to stop was already passed sometime ago. Between the bottomless pit of cash and Sweeney's ego, who knows where is the line that say "hey, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all".

As for the Fortnite userbase, we know it is hard to convert them but with those numbers even 1-5% would make a difference, so I have no idea why Epic hasn't gone there yet.

Is it me or have they hidden the number of thumbs up and down for this video?

It was there 40 minutes ago when I disliked the video. I think it was 20 likes and 80 dislikes or something like that.