News Epic Games Store

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
11,886
113
If the game is good it'll do fine on Steam after release. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, by all accounts, is not a very good game - it's gonna tank.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chudah and madjoki

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
854
2,390
93
After reading these annoying Tim's tweets usually try to find some "comfort" reminding myself that if he is bitching about the "30% tax" instead of gloating, that probably means the actual numbers about EGS aren't that good (at least yet).

But this one was really something.... with talking about using dishonest terms and at the same time saying "90% market share" (monopoly), "tax" and the "store locked social features".

The last one being really funny considering how many times I have read in the EGS threads to just use the "add a non-steam game" to use feature X on some exclusive game.
 
Last edited:

Phoenix RISING

A phoenix always RISES!
Apr 23, 2019
1,418
1,959
113
40
Ann Arbor, MI
www.geeksundergrace.com
More exclusivity deals that threaten the openness of the PC environment. Taking those games isn't without consequences. I don't mean to chastise anyone, but this is a fact.
I'm gonna need yall to explain to me how moneyhatting games and giving them away for free translates to augmenting EGS ability to moneyhat exclusives....


Basically this. Raw figures for Borderlands 3 are probably not where they needed to be, frankly. You also have to factor in that we don't even know how top-loaded sales are on EGS. Part of what makes Steam so successful is discoverability and games selling well long into their second, third, and even fourth years. The Witcher 3 is a prime example of that. Can we concieve of any game having such enduring success on EGS even six months after release? Not really - the store is a trashfire. It has no sense of community, no reason for anyone to even boot it up unless they want to play a game they own or saw on another site that something interesting is happening there. Meanwhile, Steam is pretty much everyone's de facto client still and people rely on it for a lot more than just downloading and launching their games.

All that Epic has proven is that there are a lot of impulsive buyers who will happily not use Steam to buy a game they want in the first month. If anything changes as a result of their actions, it is publishers will launch their game on their own launcher day 1, then release on Steam between 1-6 months later. Take 2 probably has a lot of data, both from RDR2 and Borderlands 3, about how high profile games (whose predecessors have sold well in excess of 15m) sell without being on Steam, and can probably pinpoint the perfect timeframe with which to go to Steam after launch. I expect other AAAs to follow in that regard, whether that be day 1 on their own launcher or letting Epic pay them for a month or two of exclusivity.

And regardless, Epic's not going to keep this up forever. There is the "long game" and setting money on fire. Fortnite is slumping, and we don't know where it will level out, so that trove of infinite money just got a whole lot less infinite. In addition, Epic has, to a degree, read the market wrong and EGS hasn't supplanted Steam in any meaningful way. They haven't even moved the needle on the kinds of cuts other stores take. By its own criteria ("change the industry", "developers will decide who wins", "let's not devalue games"), one year in it is a failure. Anyone with even a modicum of financial sense knows there are better ways to spend that money.
...because a year into EGS and it doesn't appear to be threatening Steam at all. Still a threat to Kickstarter though.
 

RionaaM

Vogon Poetry Appreciator
Sep 6, 2018
887
2,187
93
Social features are, by definition, locked to their own ecosystem. That's the whole purpose of a social network, just like discussion forums. They are supposed to be closed spaces where you interact with other members of said space. What did this fool expect, that you would be able to seamlessly upload stuff from other platforms into Steam Cloud? If you need to share something there, you can do the same as in every other social network ever: copy and paste the freaking link or post on your wall/feed/timeline.

I know he's being disingenuous and shouldn't be taken seriously, but c'mon! He's not even trying here, anyone can come up with a better excuse than this. I'm not mad at him lying, I'm mad at the bottom tier lie itself.
 

Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
3,534
7,621
113
I'm gonna need yall to explain to me how moneyhatting games and giving them away for free translates to augmenting EGS ability to moneyhat exclusives....
Larger userbase through free games means increased reach and another argument to help convince developers to sign the moneyhats in the first place. It's not about helping them directly, it's about what it enables them to do with the user count that getting the free games inevitably increases. Widening the EGS's user and install base size is what the free games are for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xinek and Ge0force

Phoenix RISING

A phoenix always RISES!
Apr 23, 2019
1,418
1,959
113
40
Ann Arbor, MI
www.geeksundergrace.com
Larger userbase through free games means increased reach and another argument to help convince developers to sign the moneyhats in the first place. It's not about helping them directly, it's about what it enables them to do with the user count that getting the free games inevitably increases. Widening the EGS's user and install base size is what the free games are for.
So, the kind of marketing tool that folks like C-Dub explained that most developers will see right through?

Good luck with that!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chudah

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,463
8,527
113
If the game is good it'll do fine on Steam after release. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, by all accounts, is not a very good game - it's gonna tank.
What's wrong with it, was hyped before the EGS stuff :(

Thought it's basically Rebel Galaxy, but with the controls of a Wing Commander/Privateer type game rather than 2D flat space point & click with some action.

I know they also had lots of stuff to make the game actually not play like a space combat game for people who can't handle that gameplay, with auto-tracking targeted enemies and other such options, but they claimed the emphasise proper gameplay and controls for people who enjoy those too. What did they fail?

Plus it just looked super cool in the tweets they had showing off the combat encounters, it really evoked the feel of the classics.

I think I read they also got the Wings of Saint Nazaire artist or developer (or one and the same? I dunno) onboard and that game/tech demo/alpha thing was spot-on in terms of the old school space stuff look & feel, even though they went for a more conventionally modern art style with Outlaw they seemed to get it.
 
Last edited:

Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
13,188
113
France
I missed the tweet where Epic acknowledged that they messed up the number of free days.


And then mixed the 13 days of free games with the first weekly freebie of 2020 to make it look like it was not a mistake:


 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
3,984
13,794
113
Belgium
we all know it's gonna happen (ditto for Dying Light 2)
Then so be it. Plenty of other great games to play on pc, although I expect several more money hats for AA(A) games the next few years.

All these money hats are tempering my enthusiasm to play games tho. I wish I could just be one of these "it's just another launcher" guys. 😁
 

MJunioR

MetaMember
Mar 13, 2019
2,059
5,433
113
I bet that Stalker 2 will be like Hades. They will announce one year early access running through EGS then full release on Steam (then it will need more time under early access but the Steam release will come as soon as the deal ends). Anyway, the 'we will discuss it later' pretty much signs that they're on some sort of NDA.
 

Swenhir

Spaceships!
Apr 18, 2019
3,534
7,621
113
Gearbox owns one of my all-time top-3 franchises (Homeworld). I'm already mentally preparing soul....
Pretty much I wanted nothing to do with the HW3 fig campaign despite my everlasting love for Homeworld. This smells incredibly fishy and the fact they used fig did nothing to alleviate my fears. I have no small amounts of rage toward Epic and the morons at GBX that thought of that one.
 

kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
1,447
4,656
113
Pretty much I wanted nothing to do with the HW3 fig campaign despite my everlasting love for Homeworld. This smells incredibly fishy and the fact they used fig did nothing to alleviate my fears. I have no small amounts of rage toward Epic and the morons at GBX that thought of that one.
Well it shouldn't alleviate any fears, pretty much all fig funded games, apart from those whose companies now belongs to MS, went to bed with timmy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman

BernardoOne

MetaMember
Oct 19, 2018
446
1,460
93
More exclusivity deals that threaten the openness of the PC environment. Taking those games isn't without consequences. I don't mean to chastise anyone, but this is a fact.
I don't think there's any logical sense for the argument that taking free games, and free games only, has any effect whatsoever on them deciding to do more exclusivity deals.

Like, if it sucessfully works on bringing more paying customers to the store(it wont), there's less reason to get exclusives cause you already got them in.
If it doesn't and people just keep getting the free games and nothing else, devs will raise their prices to agree to free giveaways and Epic will have to spend more on those free games, hereby having less money for exclusives.

Larger userbase through free games means increased reach and another argument to help convince developers to sign the moneyhats in the first place. It's not about helping them directly, it's about what it enables them to do with the user count that getting the free games inevitably increases. Widening the EGS's user and install base size is what the free games are for.
I can tell you there's not one single developer that gives one single shit about the size of EGS userbase when considering a money hat. The money hat itself is the only thing they give a shit about. Devs would have to be completely braindead morons to assume that mere userbase numbers mean anything at all.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ISee

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
3,220
8,306
113
Don't worry, they'll use the extra cash to make Stalker 2 better in every way possible.
That's exactly what happened with Phoenix Point, Shenmu 3 and Mechwarrior 5, after all.
Those three games are already modern classics!
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
3,984
13,794
113
Belgium
I can tell you there's not one single developer that gives one single shit about the size of EGS userbase when considering a money hat. The money hat itself is the only thing they give a shit about. Devs would have to be completely braindead morons to assume that mere userbase numbers mean anything at all.
Don't forget that Epic's end goal is to get exclusivity without money hat. A large active user base is necessary to achieve this.

Epic doesn't want to compete with Steam. They want to control pc gaming. Yesterday's tweet from Sweeney proves this once again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Swenhir and xinek

Deleted member 113

Guest
I know I keep saying this, but I still haven't said it in 2020. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Don't give timmy boy and these developers/publishers the free publicity they get whenever a game is announced, or rumoured, to be an EGS exclusive.

Really, there are so many other games to play (both older ones, and new ones that keep launching every day), why get upset about missing out on a few?
Is everyone really lacking games to play?

We are now a year later, they will continue pulling this crap (because let's face it, it's the only way people talk about the EGS store; that, and the free games), why continue doing exactly what these people want to get from this?
I mean, I already saw people almost "begging" GSC World on twitter not to make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 an EGS exclusive. Does this make any sense to you?

Guys, don't waste your time, take your money, and get something else, and support other developers/publishers, who aren't pulling this crap.

I really don't get getting worked up about this (frequently beforehand, and without much basis; I remember people talking like Disco Elysium was a sure exclusive, and see how that worked out), especially when everyone then runs to buy these games as soon as they launch on Steam, as if nothing has happened.
Meanwhile plenty of developers launch their games on Steam/GOG/..., and no one buys them, and no one talks about them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,127
11,244
113
Don't worry, they'll use the extra cash to make Stalker 2 better in every way possible.
That's exactly what happened with Phoenix Point, Shenmu 3 and Mechwarrior 5, after all.
Those three games are already modern classics!
You forget that without the epic moneyhat, those games would be on the level of Ride to hell Retribution or Sonic 2006
 
  • Like
Reactions: ISee

BernardoOne

MetaMember
Oct 19, 2018
446
1,460
93
[
Don't forget that Epic's end goal is to get exclusivity without money hat. A large active user base is necessary to achieve this.

Epic doesn't want to compete with Steam. They want to control pc gaming. Yesterday's tweet from Sweeney proves this once again.
They will never get exclusivity without moneyhat. They can't ever match Steam's userbase, much less a userbase that has been trained on weekly free games for a year. Epic is breeding a userbase of non-payers that build huge backlogs for 0€.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,463
8,527
113
Just like John Carmack. He is brilliant at his work, but kinda sucks as a person.
What's wrong with Carmack? Was there some controversy? He worked with Palmer Luckey but I don't think there was any sign of Carmack being like minded.
 
Last edited:

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
8,942
24,801
113
What's wrong with Carmack? Was there some controversy? He worked with Palmer Luckey but I don't think there was any sign of Carmack being like minded.
IIRC he was asked about his opinion about Palmer and he got upset and left.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,506
5,542
113
Toronto
What's wrong with Carmack? Was there some controversy? He worked with Palmer Luckey but I don't think there was any sign of Carmack being like minded.
His view on labour rights is, mildly put, myopic and framed by his position in both id and the industry. He's a libertarian to the extreme.

But I digress. As for Tim Sweeney, if Sweeney wanted to put his considerable money where his mouth is, he should just open source the whole EGS and UE4. Can't be more open that open source. Even some kind of source engine pun doesn't beat that. And then at least the client wouldn't be so god damn terrible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ISee

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
30,367
85,134
113
His view on labour rights is, mildly put, myopic and framed by his position in both id and the industry. He's a libertarian to the extreme.

But I digress. As for Tim Sweeney, if Sweeney wanted to put his considerable money where his mouth is, he should just open source the whole EGS and UE4. Can't be more open that open source. Even some kind of source engine pun doesn't beat that. And then at least the client wouldn't be so god damn terrible.
for what it's worth - i believe UE4 is actually open-source now (that doesn't mean it's free)
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,463
8,527
113
If it was open source it would be free. Having access to the source doesn't make it open source. There's a different license agreement attached to it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ISee