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Chudah

Just a chick who games
May 24, 2019
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Totally feel you.

One thing is, when you're not a professionnal journalist (which I assume you're not either), if you get a review key, you feel obligated to review it. To play, to write, to advertise your article...

And sometimes you don't feel like it. It may be because the game is boring, it may be something happening in your life, other stuff more interesting... Feeling the obligation to do it is the opposite of what I need to write freely.

That's why on my own blog I review games 2, 3, 5, 15 years old. Because trying to keep up with all the releases is a lost cause. And "old" games may be way more interesting than new games...

But I think we're now off topic, all because of me.

Sorry !
This seems like a good topic to discuss in another thread here on the forums, for all of the other "non-official-journalist" review writers here. I'd be really curious how everyone else who reviews seriously handles things. I might go ahead and make that thread once I get home from work tonight (too busy to do it now, and the boss could be walking back into the office at any moment now... :face-with-cold-sweat: ).

Okay, done wandering off topic....

Fuck the EGS! Seriously!!! :anguished-face:
 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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I know that it never stopped me to give meh or bad reviews, but you can't know how it affects your judgement.
Funny that you mention this, because we aren't allowed to accept anything of value from clients or other companies in my professional field of occupation. This means max. 25€ of value, never cash, we even have to report if a client invited us for launch, upgraded our rooms or invited us to a nice event (which happens often enough).

But reviewers getting nice stuff for free isn't just a problem in the gaming industry. You see the same in the car industry, photography, tourism etc.
My company is also doing it for clients as well. It's sometimes strange.

One of the reason why I'm never trusting a product review btw The product may not be sponsored but you never know how much goodwill the company was trying to build towards the reviewer with nice stuff, nice hotel rooms etc.

Not saying everybody is corrupt, but this can definitely influence you and build a strange kind of obligation.


Maybe it's like Denuvo key, need to be renewed after a while.
If it is like Control: It just works...
Not that I'd do it...
...
 

RionaaM

Vogon Poetry Appreciator
Sep 6, 2018
887
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I do get review keys for games (used to review Sega games, so Total War, Football Manager... expensive games, all for free, even got collector editions with shirts and goodies...), but I thought about it a lot recently.

I know that it never stopped me to give meh or bad reviews, but you can't know how it affects your judgement. I still do (writing about Nauticrawl with a review key right now), but... I'm thinking about not doing it anymore. Just to be totally free of judgement. Being as honest as possible.

Don't want to be accused of being partial. I can be wrong, I can be the only one to like a game everyone hates, but I can't be the one who gives a good review because he got stuff from devs / editor, or worse : I can't be the one that gives good reviews to please an editor / dev so I can get more review keys after that.

Fuck Doritos.
I totally get what you mean, and for the record, don't mean to come out like I don't believe the honesty of reviewers who got their copies for free. I'm just saying that it's funny how some people can hold two contradicting opinions at the same time, depending on which one is better for them at any given time.

Totally feel you.

One thing is, when you're not a professionnal journalist (which I assume you're not either), if you get a review key, you feel obligated to review it. To play, to write, to advertise your article...

And sometimes you don't feel like it. It may be because the game is boring, it may be something happening in your life, other stuff more interesting... Feeling the obligation to do it is the opposite of what I need to write freely.

That's why on my own blog I review games 2, 3, 5, 15 years old. Because trying to keep up with all the releases is a lost cause. And "old" games may be way more interesting than new games...

But I think we're now off topic, all because of me.

Sorry !
Yeah, when I used to write for my friends' gaming site (a really tiny one) and we got free review copies I took them very seriously, even though it was something unpaid and probably unread. Although there weren't deadlines, I didn't feel comfortable taking too long to finish the reviews. And of course, it can be hard when asked to play something that's not one's forte. For example, I had to review Crypt of the Necrodancer (I'm not a roguelike guy, but I ended up liking it a lot) and Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 (I never play multiplayer stuff, but enjoyed it too), both of which kinda stressed me out due to feeling out of my comfort zone. I liked writing those reviews, of course, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. But yeah, it's always easier to play stuff at your own leisure, whenever you feel like it, and perhaps write because you choose to, not out of obligation.
 

Doctor Ironic

Junior Member
Mar 18, 2019
201
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Jesus Christ, my John Wick 3 blu ray comes with a 50% off John Wick Hex, can't escape this shit 🙄
Lol, I didn’t get that in my 4K copy. But I did get introduced to getting my digital copy through Lionsgate VIP, where instead of just giving you a Movies Anywhere code and calling it a day, they make you download a proprietary app, scan a QR code, pick a SINGLE digital retailer, and then they email you a code to redeem there.

It felt very EGS in its own right.
 

Samson

Junior Member
Aug 2, 2019
396
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Heraklion
Funny that you mention this, because we aren't allowed to accept anything of value from clients or other companies in my professional field of occupation. This means max. 25€ of value, never cash, we even have to report if a client invited us for launch, upgraded our rooms or invited us to a nice event (which happens often enough).

But reviewers getting nice stuff for free isn't just a problem in the gaming industry. You see the same in the car industry, photography, tourism etc.
My company is also doing it for clients as well. It's sometimes strange.

One of the reason why I'm never trusting a product review btw The product may not be sponsored but you never know how much goodwill the company was trying to build towards the reviewer with nice stuff, nice hotel rooms etc.

Not saying everybody is corrupt, but this can definitely influence you and build a strange kind of obligation.
The motorcycle (and car) industry is one of the worst shitholes when it comes to reviews.

It's exponentially worse there than in the entertainment actually, because the price of the object being reviewed is so high, reviewers actually can't feasibly buy all of the vehicle models from a given year. So they're at the whim of staying on the manufacturer's good side so that the companies loan them the bikes (which often happens on expensive trips, to glitzy locations like Italy or a Canadian mountain lodge).

On the other hand, I'd think "product" reviews in entertainment mostly suffer from time issues. When you're sent advance review copies, you feel like you have to finish the item so you stay on the list for future review copies. And with such an insane number of games coming out every week, time gets eaten up quickly, and it's easy to imagine that games from big publishers with nicer packages and more active PR handling are going to get the bulk of better (or even just any at all) review treatment.
 
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Chudah

Just a chick who games
May 24, 2019
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So we don't get too far off topic, I went ahead and posted a thread to further discuss reviews here:

 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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People have short memories and not everyone lost dozens of games as a bunch of these direct download services as well as platforms like Desura went tits up. Then you have console only folks who shelve their libraries every gen, wishing for remasters on the latest system. I'm not shocked that this argument doesn't come up much.

I do get the feeling Epic is in it for the long haul. But we'll see. We've heard the same story time and again from big boys like Microsoft. Yet here I am with a bunch of useless GFWL discs.
 

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
30,370
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People have short memories and not everyone lost dozens of games as a bunch of these direct download services as well as platforms like Desura went tits up. Then you have console only folks who shelve their libraries every gen, wishing for remasters on the latest system. I'm not shocked that this argument doesn't come up much.

I do get the feeling Epic is in it for the long haul. But we'll see. We've heard the same story time and again from big boys like Microsoft. Yet here I am with a bunch of useless GFWL discs.
... not to mention google
 
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Álvaro de Campos

O nada que é tudo.
Mar 12, 2019
341
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I think it depends on Fortnite. If it experiences a sharp drop in revenue then they'll surely divert funds away from moneyhats.
If it were me, I'd end up dumping even more funds into moneyhatting. Fortnite will eventually decline, and building/bolstering a digital store that can provide constant, long-term revenue would become an even bigger priority. Ditto in regards to Unreal Engine.
That's just me though.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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If it were me, I'd end up dumping even more funds into moneyhatting. Fortnite will eventually decline, and building/bolstering a digital store that can provide constant, long-term revenue would become an even bigger priority. Ditto in regards to Unreal Engine.
That's just me though.
Right now they have funds to fight a war of attrition, but they may need to divert those elsewhere if Fortnite starts flagging or they don’t see themselves making many inroads against Steam.

After all, they have Tencent wanting their dividend and the company is trying to ensure its future. Regardless of how much they have, their funds aren’t infinite and they may try something different if EGS isn’t what they wanted it to be.
 
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Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
Nov 4, 2018
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If it were me, I'd end up dumping even more funds into moneyhatting. Fortnite will eventually decline, and building/bolstering a digital store that can provide constant, long-term revenue would become an even bigger priority. Ditto in regards to Unreal Engine.
That's just me though.
I think that it won't be as easy for Epic to throw ludicrous amounts of money at publishers and developers if money becomes a finite resource,
 

Chudah

Just a chick who games
May 24, 2019
207
987
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Chicago
store.steampowered.com
If it were me, I'd end up dumping even more funds into moneyhatting. Fortnite will eventually decline, and building/bolstering a digital store that can provide constant, long-term revenue would become an even bigger priority. Ditto in regards to Unreal Engine.
That's just me though.
Usually there's a limit to what a company like this is willing to spend. And as much as Epic wants the industry to believe it, they're not a charity. Draining the coffers for no apparent benefit is against the shareholders' interests. They'll eventually get uppity about it (and yes, I know Sweeny is the primary shareholder, but that doesn't mean the other shareholders have no say in things at all).
 

Álvaro de Campos

O nada que é tudo.
Mar 12, 2019
341
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Right now they have funds to fight a war of attrition, but they may need to divert those elsewhere if Fortnite starts flagging or they don’t see themselves making many inroads against Steam.

After all, they have Tencent wanting their dividend and the company is trying to ensure its future. Regardless of how much they have, their funds aren’t infinite and they may try something different if EGS isn’t what they wanted it to be.
I'd imagine Tencent's interests actually align with Epic's, they're probably looking at the long run too. Especially since Steam China is being handled by Perfect World, one of their competitors.

I think that it won't be as easy for Epic to throw ludicrous amounts of money at publishers and developers if money becomes a finite resource,
Usually there's a limit to what a company like this is willing to spend. And as much as Epic wants the industry to believe it, they're not a charity. Draining the coffers for no apparent benefit is against the shareholders' interests. They'll eventually get uppity about it (and yes, I know Sweeny is the primary shareholder, but that doesn't mean the other shareholders have no say in things at all).
I don't know if Epic is genuinely losing all that much money with these deals, we don't have much data but we know these all essentially function as loans that are paid back before the publishers/developers see an extra cent. Plus any games that outperform are able to amortize poor performers.
I'd imagine the main expenses are 1. store developers (who might not even be that many considering the awful job they're doing) and 2. the free games, the latter of which they already mentioned was only for this year, something I'm sure they'll re-evaluate after a cost-benefit analysis.
 
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Samson

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I'd imagine Tencent's interests actually align with Epic's, they're probably looking at the long run too. Especially since Steam China is being handled by Perfect World, one of their competitors.
This is complicated a little by the fact that Tencent has its own shitty launcher, that WeGameX thing. Mostly filled with (unsurprisingly) Chinese stuff.
 
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Nyarlathotep

The Crawling Chaos
Apr 18, 2019
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I do get the feeling Epic is in it for the long haul. But we'll see. We've heard the same story time and again from big boys like Microsoft. Yet here I am with a bunch of useless GFWL discs.
They didn't have the commitment to turn their signature game franchise Unreal around, I have very little faith they're going to continue bothering with EGS when their moneyhat budgets expired and market forces see EGS as - at best - a distant second choice option for release platform.
 
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ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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I'm expecting Epic to announce whatever WB Batman giveaway they have up their sleeves the moment Valve releases their Library overhaul today. I'd honestly be shocked if they didn't. Sweeny never misses a chance to steal Valve's thunder.
It's already out btw
 

Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
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undu

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The link contains images for the list of games to be used in the new steam library (and gog 2.0)
 
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Samson

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I can't believe this isn't a bigger deal (well I can but ya know...).

Can you imagine if Steam or one of the consoles started flashing ads while you're actually playing something? The reaction would be industry wide outrage. Even the press would be upset.
I bet people will try to argue it's the same as the pre-launch popup that Steam shows when you open the launcher.

(it's totally not)
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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If Microsoft, who has all the money in the world and 75% of the companies by the balls hasnt been able to have a steady precense on PC gaming for decades, what makes you think that Epic will make it
 
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Jav

Question everything, learn nothing
Sep 17, 2019
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So... what's the plan? Everyone launches their platform and Epic makes the co-exclusive thing (like with Uplay) so we have a million launchers and the only one that all have in common is the Epic store so people will use that because it's more convenient?
 
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Phoenix RISING

A phoenix always RISES!
Apr 23, 2019
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I do get review keys for games (used to review Sega games, so Total War, Football Manager... expensive games, all for free, even got collector editions with shirts and goodies...), but I thought about it a lot recently.

I know that it never stopped me to give meh or bad reviews, but you can't know how it affects your judgement. I still do (writing about Nauticrawl with a review key right now), but... I'm thinking about not doing it anymore. Just to be totally free of judgement. Being as honest as possible.

Don't want to be accused of being partial. I can be wrong, I can be the only one to like a game everyone hates, but I can't be the one who gives a good review because he got stuff from devs / editor, or worse : I can't be the one that gives good reviews to please an editor / dev so I can get more review keys after that.

Fuck Doritos.
I got Total War: Atilla. Never any other game. Sad face.

I do wonder if I should have given Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night lower than a 7 since I got crashes and glitches. But so much of the game was good!

I once gave a game a 1 because I felt it plagiarized Homeworld.
 

crimsonheadGCN

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Haven't WB just launched their platform? If so, probably yes. WB Launcher and epic exclusive
WB Play has been around since 2014. If that is what you are talking about.



It looks like WB will be distributing a physical copy of Fortnite for a limited time:


Edit: NVM. The bundle is old.
 

Phoenix RISING

A phoenix always RISES!
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i can only imagine that will go pretty much the same way it did with Sony .... once bigger publishers are on board (without throwing bags of money at them) - papa Tim will conveniently forget about all those indie devs
And then we'll be back to Steam being the primary platform for indies?

So...nothing was accomplished?
 

TheTrain

MetaMember
Jun 11, 2019
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WB Play has been around since 2014. If that is what you are talking about.



It looks like WB will be distributing a physical copy of Fortnite for a limited time:


Edit: NVM. The bundle is old.
My bad, it's clear that I don't have played a lot of WB games during this years xD
Thank you, let's hope that they don't take any exclusive deal whatsoever
 
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lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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another egsclusive ... no announcement, no fanfare ... they just made it egsclusive

also not a case of "we need more money to make the game better" ... why? well ...

 
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