Yes. I think they've been paid a massive upfront amount for the exclusivity, plus their expanded cut from each and every sale, as well as guranteed marketing exposure on the store and within stuff like Fortnite.
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Epic Store's way of "competing" is one that actively hurt the market
- Thread starter GhostTrick
- Start date
I strongly disagree. I think that customers would embrace a competitor that offered more to consumers much faster. You catch more flies with honey. Look around the internet. Every PC community is strongly against Epic on this issue.
The publisher has said it's exclusive to a store that's not available in China.
Unless the publisher is lying...
It hasn't become common, it has always been common. Moneyhatting has been a thing long before any of us were born, in many different industries. It's not some bug in the system, it's a market feature. It's one way retailers compete against each other.
People are really missing a point here. Valve wasn't pulling a similar shit. They aren't forcing exclusivity on games available on Steam. It was always a publisher decision if they want to be exclusively on Steam or simultaneously on other platforms. Epic isn't offering a competition. They're securing exclusives by doing this in the nastiest way possible. They are literally poaching indie devs and publishers by taking them out of Steam, literally forcing them to abandon a storefront they had active pre-orders.
It's literally always been normal lol
"forcing them to abandon". Big words, wanna back that up?
Epic have indeed secured a monopoly for selling the pc version of Metro Exodus.
I don't see how getting a year of exclusivity is not competition. But let's just agree to disagree.
Yeah. It's obviously a dev and publisher choice, but it works like that. They got moneyhatted with a promise of a better cut, but by signing this deal they are forced to remain on Epic storefront for a whole year.
If Epic was really interested in competiting with Steam, they would start by securing games that has simultaneous release with Steam. This is how competition works.
The term monopoly refers to cornering a market. One doesn't typically describe it at a product level because it doesn't make sense and it's not useful. Epic and Metro publisher have entered an exclusive arrangement that is mutually beneficially to both companies to offer the product in their store.
Epic games store is far from cornering the games market or even being a major player (barrier to entry is high, therefore Epic needs to do more to sway consumers to it's platform.)
They aren't forced to do anything. They chose to do it.
That's not how competition has ever worked. Competition is primarily to best the opponent with the means you have at your disposal. Not everyone getting along fine and dandy.
"I'm utterly whipped, why isn't anybody else whipped like me?"
There's very little "real" competition. MS and Sony compete. The other storefronts fight over a very small marketshare while steam gorges on a 70% of the business.
Your last paragraph, I'm sorry but I've no idea what you mean.
The face of competition that you guys wanted :^)
Seriously I don't fucking buy this Steam monopoly narratives. Not when numerous stores sell keys where Steam doesn't get the cut. It just happened those keys are redeemable through Steam only because it is the readily available platform fod many games. The monopoly is but an illusion made by delusional proponents of 'free market'.
What Epic doing here is worse than EA did. EA at the very least only limiting their games to their platform. Epic on the other hand moneyhatting third party developers and publishers. Yet you all do every necessary mental gymnastic to justify Epic practices.
What got me laughing is that some of you actually believing that this will incentivize Steam to put better sales. And I thought the big legitimizing reason of Epic Store existence is that they're giving better cut to developers and yet you now hoping for a race to the bottom price war due to competitions?
You people in the US who never used Steam store should just shut up.
Seriously I don't fucking buy this Steam monopoly narratives. Not when numerous stores sell keys where Steam doesn't get the cut. It just happened those keys are redeemable through Steam only because it is the readily available platform fod many games. The monopoly is but an illusion made by delusional proponents of 'free market'.
What Epic doing here is worse than EA did. EA at the very least only limiting their games to their platform. Epic on the other hand moneyhatting third party developers and publishers. Yet you all do every necessary mental gymnastic to justify Epic practices.
What got me laughing is that some of you actually believing that this will incentivize Steam to put better sales. And I thought the big legitimizing reason of Epic Store existence is that they're giving better cut to developers and yet you now hoping for a race to the bottom price war due to competitions?
You people in the US who never used Steam store should just shut up.
That's how this deal works. They take money and signed games are FORCED to stay on Epic store for 12 months. They won't be available anywhere else.
User warned: drive-by trolling
So much salt over a game launcher. The game is $10 cheaper now. Gamers win.
so you're saying having to install a program is the same as having to buy a console? this is just people being slightly inconvenienced at worst
That's not what is refered to when talking about a monopoly. A monopoly refers to a company dominating the market to the point that it's virtually impossible to compete. It's about a type of product (like PC games in general). A monopoly doesn't apply to a single copyrighted work, or a single studio or publisher.
You might be okay with letting corporations walk all over you, and holding products hostage to get you into using something you don't want to, but a lot of us don't.
The PC being an open-platform allows us to fight these practices.
People who scream 'Steam Monopoly' either are ignorant, or want to play the fool, that Epic is creating a monopoly. The same company that once accused of Microsoft of doing the same.
No, they chose for it to be Epic exclusive. Massive difference between choosing something and being forced to do it. I'm sorry it doesn't fit your narrative, though.
You're really missing the point here.
It's not about installing another launch or having another storefront. It's that Epic's practices are significantly narrowing my ability as a consumer -- the only thing I really give a damn about -- to purchase games from multiple vendors competing against one another for my money.
Trying to muscle the market with your lolfortnitemoney isn't going to gain you favor in the long run. Within 5 years nobody will give a shit about the epic games store.
Then again I'm not too keen on some of valve's practices either, but they don't actively make underhanded anti-consumer deals.
Then again I'm not too keen on some of valve's practices either, but they don't actively make underhanded anti-consumer deals.
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The game is 10 dollars more expensive now. Gamers lose.
Read the OP it's not about launcher nor Steam.
If you come here for shitposting, there's Gamefaqs for you.
Its great when people act like everyone wins because people in the US get $10 off while other countries have to pay up to x2 the price they did on steam, and Chinese people cant even get the game now! What a win for gamers everywhere.
Maybe actually learn why people are salty before shitposting.
Why do you assume I don't want to use the Epic Store? Fwiw, I will be getting this on console, but I've no problem using any store on my PC. Origin, uPlay etc.
To your actual point, companies have ALWAYS used exclusive products to draw customers in, it's not a new normal, it's always been the case. In every single sector. You're being "walked all over" in every sector of your life.
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What they achieved it's taking something away. Not offering something that wasnt sold elsewhere.
It's insane that people don't understand this. They seem to think competition is everyone providing the same goods and the competition is only on price.
Putting games on other places than steam sucks for me since I don't have windows.
But I probably wouldn't have bought metro anyway as it's a fps horror game, both categories are a no-go for me :p
However, having played PC games since the early 1990s it feels very strange that there are exclusive stores and whatnot.
It's very much against the spirit of home computers.
But I probably wouldn't have bought metro anyway as it's a fps horror game, both categories are a no-go for me :p
However, having played PC games since the early 1990s it feels very strange that there are exclusive stores and whatnot.
It's very much against the spirit of home computers.
Reverse this statement from a buyer's perspective and look at it as an indie developer but imagine yourself when steam was the only option available for major distribution digitally. Monopoly is what valve had, epic games store is providing competition.
Why don't you explain how preventing the competition from selling the same product is "competing"?
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It's insane that people expect customers to be respected.
Stop rooting for big corporations.
So, they are offering something that isn't being sold elsewhere. A lot of jumping through hoops in this thread.
Pointing out a fundamental misunderstanding of what competition means is rooting for a "big corporation"? My bad.
You should probably not ever advocate for Valve then, or any other company if you take your own advice.
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I can absolutely see power users not liking this. But then again, how large are these communities really? In the grand scheme of things?. Steam has about 125 million registered users and while I don't have data on how large are the largest PC communities are I'd be willing to say that for a majority of those 125M users, Steam is little more than a glorified folder where their games are. They don't care about cloud saves or benchmark tools, they probably don't even know what Linux is. They just open their steam icon, click on CS:GO or Dota or whatever they're playing and that's it. That's the entirety of the their interaction with the platform.
I could be wrong of course, but I've a feeling I'm not. Time will tell I guess.
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Sure:
Before: Indie dev could sell on Steam, Humble, GMG, their own site.
Now: Indie dev can only sell on Epic Store.
What a fascinating thread.
The number of people twisting themselves into knots and moving goal posts to defend Epic's approach here is somewhat disappointing.
You know what would have actually endeared people to Epic and its launcher? If they had simply moneyhatted the game to a lower price on Epic store (half off?) than anyone else could offer it for and continued to iterate their storefront to continue to inch closer to Steam in terms of core features and offering something in terms of features that Steam doesn't have; a killer feature that makes people want to use the service. And maybe even an easy way to find or import your friends list from Steam as well.
People would have bought it on the Epic store and not thought at all about the storefront it was on or even been happy to get it on the Epic store if it had gone down like that. I know I would have. Instead, they've pushed a publisher to wall their version off from every other reseller, keyseller, and storefront. People are looking at the Epic effort with a serious degree of antipathy and distrust as a result. This approach to a moneyhat won't be worth a reputation hit given how new the storefront itself is. This isn't what the PC platform has built its success on and it won't be acceptable to its player base going forward. While I understand that primary console players won't really understand, you just need to take our word for it.
As said in the RPS article:
"Annoying people, hogging games to yourself to try to force your store onto players, making PC gaming more inconvenient rather than less: none of this is going to help Epic, nor make the Epic Store competitive with Steam. Being better than Steam would."
Hopefully Epic learns the lesson before things go unexpectedly sideways for them at some point down the road.
Loyalty and trust is earned, not bought.
The number of people twisting themselves into knots and moving goal posts to defend Epic's approach here is somewhat disappointing.
You know what would have actually endeared people to Epic and its launcher? If they had simply moneyhatted the game to a lower price on Epic store (half off?) than anyone else could offer it for and continued to iterate their storefront to continue to inch closer to Steam in terms of core features and offering something in terms of features that Steam doesn't have; a killer feature that makes people want to use the service. And maybe even an easy way to find or import your friends list from Steam as well.
People would have bought it on the Epic store and not thought at all about the storefront it was on or even been happy to get it on the Epic store if it had gone down like that. I know I would have. Instead, they've pushed a publisher to wall their version off from every other reseller, keyseller, and storefront. People are looking at the Epic effort with a serious degree of antipathy and distrust as a result. This approach to a moneyhat won't be worth a reputation hit given how new the storefront itself is. This isn't what the PC platform has built its success on and it won't be acceptable to its player base going forward. While I understand that primary console players won't really understand, you just need to take our word for it.
As said in the RPS article:
"Annoying people, hogging games to yourself to try to force your store onto players, making PC gaming more inconvenient rather than less: none of this is going to help Epic, nor make the Epic Store competitive with Steam. Being better than Steam would."
Hopefully Epic learns the lesson before things go unexpectedly sideways for them at some point down the road.
Loyalty and trust is earned, not bought.
There is literally no industry where more competition isn't a good thing. If you don't believe that Steam has way too high a market share (yes, not a true monopoly, I agree and stated that in my original post), that's fair, but look at what happens when a developer / publisher decides to avoid Steam like you said they can - we get a thread of people complaining and boycotting the game.
Fact is, more players in the game is always better for developers and consumers. Eventually, there will be increase priced competition, increased benefits / lowered cuts taken from developers, etc.
Everyone wins here except Steam, so accept the minor pain of having to install another launcher that is priming itself to be a true Steam competitor, for the potential of long term gains.
Hell, in the physical game sale market, competition is working and we see it regularly where I live. Not so much on PC now that physical PC games are gone.
User Warned - Driveby posting
gettign mad i can't buy the same thing at walmart that i can at target
Well... To be honest, you're the one who has a weird point of view. We never had a situation like this before. Everytime when a major publisher left Steam, they created their own launcher and published their own games. This are moves that are planned with advance and are announced months before launch.
This time we have a dev that is moneyhatting others to stay on other platform. When you sign a deal with them, you can't be on other platform for 12 months. It is a choice, but it is also a fact. If a deal winds up bad, they can't leave until that time passed.
It's also a dick move since most of poached games were available on other storefronts and were taken literally within days because of said deals.