It must have been a king's ransom of a bribe. Otherwise, I would be surprised Devolver Digital allowed them to pursue such a deal since this move single-handedly destroys a large amount of goodwill/reputation that DD has built up.
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Observation (game from creators of Stories Untold, published by Devolver Digital) exclusive to Epic Games Store on PC
- Thread starter InquisitorAles
- Start date
A game I know just a bit about, is being moved exclusively to a store I prefer to not use.
A store where the people behind it has said that you already know what you want when you go there.
Reviews and word of mouth have be absolutely stellar for me to buy this now. because the devs and the store doesn't seem to want to work for my business for this game.
A store where the people behind it has said that you already know what you want when you go there.
Reviews and word of mouth have be absolutely stellar for me to buy this now. because the devs and the store doesn't seem to want to work for my business for this game.
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Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
A bribe? Why would you call it a bribe?
There's this really odd perspective that developers are like cackling behind-the-scenes, gleefully greedily taking dirty money to damn customers.
Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
No it's the moneyhat that provides the funds
Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
Pretty much. No problem on skipping out on their games.
Why do you think businesses care about customers? The vast majority of the time, this "goodwill" isn't born from a sense of altruism -- it's a valuable long-term business practice to have your consumers as advocates. Case and point: look at everybody defending Steam, including me. I recognize that developers and publishers will do what is in their best financial interests, even if those interests are short-sighted and ignore long-term health and/or brand damage. I can't blame the developer or publisher for taking Epic's money.
From my (consumer) perspective, Epic is paying a company money in an effort to buy market share by eliminating fair competition. That's a bribe by my definition. The concerns of a publisher or developer are not the same concerns of a consumer.
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Not really, go to any other gaming forum like r/pcgaming and Epic is rightly getting dunked on for ruining PC gaming.
Fuck Epic, I hope this bullshit initiative of theirs fails.
It is what it is, but how many publishers are actually throwing the up front cash back at their developers?
None of the major online pc gaming communities are particularly happy, or even indifferent. Maybe that doesn't last, but maybe it does.
Lol not too surprised to see Devolver jump into the Epic money pit.
Sure they mock the industry shenanigans but cash is cash.
Was always gonna be playing on PS4 anyway and hope the game does well.
Sure they mock the industry shenanigans but cash is cash.
Was always gonna be playing on PS4 anyway and hope the game does well.
I had to force my nephew to redeem the Subnautica promo when it was released because he completely ignored. EGS is just a step they have to click to go to Fortnite.
But it doesn't. If that was the case they would try and get it on as many markets as possible. Including stores that have reach into China and South Korea.
As oppossed to restricting to just one market place with less reach.
Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
This is some very forward communication from Devolver that Stories Untold was not enough of a sales success and drove them to look at exclusivity deals with Playstation and Epic in order to have No Code keep making games that aren't a commercial success.
People here can hate on Epic all they want, and hate on Devolver, but at some point they're going to have to understand that sometimes deals like this are necessary. Playstation is also paying for Observation to be exclusive to their platform, you can be sure Steam wouldn't.
Sometimes having a narrow marketing focus and cash-based exclusivity deals brings more attention and value than casting a wide net.
Is it, if it means No Code wouldn't be able to keep making this sort of game?
But if they do that then they do not get the guaranteed sales forecast that Epic is paying out for them to release on EGS exclusively.
They weight out the options and choose the ones they think better. Is it the right decision? That is to be seen still.
Honestly, I'd have way more respect for these decisions if they just outright said Epic gave them a lot of money and felt this was the most financially viable option instead of doing this whole "reach a new audience" song and dance.
Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
Ok at what point do you look at your product and say "Hey, maybe it wasn't visibility that was the issue...maybe the game just wasn't that great?"
OP
OP
Should Valve start to give away money to every failed indie developer just because they didn't manage to gather their audience and sell well enough? Why people keep pretending that it's all Valve fault every time games sells like shit. Exclusivity is not an answer to bad sales, devs will get money yes, but it won't magically increase the sales. What will happen when Epic stops buying exclusives and just open the store to everyone, will indie devs blame them too if their game won't sell well in EGS walled garden either?
If you believe the game didn't sell because it wasn't good enough, then presumably the same would happen to the new game, so why would you advise the dev to not go with Epic's huge pile of money and release on Steam to fail again?
That would be pretty terrible advice, wouldn't it?
Even if you're right, and the game wasn't good enough, at least they get another chance at making a game thanks to all the money Epic dumped on them up front
That has to be preferable to having a second game under perform on Steam and having the studio go under
Stories Untold was absolutely amazing. I don't agree it's Steam fault here, but visibility was definitely an issue.
I hate a lot of what EGS is doing, but the idea that all it takes is for a game to be good/great to sell well is bullshit.
No, that's not what I'm saying. It's not on Valve. As far as I'm aware, they don't offer any promotional/marketing contract deals beyond things like a publisher sale week.
Niche games like Stories Untold can be very well-made and well-received (as Stories Untold was), and not hit sales expectations. That doesn't make No Code a "failed indie developer", and it also doesn't mean that they "didn't manage to gather their audience." They may have done everything well, and simply found that that style of game doesn't lend itself well to profitability.
However, that doesn't mean that No Code needs to give up on making the type of games they want to, which is where Devolver comes in - they seek out deals and arrangements that lead to higher visibility and cash-up-front exclusivity that allows No Code to make Observation, still get published by Devolver, and have better exposure via the deals negotiated by Devolver. In this case, both Sony and Epic Game Store have arranged for the game to have exclusivity in exchange for marketing and publicity (like the State of Play video), as well as (likely) cash and insured game sales (in Epic's case).
There is more going on here than just exclusivity, and Devolver's statement of reaching new audiences makes sense.
None of this is to say that I agree with exclusivity deals, but I do agree with and fully understand the business decisions going on behind this sort of thing.
after casually browsing a number of subreddits, discords, and twitter threads i wouldn't have otherwise the last few weeks i agree that era is a minority
a minority in that it's only slightly angry and has people saying how it might be a good thing instead of royally pissed off and with gnashing teeth to boot like everywhere else
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People are very quick to question the AAA bubble - how long can companies keep making larger worlds with larger budgets and larger dev teams? It applies to indies too, though. If these indies wouldn't get by without exclusivity deals, whose fault is it? Steam still has too many success stories to blame their dreaded algorithms, and Stories Untold got a lot of good press, so its visibility was fairly high in that sense. I understand No Code taking the payout, if that's what it takes to keep the lights on, but it's a band aid, not a solution to the larger problem - depending on the amount Epic paid out, they'll be right back here in two years.
Being indie developer is hard and even single failure could lead to studio closing. when someone offer you big pile of cash to minimize the risk... yeah, i'll take that. Can't blame the dev or publisher on this one. Epic sure as hell thirsty for that market share though
Obvious it would happen
Corporations care more for money than consumers
When you make a game that doesn't review well/isn't 80+ on Metacritic
part of the contract seems to be doing PR for epic. (see all of the developers that have claimed in almost the same language that these deals are good for consumers in some nebulous fashion)
No PR would be that stupid to reveal that 😂
It will be funny if they reference this at the next E3
Closest thing we have to a statement from Devolver so far:
I don't think I see how Fortnite players would be a wider audience, but whatever.
Wider audience, on the Epic store...
