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PC Gaming Era | January 2019 - Return of the Obra Dinn wins PC Gaming Era GOTY
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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Barely had time to touch RE2 during the weekend, very frustrating.
Was expecting Yakuza 0 to be a bit higher on PC goty list.
Was expecting Yakuza 0 to be a bit higher on PC goty list.
Is it even possible for Epic to snatch a game from Steam after it's already being up for pre-order? I don't think so.
Money has a power all of its own.
It'd be a PR mess for any company doing it, but that's all.
Is it even legal though? They're basically removing people's license.
They'd also have to refund all the money, or force people who've pre-ordered the game to use Epic store launcher.
I dunno. It is an issue for the devs to be putting their games up on Steam and then just pulling them (like, that's just a bonehead move), but those were not for pre-order.
Never invoke a nightmare scenario on ERA in the context of Console/Store Wars. That's like putting chum in the water.
Yeah, that's the thing. It never happened. Epic has snatched a few games from Steam, but none of them were already up for pre-order.
Warframe?Anyway, I've just submitted my game recommendation for February. Guess the game.
I highly doubt epic is really going to get Metro Exodus exclusivity for their store. If they will really try to do this, this is going to create a huge shitstorm not just from customers, but Deep Silver is also going to piss off their retail partners because the game already goes gold, the physical editions were finalized month ago and steam keys were available for preorder and promised to be delivered on release day. And I doubt that Valve would allow refund preorders that were available since E3 2018. It's not just about customers this time, it would be a very bad business decision for Deep Silver and no amount of epic cash possibly justify this sudden switch for long-term. But I can see Galyonkin trying to get this deal anyway just to piss everyone and laugh about that on Twitter.
Looks like Destiny EA (Early Access)Anyway, I've just submitted my game recommendation for February. Guess the game.
Anyway, I've just submitted my game recommendation for February. Guess the game.
Hmmm. A game based on the Bumblebee movie?
PayPal locked my account because of a big purchase so I can't even sell my shitty destiny clone code ugh
Image made me think of Crysis armor first
Image made me think of Crysis armor first
Is that armored man trying to wake up inside? Or are they telling everyone that Backstreet is back?
Speaking of Metro....looks like they upped the price in my region. Someone must have got wise to it. Idk if that says anything about the game going to Epic or not. I can't imagine Deep Silver doing that when they have been selling the game for months now. Maybe for copies already sold they stay on Steam but new copies will be for Epic store.....maybe.
Is he still stealing a living off Valve?
The only slightly similar thing I've heard of happening like that was the VR game Giant Cop. It was available for preorder on Humble as a Vive game Steam key but down the line they made an exclusive deal with Facebook causing them to kinda pretend it never happened and market it as an Oculus game instead. People got justifiably angry about their preorders so Humble eventually issued refunds and it really poisoned the discourse around the game.
But that was just a game that was sold on Humble and not on Steam yet and it was a timed exclusive at that, and even that got people angry. I think if a game is already for preorder on Steam it's not going anywhere. Buying exclusivity gives enough negative PR. Doing it for a game that already has preorders is like a multiplier on top of that. It can't be worth it.
Edit: It's actually interesting looking at 3 year old articles about this. A lot of the same complaints are made as we see these days. Just now that a company is doing it for general PC gaming instead of the more niche VR sector, far more people are talking about it.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/pc...za-kiwami-sunless-skies-wargroove-more.96153/
Highlight thread is up!
MRORANGE please link it in the next thread.
Highlight thread is up!
MRORANGE please link it in the next thread.
Actually, we need to appreciate efforts that epic is making in converting their fortnite audience to indie game buyers. Because right now epic, maybe not fully realizing it, but unintentionally doing a great service to other platforms. Let's say, this fortnite player who played only fortnite and didn't even had other launchers installed noticed epic giving away, for example, What Remains of Edith Finch. This player would install this game, play it, and supposedly he loved it and suddenly decided to play more games like this. But currently, there are no other games like What Remains of Edith Finch on epic store, so what he will do? He asks google and this is what he will see:
Epic claiming that their audience doesn't have platform loyalty and don't even have Steam installed, so they would buy games in their store without thinking about it too much... But that works both ways, just like their audience don't loyal to Steam, most of them don't care about epic launcher either and will follow the games they interested in playing and go to other platforms. In current state epic store library is seriously lacking and their strict curation and "waves" approach hurts them a lot. This situation can be applied to almost every game on epic store, someone liked Satisfactory and wants more experience like this? He will go on Factorio developers site or Steam page. Another player loved Subnautica? Google "more games like subnautica", and the first link is https://store.steampowered.com/recommended/morelike/app/264710/ So, funnily enough, epic pounding cash into indies exclusivity deals really helps other platforms, because other platforms have a significantly larger and diverse library and can offer much more than epic currently can. The only losing party in this situation is customers because they had to deal with all this exclusivity bullshit.
Epic claiming that their audience doesn't have platform loyalty and don't even have Steam installed, so they would buy games in their store without thinking about it too much... But that works both ways, just like their audience don't loyal to Steam, most of them don't care about epic launcher either and will follow the games they interested in playing and go to other platforms. In current state epic store library is seriously lacking and their strict curation and "waves" approach hurts them a lot. This situation can be applied to almost every game on epic store, someone liked Satisfactory and wants more experience like this? He will go on Factorio developers site or Steam page. Another player loved Subnautica? Google "more games like subnautica", and the first link is https://store.steampowered.com/recommended/morelike/app/264710/ So, funnily enough, epic pounding cash into indies exclusivity deals really helps other platforms, because other platforms have a significantly larger and diverse library and can offer much more than epic currently can. The only losing party in this situation is customers because they had to deal with all this exclusivity bullshit.
There really is no point in moralizing like this. Piracy is always a service issue. Currently we have one large store, and lots of ways of getting keys for it.
It's not hard to see that if this market splinters a lot, and every publisher expects people to get their own store, it will force people to jump through lots of hoops for something that Steam has already solved near perfectly (Remember "don't press that button!" ? That's not a joke, for lots of players that is frustrating as hell)
This is why I feel strongly about Epics money hatting, it's potentially making things worse for everyone. The closest coherent idea as to how it benefits players is by forcing Steam to "step up their game". Except Steam is already running loops around any "competition" that has ever crept up. And the low 11% cut that Epic is touting , is clearly not enough to run a large platform like Steam. I don't give a shit how many devs think it's worth it, I don't want Steam making their cut by introducing stupid bullshit fees for bank transactions or whatnot.
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It's EUR 40 over at Instant Gaming
https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/2140-buy-key-steam-metro-exodus/
Humblebundle.com are also selling it
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/metro-exodus
Though I get your point; not many online key sellers are selling the game @_@
Um, what? Regardless of how you feel about Epic or Steam or UPlay, "but I want it" is a shitty justification.
Unless I read your post wrong.
No, it's not, but you know that's not how it works. Piracy was always present in the PC gaming scene (and Epic knows that very well, as they stated in the past) and it was only limited because Steam managed to make purchasing and 'owning' games convenient and engaging. That's also the reason why a lot of people prefer paying more to get a game on Steam instead of getting it cheaper on the publisher's own launcher or straight up pirate it. I won't pirate games that are exclusive on the Epic store because I don't really mind not playing a game, but you know a lot of people will, no matter how hard you try to moralize on how wrong it is, that "would you steal a car?" thing never worked.
I think he is not defending this point, he's just saying most people don't care and if service is shit, they will get it in a more convenient way for them, which is piracy for some people, especially if they live in poor countries. I live in one of such countries and can confirm that most people here don't give a fuck about "help the creator" thing and started to buy games legally only because it was more convenient and also gave them benefits like achievements and trading.
I would try to make some time for it because its brilliant. New action plus old survival.
No, it doesn't, cause that's a stupid analogy.
A user literally said he was going to pirate a game because it was going Epic exclusive. Other people, myself included, said that was stupid. I'm not responding to some vague notion that people might pirate games. I know they will. I'm responding to a specific user with specific posts saying that they would.
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It's not about morality, it's about reality. Piracy on PC was reduced because Valve created a service that is useful enough and valuable enough to convince people that it's better to pay for a Steam game than download the same game through a torrent. Steam isn't just a storefront. Its set of features and services make people consider a Steam game better value for money than the same game on another service, to the extent that people will often pay more for a Steam key.
Remove that value by selling your game on a subpar service that offers nothing extra to your customers and you will force a lot of people to re-evaluate whether or not your game is worth a purchase. Force your customers to use a bad service and you make the torrent the more attractive option again. It is utterly shocking to me that developers fail to realize this fact and they will destroy their livelihood in the process. If the PC market collapses, most developers will be well and truly fucked.
It IS the PC gaming thread...
Some of them actually released their Discord First games on Steam way before the 90 days exclusivity window ended. ^^
It looks amazing, like most recent EA games. But it felt generic and boring as hell to me. Also like most recent EA games.
They did not even last their entire exclusivity period I recall. One or more games turned up on Steam before the store exclusivity was up. The whole discord store thing was brutal and I kinda feel sorry for them but then again idk what they were expecting trying to carve out a name for themselves in a space that is already so well served.
I don't think there is an Oscar for the worst demo in 2019 maybe a Golden Raspberry dunno.
Later on when/if they do in fact allow self-publishing, we're toying with the idea of putting one of our next games Discord first just to see what happens.
Gotta give kudos to Discord for actually letting the games get away from the exclusivity contract once it was clear Discord store was not pulling the expected numbers.
I am still very surprised about how Discord went on with their store. They didnt really push it that hard, with it not being the first page you see when opening the service, and not really pushing it after the initial PR boost.
I am still very surprised about how Discord went on with their store. They didnt really push it that hard, with it not being the first page you see when opening the service, and not really pushing it after the initial PR boost.
I'm not sure it's a good idea to support storefront exclusivity deals on PC. If Epic's Store has learned us anything, it's that many PC gamers don't like these deals.
Epic is a much different story, with paying for full exclusive rights. We'd feel much more concerned both because of how little info they have given, and how the general public has reacted (even though forums are a minority).
We're not that well-known enough that it would hurt us a ton, and going on Steam three months later is still going on Steam.
In the end:
1) If it's not worth it, we won't do it again.
2) Our audience is still gonna be there no matter when we launch on Steam.
3) We can brand it as the Ultimate Radical Steam Edition Bro
There is no justification. Pirates are scumm. But moralizing won't help you make a dime.
I'm saying that we know from the history of the medium (and really all digital mediums, the same story was true for Netflix) that piracy is simply a function of bad service and accessibility.
People will see what they want to see. You can scream all you want how it's evil, they don't care. But give them a simple app, and a fair pricing model, and you will see them abandon BitTorrent pretty damn quick too.
What we are seeing now is that after a dominant player made this possible, lots of other companies want a part of this pie as well. It's going to be interesting to see if it leads us back to where we started from.
Epic doesn't seem to do push full exclusivity if it isn't funded by them though, if we look at their store now anyway. Hades is still coming and I'm sure Ashen will too eventually. That Division 2 isn't coming to Steam is more likely Ubi's choice than Epic opening up their wallet. I doubt even Epic has that kind of money. Journey is probably there to stay, seeing as they had a part in making it happen. Timed exclusivity is still a bit of a bummer for people who prefer Steam like myself, but it's a harsh market and I don't begrudge smaller developers trying to get some certainty in terms of marketing, visibility, etc.
Sure I understand why you would go for Discord First. And to be honest I don't mind 90 days exclusivity as much as Epic's 12 months or even permanent exclusivity deals.
It's just that I'd love to see as much games in as much stores as possible. In my opinion, that's the only pro-consumer way to create real competition between storefronts on PC. I'd hate to see a future where most (popular) games would be moneyhatted by a single storefront for exclusivity. Especially if that storefront is bare bones or even significantly worse then other storefronts that PC gamers actually prefer.
Are you serious? Do you have any idea how much money Epic makes with Fortnite?
Ubisofts games sold millions on Steam. It's very, very likely that Epic paid them to keep The Division 2 away from Steam. Sweeney himself said that these exclusivity deals don't come without "benefits" for the publisher/developer, including bags of cash.
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