The play is that they bring in an audience who is essentially forced to engage with their storefront who otherwise wouldn't have done so.
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Shenmue III is timed exclusive to Epic Games Store, backers PC code redeemed on EGS & no refund (See Threadmark) [READ STAFF POSTS BEFORE POSTING]
- Thread starter vestan
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Well it was posted on Reddit; but Gabe's exact words are that it was simple for them and credits Phil Spencer for making it happen.
Reddit Link
Where's the endgame though? It's not like EGS actually has a monopoly on PC gaming, Steam was and will continue to be their biggest competitor. It's like they're swimming upstream: yeah, you'll make some progress if you put everything you have into it but you will run out of energy eventually and once that happens, the current takes over.
Well it was posted on Reddit; but Gabe's exact words are that it was simple for them and credits Phil Spencer for making it happen.
Reddit Link
Hmmmm... Rather vague, I'd say, but fair enough. :)
The flip-side of that is that they're antagonising people who may have otherwise been neutral to EGS without this play.
It's not just the money, it's the loss of goodwill. AAA publishers have more to lose by pissing people off, as they have future games for sure in the pipeline. An indie can make one game and cash out if they get lucky, and if they don't, they got the Epic money to cover costs and they can go work for someone else again.
EGS has become toxic enough at this point that exclusivity deals might cause long-term brand damage, and there's enough competition in the non-AAA PC space that any sort of brand damage can do serious damage, since there are so many other options.
I think Epic's force people into getting EGS, with the games they're managing to get, isn't going to work. There's enough competition out there, and they can't the game people want no matter what, that folks will go, ok, I just don't have to buy this.
I don't care that much about EGS exclusives in general, but doing it with crowdfunded games is just incredibly scummy. I'd change my survey to PS4, but I'm worried some of the backer exclusive content will never be available again even if it eventually released on Steam.
Have they mentioned anything about making that content available as separate DLC at some point? If I can get that stuff later on PC, I'll just wait to see if it eventually comes to Steam and buy it during a sale.
Have they mentioned anything about making that content available as separate DLC at some point? If I can get that stuff later on PC, I'll just wait to see if it eventually comes to Steam and buy it during a sale.
True.
But Epic have made it clear they will do whatever it takes to get a foothold regardless of whether or not that will actually work out long term
"We decided that Epic gave us more money than you. So go fuck yourself."
I don't see them stopping or slowing down. They're not really competing anywhere else.
They counter it by not playing Epic's game and continuing to operate as usual. Give Epic enough rope to hang themselves, etc.
Clearly they care, but having them employ similar tactics in retaliation would be even more disastrous. I'm not sure what you have in mind though? Honestly Valve are doing fine amidst all of this and judging by the high volume of high profile games recently confirmed for steam, they'll continue to be fine.
I'm not even sure Epic have a plan outside of the whole wrangling a captive audience thing anyway. If they have, for example, Shenmue fans (which it really seems that they don't) what do they do to keep them after? What do they do to keep anyone they draw in for an exclusive or free game?
Most of the titles they're snatching like this and Phoenix Point are far from being gigantic draws and even the Ubisoft deal benefits Ubisoft more than Epic. It's hard for me to understand how they want this all to transition once they're done blowing fortnite cash when they don't seem to want to cultivate an audience that likes them, their practices or their platform.
Maybe you can get people on your platform by force, but you gotta get them to stay, and eventually you gotta at least try to make them choose it voluntarily. Gonna be tough at this rate to say the least. Their safest bet is pulling in their built in audience, but again, not sure Phoenix Point and Shenmue are going to blow away the fortnight crowd. It all seems like a total mess and I'd love to know how well it's working for them and the publishers/devs involved.
User Banned (3 Days): Ignoring Mod Post, Platform Warring
Real Shenmue fans will keep playing it on console anyways like the game is meant to be played, its not a pc game.
LOL are you serious?
What a ridiculous post.
Sounds like some "Final Fantasy is meant to be played on Playstation" bullshit.
I don't have a dog in this race but I'd be livid if something like this happened to me! Is there no court that can to something about this!? People have literally been swindled!!!
Also Jesus Christ at the hot takes; basically " I haven't read the OP/threadmarks/Staff posts but here's my piping hot take...
Also Jesus Christ at the hot takes; basically " I haven't read the OP/threadmarks/Staff posts but here's my piping hot take...
Can't you sue them? In my country it's illegal
Thank you for this, we needed to relax
Suing them for 29 dollars seems a tad excessive, but then again not being willing to refund 29 dollars is pretty fucked too
Didn't know that money is purpose specific and can't be used if it is not the "same".
Person A: "Hey buddy can you loan me 10 bucks?"
Person B: "Sure, no problem. Just pay me back when you have your next paycheck."
Person B: "So, what about the 10 bucks I loaned you?"
Person A: "I spent those, my current money has nothing to do with it."
They got Millions from epic, they have enough money to refund it.
Totally. Real, true, cool dudes wait for the Dreamcast version.
It's the thing that people who say "Oh, you just want it on your platform of choice and this is just another launcher" actually ignore. Like, brand loyalty isn't necessarily a bad thing for company, consumer, or the devs/pubs/middle-men in-between. A happy consumer is a consumer who spends more money, tries new products, and brings new consumers into the fold.
Epic are literally just chucking the standard business play-book out the window and saying "Fuck it, we know better than the actual retail industry that's existed for hundreds of years".
Real Shenmue fans should wait till Sega releases a new console and the game gets ported there. Everyone else playing it is a fraud if you ask me.
I'm mad, literally mad for this. For years Shenmue 3 couldn't be developed because no one would give Suzuki money.
Suzuki used E3 to ask money to the fans in order to create the game, first time I saw something like this.
The Kickstarter was successful, plenty of money left and right between Sony's helping, Deep Silver entering as publisher etc.
The game is almost done THANKS TO THE FANS, it get delayed like two months before the release. Ok, waiting for a better product is not a problem. Now the game is exclusive for a platform which wasn't even a thing in 2015, Ys Net is denying refunds even if this break Kickstarter legal terms. Basically people helping to make a game and are now treated like useless garbage, like we took your money, deal with it. Giving backers Steam keys would cost them NOTHING.
Suzuki used E3 to ask money to the fans in order to create the game, first time I saw something like this.
The Kickstarter was successful, plenty of money left and right between Sony's helping, Deep Silver entering as publisher etc.
The game is almost done THANKS TO THE FANS, it get delayed like two months before the release. Ok, waiting for a better product is not a problem. Now the game is exclusive for a platform which wasn't even a thing in 2015, Ys Net is denying refunds even if this break Kickstarter legal terms. Basically people helping to make a game and are now treated like useless garbage, like we took your money, deal with it. Giving backers Steam keys would cost them NOTHING.
EG understood that no client feature parity, a better client or better prices would bring users to buy into the competition. They are fighting the users collections, their Steam libraries. They want users to spread their games over multiple storefronts and adapt to them. If you have spent money in the EG ecosystem, users will lose their connection to their library and then better prices and/or an equal client will come into play.
Fun stuff I have games in:
Steam
GOG
uPlay
Origin
Microsoft Store
Yet I refuse EGS.
They are completely tone deaf
There will be a point where Epic realizes that they can burn as much money as they want and still be only a distant second behind Steam. What they are doing is not sustainable.
Over-emphasises how much people care about libraries. There's more to it than just this - things like cloud saves and Steam workshop are small things to those who don't use them, but without them you suddenly realise how damn useful they are. Also, as Arkanius points out, a lot of us have games split across multiple services.
It makes even less sense since games like Outerworlds and Phoenix Point are going to launch on PC Game Pass at launch. Like all they're doing for these titles in particular (And the Ubisoft titles like Divison 2 selling 10X as much on Uplay) is driving competition to the other non-Steam storefronts, which arguably is great for everyone that's not Epic?
(Phoenix Point was announced today for Game Pass)
Got a response from my Kickstarter message, skimmed the last few pages and didn't see it:
Fuck this.
Gonna check on my options. Maybe contact the consumer bureau or something and hear they stance on things.
Thank you to the several posters who came to my defense, and the mods who listened and unbanned me. I probably shouldn't have made such a strained joke in a tense thread, I'll be more mindful of what I post going forward.
Why can't they just offer backers on PC the chance to directly-download a clean ISO or installation package? Why does the game have to be associated with ANY game client or purchasing platform?
I know it would not be an ideal solution and people would still miss out on Steam's featureset, but it seems like most of the anti-EGS people are okay with pretty much anything besides the Epic Store. I'm not that familiar with the situation but it seems like Epic is generally cool with their exclusive games being released on non-Steam services.
I know it would not be an ideal solution and people would still miss out on Steam's featureset, but it seems like most of the anti-EGS people are okay with pretty much anything besides the Epic Store. I'm not that familiar with the situation but it seems like Epic is generally cool with their exclusive games being released on non-Steam services.
Why even sell games to consumers anymore? Just live off epic's moneyhat amirite?
I don't want steam to start moneyhatting and starting some dumb platform war on pc. That's not helping the situation and only making it worse.
He lives! Thought that was harsh. Don't leave us in such a difficult time!
Got a response from my Kickstarter message, skimmed the last few pages and didn't see it:
The reason why this is bad is they have a lot of EU backers and by law we're all by law required the option of getting a refund, so either they're going to have to change their tune or they're going to have big legal fees to deal with.
I don't think Valve are that dumb. They see the bad PR Epic is getting. Also kudos to Microsoft for being the very opposite of Epic
Quite.
Microsoft now allowing their big name games on Steam and others stores for ALL to enjoy has put them in a completely different light for me.
Kudos and much respect to them.
What a ride, eh...?
Microsoft pissing in the bath with their Windows Store shenanigans have now turned out to be an asset to PC gaming rather than a hindrance.
Epic on the other hand....
Do you think you're the first person to ask this? Try reading the thread.
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