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Steam, Origin, uPlay, Bethesda, Epic, W10 Store, Rockstar Social Club, GoG Galaxy, where's the line?
- Thread starter Kraken3dfx
- Start date
It's not going to kill steam, if anything we will see if Epic will invest in it's client.
Why do I have to go to a Ford dealership to buy a Ford? Why can't I get one from the GMC dealership that's a hell of a lot closer?
Steam did nothing short of save PC gaming. If it weren't for Steam, many games would have never come to the platform. I dont think anyone has forgotten this.
But that was yesterday. Today, the platform is doing great and people want a higher cut. Is what it is.
Every controller Ive connected to battle.net works with Overwatch on PC.
I didn't know that Steam works with the PSVR(the best selling VR headset)? That's a new one.
Epic is more favorable to indies, you'll be seeing them there when the store launches.
The message I got from the Epic store launching with exclusives is I will have to buy an Xbox next generation because the third golden age of PC gaming is about to end.
The whole reason I could avoid a console (outside the Switch) this generation is because Steam+Big Picture Mode+Xbox Controller was basically a great home consoleish experience.
To make this work though I was already ignoring all EA games and games tied to Microsoft's store, but I feel like the Epic store will be the last straw. I am not going to hack together a bunch of these launchers into a subpar kludge of a ten foot interface, and I am not backsliding into having to control everything with a mouse.
I will just move on, Microsoft is already making tons of moves I appreciate anyway so it's time to give them more of my money I guess. Almost all my major PC gamer buddies moved to the Xbox One X and I can't justify not doing the same.
The whole reason I could avoid a console (outside the Switch) this generation is because Steam+Big Picture Mode+Xbox Controller was basically a great home consoleish experience.
To make this work though I was already ignoring all EA games and games tied to Microsoft's store, but I feel like the Epic store will be the last straw. I am not going to hack together a bunch of these launchers into a subpar kludge of a ten foot interface, and I am not backsliding into having to control everything with a mouse.
I will just move on, Microsoft is already making tons of moves I appreciate anyway so it's time to give them more of my money I guess. Almost all my major PC gamer buddies moved to the Xbox One X and I can't justify not doing the same.
And I want to keep buying cheap day 1 releases which is possible only because resellers of Steam keys offer deep cuts to their own 30% margins. If that goes away, I will just stop buying as many games day 1 as I have before. Is what it is...
Epic is money-hatting games to be exclusive to their store only so no, we don't get to choose the storefront.
Online services and their integration into every last game has kinda made people used to having a million accounts and launchers and more likely to put up with this kinda thing, I assume.
I'm not gonna ignore a game that looks great to me due to it being distributed through a storefront that has less features than my preferred one, but I get why some will.
That said, the idea that Valve is stagnant is laughable: the only front they're not leading on is in terms of the revenue split, and I'd argue that the key distribution options go a long way toward offsetting that.
I'm not gonna ignore a game that looks great to me due to it being distributed through a storefront that has less features than my preferred one, but I get why some will.
That said, the idea that Valve is stagnant is laughable: the only front they're not leading on is in terms of the revenue split, and I'd argue that the key distribution options go a long way toward offsetting that.
Oh ? So you can natively use the gyro sensor of your PS4 controller on Overwatch ? Or are you just making BS up ?
Yeah, Steam doesn't work with PSVR. Sony doesn't want that to happen. It works with Oculus or any other PC VR headset.
Epic is more favorable to indies ? Sure, for the ones that are moneyhatted to be there. The rest ? I bet my avatar that a lot will be rejected by their curation process. :)
Yeah, but funnily, we only hear that the cut is too high in one place, despite being the same everywhere else. That was yesterday, it's true, but it's not like they stopped doing so. Opus Magnum being rejected from GOG was a year ago. We're still in a market where indies can be rejected from release despite having released critically received titles. And I think that's a lesson some will learn with the Epic Games Store.
(To be clear, this isn't addressed to the person you were replying to)
I've honestly been surprised at the resistance to even the idea of Epic having a storefront at all, considering the obviously favorable terms they're offering pubs. One pretty common complaint against Steam has been their share of the sell price (considering hands-off approaches in some areas while overly hands-on in others). This feels like a full-throated attempt by a competitor to leverage that against them. Price isn't everything, but it's still the first question you tend to ask, and there's a lot of substance to this pitch on the seller's side.
I dont think anyone is denying that.
Thats why people ask the devs and Epic whats in it for us consumers and the answer is "uhm... yeah... 2 free games every 2 weeks". And they already directly said no Linux support.
Even if this isn't adressed to me, I'll reply to your concern:
There's no resistance at the idea of anyone having their store. Heck, I'll tell you what, I'm for MORE storefronts. The bad thing though is when a store is carrying a product exclusively, which means higher prices (and yes, it ALWAYS means that).
The other thing though, you're right, is what I don't want is Epic Games's client. Why ? Because I don't want an inferior, subpar way to play my games. I have no trust in their ecosystem. And they come after years of SteamSpy with something so lame that they don't even have decent product listing for their titles. No controller support indication, no language indication, no solo/multiplayer indication either.
It sucks for all the indie developers who have to now spend 10x as much time to publish to the same audience as before when you could just use Steam. I hope that alone doesn't drive anyone out of the business, since I know that's already a huge burden on small teams to manage all that stuff.
That's only because PC is an open platform where publishers can launch their own service. I'm sure they will put pressure on Nintendo, Sony and MS in the future but it's a harder hand to play when they created the hardware infrastructure and certifications. You have way less leverage to bully on a closed platform and with how big digital is and the better margins you are obviously going to want a digital version available.
If it was possible to bypass Sony, MS or Nintendo's store publishers would.
So if information comes out that some arbitrary lump-sum is exclusively responsible for all these publishers launching first on the Epic store, I'd obviously soften what I'm about to say, but insisting a publisher is just responding to a "moneyhat" when they make moves toward Epic feels like missing the forest for the trees when an 88/12 share is on the table. Obviously publishers would be interested in growing that storefront/market. Obviously they would want to leverage their releases in the mid-term to potentially sell more under those conditions. The whole point is the opportunity for a better baseline.
It can make perfect sense to experiment with launching first on a platform that has better seller terms without assuming there's some Snidely Whiplash with a money-sack, wringing his hands behind the scenes.
I mean shit with GOG you don't even need the launcher. Just use the site to download it.
And if publishers see a higher % cut from a different storefront some are okay with selling fewer units. I get why people are frustrated, but the math is the math. Some publishers will prefer going after the higher margin, some after the higher addressable market, no two pubs/devs are the same, just as no two customers are the same.
For example satisfactory devs already mentioned that they didn't go off of steam because of the revenue changes.
Some of these games were announced and had steam pages up. So it's hard to believe they just decided that yes epic I will put it on your store exclusively and lose out on sales from steam and gog and anything else just to experiment on your new store without some type of financial incentative that offsets those lost sales.
Maybe but it seems like a short sighted decision that could backfire majorly for them.
Also wouldn't the lower price cuts result in cheaper games? I'd hope that for Epics case that games aren't $80 upwards and or around $69.99 but at $49.99
If not then it's clear that nobody really joined because of those cuts. It's a bonus sure but that's not their intent then.
I think it will be interesting to see how it will be, especially since Epic ignores one of the biggest gaming markets in the world (China).
"Line" would be unfair.
Because what - Origin and Uplay were first, so now other companies just can't make their own platforms because they are "too late"? It's not convenient for us but it's also not something I really worry about. I just click and open any app I want.
Because what - Origin and Uplay were first, so now other companies just can't make their own platforms because they are "too late"? It's not convenient for us but it's also not something I really worry about. I just click and open any app I want.
I can only hope they will eventually consolidate it somehow. Like with movies anywhere. vudu, itunes, google play, prime video, fandango now etc. etc all in one managed place and I can but and watch on any of those without having to remember which app to launch or where I had the movie originally.
It's not assuming though:
https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/12/03/tim-sweeney-answers-questions-about-the-new-epic-games-store
What sort of exclusive games are going to come to this platform? Is exclusivity something you are thinking about?
Epic's own games are exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC and Mac, and we'll sometimes fund developers to release games exclusively through the store.
The thing is from all the storefronts that launched in 2018, they launch with a featureset of 2008.
Heck. Epics store doesnt even have achievments and a search function.
Parts of my point still stand, but I'll have to concede I hadn't known about a stated publisher-boost program.
Yeah before galaxy that's what it was just the download and that's it.
Why should anyone be satisfied by this response? It's not like we're obligated to buy these games.
I can understand wanting to be part of the first wave of games on the new platform (see: Darksiders 3, Subnautica). What I don't understand is why you would release your game on said new platform and inowhere else. Besides, both Supergiant and Coffee Stained has since issued statements that (IMO) does pretty strongly imply moneyhats.
I just hope it doesn't end up negatively for them by doing this. Both are great developers and I wanna see them do well but I can't help but think this isn't going to be a positive thing for them.
I guess features will come with time. It's like expecting a new MMO game to come out with all the features of World of Warcraft. It's not possible.
We should start seeing signs soon enough, particularly if any of the games announced for Epic Store exclusively get a subsequent Steam release shortly afterwards (like how Bad North and Thronebreaker released on Steam shortly after their "exclusive" launches on Discord Store and GOG respectively). Judging by aforementioned two examples, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Yeah it works both ways for me. I won't purchase these games if they come to other storefronts later. It was the developers decision as well.
I really detest money hats to keep games away from other storefronts. For me, pc gaming is all about choice. F*ck any company that tries to take that away from me.
So every game releasing on key selling sites like GMG,Fanatical have this "price promotion" of 20-26% from publisher for launch day? Sorry I am having hard time agreeing with that. If that was true it wouldn't be limited to key selling sites where steam takes 0% cut but steam itself.
It takes some setting up, and that PSVR converter app, but it works. You just use gyro to motion but it's pretty accurate still. I wish the PS4 camera didn't use a weird plug so we could add to that on PC.
Doesn't matter to me if you buy or don't buy. Just trying to give some context.
Do whatever you want, it's your money. If you're not satisfied with what is being offered, or where, or at what price, then just don't buy.
Steam allows pubs/devs to create game keys for free (0% cut for Steam)
Pubs/devs give those keys to 3rd party sites that also get a cut (~30%)
Said 3rd party sites then lower their own cut by offering games at a discounted price, usually -20-25%, to compete with Steam