Wasn't one of lines they fed initially that they were going to be transparent with sales data though?
Edit: nope, only on the developer end
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...share-as-much-information-as-legally-possible
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The Division 2 Is Ditching Steam For The Epic Games Store On PC [See Threadmarks]
- Thread starter Kenzodielocke
- Start date
Wasn't one of lines they fed initially that they were going to be transparent with sales data though?
Edit: nope, only on the developer end
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...share-as-much-information-as-legally-possible
Why? So that Valve sees that they aren't the only players in the game anymore.
Which is very good.
Because they treat the publisher better. It's that simple.
Ubi will make more from the difference in revenue split by going to the Epic store than they will make from the tiny fraction of steam console-style warriors that refuse to buy products they want to play solely because of the executable that runs it.
Might have something to do with Tencent having a stake in both companies. This also makes Uplay the more attractive option of the two.
It's a bad experience. This is what it's like to play the Uplay copy of Watch Dogs 2 that was bundled with my GPU via Steam:
(note: for some reason the game's videos drop to a very low frame rate with OBS recording, not sure why)
- Multiple UAC prompts, which require me to get the keyboard.
- Prompts from Uplay which opened behind the Steam window and require me to use a mouse.
- The overlay was unable to hook into the game as a result of the above, so my Steam Controller (or DualShock 4) doesn't work properly with it.
- The game takes forever to load because it was unable to connect to the Uplay servers.
- Quitting the game kicks me back to a broken Uplay client window, not Steam.
It gets even worse when the Uplay client requires an update first, as that introduces more delays and UAC prompts, and most of the time quitting a Uplay game will display a pop-up ad too.
I would expect consoles to be most impacted by this.
People buy consoles because they are relatively affordable, easy, and convenient. That's easily supplanted by streaming.
PC is where the high-end enthusiast market is, for people that are willing to pay more have the best experience; the highest performance, the best image quality, the lowest latency etc. They have also been most resistant to giving up control over their experience. Streaming is in direct opposition to that.
I think streaming is far less viable than many people seem to believe. No-one is going to confuse a streamed game with one running locally any time soon, and the infrastructure is not going to be there for the majority of people playing games for a very long time.
Being able to receive a low quality Netflix stream—which is still out of reach for many people—is far less demanding than trying to play a game.
Sorry, I should have been more civil and not using word shit, I should have just named it as it is - barebones crap that provides 0 real benefits to me as a customer outside a bunch of free games. It's good for you that you don't care about those features, but Steam won me as a customer because of features and the fact that I can buy a lot of games for it as keys without even using their store. I have a very limited amount of money I can spend on games, and if epic trying to force me to use their platform with the expectations that it would become better at some point, then they can keep it. Right the only thing they are doing is trying at all costs to limit consumers choices, and no game ever worth supporting this shameless behavior.
But the whole point is that Steam has gained so many great features that it's gotten way beyond a simple game launcher. Epic's thing... lol.
Yeah can't wait until a horrible thing happens! So many angry reactions will follow and that's funny because _______ !
I honestly have no idea how big or small the "No steam or no buy" crowd is but I guess we'll see how it pans out for them when they release their financials.
That kind of makes sense but it seems like a rather risky move. Epic must be offering some serious dosh for them to do this.
But.... those features are worthless, I mean just ask all the Ashen players who are posting troubleshoots on the games Steam forums since Epic thinks forums are toxic, Lol!
Steam has global reach, it literally managed to convince people in Russia and Brazil to actually buy games, Epic has nothing of the sorts so far. Most people I know discover games through the Steam main page anyway.
For what it's worth, the Epic Store affiliate program explicitly bans sharing any sales data with anyone.
Valve Corporation is taking a big chunk of profits. Now there is a platform that offers higher profits. Logical business decision by Ubisoft.
I honestly wish it could pare down on them if anything. Sometimes navigating Steam's options is a maze to find the right setting because of all the bits and bobs added through the years. Big Picture Mode is straight up trash for me and every single time it's popped up has been an inconvenience and one that I wish I could outright have removed. I absolutely despise the marketplace and what it's done for the game economies affected and how itemizations in those games have worked out as a result. I find the gamification of profile pages gross and the whole inclusion of cards to be one of the most cynical and surgically manipulative they've done. I still can't change my login credentials (Epic and Blizzard do this just fine so I don't want to hear any bupkis about security). And a lot of extraneous features are niceties but ones that I just use other things for because they're better. I chat on Discord, I'll stream on Twitch, I'll plop my screenshots along with my console ones on Twitter. I don't need all this bulk and the entire workflow at Valve seems to be one of adding a lot of a little because that's how employees get anything done there apparently.
Proton's great for the 0.1% of Linux gamers out there though, I'll give 'em that.
They're leaving a store that has millions of users vs a store that's still new, while at the same time they have their own store where they can rack up 100% of the profit anyway. If it was about maximizing profit they would pull an EA and just sell through Uplay and that's it. Logical... lol.
Depending on how much money they get in their fedora it might be good business decision.
But most of us don't judge it as if we were stockholder anyway.
This is an extremely terrible analogy. How did you not realize this while you were typing it up?
Go check Steam Hardware surveys. Most people don't have hardcore gaming rigs. For many, their PCs are light notebooks and desktops with midrange GPUs at best.
A huge chunk of Steam gamers can stream games running at higher settings than their local machines can render. So lots of people may well have much better visuals streaming vs running locally.
All you need to stream a game at high settings is 20mbps. That's not out of the reach for many households in developed countries.
maybe Valve should now think about releasing Half Life 3? or better yet, giving a bigger cut to publishers?
I'll buy the division if it's a good game, otherwise I don't much care on what platform it's just I hate having to keep track of all the different log ins.
I'll buy the division if it's a good game, otherwise I don't much care on what platform it's just I hate having to keep track of all the different log ins.
I'd love to hear how releasing HL3 will prevent Epic from moneyhatting 3rd party games?
They already did.
Didn't Epic a while ago promise to open their crossplay tech? Epic and Ubi could've gained a lot of goodwill by saying that The Division 2 is going to use Epic's stuff to do crossplay, and it being exclusively on EGS is a small price to pay. But of course not, this looks just like another 'hasty' business decision (see: the sudden store name removal).
It's not like they're shifting their distribution from a PS4 to an Xbox. Those users already have PCs and if they want the game they will download the store launcher and buy the game.
I can sort of understand wanting to stick to one platform.. to an extent. But the vast majority won't care.
Steam need the competition, it's become bloated with and insane amount of junk.
Because you're against big corporate entities doing anti-consumer practices or something!
Unless it's Tencent-Epic, clearly the plucky underdog in this story.
Yes, I know that the majority of PCs are mid-range or lower - though that is often skewed by people with a gaming PC who also load indie games on their notebook for example. I don't think I've ever been part of the Steam survey on my gaming PC, only my older PCs and notebooks.
But that doesn't change my statement about PC being where the high-end enthusiast market exists, or that many people choose to game on PC because they want more control over the experience than a console or streaming service provides.
A 20mb stream is not remotely comparable to playing something locally. Even with a direct Ethernet link, I've done in-home streaming at far higher bit-rates and it still looks worse.
If a game is running at maximum settings on the stream, and lower settings locally, it will look better locally.
And that says nothing for latency and consistency of the experience.
A 20mb DSL connection will have high latency and an inconsistent experience. Cable will be better, but latency is often still a concern, depending on the network and time of day.
I'm also not convinced about how these services will fare once scaled up if a significant number of people were to switch over to streaming, rather than only a very small number of them.
What is bloat and junk for you, are useful features for others.
Not sure if competition is going to make them remove features.
If it's about you wanting a leaner launcher, then the best case scenario would be the game being sold on Steam, uPlay and Epic Store. But this move is not a decision that has been taken for the benefit of the customers.
Haven't used the Bethesda launcher myself, but it must be really awful if it makes the barebones Epic Store launcher look good.
1. People don't want to use an inferior launcher.
2. This is not competition it's anti competitive practices.
That's not my point, my point is if it's about maximizing profit they would just stick to Uplay with 100% revenue, arguably Uplay has an even larger active user base than Epic's at this point.
We're talking about the Epic Launcher in general. No need to be dishonest.
Because they're paying developers and publishers to release stuff only on their store exclusively for a certain time period.(Ubi being the exception)
Seeing as PC is an open platform the people playing on it don't take kindly to console like behavior. That and the epic launcher is inferior to steam in every way. That said I'd have zero issues with it if the games were offered elsewhere and if they were not taken off steam after already being there.
For me personally, it's the lack of customized regional pricing (not just 1:1 conversion) and hassle-free, unlimited refunds. I almost exclusively buy stuffs from Steam store because of those two factors, while previously I heavily relied on third party Steam key resellers.
Steam
It bounds to happen. In fact I'm surprised those mega greedy shareholders endured the valve tax for that long.
Steam will be a good wall garden for small/indie devs
It bounds to happen. In fact I'm surprised those mega greedy shareholders endured the valve tax for that long.
Steam will be a good wall garden for small/indie devs
It's been posted in this thread numerous times.
It lacks the most basic features that you expect from a storefront/launcher in these day.
And people are annoyed since the games sold on Epic Store aren't sold there as well, but are being paid by Epic to be exclusives. W
This means a shitty situation for you as customer, where you instead of getting more options, are instead forced to use another storefront, with the credentials and server depencies that comes with that, if you still want the game that's now being made exclusive.
Okay let me say it straight then
Epic's service is trash
Valve's service is not trash
I am a consumer
I give negative fucks about Epic's lack of experience
I will choose the better service
I am not happy about Epic moneyhatting games as to lock me out of the better service
I think this is fairly simple to understand
Although the new store also has millions of users. Sure most of them are Fortnite players. I'd imagine Ubisoft thinking that Fortnite players are used to the store/launcher and wouldn't mind haveing some more games on it.
Hopefully we will see a more resonable share of the market in a couple of years where all the players have about 10-20% of the market. Then we will get cheaper games because they will have to compete with price for "multi-platform(store) games.
What really rubs me the wrong way is the fact that Ubisoft already had a Steam Page up and running for The Division 2 and still decided to pull it.
The game must have been on hundreds of thousands wishlists setting expectations.
screenshot is from 16.12.18
The game must have been on hundreds of thousands wishlists setting expectations.
screenshot is from 16.12.18
You're not going to get cheaper games as long as Epic is willing to pay for exclusivity.
I want to see the underlying logic behind this. My game is on storefront x,y and z and this is going to enable lower prices through?
Aside from my dislike of it, I'd be genuinely curious to know how well these indie games are selling on the Epic Store...You're not going to get cheaper games as long as Epic is willing to pay for exclusivity.
But let's be real, they will most likely never show us the data. Especially as long as it's not particularly favorable.
There is no logic. These comments come from people who have done one course in econ 101 with zero understanding of the underlying market they are commenting on. But because they can draw you a graph with two intersecting lines on it, they dont need to do any reading.
Well let's look at it.
Valve's cache issue allowed you to randomly see other users friends list, email address, or phone number.
Bethesda mistakenly sent out the user names, customer names, home addresses, phone numbers, and type of credit card of users, to other users.
So you tell me.
Russians for example. It is twice the price on the Epic Games Store.
Regional pricing is still not available, AFAIK.
