Ubisoft and Epic Games have announced an extension to their agreement; Additional back catalog titles from Ubisoft are confirmed for Epic’s free games

[Kalamour]

Or maybe publishers finally found another competitor and a more trusted company than Valve?

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It's publicly known that Epic pays a lot for these exclusivity deals. I have no problem if a publisher decides they don't want to publish on Steam, and I use most other stores. I have a problem with a store shopping around games that were already announced on other platforms (games that look good and have almost guaranteed success), locking them to their store.

Is it difficult to understand that, as a customer, I do not see any benefit from reading a piece of news like "change of plans, this game is now not available on any other store but this one" every other day? This goes against what PC, as a platform, is all about, and what made it what it is today.

 

[monketron]

Competition, in any space, can only be a good thing for the consumer (and Devs). Valve's monopoly has made them lazy. You only need to see how the quality of their sales slowly dropped off over the years to see that. They use to be legendary and something you'd look forward to for half the year, now they pass with barely a whimper.

Here's hoping Epic take enough of a market share to actually push Valve out of their slumber.

 

[fanboi]

Competition, in any space, can only be a good thing for the consumer (and Devs). Valve's monopoly has made them lazy. You only need to see how the quality of their sales slowly dropped off over the years to see that. They use to be legendary and something you'd look forward to for half the year, now they pass with barely a whimper.

Here's hoping Epic take enough of a market share to actually push Valve out of their slumber.

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Yes, but this, so far, has been very limited to compete about the actual end-user, and more catering towards the developers / publisher, forcing the users to move to EGS.

Hopefully this change when they get a solid number of games.

 

[Jakisthe]

I know I'll get dragged for this opinion, but I'm glad that Epic is putting some damn fire under Steam's heels. They've been stagnant and clustered for too long, and only got away with it because it didn't have any real competition. Maybe moves like this will inspire Valve to get compeittive again, before most of their previous partners are suddenly "Epic Store Only".

EDIT: Wow, some of you *really* like Steam.

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I mean, far from it being "*really liking Steam", but what are they going to do to compete here? Make more exclusives? Cut off other storefronts? How is that good?

 

[TheClaw7667]

Competition, in any space, can only be a good thing for the consumer (and Devs). Valve's monopoly has made them lazy. You only need to see how the quality of their sales slowly dropped off over the years to see that. They use to be legendary and something you'd look forward to for half the year, now they pass with barely a whimper.

Here's hoping Epic take enough of a market share to actually push Valve out of their slumber.

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Valve doesn't set the sales of games. That's the publisher's decision. What you are seeing is publishers realizing their games don't need to be put on a huge sale to sell copies.

 

[ProLogY]

I mean, far from it being "*really liking Steam", but what are they going to do to compete here? Make more exclusives? Cut off other storefronts? How is that good?

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Maybe match the revenue cut Epic is giving publishers? So they are less eager to jump ship?

That would probably be a good start.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

This really is the best move for Ubi.

Epic's Store is so inferior, that customers who have developed trust in Uplay via Steam, see it as a far superior solution and are buying from Uplay instead. If this was a choice that also included Steam - Steam would be the leading choice without question.

I would be sure this partnership goes on for quite a while, until eventually Ubisoft are Uplay only

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When you buy Ubisoft games you get it added to the Uplay store anyway. So it shouldn't matter where you get it, buying it on EGS should be like having access to the same game from two different stores, it'll still be under the same Ubisoft account.

 

[Jakisthe]

Maybe match the revenue cut Epic is giving publishers? So they are less eager to jump ship?

That would probably be a good start.

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Oh, I meant like what would they do to make it better for consumers.

 

[True Prophecy]

not sure how 1 year exclusive is a monopoly, but ok

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I assume your take on MS holding tomb raider for a year from PS was a good idea too?

Imagine you could only buy your games from gamestop exclusively for a year.

But hey money hats are great for consumers right? Lol.

Anyway those of you who see no issues with this keep being smug you have won.

 

[Valdega]

Maybe match the revenue cut Epic is giving publishers? So they are less eager to jump ship?

That would probably be a good start.

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Even if Valve matched Epic's cut, that wouldn't change the fact that Epic is paying large sums of money for these timed exclusives. Those large sums of money are the only reason why these games are exclusive. If you believe otherwise, you're pretty naive.

The only way for Valve to counter Epic's moneyhatting is to moneyhat as well. The last thing we need on PC are companies throwing money at publishers and developers for timed exclusivity. Timed exclusivity is anti-consumer garbage that shouldn't be condoned.

Competition, in any space, can only be a good thing for the consumer (and Devs). Valve's monopoly has made them lazy. You only need to see how the quality of their sales slowly dropped off over the years to see that. They use to be legendary and something you'd look forward to for half the year, now they pass with barely a whimper.

Here's hoping Epic take enough of a market share to actually push Valve out of their slumber.

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The claim that Valve is lazy and stagnant is completely inane. Steam has made more efforts to improve PC gaming than any other company. Less than a week ago, Valve released new Steamworks APIs that lets developers use Valve's network backbone for multiplayer traffic. That means less latency and better experiences for players. It also makes the data more secure.

Bookmark this page. Read it once a week. Then stop spouting the baseless nonsense that Valve doesn't actually do anything.

If you're too lazy (or willfully ignorant) to read the page, here's a summary of the things Valve is planning to do in 2019:

• Store Discoverability: We're working on a new recommendation engine powered by machine-learning, that can match players to games based on their individual tastes. Algorithms are only a part of our discoverability solution, however, so we're building more broadcasting and curating features and are constantly assessing the overall design of the store.
• Steam China: We've partnered with Perfect World to bring Steam onshore into China. We'll reveal more details about this in the coming months.
• Steam Library Update: Some long awaited changes to the Steam Client will ship, including a reworked Steam Library, built on top of the technology we shipped in Steam Chat.
• New Events System: We're upgrading the events system in the Steam Community, enabling you to highlight interesting activities in your games like tournaments, streams, or weekly challenges.
• Steam TV: We're working on expanding Steam TV beyond just broadcasting specific tournaments and special events, in order to support all games.
• Steam Chat: We're going to ship a new Steam Chat mobile app, so you can share your favorite GIFs with your friends while on the go.
• Steam Trust: The technology behind Trusted Matchmaking on CS:GO is getting an upgrade and will become a full Steam feature that will be available to all games. This means you'll have more information that you can use to help determine how likely a player is a cheater or not.
• Steam PC Cafe Program: We are going to officially ship a new PC Cafe Program so that players can have a good experience using Steam in hundreds of thousands of PC Cafes Worldwide.

 

[fanboi]

I assume your take on MS holding tomb raider for a year from PS was a good idea too?

Imagine you could only buy your games from gamespot exclusively for a year.

But hey money hats are great for consumers right? Lol.

Anyway those of you who see no issues with this keep being smug you have won.

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It is not the same thing tho.

 

[True Prophecy]

It is not the same thing tho.

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What's not the same thing?

 

[Kalamour]

It is not the same thing tho.

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No, the same thing would be more like MS/XBOX checking what already announced third party games are trending and generating hype and pay the publishers so that they are removed from PS Store.

Edit: Before you correct me, I know the impact is lessen by not needing to buy new hardware. But as a way of "competing", this is what they are doing, which is dirty as fuck.

 

[fanboi]

What's not the same thing?

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For consumer if EGS buy exclusivity to their store va MS buying exclusivity for their console.

 

[True Prophecy]

For consumer if EGS buy exclusivity to their store va MS buying exclusivity for they console.

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Right. I was not comparing those in terms of being the same I was using it as an example of how shit paying for 3rd party exclusives are. More so when said titles have always been open to other stores before.

The example that's closer is being forced to use gamestop to buy your games for a year with no other choices.

 

[Musubi]

Well I guess people shouting about boycotting EGS are the vocal minority.

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They really are and people will soon realize that when EGS only keeps getting bigger.

 

[Xx 720]

As someone coming off console gaming to pc, I just don't see the problem? It's not like you need some special pc to run a game specific to where you buy it from. Metro Exodus runs/plays the same after buying from egs as it would if you got it from steam. Only thing that I could see being a problem is having a different friends list, but that isn't that big a deal.

 

[OutForTheNight2]

As someone coming off console gaming to pc, I just don't see the problem? It's not like you need some special pc to run a game specific to where you buy it from. Metro Exodus runs/plays the same after buying from egs as it would if you got it from steam. Only thing that I could see being a problem is having a different friends list, but that isn't that big a deal.

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[True Prophecy]

They really are and people will soon realize that when EGS only keeps getting bigger.

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And that's a good thing right? I don't see the positive for the consumer yet.

 

[ScrewyAurum]

As someone coming off console gaming to pc, I just don't see the problem? It's not like you need some special pc to run a game specific to where you buy it from. Metro Exodus runs/plays the same after buying from egs as it would if you got it from steam. Only thing that I could see being a problem is having a different friends list, but that isn't that big a deal.

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The matter is deeper than just "clicking another launcher"
First off, the PC gaming space, just like most things PC is about choice, about leveraging the platforms "openness" to let consumers decide where and how they want to consume media among other things. This is something Tim Sweeny himself spoke out against in 2017 when he saw the troubling trend of MS trying to push UWP apps and how it created a precedent for a "Walled Garden:" To quote the man himself - "Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10," says Sweeney, "as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolizing app distribution and commerce."
Exactly what EGS is doing to gain market share.

Its not about clicking another button but all the things it ignores about how consumers in this space expect to be treated.

 

[fanboi]

Right. I was not comparing those in terms of being the same I was using it as an example of how shit paying for 3rd party exclusives are. More so when said titles have always been open to other stores before.

The example that's closer is being forced to use gamestop to buy your games for a year with no other choices.

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True.

While I don't like moneyhatting myself, I don't see any other approach they can do that would cause a "stirr" in the market that is dominated by Steam.

 

[SeeingeyeDug]

Is this a concession that Uplay sucks and the split is generous enough from Epic that it's worth going all in on any Steam competitor that gives more revenue?

 

[Nateo]

As someone coming off console gaming to pc, I just don't see the problem? It's not like you need some special pc to run a game specific to where you buy it from. Metro Exodus runs/plays the same after buying from egs as it would if you got it from steam. Only thing that I could see being a problem is having a different friends list, but that isn't that big a deal.

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Thats right you don't see the problem.

 

[Lyng]

This really is the best move for Ubi.

Epic's Store is so inferior, that customers who have developed trust in Uplay via Steam, see it as a far superior solution and are buying from Uplay instead. If this was a choice that also included Steam - Steam would be the leading choice without question.

I would be sure this partnership goes on for quite a while, until eventually Ubisoft are Uplay only

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Yup. This partnership makes all the sense in the world for Ubi. And honestly they are at least improving their store and launcher. (At least more than Epic)

 

[True Prophecy]

True.

While I don't like moneyhatting myself, I don't see any other approach they can do that would cause a "stirr" in the market that is dominated by Steam.

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I've been thinking of it like Unreal Engine. Epic offered a game engine with amazing features at great prices for developers that only improved over time to the point where unreal engine is widely used in the industry.

Why not take the same approach with the store? Offer better features offer the better developer cut offer cool first party exclusives. Offer vetter sales and regional pricing? Currently the epic store offers nothing better than any other store on PC than forcing people to buy games they want there.

I mean develops are taking epics offer now for up front money which makes sense for them but it doesn't make it better for consumers.

 

[Musubi]

And that's a good thing right? I don't see the positive for the consumer yet.

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Its funny as much as I hear people yelling about not having options. I never heard people yelling about steam when it was the only place to get some games over the past few years.

Rewind back to 2003 when steam launched and guess what I'm sure you'll find people bemoaning not being able to install games on discs anymore and groaning about the digital future. This shit is cyclical.

Its okay though because a good majority of you will eventually break anyways. We all know how well gamer "boycotts" go. Lol.

 

[GhostTrick]

As someone coming off console gaming to pc, I just don't see the problem? It's not like you need some special pc to run a game specific to where you buy it from. Metro Exodus runs/plays the same after buying from egs as it would if you got it from steam. Only thing that I could see being a problem is having a different friends list, but that isn't that big a deal.

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Game is more expensive when sold on one store compared to 15 stores.
We end up paying 10 to 15 bucks more per games.
We lose important features like sharing games, cloud saves, tv mode or full controller support.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Wow really impressive sales numbers for The Division 2 on Epic Store.

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Have they released numbers? I only see
"Following the successful launch of Tom Clancy's The Division 2 on the Epic Games store, "

 

[FiXalaS]

Ubisoft cooperates with everybody.

Must be nice to be a 3rd party

 

[SABO.]

Keen on them freebies

 

[fanboi]

I've been thinking of it like Unreal Engine. Epic offered a game engine with amazing features at great prices for developers that only improved over time to the point where unreal engine is widely used in the industry.

Why not take the same approach with the store? Offer better features offer the better developer cut offer cool first party exclusives. Offer vetter sales and regional pricing? Currently the epic store offers nothing better than any other store on PC than forcing people to buy games they want there.

I mean develops are taking epics offer now for up front money which makes sense for them but it doesn't make it better for consumers.

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Comparing to Unreal Engine, I would say it was already one of the dominating engines out there and the market isn't the same imo, and in the digital store front, Steam is by far the biggest actor, where, for some, is the defacto place to go to.

I would love that better features to end users would garner the traffic they need, but, anecdotally speaking , so many people outside of this forum is like "No Steam? No buy" mentality, where they are now forced to go to EGS to buy certain games.

 

[True Prophecy]

Its funny as much as I hear people yelling about not having options. I never heard people yelling about steam when it was the only place to get some games over the past few years.

Rewind back to 2003 when steam launched and guess what I'm sure you'll find people bemoaning not being able to install games on discs anymore and groaning about the digital future. This shit is cyclical.

Its okay though because a good majority of you will eventually break anyways. We all know how well gamer "boycotts" go. Lol.

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When steam first launched and it was the only way to buy Half Life 2 people hated steam and for good reason it was a shit show for years.

Steam only got better over time to the point people stopped buying PC games from stores they turned public opinion due to being a better option.

Steam only made PC gaming bigger due to the easy of use features and sales which all helped slow piracy too.

Steam has never paid a developer of 3rd party games to only sell on steam.

Microsoft didn't get forced to use steam to put Halo on PC. They did it because it was a good platform for them.

Comparing to Unreal Engine, I would say it was already one of the dominating engines out there and the market isn't the same imo, and in the digital store front, Steam is by far the biggest actor, where, for some, is the defacto place to go to.

I would love that better features to end users would garner the traffic they need, but, anecdotally speaking , so many people outside of this forum is like "No Steam? No buy" mentality, where they are now forced to go to EGS to buy certain games.

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I was just saying that unreal engine became big because of its feature sets. Epic didn't force developers to use it.

Steam is big because it was first to market and has held the biggest store with the best features for consumers.

I personally have never been a no steam no buy person I buy games on all the digital stores. I mostly buy the first party exclusives on those stores because the store usually offers something worth getting it on that store for.

 

[Revolsin]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

 

[GhostTrick]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

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It's already the opposite. That kind of competition doesnt drop prices. If anything when you make a good exclusive or rare, you make it more expensive.

 

[Deleted member 7948]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

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That's not how it works.

 

[qrac]

Having EGS just keeps on getting better and better. I wonder how far they will go and/or when the deals will stop. In a year? 2-3 years?

 

[Blah]

Its funny as much as I hear people yelling about not having options. I never heard people yelling about steam when it was the only place to get some games over the past few years.

Rewind back to 2003 when steam launched and guess what I'm sure you'll find people bemoaning not being able to install games on discs anymore and groaning about the digital future. This shit is cyclical.

Its okay though because a good majority of you will eventually break anyways. We all know how well gamer "boycotts" go. Lol.

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What's cyclical are these shitty posts that have to be rebuked in every single thread because the arguments are disingenuous to begin with.

 

[LewieP]

Have they released numbers? I only see
"Following the successful launch of Tom Clancy's The Division 2 on the Epic Games store, "

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No Epic are withholding all sales data.

 

[Deleted member 3190]

No Epic are withholding all sales data.

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That's not Epic's information to disclose.

 

[LewieP]

That's not Epic's information to disclose.

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Yes it is. They could simply say what on average their paid games have sold so far. Or average revenue etc. Even data that didn't specify what games they were referring to would be useful.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

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Why would they drop the price if they're the only place where you can get that game?

 

[Deleted member 3190]

Why would they drop the price if they're the only place where you can get that game?

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A game isn't a market in and of itself. It still has to compete with other games on EGS or other stores.

 

[Ikuu]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

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Haha, yea that's what is going to happen.

 

[Nooblet]

valve has already improved the revenue split, big aaa games like div2 easily get in te highest bracket of steams revenue share.
this isnt about the revenue split, its about epic straight up paying off publishers.

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The highest bracket still is 8% less than Epic though

 

[Nooblet]

I'm glad it was a success, the game deserves it. Probably the most polished GAAS I've played at launch.
I'm surprised at the epic store sales though, why not just buy it through UPlay. The game's going to need you to install it anyway, and there's no advantage to buying it on the epic store.

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Well for me I bought it on EGS as it was cheaper by a considerable margin. And as a big surprise the EGS version once liked to uplay adds the game on uplay and can be ran without even using EGS.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

A game isn't a market in and of itself. It still has to compete with other games on EGS or other stores.

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That's not how games or any entertainment media works. You don't go out and browse the store to buy the cheapest thing available. A game has to build interest for it to be successful. Destiny player aren't going to be swayed by a Outer Worlds just because it's cheaper.

 

[ghostcrew]

Maybe already mentioned but this also brings the first sale prices that I've seen on the Epic Store. Watch Dogs 2 is £7.49 (reduced from £49.99) and Wildlands and Far Cry Primal both similar. I don't think I've seen any other games have reductions so far?

 

[fspm]

Competition, in any space, can only be a good thing for the consumer (and Devs). Valve's monopoly has made them lazy. You only need to see how the quality of their sales slowly dropped off over the years to see that. They use to be legendary and something you'd look forward to for half the year, now they pass with barely a whimper.

Here's hoping Epic take enough of a market share to actually push Valve out of their slumber.

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You actually tied sale price to laziness. That's how Einsteins are born.

 

[Dogui]

It's a legit master move from Ubisoft tbh. They managed to get free money from Epic plus making the uplay relevant after years of players hate.

Epic will stop moneyhatting stuff at some point and Ubisoft will be ready to sell their stuff exclusively on uplay.

Even Steam only people have uplay accounts if they played a Ubi game at some point, which means uplay can grab a lot more people than Origin, Bethesda store or any kind of Publisher store.

 

[Deleted member 3196]

This is really great stuff for customers, and it's only going to get better as Steam starts seeing Epic as a real threat.

Companies eat other up trying to 1-up with bigger and bigger sales, and we get the cheapest shit possible.

Click to shrink...

That's not going to happen when games are only on EGS. If anything, it will artificially keep the price higher than it otherwise would have.