I'm not going to allege Game Informer were paid off.
I am going to say this is a shit opinion and it smacks of the same bizarre, unjustifiably supportive pro-Epic baloney we've been fed for months now. It's an absolute load and I'm sick of it.
A narrative is being perpetuated and it is a narrative detrimental to the health of the PC marketplace.
This is yet another pro-Epic article, of the many that have been written in these last few weeks, that desperately wants to convince gamers about the benefits of Epic's policies. This article, like all others that have been written on the same subject and, weirdly enough, follow the exact same line, fails in the same way as all the rest:
The author has no argument.
This is not an exaggeration. The opinion expressed in the article, just like every other pro-Epic article before, is devoid of a single argument on why supporting Epic's moneyhats is good for customers. Every such article regurgitates the same claims: Valve is slacking (which is false), competition is needed (extremely vague and never explained), the benefits will some day and somehow reach customers (extremely vague and trickle-down horseshit). There is no argument here. Nothing to point to and say "this is why you should support this". Just platitudes, cliches and the misrepresentation of the opposing viewpoint. I worked as a games journalist for many years and this sort of poor reporting is in my opinion a telling example of why many people don't respect the profession.
Great post and well said.
This is really nice. It makes the 30% cut seem more worth it and understandable.
The entire "30% vs 12%" is a lie in the first place.
- Epic pushes processing fees onto users
- Epic pushes advertising costs onto developers
- Epic is strictly controlling digital keys, to prevent 3rd party websites undercutting their storefront prices
- Their backend and user services are almost non-existent
Which is why they are charging 12%. It's not because they care about developers. It's because they want to break the market. I guarantee once they capture any sizable portion of the market and as costs begin to rise they will increase that margin, one way or another.
Just one more small point:
In a recent talk they literally stated they want to control digital distribution and pricing. Epic only partnered with humble bundle to provide key selling in the face of overwhelming criticism by users. However that move was obviously meant to curtail that criticism, not to provide competition for key selling.
Humble is the ONLY store they're letting sell keys. Free Steam key generation is only one part of the equation. The pressure to cut pricing is the other. When you have multiple key selling sites, it lowers prices.
In my humble opinion, that's not what Epic wants and this is yet another example that reveals their intentions, intentions that are not benign.