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A PC game is either on Steam or GOG or it doesn’t exist to me.
I subscribe to the humble monthly bundle thing and if a game doesn’t activate on one of those two I’m probably never going to play it despite owning it.
I’d maybe have added epic to the list if it wasn’t for the store exclusivity stuff. I know that they’ve dialled it back significantly, but anti-consumer stinks like that don’t readily wash out.
Conversely, GOG is on the list because they’re expressly pro-consumer, particularly with their preservationist initiatives. My monkey brain would prefer everything in one place on Steam, but I recognise behaviour I want to support in these companies, so GOG gets my money too
I can live with that as long as we consider that Steam games need to be on Epic and GOG as well.
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Ah, then that meme sucks and you’re just fanboying. I don’t make the rules.
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Hey, you do you. Just don’t try to sell me a moral high horse about exclusivity. I grew past console wars when the kids in the playground were excited about Terminator 2 coming out. If we’re going to bring the conversation back to that level I demand my knees stop hurting in the proces of de-evolution as well.
Any good thing about Epic Store other than Free games?
Why would anyone want to buy it on Epic if it available on GOG, Steam or Itch? Personally, I will never because it didn’t even provide good regional prices.
One reason is that the Epic Games revenue split gives more to the developers. That being said though, they do enter exclusivity agreements with publishers all the time, which is anti-consumer.
But MudMan’s comment was more about how the meme denounces store-exclusive games, yet games that are available only on Steam are also store-exclusive.
GOG is a bit of an outlier. They allow developers to list their games DRM-free so their customers can truly own their games. If store exclusivity is the problem, GOG is the solution - not Steam.
Yea, I prefer GOG and Itch.
Even I ask dev for GOG releases.
I can use Heroic Games Launcher and don’t have to use bloated Steam. Steam used to be much lighter too…
I don’t know, I don’t care. I don’t often buy things on Epic, myself. Seems to me that “free games” is a pretty big thing to dismiss out of hand, though. That seems like a good thing, free games.
In any case the fact that Epic isn’t my store of choice for anything but exclusives and free games also means I don’t spend my time posting stuff about how much they suck. That seems like an undue amount of effort and attention for my what? Fourth, fifth favorite online games store on PC.
There’s also nothing particularly bad about it. Bit of a simple, feature-light UX. Free games is nice. They are smart enough about allowing third party logins, so you can easily import your games automatically into other, better launchers like GOG Galaxy, Launchbox or Heroic. Seen worse.
Says he doesn’t care, then goes on to engage in a conversation about it and writes an essay
And make sure to avoid stores that actively promote the store exclusives concept, even for stuff that isn’t an exclusive (anymore). They don’t deserve our money. Looking at you Epic.
I remember when Metro Exodus was about to release, Epic bought them out and they made the game unpurchasable on Steam after people already preordered. So only those who preordered were able to play on Steam for the first year after release. Valve left this statement on the store page.
Ubisoft pulled something like that with Anno 1800. If you pre-ordered it on Steam it was possible to install and play it, as it was only delisted but not removed entirely. Buying the DLC was a bit of a pain as you couldn’t search Steam for it, you had to dig up the direct Steam Store link from one of the official posts on the Ubi forum. It wasn’t ideal, but at least they had the sense to make everything available immediately on Steam for those that already bought the game there.
Store exclusivity is paid, this means that the devs get a guaranteed income instead of relying on the Steam gamble.
Would you work for your employer if you might be paid more than average but no guarantee on that and only in two years if it happens at all as it depends on the number of clients you got and how influencers feel about your work once it’s complete?
I don’t know about you but I look around and I don’t know anyone who would accept those conditions. That’s where exclusivity becomes an option, you might not have as high an income, but that employer tells you ahead of hiring you how much you’ll make in the next year with a commission on every sale you make once your work is complete.
I’m fully aware, and I don’t even blame developers, especially indies, as I can completely understand their reasoning and commercial consideration. But from a user perspective I just see a store trying to buy market share and either forcing customers to wait a year or cave and use that store. Epic doesn’t fork over money to help developers, it does so to grab a piece of the pie and create value for shareholders.
Personally I prefer not buying or using platforms from companies whose policies I don’t agree with. I avoid Amazon for that reason, and Epic’s store is therefore also on my personal blacklist.
It’s a choice I’m allowed and willing to make. Of course you are free to disagree and by all means, do whatever you feel is right.
Do you purchase on Steam? Because it is in a monopolistic position and that’s much more anti consumer than anything Epic or GOG can do in their position.
That’s not even talking about the 30% cut which means less money going to the devs (and before you say they use the money to innovate, devs being able to afford making games is much more important for gaming than developing virtual trading cards or enriching a billionaire with a yacht collection).
Because it is in a monopolistic position
Is it forcing a monopolistic position? Or is it’s “monopolistic position” just a result of it being popular and widely used?
Do we need to wait until they start abusing their position before we react to the fact that they can do whatever the fuck they want with the PC gaming market?
Do we need to wait until they start abusing their position
Should we be punishing Steam for things they haven’t done?
Epic was already trying to abuse their position as soon as they started up.
“You should purchase from the shitty company because if you purchase from the better company they might maybe one day become shitty” is not a compelling argument.
If Steam starts abusing their position and becomes shitty then I will stop using Steam. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong (or difficult) with “pirating” the games I have legally purchased on Steam in order to access them outside of the Steam environment.
I don’t know about you but I look around and I don’t know anyone who would accept those conditions.
except publishers frequently do accept those conditions.
I’m talking about employees, not businesses, people like you and me
and I’m saying your analogy doesn’t work.
Except that yes it does. You’re expecting all devs to spend their life savings to develop a game in the hope that Markiplier or Northernlion or whoever else decide to play their game out of thousands of suggestions they get? Some of them prefer a guaranteed salary in exchange for exclusivity, just like the vast majority of people exchange a guaranteed salary in exchange for work exclusive to a single employer. But somehow you guys expect devs to just gamble while you wouldn’t play slot machine for a living.
I am not a dev. You are also not a dev. Here are some thoughts from an indie dev about Steam and Epic: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckepic/comments/1dbljev/jason_thor_halls_pirate_software_thoughts_on/
Note the comments he makes about why an Epic exclusivity window is valuable to a dev.
The employees got paid while working on the game. They don’t only get paid based on sales.
I’m making a parallel between those businesses who still need money to come in in order to pay employees and the way people who are complaining about exclusives wouldn’t submit themselves to the same process of working without any guaranteed income. Money to pay employees doesn’t come out of nowhere and plenty of publishers have went bankrupt leaving the employees without anything to show for their hard work.
You’re also completely forgetting about indie devs.
Analogies, you guys should go read about those.
You can’t hide behind a bad analogy simply due to it being an analogy. It’s still bad. McDonald’s doesn’t get paid until someone buys a burger. Walmart doesn’t get paid until a customer leaves the checkout. This is very normal for businesses that you don’t get money until the consumer buys your product. If I start an independent business selling socks I can make all the socks I want, I don’t get paid unless people buy them. That’s a normal risk to starting your own business.
All of this is besides the fact that I don’t blame devs for taking the offer, I blame Epic. If a game later becomes available on another service I will consider it then, I will not let Epic have any of my money.
You’re also completely forgetting about indie devs.
Okay, let’s ask an indie dev.
Does McDonald’s wait 2 or 3 years to get money for the work accomplished to make that burger?
“steal”
I will try your game out on my terms anyways. Soooooo
TFW PS5 only.
Console exclusives have a logic to them, it takes extra time and money to translate a game to be playable on different hardware.
Store exclusives do not make sense. No game is only purchasable at GameStop, and the only reason for it is to avoid competition.
does playstation even have exclusives anymore?
Mostly seems to be timed these days.
Bloodborne still MIA though.
Put your game on gog so pirating it is piss easy.
(pirating is already piss easy)
Shit you’re right. I don’t want to get too lazy.
Wrong button oops
DRM lover
Gog is DRM free, my guy.
Yet another benefit of pirating GOG games.
I must’ve responded to the wrong message, woops
Gog is of course the way
Put your game on GOG, or I’m gonna steal it.
It saddens me what a DRM shill you are
In what way are they a DRM shill?
GOG is DRM?
Obviously not, don’t be weird
So how is somebody insisting games be on GOG a DRM shill?
They are not doing that, reread OP
is this website full of children?
Why yes your honor, I did pirate 47TB of games. But as Infomatics90 clearly indicated, my reasons prove I am a child, and therefore I argue I can’t be tried as an adult. I rest my case!
…you want a serious answer, eh?
Capitalists do whatever they can get away with to goose profit.
Which is basically everything since they hired the people who wrote the laws and bribed the politicians to pass them. (see ALEC)
What is immature to doing what can be gotten away with to them in kind? Isn’t that just, as the capitalists say, exercising our highly virtuous rational self-interest?
