Soldato
The problem with Epic was not it being yet another launcher, it was the shady practices of Epic and it's parent company.
Epic Games Store now open!
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The problem with Epic was not it being yet another launcher, it was the shady practices of Epic and it's parent company.
Soldato
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It's not different in concept, but I bet devs/publishers with games on Steam were all contacted and given a heads-up on what they were planning to do (as Valve surely know by now to be careful when it comes to changing the price on games)... I expect there were some limits on what you could use the £5 on as well e.g. maybe not on pre-orders... and Valve would likely have listened to any devs who didn't want their game to be able to be discounted in that way
Soldato
It was, what I said initially. Then came the revelations you said reported by various sources.
Aka There's no evidence, but Valve probably did the right thing because they are the good guys and Epic are the bad guys.
That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. Some people want things to be black and white. They want a hero and a villain. The hero has always been Steam. In the past the villian has been Origin, Uplay and Windows Store. Now it's Epic.
Soldato
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I guess the "evidence" since you're so keen on it would be the fact that last time I checked devs weren't pulling their games off of Steam during their sales after suddenly finding Valve selling them in ways which they hadn't agreed upon, which is what is happening right now on EGS...
Apparently that means I think Valve/Steam are heroes?
Of the others you list the only service that has ever really been vilified like that was the Windows Store, when Microsoft briefly tried to pull a pretty similar move to what Epic are doing now (and they then backed down). Uplay and Origin people tend to just deal with because it's not surprising them wanting to distribute their own work and they often don't prohibit the sale of their games on other platforms
Associate
Ouchhh poor developers I would have thought they'd need to ask if their unreleased games can be discounted!
I didn't mean to specifically focus on yourself. Your quote allowed me to express how I personally felt. It feels to me that a lot of people in the PC gaming community consider direct competition to Steam as bad, and when it happens always take the view that Steam is always the good actor and the competition is always the bad actor. It's never that black and white.
In regard to the other stores other than the Windows Store (which you've covered above), Uplay received backlash but was largely mitigated by the fact that Steam users were still able to purchase those games via Steam. Even though launching them still meant you went via Uplay.
Origin recieved the biggest backlash of them all. Google seems to do a good job of ignoring old internet pages, but I've found this 7-year old discussion on GameSpot - https://www.gamespot.com/forums/sys...hy-do-so-many-people-hate-it-28820042/?page=1 The quotes have screwed up over time but it's still readable.
And what an interesting read it is. 7-years ago gamers where complaining about the same things about Origin which they are about EGS. Some choice quotes from that link:
Origin survived (dispite many commentators claiming it would fail and EA would return to Steam) and PC gaming survived. The same will happen with the Epic store. Things will all blow over and we'll carry on. Then another store will turn up in another 5-10 years and it will start again
@ZombieFan Those quotes all seem to be people unhappy about the launcher, which isn't the main issue with Epic.
Associate
Edit nevermind
At the time there was a big stink about EA pulling games from Steam which people already owned on Steam. I know that Epic had brought a whole new things to take table which people are now upset about, but to me it just feels like the next 'omg-not-steam-so-must-resist' cycle. C'est la vie.
Yeah fair enough, its just frustrating that it seems like people who are okay with it keep bringing it back to the launcher. I'm fine with the launcher, I don't mind buying games on other platforms, I even bought GTA V on Rockstars platform as I wasn't willing to pay the extra to have it on steam.
Soldato
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The discount is being ponied up by epic tho isn't it? Not sure how it is devaluing the product to be honest . If I put my product in Sainsbury's to sell (forgetting that they would likely take a 6 figure sum to sell it for a second) why would I care if Sainsbury's want to do a loss leader where THEY cover part of the price?
Soldato
I do kind of get why it may not be what the developers/publishers want.
Good intentions or not, Epic are basically selling the game for less than the devs would like customers to pay, which may set a precedent as to the perceived value of these games. Additionally, some of the games that are being sold in this way are not Epic exclusives, or even released yet (Vampire 2 from Paradox). They need to keep pricing fair if they are on multiple platforms.
Probably the worst thing of all, was that this sale was apparently not communicated to the developers/publishers as it probably should have been. They could then at least have agreed or not agreed to partake in the sale.
Saying all of this though, at least this is more like an approach that I may have actually gotten behind, if Epic stop the Exclusives I may even one day buy something from them. Until then, not for me even if the prices are cheaper.
Soldato
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It devalues the product... If Sainsbury's put your product on 50% off for a week or two (regardless of who is footing the bill) their customers get used to the idea that that product costs 50% of what you intended... When their sale ends (because they aren't going to honor 50% off out of their own pocket forever) and the product goes back to full price people think "Hmm, that seems a bit pricey, I'll wait for it to go on sale again" - suddenly you've got a lot of customers who probably would have simply bought the product at the price you wanted second guessing themselves...
(I'm not sure why always with these supermarket analogies though... groceries are something you need to buy to feed yourself not luxury products that you choose to buy, which makes trying to equate the two a bit troublesome)
Associate
Well this epic sale worked out for me! i received a nice £10 refund on my preorder of borderlands 3! was a nice surprise.
Paradox are a good example. They sell their "own" (i.e. where they are publisher) games directly from their own store, incurring absolutely no platform charges. Epic's sale now means that they are the place to buy the game from. Even worse, Epic are discounting an unreleased game, that is potentially going to be a big seller, at the time when Paradox could be expecting to see the best sales or at least leading up to the best revenue generating period for the game.
Your argument is more persuasive if a publisher purely sells through other platforms though, as any reduction in value is felt by the distributor rather than the publisher. In this case though Paradox are almost certainly losing sales to Epic, where they make less profit.
Soldato
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Or how about an Member's Market analogy? Let's say I've got a thread open selling game keys, I've got 3 keys for Devil May Cry 5 up for grabs and I'm asking for £25 for each... You go onto the thread and see that there's a message from someone on it saying "Will you do DMC5 for £20?" and me saying "Yeah okay, for you £20".... Would you then be willing to buy one of the remaining 2 keys for £25? Or would you expect to get one for £20 also? If you then found that I'd already sold the other 2 keys and then saw a different person selling DMC5 at £25 would you be tempted to say to them "£20 for DMC5? - have seen it for sale in other threads for that price"?
Soldato
Isn't this already a thing though with resellers? Often you can pre-order games for cheaper than you can on Steam because they are discounted. That's devaluing games as well?