A gaming journalist that only cares about one side of the narrative, especially when it comes to EGS.
Shocking.
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DARQ Dev: Why I turned down exclusivity deal from the Epic Store
- Thread starter Axisofweevils
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A gaming journalist that only cares about one side of the narrative, especially when it comes to EGS.
Shocking.
Are developers like not allowed to criticize Epic without being accused of using it for marketing or throwing other developers under the bus?
He's been getting grilled on reddit for months about EGS, I can't blame him for wanting to address it all in a single blog post instead of repeating the same comment on reddit over and over again.
If "Not encouraging ongoing harassment campaigns against developers" is a one-sided view, I'm guilty as charged.
I'm fine with him using it as a "campaign", still a better way to make money than annoying your customers.
If you've been following up with all the EGS dealings and the way they have announced some of the games to be "exclusive" on there, no it isn't.
I don´t know the intention of the person, but I understand where they is coming from, they is giving context after they post on the Reddit AMA got attention.
User Banned (1 Day) - Thread Whining and Generalizations
I uh, frankly don't buy this. I bet if we went into the Skatebird thread we'd find at least a few of the people wailing and gnashing their teeth in here doing it in that thread too.
This thread will soon just be another circlejerk session that will be sub r/fuckepic in coherence. Already starting above this post with some of the responses to bluexy, suggesting he's in on some Gamejournopros conspiracy to be in on the take from Epic.
he never did, in fact he acknowledge that they have to do what they need to
He knows what he is doing, and this decision is clearly a calculated risk.
And I don't care. I still support him here.
Sometimes doing the 'right' thing is also the extremely profitable.
And I don't care. I still support him here.
Sometimes doing the 'right' thing is also the extremely profitable.
You sure trying your best to make it one sided. Anyway you do you.
to answer your question
they literally can't without bumping another scheduled game off
their backend is such a mess they can't just add things willy nilly
competition
It's interesting your slant is that the devs comments are fanning the flames and not Epic's practices.
Even when a dev explains his position without throwing Epic under the bus and is careful about not slinging mud at fellow devs.
You're arguing against less information because it makes one side look poor (Epic), despite it giving more context to the reasons people have issues with EGS.
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Seen this game for a long time around Reddit and Imgur, and had it wishlisted pretty much since the page popped up on Steam. Was happy to get an email about the release of it and thinking that I gotta get it as soon as I have the money to spare. This excellent writeup pushes it to the very top of my priority list because I feel like he really, really gets it and it makes me so happy.
One thing that made this feel really icky was the timing of Epic's email. Seriously trying to snag the game from Steam right after a trailer with a Steam release date came out? We know they grab games based on popularity and it has been up there on the Steam Wishlist List for a long time. Now a date is posted and they go "Hey, want a lot of cash to go back on what you just promised?". At least do it a bit sooner...
Definitely not faulting anyone for taking or seeking out the Epic deal or anything. If they think it's best for them then go for it. But these devs that let me get the game where it is best for me (cost and features like family sharing) are the ones I will personally try to support financially.
One thing that made this feel really icky was the timing of Epic's email. Seriously trying to snag the game from Steam right after a trailer with a Steam release date came out? We know they grab games based on popularity and it has been up there on the Steam Wishlist List for a long time. Now a date is posted and they go "Hey, want a lot of cash to go back on what you just promised?". At least do it a bit sooner...
Definitely not faulting anyone for taking or seeking out the Epic deal or anything. If they think it's best for them then go for it. But these devs that let me get the game where it is best for me (cost and features like family sharing) are the ones I will personally try to support financially.
That's massive jump of logic. So denying EGS exclusivity deal and make a clarification post about since he's inadvertently pulled into the vortex is encouraging harrasment campaign aganst developers now? Do you even read what his writing?
Ever since Schreier tries to spin Valve's treatment of their employee by giving them day off and paid vacation as something heinous or a bad thing, I already lost respect to the laughable gaming 'journalists', but JFC you are all managed to break my low expectation even down under.
I get you, but we need to be able to have nuanced discussions. Reducing complex situations like this does no one any good.
I don't think that applies to this situation. They were offering an exclusivity deal, so clearly they must have had room in their schedule for this game. I don't see how that open space would just evaporate when the deal doesn't get taken, unless this somehow resulted in another deal getting made.
This is a ridiculous position. He's under no obligation to treat this offer as confidential. You're suggesting only devs who TAKE the Epic offer are (together with Epic) allowed to talk about it and make an advertising campaign around it?! C'mon. Horse. Shit.
I guess a lot of posters here are pro-secrecy as long as the secrecy works in Epic's favor. I guess then they can sit around and call out people in discussions for not "knowing all the facts", which of course is very convenient.
I applaud this dev for stating the facts openly. If there's some amount of Judo involved, I'm fine with that.
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Uh, did you read the post he wrote that in response to? The guy started out with an "Le epic Shill!" accusation.
Nuance left town already.
Can someone link this Devs game in the thread? Never even heard of it but now I want to see what it is.
This is a really gross post from someone who should know better; but maybe I shouldn't be surprised by "journalists" at this point. The developer is nothing but understanding, polite and respectful to both Epic and the developers who do take the deals. The allegations you're throwing around are insulting.
I have given up nuanced discussion ever Schreier dumb spin on Valve's treatment of their employee. If you had to spin a company with good track record of employee treatment and in turn take a side to others who just had revealed they crunched their employee to hell, then clearly nothing of nuance could be gained.
The only gaming journalist that have more level headed approach in mainstream outlet is Alice O'Connor from RPS.
So is it also an advertising campaign when a developer admits that they're taking Epic's money? I certainly never heard of some of these developers, or their games until they make an announcement that they're Epic exclusive. They're hoping to use Epic controversy as a tool to get people talking about their game. They're looking to profit just as much.
As for fanning the flames of controversy, I'm all for some light shining on Epic's scummy motives. They're not doing PC customers any favors with their actions.
Every dev that has taken the moneyhat has turned it in to an advertising campaign, why shouldn't he? Every Epic-deal taking dev throws other indies under the bus, fans the flames of controversy, tries to make Vavle, GOG and other devs out to be mosnter villains stealing from innocent hard-working salt of the earth indie devs and other such nonsense.
Mostly these devs spin a full of shit advertising campaign about how their choice will be better for the customer when customers know it clearly isn't. This dev can say his choice will lead to a better game experience for the buyer, and have it actually be true for the first time in nearly a year.
Massive respect to him.
And fuck Epic for this blatant hypocrisy.
What's the controversy here? This is how exclusivity deals have always worked. If Sony funds your game they get an exclusivity window. If EGS is going to pay for your title (and they offer very competitive rates) then it won't go up on Steam. That's not sneaky. Devs have been inking deals like this for decades.
I think part of the Developer/Fan friction here is that what EGS is doing is just... the games business. Usually this stuff happens over the course of a couple meetings, everyone shakes hands and that's that. Because of the public nature of the EGS friction y'all are seeing the sausage getting made and having a negative reaction.
Every business has some version of this. White label exclusives are literally like 90% of Trader Joe's business. Brands pay slotting fees on retail shelves. Designer X only sells at store Y. Remember when Prince only sold at Virgin Megastore? (That one actually did make everyone mad).
It's up to a developer to decide if the deal makes sense or not, but pretending that this shines a light on some previously unseen evil is ridiculous. It's how business, and marketing work.
I think part of the Developer/Fan friction here is that what EGS is doing is just... the games business. Usually this stuff happens over the course of a couple meetings, everyone shakes hands and that's that. Because of the public nature of the EGS friction y'all are seeing the sausage getting made and having a negative reaction.
Every business has some version of this. White label exclusives are literally like 90% of Trader Joe's business. Brands pay slotting fees on retail shelves. Designer X only sells at store Y. Remember when Prince only sold at Virgin Megastore? (That one actually did make everyone mad).
It's up to a developer to decide if the deal makes sense or not, but pretending that this shines a light on some previously unseen evil is ridiculous. It's how business, and marketing work.
no the spot is still there most likely, but the point is they're not going to "waste" a valuable spot on something they don't get exclusively to their store
if the spot is still there then they can just put it on their non exclusively right?
The issue is that EGS wouldn't even sell your game if it's not exclusive to EGS. Correct me if I'm wrong.
they will let you release on multiple stores if you're a big name.
I wonder why Epic just doesn't take a month to let a small team redo their entire launcher and backend from the ground up and they just feature and release freeze until thats done. The launcher has been out nine months now, its getting a bit ridiculous with how broken everything about their backend sounds.
They can only release a few games a week on the epic store? Did they do ZERO planning on how they thought their store would work a year or 2 years out?
They can only release a few games a week on the epic store? Did they do ZERO planning on how they thought their store would work a year or 2 years out?
They don't fund games, they pay for timed exclusivity when the game is already made.
to add to that, it was a game that would have released on steam a few short weeks around the time that the deal was being attempted.
Sony doesn't moneyhat exclusives that are already announced for other platforms 2 weeks away from release. Also a lot of the games Sony funds wouldnt exist without their funding.
Meanwhile a lot of the games Epic funds are either late in development or finished. Only a handful of games Epic has funded actually benefit the product.
they hit a giant money spout by accident and they're not going to let this opportunity pass them by
it's not about the future or even the near future
it's the now now now
I completely agree with this guy's position. Bought Darq on Steam just now as a show of support.
There's 2 issues here:
- Epic isn't funding these games, they're paying money to publishers who've already finished or are about to finish development to keep their games temporarily off Steam. Games which are (timed) exclusive to PlayStation, Xbox/W10 and Nintendo platforms are more often than not (timed) exclusive because those platforms holders paid for the game's development costs and also are involved in publishing and marketing
- Epic not allowing games on the Epic Store unless the publisher ditches their Steam version is just nothing but a scumbag move.
Yeah and I'm sure the internet rage machine was understanding and calm about those titles lol.
Ah yeah I should add I was referring to small time indies which EGS was purporting to "save and support".
Well ideally he will be more successful and make more money than going exclusive.
i think what's not cool is you running to the defense of the epic game store. That's pretty telling.
Yeah remember all that outrage when The Walking Dead or Kine went EGS?
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