If i choose not to eat at the corner restaurant because i think the owner is an asshole and i don't like their business practices, i'm not boycotting it. I'm simply choosing to spend my money elsewhere instead. Boycotting implies negation. None of these companies is owed my money though.
I always see the word boycott being used as a guilt tripping mechanism in these kind of threads. Nah. If Deep Silver and 4A want my money they have to earn it. And this decision is the opposite of earning it.
Before anything, I agree with what you say here, but...
This is a bit different though: You are not boycotting a restaurant which is making and selling their own food. You are boycotting a restaurant, because the owner is an asshole, that is selling food from another restaurant that you really like. I swore to myself to not buy any third party exclusives from the epic store. Even if it is something I really want like Mechwarrior 5 or Phoenix Point (just speculating). I'd harm epic and both of those smaller studios doing so though, which is bitter. 4A, probably, got already paid, but we don't know the specifics of their contract. Maybe their are missing out on a bonus that they deserve because sale goals won't be reached. Maybe something else. I don't know. Just wanted to point out that it is a bit more complicated.
Honestly, this is a smart move. Grab that 95% royalty cut early. So many people have the Epic game client on their computers now thanks to the popularity of FortNite. If 4A gets a bigger cut of money in their early sales, good for them.
1.) It's not 4A that is getting the extra money. It's DeepSilver and ultimately THQ shareholders. Hurray!
2.) At best 4A won't notice a difference in their salaries. At worst they'll miss out on bonuses if there are any and they are bound to sale numbers.
(It's probably the former)
3.) Steam still has a larger user base then epic, so this argument doesn't hold up. Especially if you count in china that doesn't get the game now at all. And if you don't understand how big of a market china is... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
4.) The cut between Epic and DeepSilver/Kochmedia is 88-12. Unless you have any kind of numbers how much money epic used to bribe them and what the estimated sales figures are.
And in advance:
No, It's not an illegal move. It's just shitty.
No, this isn't competition, competition would mean offering the game on multiple storefront. This is a third party monopoly in the making and the main reason people dislike it. People like choice after all. And not being forced, people also like that.
No, Steam isn't a quasi monopoly. There is a free key market around steam and many people just use steam as a way to download games and not purchase them. They also like to use the steam client as a free set of tool and services.
No, the $10 is US only all other regions pay the same as on Steam. You also was able to get the game for less then $50 before the deal happened because of the free steam key market that I mentioned before.
No, this isn't the only way to compete against steam nor is it particularly clever. Forcing people is never clever, you have to make them come willingly. If you force them, they will maybe use it, but then go back to steam for anything else. Epic wants to compete with the most basic of clients (not even cloud saving!) by angering and pressuring their future costumers. That's dump and not as you said smart, at least not from Epic.
But this all has been explained over and over again in this thread, in far greater detail by more intelligent people then me! Please, at least read a bit before rushing in and repeating something that has been disproved on several pages. All the things you said can be found like every 2 pages. Even more often at the beginning.
