Hey guys I haven't read this 500 post thread but I don't get the hate it's just a launcher and good for devs and Valve is a moponoly.
SHRUG.
SHRUG.
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[PCWorld] A year in, the Epic Games Store's fight against Steam has made PC gaming better for everyone.
- Thread starter AshenOne
- Start date
Console Warriors love voicing their opinions on things they know nothing about. They can't help themselves.
This series of post is big thunk material
It's good to me that there's only one store selling Control for PC, and that store doesn't bother to take my currency, so I would have to pay my credit card's ridiculously marked up CAD-USD exchange rate, plus a fixed "foreign currency fee" on top of that.
This is an awesome state of affairs, to me, and is better than last year when every major PC store accepted CAD. Thank you for this benefit Sweeney. As a web developer who has done payment integrations in the past I know that just signing up for any of the dozens of available payment processors out there that handle 100s of currencies natively, is Actually Impossible.
This is an awesome state of affairs, to me, and is better than last year when every major PC store accepted CAD. Thank you for this benefit Sweeney. As a web developer who has done payment integrations in the past I know that just signing up for any of the dozens of available payment processors out there that handle 100s of currencies natively, is Actually Impossible.
It doesnt have a shopping cart.... It may function to literallyly open game applications but is very substandard on every other level.
I often wonder if Epic includes the accounts created to use UE4 towards their userbase numbers argument? You can't play in the engine without an account or the launcher, but dont have to touch the games at all, but i never see that mentioned or the divisions brought up.
That's the larger issue around discussion of this topic.
Most arguments are in bad faith by folks with no other reason than to drive-by, troll or otherwise cry about Valve / Steam / PC gaming, in the most tribal way.
Some things I think most PC gamers agree upon, and is always proven in each thread:
- fully support open competition
- fully support multiple storefronts including EGS competing with each other through service and features
- do not support non-competitive strategies such as forced exclusivity of games to a singular store
- support first part exclusivity of games to said storefront
- expect a certain level of quality and features as a baseline from any store ecosystem, such that games, purchasing, refunds, support are serviceable
- Recognise that Steam's ecosystem, features and tools extend far beyond a simple storefront offering, but don't expect Epic to match such features fully if at all. But do expect them to meet a baseline
Agree with all those except for..
I absolutely do not support exclusivity on any level in PC if its done for the sake of keeping it exclusive like other stores do. A game should be available everywhere if possible regardless if its Minecraft, Fortnite or Half Life: Alyx.
I fully agree with you - but this is something others seem to agree upon in each thread,
I see but to me gaming on PC is all about customization, user choice and not getting locked down or restricted. Its the essence of PC gaming IMO.
Damn right!
Also really noticeable for example with MS and CDPR talking that route. Everyone is supper supportive of that approach
I wouldn't buy a new car brand today which only had the features of a car released in 2000 out of deference to the difficulty in building a new car. I'm not against a new company coming forward to offer a better way to play PC games. To some extent, Microsoft has done this with Game Pass on PC. I'm even excited about Stadia as a solution for PC gaming.
Epic makes the best Rapid Development Tool in the world. They're barely trying to make EGS something worth using. They never should've released it.
Imagine if we held any other industry to the excuses given by Epic at how they cannot implement basic features.
A new car company says they cant have air-conditioning in their cars because it took a long time from the first cars to have air conditioning and they are still working on it themselves.
Or "X company has had a decade headstart, thats why our new car doesn't have anti-lock breaks"
They would get laughed off the face of the planet. And Epic isn't making hardware or anything physical here.
My personal opinion is that EGS probably is the worst thing that has happened to PC gaming in a while. The store itself isn't a big deal, but their exclusivity bullshit is a huge pain in the ass. When they have money to delay huge AAA like Borderlands 3 and RDR2 it's a pain in the ass.
Really enjoying my free games on EGS and my two single purchases (Borderlands 3 and Untitled Goose Game).
If Epic wants to continue paying devs and giving away games, I'm all for it. It has certainly improved PC gaming for me and the only one who has been "hurt" is whoever gamer remains exclusive to a single storefront, which is really silly.
If Epic wants to continue paying devs and giving away games, I'm all for it. It has certainly improved PC gaming for me and the only one who has been "hurt" is whoever gamer remains exclusive to a single storefront, which is really silly.
Literally the thing people were saying from day one that others didn't believe is "competition is good". There are no moved goalposts.
What exactly has been improved with EGS? I now have games that have been exclusively released on a platform that is barely funtional missing many features. I use in-home streaming all the time for example, why the fuck is it necessary that I can't use that for those games?
Thankfully Microsoft gets it, releasing their games on multiple platforms giving users the choice. They want to make sure people have a choice, but they are also offering an amazing service of their own. Giving an active choice to users. And I'm sure their own platform is by far more succesfull, because they're actually working on providing a good service. But seriously: Screw that exclusivity. Give me a fucking choice as a consumer.
And I also don't really believe EGS is succesfull at all, games released on it I barely hear. And sales numbers are never ever exposed. I think Steam's real threat and competition comes from Game pass. EGS is more likely canabalizing the other players on the market, GOG, Origin, etc.
Thankfully Microsoft gets it, releasing their games on multiple platforms giving users the choice. They want to make sure people have a choice, but they are also offering an amazing service of their own. Giving an active choice to users. And I'm sure their own platform is by far more succesfull, because they're actually working on providing a good service. But seriously: Screw that exclusivity. Give me a fucking choice as a consumer.
And I also don't really believe EGS is succesfull at all, games released on it I barely hear. And sales numbers are never ever exposed. I think Steam's real threat and competition comes from Game pass. EGS is more likely canabalizing the other players on the market, GOG, Origin, etc.
The biggest thing i see is people pretending EGS invented giving out games for free.
from what i can tell they're helping non-steam launchers, they only pay for games to not release on steam and people who don't want to use EGS just go elsewhere. uplay is probably the biggest beneficiary of everything epic has done.
seems like you get *hurt* by reading threads because you clearly haven't read this one despite diving in with your very original take
Not just Steam. Seems their exclusivity deals also exclude GOG.
They didn't say that though? You're being dismissive and saying everyone not wanting to use Epic is limiting themselves to just Steam and ignoring every valid issue people have with the platform.
No. Every time you play them you need to remember that epic is awful.
/s
The free game give away has been amazing. Can't believe they gave impossible lair for free today
This shit reads like a Tim Sweeney tweet.
totally worth the bump.
Generally speaking competition is almost always a good thing, the free games from EGS are cool, but 1 terrible thing that came out from all this is exclusive third party games, I'll hate Epic forever for that.
I think EGS definitely shook up the market a bit and pushed valve to accelerate some of its plans, and possibly do more, but I think their impact is not as massive as some are making it up to be.
So does EGS push Valve to do better? Yes for sure, but nothing crazy. in the ends it's us, the consumers. who are the winners.
I think EGS definitely shook up the market a bit and pushed valve to accelerate some of its plans, and possibly do more, but I think their impact is not as massive as some are making it up to be.
So does EGS push Valve to do better? Yes for sure, but nothing crazy. in the ends it's us, the consumers. who are the winners.
Are you not enjoying your free games?
Yeah, for consumers so far the only impact is the free games, but the store still needs work. Devs are the ones who may be seeing a bigger impact, since apparently they do get paid for the free games.
Is this a gotcha? Because to me free shit is free shit and I won't hesitate to take advantage of it. Nothing more than that.
That still doesn't mean EGS has been a positive influence on PC gaming.
That's good. It would be silly to not get them for free. I think devs getting paid is good as well, so it's okay by me.
literally just false
another impact is the reduction of choice in where to purchase several games
I find it strange that while shitting on Epic you are praising Game Pass, which is far more restrictive than Epic Store. You're even referring to a feature (Steam in-home streaming) that cannot be used on Game Pass games because of MS Store's extreme restrictions on the game files and executables. Meanwhile, you can use that feature on Epic Store games because almost all of them will add to Steam as non-Steam games with no issue.
If Epic had led with free games and not exclusivity agreements, no one would be complaining.
Thats not what happened though.
You're intentionally misreading them - they didn't praise Game Pass, they said Game Pass looks to be Steam's biggest threat.
The MS Store is restrictive - that's why MS deserves praise for not keeping its games exclusive to Game Pass, and instead releasing them everywhere, including Steam, giving consumers the choice between the value of Game Pass but with restrictions, or paying more for Steam's features. That's the exact opposite of what Epic are doing, which is why they rightfully get shat on.
I'm ok with game pass, not because of the services. But because the game's released on it are also released on Steam. And in the future on other platforms.
They trust their service and what it's offering is already good enough to entice users. Instead of resorting to exclusivity. We will see which one between EGS and Gamepass Will be the most successful next to steam in the PC space. With one going for exclusivity and the other not.
I am enjoying the free games from EGS (when i can have them due to store bugs) but i am not forgetting Epic is owned by someone i can easily identify as an asshole.
And assholes do not get my money.
And assholes do not get my money.
yea
they got a little of my money tho
but yea generally they are and will continue to be a last resort or deep sale choice.
I want a detailed list of all the things EGS has done to make PC gaming better apart from buying exclusivity and throwing out free games like confetti.
I would argue that these free games have heavy impact on individual developers in a bad way. But indie devs are doing that to themselves so it is on them. They first went with Humble Bundle and devalued their work for years but time between bundles was long enough. Then they went with PS+ and Xbox Gold, then GamePass and now free games with Epic.
And they then expect people to buy their games. It's not working that way. People will just wait for those games to be free or in a bundle/GamePass.
And issue is that not all indie devs want to give their games for free or in a bundle but those who do impact everyone. So in my opinion all these free games while good for consumers damaged indie scene in general so few established indie developers can get more money.
And they then expect people to buy their games. It's not working that way. People will just wait for those games to be free or in a bundle/GamePass.
And issue is that not all indie devs want to give their games for free or in a bundle but those who do impact everyone. So in my opinion all these free games while good for consumers damaged indie scene in general so few established indie developers can get more money.
Yeah, all I'm getting from this article is that Epic hasn't actually done anything but give games away and not much else. Epic's entire schtick so far is throwing money at all of their problems which isn't exactly what I consider a solid foundation. In fact, the greatest effect Epic has had on PC gaming, honestly through no fault of their own, is re-establish how toxic the gaming community can really get. Which isn't really shocking considering how often we get news of dev harassment.
None, but hey they give free games !
It doesn't matter what kind of model they're pushing for !
about 0.00000000000001% of developers are earning more due to money hats.
This is too much of a black and white statement, and frankly isn't true. I have used plenty of Game Pass games with Steam In-Home Streaming. I have also had a giant ballache getting certain EGS games to work with Steam In-Home Streaming. The only store/client I've consistantly had no issues adding games to Steam with is GOG, because it is DRM-free. All the other stores/clients can cause major issues that require community workarounds.
I also don't think it's too controversial to criticise Epic for taking away people's choice of buying games on Steam to enable those features. They are literally limiting accessibility. There are things Epic and other store providers could do to facilitate people adding their games as Non-Steam Games if that's their preferred launcher, but they are more interested in limiting options and choice.
On the other hand, it's also not too controversial to expect Valve to make their Non-Steam Game compatibility better. Right now it is very barebones and another client (such as GOG) is one Big Picture Mode and In-Home Streaming functionality away from eating their lunch. I know plenty of people who would drop Steam as their main client in a heartbeat if someone else replicated this functionality and did it better.
You can just minimize BPM once you're streaming and launch whatever from your desktop. There's no need to add something as a non-Steam game. I'll be the first to take a steaming dump on game pass/MS store but this just isn't it.
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The game EXEs cannot be added directly because Microsoft has implemented their UWP restrictions. I used UWPHook to add them as non-Steam games, but then the next issue is that games don't take controller input. So the game does stream but does not take any input.
The whole UWP disaster is why I can't take people seriously if they claim to hate Epic but like Microsoft. Epic may lack features, but Microsoft has implemented a huge malicious feature (the Windows 10 UWP app system) that is bad for the user.