As someone who's recently been enjoying using steam link on my mobile, this trend is not looking good to me as a consumer. I've already run into issues on the epic launcher, like not being able to manually limit the speed of my (free) game download, which caused my video streaming to be unwatchable while it downloaded and used up all my speed. The lack of features compared to steam which i rely on such as user reviews, discussion forums, big picture mode, wish lists, ability to buy steam gift cards, family sharing, as well as the questionable refund policies just further cement my disgust towards this situation. I may not particularly like it, but I can respect it when a publisher chooses to only to release a game on their platform. This however, is something else entirely, with one of the last remaining big publishers left who seemed to play nice with Steam now choosing to not just release on another platform, but to take their game off of Steam entirely for no good reason at all after it was already set to release on Steam.
Again, I wouldn't have a problem with this if Epic were to do like Origin and Uplay and offer their own developed and published games exclusively on the platform, while also selling indie games that are free to be bought elsewhere such as what GoG does. The real benefit to me as a consumer would be if they were to compete with Steam based on the features, the prices, and the user experience that they're able to offer. The dubious thing that Epic is doing is that they're snapping up games that they had no hand in creating, and should therefore have no exclusive claim to. We've never seen Pyre exclusively held ransom on EA's Origin store for example, or Super Meat Boy exclusively sold on the Blizzard store. These publishers have so far stuck to their respective lanes and I can appreciate that, but Epic is trying to change all that, and to me as a consumer it's not something that I can appreciate. They're effectively ensuring that in 2019 I'm going to have to sacrifice so many helpful features I've come to expect and rely on when it comes to the bulk of my PC gaming, and ensure that I'm going to have less options with how I buy my games (steam gift cards, user reviews, wish-lists, download speed limiter), play my games (big picture mode, steam-link, family sharing), and refund my games (something I don't do often, but works perfectly on Steam when I do). This isn't even getting into the whole regional pricing issue which I imagine is a real downer for a lot of other people.
Again, it's not that I have a problem with opening yet another shitty launcher before I play a game. I do that already with all my other launchers for their exclusively published games and I can deal with that. The problem here that is so unprecedented is that I now have to deal with a shitty launcher devoid of features and user friendliness so that I can play 3rd party and indie games that would have previously been released either on Steam, GoG, or CD key sites, effectively leaving me with less choice than ever when it comes to how I buy and play my own games.
