Epic Games' new exclusive deal gives devs 100% for 6 months

Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: 14As a general gamer, competition is a good thing.

What competition are you talking about? The EGS isn’t competing against the Steam store at all. Purple Library Guy is right when he writes - and I quote

Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe person or zeitgeist in charge of Epic, Sweeney or whatever cabal of suits, does not think about profit-making as something that's related to satisfying customers. Rather, they seem to think in terms of cunning tricks and shortcuts.

To serve up a crappy analogy: If the EGS and the Steam Store would participate in the Summer Olympics and it would come to the discipline of 100 meter sprint, instead of actually running the EGS would stand on the sideline and shoot all the other athletes in trying to win a medal. Competition doesn’t work that way.

I interpret your statement to actually mean: EGS can't win due to their poor tactics, maybe so poorly that it's laughable to you. But that's still competing. Are they in their own market? No. It's the same one, and they specifically compare themselves to Steam terms. They are very much competing. You can't say they aren't just because they're so far behind.

I'm not defending EGS. I'm defending basic logic and communication.

Quoting: KlaasOr pay them to not participate.

Nah, in my crappy analogy the athletes are the stores. Epic isn't bribing Valve to not sell a game, it's bribing the developers or publishers to not sell their game on Steam.

Maybe in my analogy the EGS would bribe the athlete's trainers or the Olympic's national committees to not send their athletes to compete? I guess? Which, yes, would be less violent than shooting athletes from the sideline... I guess?


Last edited by benstor214 on 29 August 2023 at 12:18 am UTC

Quoting: 14

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: 14If I was developing a game, I would think about it honestly. No cut for early launch period, and then smaller cut than Steam takes after that.

Yes, but a smaller cut of what? How much visibility and how many sales would you give up on by limiting yourself to a single storefront? Would you sell >30% more copies on Steam in the first year?

Hard to say, but we can't simplify the problem by assuming that all the stores are equal and interchangeable. You might just end up with a bigger piece of a significantly smaller pie.

I get that. But I also get that some content creators may want Steam to have less grip on the market so that Epic's terms are more attractive in the short-term as well as strategically.

I will again point out Audible. I buy audio books on Libro.fm for DRM-free but also for matter of principle against Audible's author profits terms. What if zero authors were willing to sell on Libro.fm? There would be no threat to Audible. I would be a hypocrite to say game developers should only go for maximum profits (Steam) but authors should avoid Audible.

Even though Steam treats me better than Epic store, I understand how difficult it is for other companies to take bites out of the monopoly. That is my main point, and it applies to any company that has an iron market grip, whether I like them (Valve) or not (Audible).

Sure. I'm no fan of monopolies either. That's part of the reason I buy games on GOG and Itch as well. But EGS with their anti-consumer exclusivity deals and complete lack of Linux support isn't gaining my custom any time soon. In general, you don't fix a less-than-perfect status quo by supporting a blatantly worse outsider.

Quoting: 14I interpret your statement to actually mean: EGS can't win due to their poor tactics, maybe so poorly that it's laughable to you. But that's still competing. Are they in their own market? No. It's the same one, and they specifically compare themselves to Steam terms. They are very much competing. You can't say they aren't just because they're so far behind.

Can you say they are competing if they aren’t actually trying?
It’s like saying that I’m staying civil in the GOL comment section, even if I’m not even trying to stay civil.
edit: missing 'the'


Last edited by benstor214 on 29 August 2023 at 12:16 am UTC

They're definitely competing. It's weird to argue otherwise. They're selling games on a digital storefront in direct competition to Valve, Microsoft, or GOG.

Gamers just don't like how they're going about competing. Devs are a bit more supportive though - that guaranteed money is extremely helpful to a start up, or small indie.

Me? I didn't even make an account on Epic - I didn't want to contribute a single statistic to their shitty marketing engine. And although I know it's not fair, I view negatively any game that made an exclusivity deal with Epic, even when it lands on Steam - I might still pick such games up, but usually only on sale, or in a bundle, such as the Outer Wilds. I'm petty that way, but I just can't help it. It's literally how much I despise Epic as an entity, and Sweeney as a person.

Quoting: scaineMe? I didn't even make an account on Epic - I didn't want to contribute a single statistic to their shitty marketing engine. And although I know it's not fair, I view negatively any game that made an exclusivity deal with Epic, even when it lands on Steam - I might still pick such games up, but usually only on sale, or in a bundle, such as the Outer Wilds. I'm petty that way, but I just can't help it. It's literally how much I despise Epic as an entity, and Sweeney as a person.

In the end our opinions don't seem to diverge that much.

Quoting: scaineIt's literally how much I despise Epic as an entity, and Sweeney as a person.

Yikes.