While this might not be specific to Linux gaming, it's still something interesting I've wanted to talk about. Metro Exodus from 4A Games and Deep Silver has jumped ship from Steam to the Epic Store.
I waited for the situation to become clear before saying anything on this, as it got a little…ugly.
Last night, the team behind Metro Exodus announced the change saying that "the digital PC version of Metro Exodus will now be available to purchase solely through EpicGames.com". In their official announcement, nothing about it being a timed exclusive was mentioned and so a lot of people were left quite unhappy.
This led Valve, to actually put out a statement on the Steam store page, which reads:
Notice: Sales of Metro Exodus have been discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store.
The developer and publisher have assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam.
We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period. We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know.
Soon after this, the Metro team put up an announcement on Steam where it does actually mention that Metro Exodus will come back to Steam "after 14th February 2020". To do this so close to release, feels really off.
I've seen a lot of arguments both for and against the Epic Store across the net, with wildly varying opinions on each side of the argument. For gamers, competition between stores can be a really good and helpful thing and we all know Steam could do with a little competition. Valve have dragged their heels on so many things over the years, I firmly hope this is a good kick up their backside to do better.
However, the way Epic is going about it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I don't think forcing and annoying people into using another launcher is a good way to go, at all. Rather than compete on customer service, value for money, features and so on Epic are forcing people to look at them. For developers, the short-term gain might be good but do they really, honestly, expect the free to play Fortnite audience which is Epic's bread and butter to translate into sales for AAA games? I've become a lot more sceptical of this recently and I think it's largely the reason Epic is throwing money around to try and force a change.
As Epic Games continue throwing money at developers and publishers, I expect things to get even uglier as the year goes on. For us, it's not a good thing, as time and time again Epic Games have shown how little they care about Linux (we're not even on the damn roadmap) and that's sad as we will be the ones losing out.
For Valve, the more they lose like this the quicker they will need to react. I'm going to end up sounding like a broken record here, but they need to seriously get back into their own IP. Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal and so on. Especially after Artifact basically failed them, although they again said they're "Still in it for the long haul" in the most recent update to it.
Not just that, reducing their cut from developers may be inevitable too, it would certainly show they understand the market is changing considering how many developers feel Steam's 30% cut isn't worth it. The most recent "GDC State of the Industry report" showed that only six percent of developers thought Valve were doing enough for it. I don't think Valve need to match Epic on the cut either given how popular Steam already is, even a 5% reduction could be massive for smaller developers.
Linux gamers might think differently on that point though, since Valve help to fund various open source projects and that would likely reduce their ability or enthusiasm to do so. We're not a big enough audience for them to put more of their eggs in our basket—yet.
No matter what happens, I can't imagine Valve just rolling over and allowing Epic to set up shop on their lawn. I'm very curious to see what they have up their sleeves. A competitive Steam is good for everyone!
At least by the time Metro Exodus comes back to Steam, we will see if they made any sort of decision on Linux support (as they currently won't say—likely a no). If not, that's a long time for Steam Play to mature for those who use it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Simple equation:
Put on GoG, itch, Steam or many stores as wide as possible = Competition.
Put only one store for time being = timed exclusive
I'm really thankful to found this "fansite" named Gaming on Linux. Seriously Liam, thank you very much even do I'm not financially capable to support you. :(
I do not post any links here to avoid giving free traffic/ads to those websites. Just search "Metro Exodus" on Google or Twitter, you'll find it.
Quoting: NeverthelessEpic analysed Steam well. Maybe that's why Valve removed Steamspy's foundation lately.
Epic managed to make Valve look naive and greedy, they speak of openness and fairness, but their methods are quite the opposite.
I cannot remember reading that Valve removed SteamSpy - i think they still want to improve it.
But yes - I think also that taking 30% is way TOO MUCH.
Quoting: NeverthelessEpic analysed Steam well. Maybe that's why Valve removed Steamspy's foundation lately.Valve adjusted stuff that messed with it back in April last year and nothing recently I am aware of, which was mostly a side-effect of Valve's new privacy features. SteamSpy relying on public profile info wasn't great to begin with.
TheRiddick Jan 29, 2019
TobyGornow Jan 29, 2019
Quoting: F.UltraQuoting: TobyGornowJust want to add that you were forced to create a Steam account in order to play CS and Half-life when you bought the Orange Box. For me Epic is just giving Valve a taste of his own medicine.
How pissed I was at the time but little by little, I was buying less physical copy from my brick & mortar retailer (Bankrupt today) and now I have more than 400 titles in my library just because it was cheaper. Did I do that alone ? Don't think so...
It's evolution of the market, maybe Valve has been too greedy, the new player is strong and full of arguments, who will survive ?
And the exact equivalent of that would be if Epic would only sell Fortnite on the Epic Store, something that few if any here complain about.
You're totally right. I was just underlining that before Steam I could just buy games elsewhere and install it, Valve forced me, in a way, to connect to their shop to play their exclusive, playing a big role in the decline of physical shop and their higher cost. In the same way, Epic store could drag people and dev to their shop with lower prices and exclusives and at the end kill some of the actors of the market.
Maybe the Orange box was the wrong example ( still an exclusive, You could install Half life 1 without Steam ), take Yakuza 0 instead : you cannot buy it physically, in any way, even if you could you'll be kindly invited to connect on Steam. You can buy it on Humble or elsewhere, sure... and activate it on Steam. In any case, you'll end up on Steam. That's why I said it's time that Valve gets a taste of his own medicine, there is a lot of exclusive on Steam that are not Valve's IP.
But again you are right, what Deep Silver did is not fair to their customer and deserve pure and simple boycott.
TheRiddick Jan 30, 2019
TobyGornow Jan 30, 2019
Quoting: MohandevirQuoting: TobyGornowJust want to add that you were forced to create a Steam account in order to play CS and Half-life when you bought the Orange Box. For me Epic is just giving Valve a taste of his own medicine.
How pissed I was at the time but little by little, I was buying less physical copy from my brick & mortar retailer (Bankrupt today) and now I have more than 400 titles in my library just because it was cheaper. Did I do that alone ? Don't think so...
It's evolution of the market, maybe Valve has been too greedy, the new player is strong and full of arguments, who will survive ?
Yeah but nobody is complaining about Fortnite, actually or any Origins IP. It's not the same context at all. We are talking about a game that had a pre-sale campaign being removed 2 weeks before release. Timed exclusives are always bad but I can cope with that if done correctly. What just happened with Metro: Exodus is just aweful and terribly unrespectful toward Steam users, imo.
You're right too. I was just pointing that Valve too used the exclusive card to trick me into their shop at a time where you didn't have to connect to anything. Valve is not a friendly company, they are a profit organisation.
I feel your bitterness. It's sad but don't expect human emotion ( respect ) from 4A & Deep Silver, they only speak in profit and Epic brought some with him, the minority that barks at the caravan will still play the game or not, the majority doesn't care at all and will consume what they are fed with a big smile. I'm still amazed Facebook worked...
The underlying operating system and hardware is slowly being supplanted by the digital distribution service itself as the concept of what constitutes the gaming platform (this will truly take hold if cloud gaming succeeds in the future or possibly even if subscription services like Origin Access and Discord's Nitro become the norm). Years from now, people may not ask what hardware you game on or what operating system you game on, but if you game on Steam, Epic Games store, etc. It's already that way somewhat.
We are use to Valve being the only 800-pound gorilla in the territory, and that appears to be changing. If the current commotion helps bring better value to developers, I don't despise developers for trying something different, but I would like to see measures that increase consumer value as well. We don't own copies of games, we own licenses, with little recourse if our access is temporarily or permanently revoked. I never used Desura, but I saw posts from people who had trouble downloading their games while Desura was going through its death throes, and since then, I've taken to proactively backing up my GOG library. It's unlikely (and let me stress that), but perhaps competition will drive one of the already established digital stores to adopt what Robot Cache is seeking to achieve and shake things up further still.
I'm not crazy about the way Metro Exodus' exodus from Steam was handled, just as I wasn't crazy about The Long Dark being removed from GOG with minimal forewarning, but it is the rights holder's prerogative, even if I think it is a regrettable decision. People who already paid for the game will be able to access it, those of us who hadn't yet will miss out. In the case of Metro Exodus that means waiting until at least the middle of February 2020.
While I am disappointed, I am not terribly bent out of shape by timed exclusives because if I know a game is eventually coming to my platform of choice, there is no need to switch. I'm not Veruca Salt, I can wait; I will not lack for gaming entertainment in the meantime. Between Steam, GOG, etc, I have a sizeable backlog of games. Developers (probably at the behest of their publishers) may try to incentivize early purchases with pre-order DLC, but they also undermine this push for pre-orders by releasing games of beta quality and then later release redux/remastered/game-of-the-year editions. By the time Metro Exodus makes its way to Steam, patches will have been applied, and a redux version may be available or impending.
What fewer people seem to be commenting on is that, at least in the US, Metro Exodus is priced cheaper on the Epic Games store than it was on Steam. If the Epic Games store beats Steam on head-to-head pricing, then there will be serious competition. The Epic Games store certainly has the potential to cause disruption to Linux gaming if it is left to grab market share unchallenged, but Valve has a war chest of its own. As for the Discord store, there is no point in speculating on whether or not it will support Linux at some future date. Either it does or it doesn't, and right now it doesn't.
I've looked through the Epic Games and Discord stores, and right now, from a gamer perspective, they leave much to be desired, although they probably (hopefully) have improvements in the works. Most publishers don't care about the majority of missing user features; they do, however, care about discoverability. In my opinion, in terms of store apps, discoverability at both (Epic Games and Discord) stores is currently worse than it is on Steam, GOG Galaxy, itch, Game Jolt, Origin, and Microsoft Store. In my opinion, discoverability on the Discord store is currently about on par with Uplay, not quite on par with Bethesda.net, but close. The Epic Games store trails all of the aforementioned, only Battle.net is as underwhelming (although both Epic Games store and Battle.net have only a handful of games so that in and of itself could be seen as facilitating discovery in some publishers' eyes I guess).
Valve's response to this is great. The Statement on the page seems to very much just state the facts from their perspective in a very straightforward way. This seems very transparent and allows the customers to see what's going on and speculate as to why. This might be enough.
Crazy ideas could be integrating something like steamgifts.com - a charity lottery system for games and marketable items. Some things are given away on steam, but I think a user-driven charity economy would fit Valve as a company much better. This could directly combat Epic's giveaways.
As for a more direct response to Epic's lean into restriction, Valve could enable developers to go completely drm-less. Perhaps this is already possible and I'm just ignorant, but a lean away from restriction would seem appropriate.
The common consensus seems to be that exclusives are bad, which is good.
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