For your edification, I did back Phoenix Point on Fig, and their changing distributors doesn’t bother me at all. It would be like being mad if something I preordered was sent to me via DHL instead of UPS.
I don’t know if that is a fair comparison, because once DHL delivered it you would never have to deal with DHL again. In this case you have to sign up for the Epic store, install it, than run it from the Epic store every time you want to play that game.
That’s the trouble with making a point by analogy, if I don’t agree with the analogy you’ve made no point as far as I’m concerned.
I heard in this thread they promised it would still be DRM free, so you’d only need to install and use the store exactly once. I, for one, find it convenient to have my games update automatically in the background, especially in this case where we’re getting a free year of DLC content on Epic’s dime.
While I disagree with you and @legowarrior here I do really respect both of your thoughts here on QT3 along with anyone else here that sees this as a non-issue. I hope my up-thread jokes were seen as playful and not personal. I apologize if they went too far.
I sympathize in a way since I was kind of an early adopter of UPlay, Origin, and Windows Store (UWP) clients long before there was wider acceptance among the gaming population and even people here. Despite that I could usually understand why people had reservations, complaints, or concerns even if they were a non-issue to me at that time.
While I definitely can see the “Epic store is a non-issue” position, for some reason I have been overly bothered by Epic’s non-competitive practices and Fortnite-subsidized approach to the marketplace that I think has potentially long-lasting negative effects on the marketplace (such as hurting DRM-free GOG). I guess I worry that the Epic store comes in hot in 2019 with their subsidized approach, has a major disruption to the marketplace and then potentially abandons their approach down the road leaving the market destabilized, competitors like GOG limping, and chases some other fancy…dropping the store as fast as they dropped Unreal and Paragon.
Maybe my reservations are completely unfounded, but Epic’s approach does bother me at the moment.
Just wanted to apologize if my posts went too far. I need to do a better job of articulating my position in a respectful way.
Gotta love ResetERA , with the rage of the Phoenix Point timed exclusivity announcment burning like a thousand suns, someone found a epic quote from Tim Sweeney regarding selling on a closed platform from back before Fortnite was a thing.
“Well, I should be very clear,” Sweeney said. "The thing that I feel is incredibly important for the future of the industry is that the PC platform remains open, so that any user without any friction can install applications from any developer, and ensure that no company, Microsoft or anybody else, can insert themselves by force as the universal middleman, and force developers to sell through them instead of selling directly to customers. I’ve been selling games directly to customers since 1991 when I was mailing out floppy disks, and when you take that power away suddenly you have onerous certification processes, you have a distribution monopoly that tends to move towards an advertising-centric sales model."
I don’t really get the problem with Epic having a store.
OTOH, I won’t buy from them because I’ve lost access to my Epic account at least twice, and I still get messages a couple of times a week (latest: 1:30 this morning) from them saying that someone is banging on my account trying to get in. Sometimes they lock my account, sometimes they don’t. I don’t need that hassle.
To those dismissing Chinese ownership as a scare tactic: for me it’s like Murdoch owning news outlets or the Koch brothers hypothetically deciding to launch a games platform. It could appear completely open but I would remain deeply suspect, given the known political stance of ownership, and willingness to impose that view on others, and potentially use user data for other means beyond a improving a market for gaming.
When I read off hand dismissal of Tencents ownership I get the impression of ignorance of that company’s background, ties to the the CPC, etc.
Additionally, the use of “Chinese” is not racist - it’s a usage imposed by the CPC and surrendered by effectively everyone else. But when someone is criticizing China, they typically mean the CPC, just as when someone is criticizing the USA, they typically mean the US federal government or national level politicians.
That probably warrants an entire different thread if people want to dig into that, but it’s just to highlight the ownership matters. We shouldn’t pretend it doesn’t or dismiss the concern as xenophobic.
They own 40% of an online game merchant/developer. That’s not owning news outlets.
What about this quote has any bearing on Epic creating a store? Windows literally created a version of Win10 that can only install software through the Windows store. Being concerned that MS would use their OS monopoly to make that compulsory, rather than optional, is a completely valid fear. Epic is not capable of acting as a “universal middleman”, and they haven’t forced anything. If anything, the Epic Store is the logical endpoint of that earlier discussion, where his company, like any other, is able to build a business around distributing software.
And, frankly, Valve had the same exact fears. Where do you think SteamOS and Proton came from?
Wake up sheeple! The Chinese are feeding the Epic Game Store customer information into their organ harvesting machines!!!
Literally nobody here has a problem with Epic having a store.
Well, technically, his point still stands. That comment came when there were rumors (stupid rumors imo) about Windows OS not allowing the installation of any software, like an Apple phone in where every software has to go through a single way to be downloaded and installed.
Developers still have the freedom he comments, they can publish on Steam, they can sell games on a little web, or they can make a deal with Epic. His point was always about freedom for developers, not freedom for consumers. Like this part?
so that any user without any friction can install applications from any developer,
he is talking user freedom to be able to install the Epic Store. Maybe at that point he had the idea already of making a store, which is why hated the idea of MS forbidding that…
I’m skeptical Hearts of Iron 4 or other games that include alternative histories of modern CPC China would be asked to come on the Epic platform.
Hell, I believe PDS is on the record to that extent regarding Steam distribution in China. My concern is increased Chinese ownership leads to those values creeping out into foreign markets, rather than staying at home. No thank you.
This is right. The Chinese government has learned that direct, open coercion doesn’t work for Westerners since it causes backlash. However, what does work is simply never introducing things into the conversation in the first place, or tweaking the conversation, or sending their social media army to change the topic and drown out voices etc. The more directly connected a company is to the Chinese government, the more you’ll see these things happen. It’s bad enough with companies that want to enter the Chinese market – it’s far worse when there’s actual Chinese ownership.
Well that’s a relief, we know HOI V won’t be an Epic exclusive. Good thing we have other stores to buy games on.
Just to follow up on this. A dev or someone associated with the project said that every single backer could refund right now and the studio would still be in the black.
Hopefully Epic will give them another cash injection for their next project since the backer route is now a non-starter. I wonder if Epic will keep supporting studios past the initial year if their games don’t perform well on the Epic store.
Why does Epic think this tactic will make us like them? We don’t buy non-exclusive games on Origin/Uplay, and those companies haven’t bribed devs to come over (yet). If you want to compete and have lots of spare money:
- Provide near feature parity with Steam.
- Give people the games they already have on Steam on Epic as well, like GOG does with its Connect program. GOG can’t afford to do it much, but Epic can.
- Make it a better user experience than Steam (e.g. ‘curation’)
As long as they charge less then steam, I will shop there. That’s all that is necessary.
Good for you. Greenmangaming et al already do that, and they can’t compete.