Phoenix Point - new Julian Gollop turn-based strategy game

So do I, but Epic and forced exclusivity for third parties is not the competition Steam needs. I purchased a product with certain set expectations that are no longer being honored. Oh well, so many other games to play.

No, I totally get that. I was just kind of confused about the issue then you pointed out the backers issue.

discord

The official discord post has mostly negative reactions, too

They never, ever purchased a third party exclusivity. They used their own internally developed game to drive Steam adoption. Nobody is angry at Epic for making Fortnite exclusive to their store, and nobody is angry at EA for locking their games behind Origin.

What people are pissed off about is the bait and switch (promise gog and steam, then fuck you buddy, thanks for your money!) and locking third party games to the least useful store available (only beaten by windows store by its uselessness).

Yeah, I get it.

In computer stuff, competition is not a slam-dunk positive. As many here remember, the Wild West days of multiple operating systems, input and output ports and devices, and general compatibility hell were most definitely competitive, but also most definitively not fun. In terms of a delivery service for games, from a gamer’s POV you want one stop shopping, as long as you don’t lose out on any products you might really want. So, Steam comes the closest to that; you install Steam, you have your game library. It’s never been (or will be) 100%, but from a consumer POV, the sort of competition Epic is bringing to the market isn’t very compelling. It may well be compelling for developers, but not for gamers.

There’s a reason Windows runs the PC gaming world nearly 100%. It’s not technical excellence, it’s convenience.

I consider 50 bucks for big games over 60 bucks as an advantage.

But a $60 Steam game is almost never $60 due to 3rd party stores selling keys at up to 25% off before release.(Humble,GMG,etc.)

that’s not a function of Steam, though. What stops Epic from going that way eventually.

And that’s the second promise they have broken, I’m glad I was on the fence.
One more year of waiting will pass quickly, but this does not bode well for future kickstart projects.

EDIT: yes, I know it’s a first world problem and that I’ll live just about the same, this is about as much as I’ll whine about it.

I know this comment of yours isn’t fully relevant to the discussion any longer, but despite the fact that I have lots of store fronts pinned to my taskbar these days from Origin and Blizzard to GOG Galaxy and now EPIC, my problem is Steam has all the features I have come to lean on, from my friends using it to talk to each other, an outstanding chat program in general these days, plus stuff like built in FPS tracking, screenshots, time played stats, achievements, and not to mention the community which can be helpful when you run into a problem or have a question. In fact, when playing Metro (purchased from EPIC) I added it as a non-Steam game to get at least some of those functions to work.

For some reason, and this isn’t just an EPIC thing, it feels like none of the other store fronts care about features like these and nothing ever seems to improve or change about them. Steam may change slowly, but they do refine and add lots of helpful updates and QoL features through the years eventually. I mean, Steam even let’s you customize your taskbar icon.

So, Steam is my go to and will continue to be. EPIC is fine, but it also has many security flaws it sounds like, so I’m a little leery from that perspective as well. Not requiring email verification to create an account, just recently came up as an example, is mind blowing to me. And should have been fixed ages ago. It’s still not, as far as I can determine.

They may never want to.

This will be the very last game I ever kickstart. Period, full stop.

I honestly had no idea people used steam for all the social frippery. Even with the big chat update I find it awful, and the few steam friends I have always steer chat to discord or whatsapp!

That IS a very specific function of Steam. It is only possible because Valve lets developers generate those free keys and sell them wherever they want with no cut going to Valve.

Yes Epic could do that too, someday, maybe. There are no indications that they will as of yet.

Looks like Snapshot really misjudged their backers. Here’s what the subreddit looks like right now.

What a mess. It seems backers are receiving the following update:

Just a small update,
I am pleased to say that we will be able to offer Steam/GOG keys to backers after the 1 year exclusivity period in addition to the Epic Store key. The Steam/GOG versions will also include the 1 year of free DLC.

They certainly could of handled that bit of communication better.

Nothing to do with that. I like having my games all in one place. Is it a big deal? No, but I do tend to avoid games that aren’t on Steam (I tend to forget about them). In this case I wouldn’t back a game that was going to be exclusive somewhere else. They said it would be on Steam, now it’s not. Not angry about it, just can’t be bothered. I’ll probably ask for a refund.

This is why I installed playnite. It has all your games together from all the stores including Epic. This makes me indifferent about which store I acquire my games through.

If anyone is confused about any of this, just read the Epic store thread.

You don’t even need to read all 2000 posts. It’s the same arguments over and over!