5 ms·

Absolutely. Every major game forum I read appears to have an abundance of such sentiment. Timed exclusives on a store that many people outright _hate_ is going

Absolutely. Every major game forum I read appears to have an abundance of such sentiment. Timed exclusives on a store that many people outright _hate_ is going to increase piracy, without a doubt.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
TheGRS 8y ago
I really don't understand the sentiment since having 2-3 game launchers has been the norm for digital games for years now. I can't buy any new Blizzard/Activision games or EA games through Steam that I know of, and these are some of the largest game companies and largest releases in the world.
- dleslie 8y ago
  Blizzard and Origin are reasonably good stores and launchers, and their exclusives are that of the publisher who runs the store. Epic Store is... Not a quality experience and its exclusives are not solely from the publisher that runs the store.
  - Cyph0n 8y ago
    Origin was also “not a quality experience” when it first came out, and it was also universally hated by fans of Steam. So why do you think Epic can’t do the same thing?
    - dleslie 8y ago
      Epic isn't doing the same thing. Origin's exclusives were EA games. Epic's exclusives are not all Epic games.
      - gruez 8y ago
        Does that make a difference? The end result is the same. Games that that you want to play are locked behind a particular launcher.
        dleslie 8y ago
        Of course it makes a difference. Epic isn't attempting to make their store succeed on its own merits, or on the merit of their own games; they are buying exclusivity in order to succeed. That upsets people, and rightly so. Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse.
        Cyph0n 8y ago
        > Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse. But this is the point: the fact that Epic is making "something worse" might be true now, but will change in the future. This is precisely what happened with Origin for example, at least in the perception of gamers.
        dleslie 8y ago
        So it's worse now. Why should I, as a consumer, silently accept that so a billion dollar corporation can get a foothold against another billion dollar corporation?
        gruez 8y ago
        > or on the merit of their own games; they are buying exclusivity in order to succeed. [...] Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse. So? Guess how EA has so many "original" games to begin with? Sounds like people are disgusted because cash bribes sound icky.
        dleslie 8y ago
        It's true, many people have a dim view of those who accept bribes.
    - ohithereyou 8y ago
      Origin is still not a quality experience.
    - simias 8y ago
      Steam itself was not very well received at first. Always online, resource hog, slow, buggy... They forced CS players to use it even though old versions worked without it. And then of course HL2 released and it was a Steam exclusive, which was a huge bummer for people like me who didn't have an internet connection at home at the time. Gamers have a very short memory, although to be fair many are probably too young to remember Steam's launch. On the other hand they also seem to have very little impulse control so game and platform boycotts never seem to work. I expect that Epic's strategy is going to work perfectly.
      - cannonedhamster 8y ago
        Steam was building something new. Quite frankly it's harder to build a crappy platform since the space has already been pioneered. No one is hating on GOG Galaxy. You have a fair point about many gamers having short memories. Many however do not have short memories. I suspect we're older though.
- ohithereyou 8y ago
  PC Gaming has really only accepted two major launchers: Steam and Blizzard. Blizzard's launcher is only majorly accepted in my group of friends as it's the only way for some of them to get their WoW fix. Origin is actively avoided (to the point of avoiding EA's games completely), Ubisoft's Uplay will work with Steam, and Bethesda's launcher was immediately uninstalled after the debacle which was Fallout 76. None of my friends (that will admit it, anyway) have the Epic launcher installed. They are all frustrated that games they're excited about ("The Outer Worlds" and "Borderlands 3") are timed exclusives on Epic's launcher. Some of them are very hung up on the fact that Tencent owns a major stake in Epic Games (between 40%-50%). They have seen how China deals with games (WoW in China is the biggest one, game consoles not being legal in the county until recently) and the Internet (Great Firewall of China) and are in no way interested in allowing their software on the machine. Further, it has been observed that the Epic Launcher performs behaviors that behaviors they consider shady[1]. Personally, I won't play any games that are Epic Store exclusives. Not because I have any particular anger toward Epic (I've loved Unreal Tournament for a long time), but because I already have a large backlog of games on Steam, I'd like to keep everything in a single launcher, and by the time I have my backlog cleared, these games should be on Steam and a GOTY version will be out that has all of the DLC included, or if they're not, something else that I care about more will likely have come along. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_game_store_spyware_tracking_and_you/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_g...
  - gruez 8y ago
    > Further, it has been observed that the Epic Launcher performs behaviors that behaviors they consider shady[1]. you mean behaviors entirely consistent with a browser process? https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_game_store_spyware_tracking_and_you/eik0h76/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_g...
    - ohithereyou 8y ago
      As we all know, everyone loves browser tracking and nobody ever uses that data in a shady way.
kyriakos 8y ago
This is not the same as Netflix and competitors. No one is stopping a steam user from buying from epic store since its an one off purchase , but to watch an amazon exclusive you need an additional subscription.
- dleslie 8y ago
  Except that the store itself is a deterrent, for a whole laundry list of reasons you can seek elsewhere. For me, the deal breakers are: 1. No user reviews. 2. Refund system is allegedly horrible and unreliable. 3. No cloud saves. 4. No mod workshop. 5. No forums. 6. No store-provided, NAT-punching, low latency networking. The last three have made for many of my best gaming experiences in recent years
  - mises 8y ago
    For me, one issue is the forty-something percent stake tencent has. Both in that I don't trust their software and that I have serious ethical concerns about directly supporting china. I know it's essentially impossible to not buy anything from them, but I would say videogames are definitely something people can easily stop buying.
  - cortesoft 8y ago
    You also can't buy a game for a friend.
  - kyriakos 8y ago
    That's just a matter of competition catching up though. From a consumer perspective multiple stores should have a positive effect. On the other hand streaming services are not benefiting the consumer directly.
    - dleslie 8y ago
      Those things cost money. It's where a good chunk of Valve's cut goes.
  - Joakal 8y ago

Absolutely. Every major game forum I read appears to have an abundance of such sentiment. Timed exclusives on a store that many people outright _hate_ is going to increase piracy, without a doubt.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

TheGRS 8y ago

I really don't understand the sentiment since having 2-3 game launchers has been the norm for digital games for years now. I can't buy any new Blizzard/Activision games or EA games through Steam that I know of, and these are some of the largest game companies and largest releases in the world.

dleslie 8y ago
Blizzard and Origin are reasonably good stores and launchers, and their exclusives are that of the publisher who runs the store. Epic Store is... Not a quality experience and its exclusives are not solely from the publisher that runs the store.
- Cyph0n 8y ago
  Origin was also “not a quality experience” when it first came out, and it was also universally hated by fans of Steam. So why do you think Epic can’t do the same thing?
  - dleslie 8y ago
    Epic isn't doing the same thing. Origin's exclusives were EA games. Epic's exclusives are not all Epic games.
    - gruez 8y ago
      Does that make a difference? The end result is the same. Games that that you want to play are locked behind a particular launcher.
      - dleslie 8y ago
        Of course it makes a difference. Epic isn't attempting to make their store succeed on its own merits, or on the merit of their own games; they are buying exclusivity in order to succeed. That upsets people, and rightly so. Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse.
        Cyph0n 8y ago
        > Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse. But this is the point: the fact that Epic is making "something worse" might be true now, but will change in the future. This is precisely what happened with Origin for example, at least in the perception of gamers.
        dleslie 8y ago
        So it's worse now. Why should I, as a consumer, silently accept that so a billion dollar corporation can get a foothold against another billion dollar corporation?
        gruez 8y ago
        > or on the merit of their own games; they are buying exclusivity in order to succeed. [...] Epic is using their cash to complete, and are trying to replace something people love with something worse. So? Guess how EA has so many "original" games to begin with? Sounds like people are disgusted because cash bribes sound icky.
        dleslie 8y ago
        It's true, many people have a dim view of those who accept bribes.
  - ohithereyou 8y ago
    Origin is still not a quality experience.
  - simias 8y ago
    Steam itself was not very well received at first. Always online, resource hog, slow, buggy... They forced CS players to use it even though old versions worked without it. And then of course HL2 released and it was a Steam exclusive, which was a huge bummer for people like me who didn't have an internet connection at home at the time. Gamers have a very short memory, although to be fair many are probably too young to remember Steam's launch. On the other hand they also seem to have very little impulse control so game and platform boycotts never seem to work. I expect that Epic's strategy is going to work perfectly.
    - cannonedhamster 8y ago
      Steam was building something new. Quite frankly it's harder to build a crappy platform since the space has already been pioneered. No one is hating on GOG Galaxy. You have a fair point about many gamers having short memories. Many however do not have short memories. I suspect we're older though.
ohithereyou 8y ago
PC Gaming has really only accepted two major launchers: Steam and Blizzard. Blizzard's launcher is only majorly accepted in my group of friends as it's the only way for some of them to get their WoW fix. Origin is actively avoided (to the point of avoiding EA's games completely), Ubisoft's Uplay will work with Steam, and Bethesda's launcher was immediately uninstalled after the debacle which was Fallout 76. None of my friends (that will admit it, anyway) have the Epic launcher installed. They are all frustrated that games they're excited about ("The Outer Worlds" and "Borderlands 3") are timed exclusives on Epic's launcher. Some of them are very hung up on the fact that Tencent owns a major stake in Epic Games (between 40%-50%). They have seen how China deals with games (WoW in China is the biggest one, game consoles not being legal in the county until recently) and the Internet (Great Firewall of China) and are in no way interested in allowing their software on the machine. Further, it has been observed that the Epic Launcher performs behaviors that behaviors they consider shady[1]. Personally, I won't play any games that are Epic Store exclusives. Not because I have any particular anger toward Epic (I've loved Unreal Tournament for a long time), but because I already have a large backlog of games on Steam, I'd like to keep everything in a single launcher, and by the time I have my backlog cleared, these games should be on Steam and a GOTY version will be out that has all of the DLC included, or if they're not, something else that I care about more will likely have come along. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_game_store_spyware_tracking_and_you/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_g...
- gruez 8y ago
  > Further, it has been observed that the Epic Launcher performs behaviors that behaviors they consider shady[1]. you mean behaviors entirely consistent with a browser process? https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_game_store_spyware_tracking_and_you/eik0h76/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/b0rxdq/epic_g...
  - ohithereyou 8y ago
    As we all know, everyone loves browser tracking and nobody ever uses that data in a shady way.

kyriakos 8y ago

This is not the same as Netflix and competitors. No one is stopping a steam user from buying from epic store since its an one off purchase , but to watch an amazon exclusive you need an additional subscription.

dleslie 8y ago
Except that the store itself is a deterrent, for a whole laundry list of reasons you can seek elsewhere. For me, the deal breakers are: 1. No user reviews. 2. Refund system is allegedly horrible and unreliable. 3. No cloud saves. 4. No mod workshop. 5. No forums. 6. No store-provided, NAT-punching, low latency networking. The last three have made for many of my best gaming experiences in recent years
- mises 8y ago
  For me, one issue is the forty-something percent stake tencent has. Both in that I don't trust their software and that I have serious ethical concerns about directly supporting china. I know it's essentially impossible to not buy anything from them, but I would say videogames are definitely something people can easily stop buying.
- cortesoft 8y ago
  You also can't buy a game for a friend.
- kyriakos 8y ago
  That's just a matter of competition catching up though. From a consumer perspective multiple stores should have a positive effect. On the other hand streaming services are not benefiting the consumer directly.
  - dleslie 8y ago
    Those things cost money. It's where a good chunk of Valve's cut goes.
- Joakal 8y ago