7 ms·

if this isn't the work of a viral marketing company, they certainly have the possibility of a new line of work ahead of them after this. I can't remember seein

• SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  It nearly got me to purchase something on the Epic Store. Nearly.
  • wlesieutre 7y ago
    FWIW I’m playing on Switch. It’s a great format for a little game like this.
  • jschwartzi 7y ago
    * Make a tribute to coffee mugs in the middle of the office * Make a developer spit their coffee out. * Preside over the morning's stand-up. * Force SketchySeaBeast to buy something on the Epic Store * Lock somebody out of their office. * Water the office plants.
  • potta_coffee 7y ago
    I bought Outer Worlds on the Epic store. Bah. I don't like the Epic store but I really wanted to play that game. Game is awesome, I'm really not sure what deal ensured it wouldn't be on Steam.
    • SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      I think that a lot of these are all coming to steam a year after launch - I'll wait until then. I've been finding it very rare that I need to play a game day one these days.
      • potta_coffee 7y ago
        I haven't bought a game this close to launch in years. A bunch of my friends bought Outer Worlds and vouched for how awesome it is, so I caved and bought it. IMO it's really great so far, the dialog choices are quite entertaining. I think this game might be an instant classic.
    • bobcostas55 7y ago
      You could've gotten TOW for $1 on the Microsoft store through gamepass.
      • potta_coffee 7y ago
        I don't use gamepass, I don't have an xbox account and my desktop that I only use for casual gaming is still running Windows 7.
    • ivl 7y ago
      > I'm really not sure what deal ensured it wouldn't be on Steam. The simple fact that Epic offers a much better deal in terms of cost to be on the store. Half of what Valve demands per sale.
      • wlesieutre 7y ago
        I would be willing to bet there was a large cash payment from Epic for exclusivity, in addition to the smaller cut.
    • rodgerd 7y ago
      If you can sell through one storefront for 70% and another for 85%, it's kind of obvious.
      • pbhjpbhj 7y ago
        Yes, choose the 70% ... apparently (latest figures I could find) Epic has 85M registrations vs. 1000M (yes, a billion) for Steam. Steam are claimed to have 90M active monthly users, I can't find a figure for Epic; it stands to reason it's less though, maybe half their registered users (now Fortnite lost its shine??) would be a reasonable guess? It probably depends on your demographic considerably; basically if Epic have less than 79M active and the demographics are the same then revenue from Steam will be greater, across a wider user base (which might improve ongoing prospects?).
        • bloody-crow 7y ago
          I'm not sure those numbers are that relevant. People don't choose gamestores, they choose games. I personally will register on any gamestore if it has the game I'm interested in. I'm not on Steam because I'm loyal to it, I'm on Steam because it sells games I want. The moment a game is available on both Steam and EGS, I'm buying it on EGS.
          • pbhjpbhj 7y ago
            You're possibly right about the relevancy, the figures aren't accurate either. Your final sentence seems to contradict the rest of the paragraph. If the games are the same price, why are you choosing EGS (to contribute more to the company? but that would be choosing a game store).
            • bloody-crow 7y ago
              I guess I was trying to illustrate to point that I don't choose the store, but games. Choosing stores only kicks in when multiple stores are available for the same game, which rarely happens.
  • deckar01 7y ago
    They hyped up this game for over a year, promoted it on Steam, then sold out to the Epic store at the last minute claiming the decision was for "financial stability due to the uncertain nature of the game's popularity". They had a mailing list on their home page as soon as it went up. They knew exactly how many hundreds of thousands of people were waiting to buy the game.
    • gamblor956 7y ago
      Mailing lists represent potential buyers, not actual buyers. There have been articles on HN about mailing list conversion rates. Depends on the product, but the usual # was 1-3%, with outliers being as much as 15%.
  • glogla 7y ago
    I don't understand why people have problem with Epic Store. Isn't this just the competition everyone should want? Steam takes 30 % of your money. Epic takes 12 %. They are competing on cost. Why would that be a problem? Why is that part of capitalism where Steam has near-monopoly on Games okay, but not the part where they have to compete with someone? Why would someone have loyalty to one huge corporation over another? I don't get it.
    • Loughla 7y ago
      I think it's less about the price and more about the fact that their 'winning strategy' seems to be to just throw money at exclusives until they win. Maybe that's the push-back?
    • deckar01 7y ago
      If that were the motivation, the publisher would sell on both platforms and just charge more on Steam due to the markup. That is never what happens. Epic is locking content creators into exclusive contracts, because their business model requires on-boarding tons of users onto their platform and they are willing the throw cash at the problem. Steam does not monopolize games. You can usually download them directly from the publisher and other retailers like Humble Bundle. Epic is uniquely hoarding high-profile releases. Unfortunately they are also providing a sub-par user experience, which is what a lot of the negativity stems from.
      • jfim 7y ago
        The steamworks agreement does not allow charging more on steam than on other platforms, while still retaining the ability to sell steam keys. If one wants to use steam keys, such as for use in a bundle, their documentation mentions: > Please note that Steam keys cannot be sold on other sites unless the product is also available for purchase on Steam at no higher a price than is offered on any other service or website. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys
        • icebraining 7y ago
  • wl 7y ago
    The Epic Store won't allow me to create an account because I was a victim of reverse identity theft (https://www.xkcd.com/1279/ https://www.xkcd.com/1279/) years ago. I guess Epic doesn't want me buying this or any other game from them. Too bad this game is only available there.
    • ThrustVectoring 7y ago
      For gmail addresses, I usually attempt to solve duplicate email detection by adding either a + string or throwing in random periods. So you could try `j.ohnsmith@gmail.com` and `johnsmith+epic@gmail.com` and see if any of those work.
      • Nasrudith 7y ago
        Unfortunately or fortunately gmail essentially ignores added or removed predomain dots. So Ro.borr@gmail.com is the same as Rob.orr@gmail.com. I have gotten emails from gmail forgetting to pin in my middle initials with periods.
    • superbeef150 7y ago
      If someone else registered with an email address you actually own, why not just reset the password? I'm guessing you wouldn't be screwing over whoever registered the account, since presumably they wouldn't have had a chance to validate their (your) email address.
• PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  I've seen a few people on Reddit insist that it must be an astroturf campaign. Because Reddit would never latch onto some random thing and meme obsessively about it for months, otherwise. It's extremely streamer-friendly (i.e. "fun to watch other people play and react to"), which is a big boost to virality, and it got featured by a hugely popular YouTuber (Dunkey) four days after its launch. And it got lucky. It's not an uncommon story.
  • backpropaganda 7y ago
    People were meme-ing the goose game hard much before its launch, and much before Dunkey covered it, but that probably helped sustain its exponential growth. More than streamer-friendly, it's Reddit- and Twitter-friendly. Any small clip of the game is automatically funny and share-able. The bird's simple design makes it easy for fan artists to make more memes.
  • EamonnMR 7y ago
    If anything, the EGS hate feels like an AstroTurf. I just do not get it.
    • AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
      It's a crappy store that seeks to compete with the dominant market player not through being better, but through throwing shit-tons of money at timed exclusives. Which itself isn't really that bad, but it doubled down on being hated when it started snatching up community funded games that were otherwise intended for release on several other platforms.
      • glogla 7y ago
        If you look at it from the point of the view of the game creator, Epic is better - they take smaller cut and they will outright give you money for exclusivity. This might not seem necessarilty better for the players, but considering how many smaller game studios / creators are on the verge of profitability, this might mean we get to play games we wouldn't otherwise.
• atoav 7y ago
  To be honest what sold it for me instantly was the combination of graphics, animation and these monty-pythonesque villagers. There are not that many humor-based games in any given year. So viral marketing or not, this game fills the rare niche of games I would give any non-gamer friend because they would enjoy it
• ljm 7y ago
  I haven’t played it but videogamedunkey spent enough time with it to give me a few laughs. It’s almost like it was made for him.
• otterpop 7y ago
  I can only speak to my opinion on this matter, but I hate the idea of using 'manufactured'--for lack of a better term--fanart and memes as mediums of advertising. Just looking at the meme, I immediately think "someone loved this game so much they took the time to create something about it". The thought of a company 'manufacturing' memes to try and advertise for something just seems like it's taking such a cool form of expression and commodifying it. As an example, Wendy's Twitter account has become pretty popular for all their pop culture references and crazy projects like a Dating Simulator and a Tabletop RPG--but at the end of the day, they're advertisements. Personally, it's hard to recognize the time and effort that went into these projects because they were only made to sell fast food; Wendy's isn't releasing these projects because they think they're cool, but because they have a bottom line they want to bring up. I use an ad-blocker. I haven't seen a television ad in forever. However, I'm sure that this isn't the first time that memes and social media have been used as advertising. It's antithetical to what I've said previously, but I guess the most effective uses of memes as advertising are so good that you can't tell they're ads. Ultimately, if it's funny and not forced, then it's going to spread. And weirdly, I'm okay with it. I just can't bring myself away from the comparison to how stuff becomes unpopular as soon as your parents start doing it. Facebook became ~uncool~ when our parents started using it, and I don't want to see memes become less of a cultural touchstone because of corporations starting to abuse them.
• rkachowski 7y ago
  It's an accidental success and the game took 3 years to make. Unless they can turn around viral marketing campaigns in significantly less time, with a clear strategy for success then it's unlikely that they'll be able (or even want) to switch markets from game design to marketing consultancy. Additionally the whole meme is pretty far from commercialisable. It's the simplicity and wholesomeness of the goose that gives it strength. It would be difficult to attach the image to a brand without killing the feel.
• friendlybus 7y ago
  Popular art does this. Stardew valley spent zero dollars on advertising. UGG was well placed to hit a transition point between themes and it's paying off.