Who'll win the war?
I think the Epic Store is basically a parasite leeching off of Steam, and as time goes on they will be revealed as such. Steam could decide to close their community offerings to anyone who doesn't own the game in question on Steam and that would basically leave Epic Store owners no where to go. Epic'd have to make their own community... and start incurring all those extra costs... and their model would fail really fast.
Right now they are basically just bribing companies to switch... these exclusive statuses are probably time limited, I doubt these companies would cut themselves off from such an enormous market permanently.
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I'm not very familiar with the Epic store, other than they were giving away Subnautica recently. What features of the Epic store are leeching from the Steam store?
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I imagine that Itharus by leaching means lack of forums or user reviews. Right now if you are stuck in game or have technical difficulties, you have no way of finding solution on EG store page. As such if the games is sold in both stores, many players end up using Steam's forums to solve their problems.
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Chantal nailed it. Epic Store is really... just a barebones store. Steam is something more, it's a storefront and a community mixed together.
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And how was Steam when it first started?
It's taken Valve a long time to get to where it is now... and even now some things aren't ideal with Steam so they still have improvements to make..
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Steam rightfully got a lot of criticism when it was launched too.
Yet it's a different market now, and if you launch your service now, well, people will naturally judge it against the current competition on feature set and the like. Just imagine if it was a physical product! Something like the 386 was a nice product back in the day, but good luck selling something with the same performance for its launch price in today's market.
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They are still giving stuff away and will be doing so for the whole year. At least I think. That's pretty much all that is attracting people there.
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At these first few months that they have invested into marketing this new store they'll give away decent games, but wait until 3 months some trash games or even better, no games at all will be given every 2 weeks. They are not leeching anything, they're just marketing aggressively by limiting games just to their store.
Steam will eventually have to lower their developer fees or offer better quality games to their store. I've got 6K games on Steam but I won't stick around if, like most of my games, are trash and all the good games are being sold on Epic or Origin. (even Ubisoft turned down their Division 2 release on Steam - which I consider a good game)
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Well, Steam gets enough revenue from devs and publishers to finance the sub-forums for the appropiate games.
Plus there are enough other forums and sites out there where people can ask questions and make threads concerning games.
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Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the Metro series, but I waited several years to play them (think I paid about $5 each for the redux versions) and I can easily wait a year to get Exodus on Steam (or hopefully GOG).
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Yeah, the publishers didn't realize that upfront cash will not last them as long as months of good full amount sale on steam
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This is a timed deal, it will be coming to Steam a year later.
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But would have lost the forefront sale that brings in the money.. Later it will be discounted and people will not pay full amount for it
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I'm not really concerned about the math, Deep Silver have done it and decided this suits them better than the Steam sales numbers would. I was just pointing out that this is only a timed exclusive which is something most of the other games that have made the switch haven't detailed.
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Thing is, lots of that math is "we have a annual meeting with stockholders, needs some nice numbers, who cares what will happen in a year, I will be in different company anyway".
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I'm quite sure the people in charge of deciding where the game will be published would have never taken the deal (Epic's strongly implied bribe) if they weren't at least sure it would cover all of the sale differences.
Reason for this is that they also have to deal with the negative public opinion towards them that comes form switching to a less-liked-and-used store, which will affect their future games as well.
It's not dumb on the publisher's part, but Epic is hurting it's own reputation (even if gaining popularity), hurting the reputation of games it buys (even if the people making it get more money), hurting Steam by stealing its games (no silver lining here), and hurting users by restricting choice. This is really an all-around dick move.
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Hurting Steam is their silver lining. That's Epic's entire goal - trying to hurt Steam's huge majority in DRM+Distribution. They don't need to replace Steam, they just need to get a slice of that market. Since they had no slice before hand, anything they get is a win -- because they have absolutely no supporting features and drastically reduced costs with their platform. This isn't really a sustainable thing, though.
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No, I said there was no silver lining for Steam.
Again, the only ones benefiting from this in any way are the publishers and Epic, but everyone (them included) is also suffering.
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Look at any media that gets released and look at their consumption rates.
In a year, they'll maybe get around 20-30% of the sales they would get now on launch. But like with every launch, this'll end up with Metro getting around 10-15% of the total sales. Metro isn't strong enough to earn by its name alone. It's the release hype that would've propelled most of the sales. Now it won't. Epic won't compensate for that. Hopefully the upfront cash is enough to pay for everything alone. Because right now (unless Epic paid them enough to make up the difference), Metro will lose potential revenue.
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I'm assuming Deep Silver have done the math and concluded that whatever deal Epic have offered them is better than what they'd get from launch sales on Steam.
As for me I wouldn't be buying it at launch but the confirmation it is coming to Steam later guarantees they won't get a sale through me on Epic. Knowing it's a timed exclusive means people will hold off which is likely a large part of the reason that Rockstar are so adamant the RDR2 isn't coming to PC.
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I hope so too. But there's a reason why they failed when under THQ's wing.
I don't want them to fail. It's probably a good idea for them to essentially show their collective middle fingers to Steam users finanically.
Hopefully they accounted the fact that they won't sell as well on Steam and that they're prepared to sell nothing on Epic's store. Otherwise, they might just be hoping for the best and in this case, the best will most likely never happen.
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You're assuming Deep Silver is a well-ran business. As we have seen over the past ~5 years, that's a terrible assumption to make about any mainstream video game studio.
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I'm assuming they've done at least some basic calculations, if they were poorly ran enough not to do at least that they wouldn't have lasted till now. That said, at least one of the companies approached by Epic has supposedly stated they were offered enough to keep the studio funded for over a year even without any sales.
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I mean, if you say so.
I personally like 4A and Deep Silver. They've made good stuff. This is a bad PR move, sure. But they have the potential of doing great things. Mind you, I wouldn't have cared if they would've been an Epic exclusive from the beginning. Instead, this just looks like them getting a lot of money at the last minute and abandoning their consumers because of that.
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I saw one with steam link. I thought maybe the article can have a seprate space and a poll for potatoes
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I don't blame Epic. I blame the pathetic game studios that are so desperate for the upfront cash that they cut their own legs off by not selling on the largest game platform in history.
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Well it's gone now so i can't get a pic, but on steam it was $89.99, on Epic it's $59.99....
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so other companies are allowed exclusives but epic isn't?
i can understand people like to keep everything in 1 place, but in reality it doesn't matter.
Steam has had exclusives in the past also, so i don't see the problem..
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So it'll be $30 on the Epic Store? Okay, that sounds better. Maybe that'll be a good way to compete. Otherwise, the $60 price tag that was on Steam is already fine.
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Who said anything about $30 on Epic?
It's $60 which is cheaper than it was on Steam...
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You did. The price was 60€. So, $60. That's how it has always worked.
You're claiming the $30 off, meaning $60-$30 = $30. It's as simple as that.
An example: On the Humble Store while it was on Steam
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no it was $90 in steam (australian)
Now it's $60 in Epic (though i made the mistake of thinking that was AU as well)
But it IS still cheaper in Epic than it was in Steam for me...
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I usually buy new Steam games from HB, Fanatical or GMG as they usually provide discounts. For example, RE2 can be bought with 20% discount at Fanatical or GMG while Steam price is still 60$. Now we have only one store to buy it. Well, Epic might change it later but I don't see any price benefit at the moment
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... You're joking right?
Australian dollars aren't of same value as the U.S. Dollar. Your $90AUD is actually $64.75. So yeah, you said it's cheaper. In reality of course, you don't really understand that there are pricing regions. You don't even have an Australian price region on Epic, so it's not like you could know things about the pricing other than the US or EU pricing. But nah, screw that noise! Gotta claim a 50% discount when in reality it's at best, $4.75. If that's the best takeaway for you, you wouldn't be buying a And even that is because Epic thinks your country is worth fuckall so they don't even do you guys the courtesy of giving you a storefront. A storefront with correct prices would just be the next step after acknowledging your existence.
A$ isn't $.
But yeah, instead of thinking it, you're basically throwing false info about it.
At least it got squared. It's just a shame that inevitably, there will be people who took what you said as truth since they trusted you.
Epic doesn't care for us. It's way too obvious that they don't. They pay millions for exclusivity deals, yet they don't fix their store, don't add regional prices, don't fix their site, don't do anything for the customer.
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settle down dude :)
i did say i made that mistake...
and see if i care about the BL...
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Nah, it happens. As I said, it got squared. Doesn't mean that people didn't take your word for it.
I'm sorry if I came off as mad. If anything, I'm mad at Epic since right now, the store was the one to mislead you because it didn't care about your region, which isn't new for Epic since they ask transaction fees, sell customer info to the Chinese government and recently had a security leak where millions of users got their data leaked. So it's obvious that Epic's a bit of a piece of shit when it comes to caring about its customer.
Also, not sure why you're insinuating that I have blacklisted you. My blacklist has been 0 for almost a year now. I might sound like I'm an angry cunt by accident, but it doesn't make me a bitter asshole either :D
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imagine getting this angry over someone not knowing the difference between currencies
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Ah, you're purposely ignoring that I said it's squared away and I'm glad for it. Just because I said that squaring it at the bottom of a comment thread isn't often enough doesn't mean I'm angry at him. Think with your brain, please.
Yeah, I did get angry over Epic though. As far as I'm aware, he's not the company of Epic Games though, so it's not really directed at him. The company does not care for the Australian user, so yeah, they don't give fuckall about his country. It's a basic feature and if it's missing, it's pretty damn disgraceful.
Please quote me where I was mad at the user. Just a reminder though, please tell a difference between sarcasm and anger.
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50 euro on Steam vs 50 euro on Epic
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/022/523/C1mGBSvWEAANu9k.jpg
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Yeah? Metro has been advertising on steam for months and when it's about to release shifts to epic.
Now either the publishers are generous towards epic all of a sudden.
Or they got an offer from epic which they couldn't refuse. I see it as a steal by epic
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Fact is that its the developers decision. And Epic gives better conditions, then they moved their game to epic. That's all
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It's definitely a steal. They entered their game onto a store and before release, they entered into an exclusivity deal and left the original store. That's what stealing is in the business world. Nothing nonsensical about that. Companies steal contracts from each other quite often. Say, a government subcontracts a project, a company accepts it. Then another company undercuts their bid and the original company loses that deal.
Of course, you're thinking immediately that it must be that OP is butthurt and calls it stealing because some random whoop-de-doo reason that is actually because he wants to use Steam...
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That's exactly what I think. :D. Don't get me wrong steam delivers a very good service, but over the last years they got more focused on profit (cards with high fees, want the community pay for free mods, stopped regioncrossed trading; just to name a few examples), so I didn't feel well treated by steam. And now there's another player (epic) which is focused to build a player base by giving excellent conditions for the developers (what steam also could do, but they don't) and free games and cheaper games to the players. Finally we get some real competition and I hope steam will go back to their roots and will get heir main focus on customers satisfaction (what they lost in the last time)
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Don't get me wrong steam delivers a very good service, but over the last years they got more focused on profit (cards with high fees, want the community pay for free mods, stopped regioncrossed trading; just to name a few examples), so I didn't feel well treated by steam.
I can see that, yeah. Though the cross-region trading was stopped because of abuse. People bought games from cheaper regions and just gave themselves the copy. So instead of paying what they should, they'd just get it cheaper.
And now there's another player (epic) which is focused to build a player base by giving excellent conditions for the developers (what steam also could do, but they don't) and free games and cheaper games to the players.
I would completely disagree here. Epic's buying competition. They're not creating it. They're harming their developers more than helping. Sure, they get free cash, but the developers barely get sales. Plus, Epic isn't doing anything for you. Steam also gives games for free. But who do you think is footing the bill for every free giveaway on both sites? It's the developer. Plus, those free games will end soon. This is a publicity stunt. As opposed to Steam who's been doing free giveaways erratically for years now. Not to mention 3rd party giveaways for Steam keys, which are free to do for any publisher on Steam.
Also, where are those cheaper games? I haven't seen any.
Finally we get some real competition and I hope steam will go back to their roots and will get heir main focus on customers satisfaction (what they lost in the last time)
If it was competition, Epic wouldn't be bribing for exclusives. You're not powerful enough if you have to have exclusives. That just shows that you have enough money to pay someone to like you. Epic hasn't done anything yet. Their client's even worse than Steam's, their prices aren't better and the only reason to use Epic is the same as UPlay or Origin. Exclusives. Once that Fortnite money dries up, it'll be another storefront that just doesn't do anything.
To have influence and power to be competing, you actually need to have something to entice others. What they're doing isn't sustainable.
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To Thieve or Steal: "To take without consent or legal right".
The choice of phrasing is certainly rather exaggerated, yes.
"Appropriates", "Swipes", or "Nabs" would all work as a suitable alternative.
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That'd give the meaning that they were running away with the game, and then hiding it away from everyone.
Which, while I'm sure that's an interpretation that some diehard Steam fans will passionately argue for, still isn't quite accurate to circumstances. :P
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I should have mentioned I was saying that with a stupid grin on my face :D
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Actually, when one company takes over a client from another, the legal term would be poaching. So the most appropriate term would be "poaches".
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That is true. ^.^
Now I want to eat some poached eggs, though. :/
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As long as I can play games I don't mind that much. Are people going to be buying it anyway?
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On Steam, definitely. Exodus was highly marketed on Steam beforehand. Last Light and the Redux's had propelled Metro into a more mainstream cult classic status and the game actually had a lot of hype because they used social media influencers to get more attention on the game as well.
On Epic though... doubt it. Simply because of the fact that it was available on Steam and is now suddenly on Epic store with no real mention of it. People just might not have heard it. Plus it's the fact that while Metro is successful, it's not successful enough to carry itself on a platform that barely has active users.
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Thanks for putting it up in a much more mature manner than I could. Plus typing from mobile I have my restrictions lol
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Valve should fix the info on the store page from "Available: 15th of February 2019" to "Available: 14th of February 2020" and that's it. The Steam crowd doesn't need to know anything more.
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The Steam crowd doesn't need to know anything more.
We are the Steam crowd. Not to mention, the customer doesn't benefit from being lied to or having facts obfuscated from them. 4A and Deep Silver made a decision that affected their consumers. That's the fact here. Whether people think it's a bad thing that they backed out of contracts with customers and took their game out of a store they were supposed to be on is unrelated. It doesn't even play a role here.
This isn't China or North Korea. No need to censor and hide. If 4A and Deep Silver made a decision, one would imagine they have the balls to face the consequences. Whether it's anger, praise, loss or gain of sales, no matter.
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All I'm saying is that the date on the steam store is wrong now. The game is actually coming to Steam on 14.02.2020. I'm not saying they should censor the forums or anything. Even if it was an utterly dick move from DS to use Steam announcements/forums to advertise their jump to the other store.
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Not too sure they should change the release date. I wouldn't be against Steam just saying it has released but DS took it away, as a jab to Epic for being so snivelling about the whole thing. The release dates aren't for Steam releases. You can have a look at older games for that fact. The release date for the game is 14.02.2019, so that's what it is since it's not a port release or anything like that either.
If I were in Valve's shoes, I'd just remove them and disallow them from returning with that game. To send a message as a storefront. That misusing the trust of Steam's userbase is not tolerated, but that exclusives with Epic are still fine and won't earn you a ban, but instead the last minute bait and switch for extra money and publicity is unwanted.
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They can't really remove the store page though, because there were preorders and also the physical boxes come with steam keys, so the store page has to stay and host the reviews at the very least.
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I think that's not Valve's job, that's something the publisher sets. Anyway, it's true for people who pre-ordered, so changing it to 2020 might be worse, buyers will start assuming that they won't get the game next month as promised.
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steam is honoring preorders, so it will be available on the 15th. they aren't gonna change that date now or remove the store page only because the game's gone until 2020.
but they will probably change the release date AFTER the 15th and won't even disable purchases. pretty smart because people can keep wishlisting it.
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most people will buy it when it's $1 to idle cards so it doesn't make a difference for them.
but complaining is free. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
still doesn't change the fact that epic is crap :3
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is really because of "epic" themself or because of tencent?
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Well, I guess parents need to hide their credit cards
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so, after one month already -50% or more like for fallout 76 which not came to steam?:-)
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As if not being on Steam was Fallout and Battlefield's issues o_o
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I think Epic has a good PR machine that keeps feeding every move from any studio to lazy bloggers and "gaming news" sites that just rehash them without any thought or perspective on whether it means anything or not.
They want people to think they're an actual competitor for Steam so they just send press releases around, trying to get some hype going.
It won't work but it sure helps gaming sites fill those gaps between ads.
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another thing to have in mind. if epic doesn't create some kind of forums for their games, people will keep going to the steam forums to get support and talk about the game despite having bought it on epic (forums won't be closed because valve/4a/deep-silver still honors preorders).
release the game on steam, market and advertise it, remove it from steam, put it on epic store, and still use the steam forums as headquarters for your playerbase. talk about irony... 🤦♀️
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That's what happened with Subnautica.
Actually, that's what happens with pretty much ANY game on other platforms that has a forum on Steam, heck even games that aren't on Steam do it too.
I'm fairly confident that Valve aren't particularly worried about this though, it's more likely they're the opposite of worried. The fact that the users keep turning to Steam for games they bought on other platforms shouldn't even be viewed as a problem for Valve but rather as a problem for the other platforms.
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Epic should've sticked with Fortnite, they got lucky and are rich so why fuck up steam just because. Sure, steam could change some things though.
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I find it funny how people get so upset when you are presented with alternatives where you can get the game. Thats a good thing for the customer, because competition drives down prices, and forces companies to innovate.
People always cry for steam to be the only platform where you can get games, essentially to monopolize the market. Such a dumb fucking thing to do(and genius on part of Valve)
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you are presented with alternatives where you can get the game.
I think you missed the point by a mile. If you can buy your groceries in any shop you want, but suddenly your favourite cerials are only sold in walmark, thats not "adding" and alternative.
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Before this incident, you can buy Steam keys of Metro Exodus at HB, Fanatical, GMG, etc. Suddenly, your only option is Epic and you call it alternatives?
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I am not installing another launcher and i think this may change based on how gamers convert from using steam to epic launcher. If they dont get enough people buying the game on epic store, they will prolly end up releasing it on other store
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I guess Epic better for epic would be add key-redeem option and sell games in other stores like Humble or even Fanatical, but Epic is miserable launcher. The only reason I still got it is "What Remains of Edith Finch", the game they gave away for free.
edit: not to mention other things like forums, opinions, and everything Steam has polished up.
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Epic crap will always perform something...mean to stab Steam
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Already preordered physical copy, we'll see if it will register in Epic or Steam. Wouldn't like to have +1 launcher but will play the game anyway :)
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The FAQs says that physical copies contain steam key...
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I bet they'll run out of physical copies really soon. Hopefully new batches will keep true to the steam key promise.
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They already confirmed that physical copies will be activated on Epic.
https://twitter.com/MetroVideoGame/status/1090334311839133696
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Epic steals Metro Exodus from Steam
Well Steam has been popular and people have been loyal to steam but 2019 may mark a beginning of turning point in Game Launcher history as many exclusive titles and companies slowly part ways.
Read more on this pc gamer article
https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-exodus-epic-store-steam/
What are your thoughts considering the lack of features on epic as of now, will they come close to steam in this battle and maybe overthrow them eventually?
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