Quinn wrote on Mar 9, 2019, 02:45:
I feel like Epic thinks they can rule the world with their lucky Fortnite success. Don't they yet realize Fortnite is in its death-throws being murdered by Apex Legends, I wonder?

Fornite is still killing it, even with Apex around (infact, Fortnite currently has 90k more Twitch viewers than Apex).

And they are investing in their store knowing full well that Fortnite's success wont last forever.

That said, I hate Epic's store, it lacks in so many area's compared to Steam.

-edit- my spelling still sucks.

This comment was edited on Mar 10, 2019, 17:31.

Beamer wrote on Mar 9, 2019, 09:29:

Quinn wrote on Mar 9, 2019, 02:45:
I feel like Epic thinks they can rule the world with their lucky Fortnite success. Don't they yet realize Fortnite is in its death-throws being murdered by Apex Legends, I wonder?

Isn't this the opposite of that? Isn't this them moving very quickly, and very aggressively, because they know that Fortnite money could dry up as quickly as it appeared? Isn't this them trying to shore up another line of business, and one that can have a much longer tail, while the money is flowing in and they have the resources to do so?

Still don't fully get all the anger at them, but whatever.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me the anger is being caused primarily for two reasons.

1. This smacks of EA tactics. If you can't compete because the other companies have a better product, spend a fuckton of money to simply bar those companies access. It creates a monopoly situation, kind of like what happened when EA felt threatened by some new football games so they simply bought exclusivity to the NFL license.

2. This is the second store attempt to limit access to games based on which service you prefer. It is the consolification of computer games. Don't like service X? Too fucking bad, if you want game A you will use them. EA started it with their store and refusal to sell any of their games anywhere else, which has led to some gamers simply giving up on games because they don't want to support that model. I skipped the new Battlefields and Mass Effect because of that. Now Epic is doing the same fucking thing, except they at least are only holding it exclusive for a while. So a year after release I can get the game elsewhere.

I guess people used to console games won't be bothered by these developments, but I find it disturbing since I am older and grew up when PC was king. I don't want to be forced to use a specific service to get a game, I want to go to whichever one I want. Now with two stores playing the 'you can only get it from here' game, we are forced to make a choice. Sacrifice our beliefs or hold firm and skip playing games we have been waiting for.

Besides, no one should be gullible enough to believe that Epic is doing this out of the kindness of their hearts for devs. Once they feel they are established enough, you can bet either the percentage will rise on what they charge or they will try to monetize it some other way. Maybe by asking games to add pay for decor like dances.

Quinn wrote on Mar 9, 2019, 02:45:
I feel like Epic thinks they can rule the world with their lucky Fortnite success. Don't they yet realize Fortnite is in its death-throws being murdered by Apex Legends, I wonder?

Isn't this the opposite of that? Isn't this them moving very quickly, and very aggressively, because they know that Fortnite money could dry up as quickly as it appeared? Isn't this them trying to shore up another line of business, and one that can have a much longer tail, while the money is flowing in and they have the resources to do so?

Still don't fully get all the anger at them, but whatever.

first stage is denial.

I feel like Epic thinks they can rule the world with their lucky Fortnite success. Don't they yet realize Fortnite is in its death-throws being murdered by Apex Legends, I wonder?

jacobvandy wrote on Mar 9, 2019, 01:39:
Anyway, Steam offers more choices of how and where to buy OR sell, yet they're the ones decried for monopoly and greed? I don't see how what Epic is doing lately is any more noble.

It is rather crazy that many can't seem to see the real long term consequences of the Epic Store's tactics. Good PR and enough Steam hate for its flaws I guess. There is so far only one exclusive to Epic that I would spend money on and I've been debating over that for a few months now. The rest I can wait or never play, especially single player games.

Long term, the Epic store's launch and monopoly tactics appear to be leading to more exclusives to keep prices up. If this change from Ubisoft is legit (I'm waiting to see if Humble and GMG stop selling Div2) it will just keep prices inflated for the season passes. That will probably backfire on Ubi and other devs/publishers who do it.

Yep, that's why it's especially weird, since all these resellers like Green Man (never heard of GamesPlanet until now) would do is sell keys to be redeemed on Uplay. So basically Ubisoft is too big to buy off entirely, and all Epic could do is pay to be the one and only third party seller, for whatever good that'll do them.

Which reminds me of something that seems to have been forgotten of late, through all this exclusivity controversy -- no developer is forced to give Steam a full 30% of their revenue. That is only the case for copies sold through the Steam store directly, while all of the innumerable keys that are sold elsewhere see no royalty going back to Valve. They've taken steps in recent years to curtail abuse of this system, but in general devs are empowered to sell copies of their game on their own as long as those customers are not given special treatment over ones who buy through Steam.

To my knowledge, this courtesy is not offered by Origin or Uplay or any other publisher-driven storefront that also features third-party games for sale. I've only ever known the Uplay keys from GMG to be for Ubisoft-developed games, Origin keys to be EA games, Bethesda keys to be things they're selling recently (FO76 or RAGE 2, etc), and then everything else is a Steam key. It doesn't have to be through resellers, either, devs can sell keys through their own site and get all the money minus any payment processing fees. Though I could count on one hand the number of instances I know of where an indie took that opportunity seriously...

Anyway, Steam offers more choices of how and where to buy OR sell, yet they're the ones decried for monopoly and greed? I don't see how what Epic is doing lately is any more noble.

Rhett wrote on Mar 8, 2019, 21:21:
Something like that, I have no idea what this is supposed to be... I guess this is a definitive "nowhere else" post? I bought my key at Green Man Gaming, so I assume they won't be sold there afterwards?

Edit: I just saw this was from GamesPlanet, not Ubisoft directly. Still weird... Did Epic throw money at Ubisoft or something? Jesus.

I'm starting to think that Epic's doing that. It just doesn't make sense that Ubisoft would leave Steam for Epic otherwise (lower dev cut percentage or not - Steam's just too popular).

[Edit: Derp - this is about 3rd party key sellers. This is definitely going to be a problem for people who like to grab deals off of sites such as GMG. Huh.]

This comment was edited on Mar 9, 2019, 03:26.

Something like that, I have no idea what this is supposed to be... I guess this is a definitive "nowhere else" post? I bought my key at Green Man Gaming, so I assume they won't be sold there afterwards?

Edit: I just saw this was from GamesPlanet, not Ubisoft directly. Still weird... Did Epic throw money at Ubisoft or something? Jesus.

Didn't Ubisoft announce this weeks ago?