Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

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Grim1

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Pretty hard to beat Steam at this point, but I hope they can pull it off. Use to be against even looking at other platforms, Steam was good enough for me and if the game wasn't there, I didn't play it.

But now I have Uplay, Origin, etc. sitting on the task bar for a couple of games I wanted to play that required them. And recently the Bethesda store. Turns out it isn't that big of a deal using different platforms. Although I still prefer Steam.

And Steam is a bit heavy handed with their profit margins, etc. Love the Steam team and what they have done for game distribution, but a solid competitor would be good to have now.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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Love the Steam team and what they have done for game distribution, but a solid competitor would be good to have now.

Yep. PC gaming wouldn't be where it is today without Steam/Valve, and I love them for all their work and even their efforts towards giving MS the bird by pursuing Linux, but the effects of their efforts have become old and established enough that it's time to focus more on keeping things growing rather than just focusing on loyalty to Steam. This can only happen with competition and other players deciding they can do things better.

I rarely load up Steam anymore and I've bought a handful of games through them in the past 2 years, only one of which I've actually played. I use Discord to keep in touch with my gaming buddies, and I use other websites to keep track of game sales. Steam is just a launcher to me now. Quite frankly: I'm not reliant on them anymore, and I feel like I'm not in the minority in this.

The only real reason I have to want to be loyal to Steam is that Valve gives a shit about things like open platforms & tech, lack of censorship (albeit not perfect in this) and that they're really our only chance at pulling PC gaming's dependence away from Microsoft short of Microsoft just giving up on it.
 
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Punko

Macho Ma'am
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I've used steam since it was in beta, and while I still remember how bad it was back then, they have always performed well since they launched.

Their servers don't go down, download speeds have always been great, the client is easy to use and of course the amount of games they offer is staggering.

Without steam I'd not have found out about "they are billions" or "slay the spire", which are some games others here also appreciate.

I consider steam offering indie games a huge benefit.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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Without steam I'd not have found out about "they are billions" or "slay the spire", which are some games others here also appreciate.

You're old. Younger people and those of us who check out new things tend to find out about new games via Twitch & Youtube now. Though, Steam still provides the only real way to find small niche games that don't get the spotlight on Twitch/YT.

Steam is still the core platform and will continue to be for a long time, but it simply is not the only game in town anymore. And that's a good thing for all of us.
 
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Punko

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You're old. Younger people and those of us who check out new things tend to find out about new games via Twitch & Youtube now. Though, Steam still provides the only real way to find small niche games that don't get the spotlight on Twitch/YT.

Steam is still the core platform and will continue to be for a long time, but it simply is not the only game in town anymore. And that's a good thing for all of us.

Maybe you can post a thread about a game which I don't know about and which is as good as those I mentioned, except you found them via twitch/yt.

Genuinely looking forward to it.

I don't read reviews or sites on games besides this forum, but I don't have the impression I'm missing out on anything as long as I watch steam.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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Maybe you can post a thread about a game which I don't know about and which is as good as those I mentioned, except you found them via twitch/yt.

Genuinely looking forward to it.

I don't read reviews or sites on games besides this forum, but I don't have the impression I'm missing out on anything as long as I watch steam.

Wat?

What the fuck does this have to do with anything? At no point did I say that it was a superior method of finding new games, or that Steam was a bad method. You seem to have this issue with thinking that what you like and prefer is the only relevant or important thing. You're the crotchety old man saying that television is doomed to failure from behind his newspaper while he's listening to the radio.

I don't need to jump through hoops to prove my point, because I'm not making a point. I'm stating mere issues of fact. Issues that you seem woefully out of touch with.
 

Punko

Macho Ma'am
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I'd like to see you make a thread about a good game I don't know about.

The mere suggestion seems to have slighted you.

Also, television is doomed bro. I'll be checking my postal pigeons for updates in the euro politics thread now.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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Valve put a new hat into TF2 just for you, Punko Punko

proxy.duckduckgo.com.jpeg
 
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Punko

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Please edit your post to something better, I know you can do it.
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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I run most of my games out of Steam but probably only buy a fraction of my games from their store at this point due to Humble deals and whatnot. Do some blockchain nerd stuff or some other multi-party agreement and make it so I can run this library out of any participating storefront, the one with the most usability / best deals win. Like with Movies Anywhere.
 
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fanaskin

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ITT: people don't comprehend how colossal Fortnite is and how big of a deal that is for launching a platform like this.

Remember why all of us had Steam in the first place? Because you had to to play Half-life 2. Fornite is the Half-Life of current year, only 100 times bigger. Entire generations of kids will grow up with the Epic store being their daily app to play their favorite game. Couple that with the super aggressive profit share and this could finally force some real competition on to Steam.

it's not just fortnite, same people make the unreal engine and I believe I saw somewhere if you distribute via epic they'll wave the license fee for the engine. Which between that and the % they're asking for being less than 1/2 steam should get their attention.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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Yep, their deal for devs wanting to use UE4 is insanely good.
 

Quineloe

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This is going to push piracy.

Epic don't have a particularly great track record at sticking to projects either. The tools they're providing are incredibly anti-consumer too, which is attractive for developers but shit for gamers.

This. Steam gives you a 2 hour refund window - Epic on the other hand allows publishers to disable *reviews* for their games.

It doesn't matter how publisher-friendly your platform is if the buyers avoid it because of that.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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IIRC, Steam put in refunds by neccessity due to Australian consumer protection laws and maybe European ones as well. The only platforms that have no refunds are third party ones like GMG, but even they have some situations where they can actually verify things. I'm assuming Epic will have something in place, but who knows what. I know I won't buy a single thing from them if I don't have an opportunity to refund.
 

sadris

Karen
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This. Steam gives you a 2 hour refund window - Epic on the other hand allows publishers to disable *reviews* for their games.

It doesn't matter how publisher-friendly your platform is if the buyers avoid it because of that.
Yeah I won't bother if I can't refund.
 

Ravishing

Uninspiring Title
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Store is Live:

Epic Games | Store


Apparently Epic is going to offer a free game every 2 weeks (through 2019).

Current free game is Subnautica starting Dec. 14
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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I hope they try and innovate instead of just lock up exclusive games and some policy tweets compared to steam. Work with Microsoft to become compatible with play anywhere and game pass for example would be a big deal. even bigger would be to start that type of setup with Sony and be their PC counterpart.
 
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DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
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That's pretty lenient. I bet that will change or they have other restrictions that are attached but not stated. Otherwise, you could finish and return a lot of games.
 
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