Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I know Epic basically ripped off the Battle Royal genre and made billions of dollars but they seem to think a little to highly of themselves.
Either that, or they're peasant heroes that are using their moment in the sun to knock the near-monopolies around a bit.
 

a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
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Yeah, not happy with the exclusivity bullshit they're pulling. Them having a store was great for competition, but exclusivity just nullifies all of that. Fuck closed ecosystems and fuck exclusivity. They're both the enemy of the consumer.

The game will be cracked within a month of release and I'll just play it that way, without dealing with either the retarded useless DRM, or the newfound faggotry of epic.

Fucka-me? No! Fucka-you!
 
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Ravishing

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Yeah, not happy with the exclusivity bullshit they're pulling. Them having a store was great for competition, but exclusivity just nullifies all of that. Fuck closed ecosystems and fuck exclusivity. They're both the enemy of the consumer.

The game will be cracked within a month of release and I'll just play it that way, without dealing with either the retarded useless DRM, or the newfound faggotry of epic.

Fucka-me? No! Fucka-you!
It's still competition, why are your panties in a wad over this?
 
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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah, not happy with the exclusivity bullshit they're pulling. Them having a store was great for competition, but exclusivity just nullifies all of that. Fuck closed ecosystems and fuck exclusivity. They're both the enemy of the consumer.

The game will be cracked within a month of release and I'll just play it that way, without dealing with either the retarded useless DRM, or the newfound faggotry of epic.

Fucka-me? No! Fucka-you!

My coworker had this argument with me today and it's silly to consider it this way.
  • Steam - Comes into an empty room in 2002 or whatever and draws in the developers this way... yadda yadda
  • GOG - Moves in via the retrofitting old classic games for newer machines. Low expenses because Poland, no security, sales, etc.
  • Humble Bundle - donation minimum model
  • Origin - Dunno never used that shit
  • Epic - pays lump sums and takes less of the pie to lure developers into exclusivity contracts. Don't need to be a retard to see why Metro's developers got this. They aren't targeting hardliners in Steam and GOG. They're looking to get their fortnite cash cow players to buy even more shit.
I outright pirate anything I can't get on Steam or GOG. But I don't have a problem with Epic's swing at the King here.
 
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Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Epic being 40% owned by China is enough to stop me from ever using their shit. That is not the sort of competition I have any interest whatsoever in supporting.

Also, fuck Fortnite.
 
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LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
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I agree with Dom because, like the cord cutting alternatives, they are fragmenting the market so much that I'm just starting to "liberate" everything again. I'm sick and fucking tired of installing every fucking companies bullshit just to play games. CPY doesn't require me to install anything but the game...and the price is nice too.
 
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iannis

Musty Nester
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I don't have a moral problem with what they're doing. I just don't think it will work.

They have to offer a service that is at least as good as or better than the service steam offers me. Exclusivity for developers that i don't care about to begin with is not a selling point. I maintain a netflix subscription because they'll occasionally put out a surprisingly good series, so exclusivity isn't the -worst- plan either. But it's gonna take a lot longer than what I suspect they're planning for. It took Netflix over a decade to grow their market, and they had huge advantages in the changing technology. If Hulu had been less annoying about it, or Amazon more aggressive, Netflix may have remained what it was, and not the giant that it is. I don't see that Epic has those advantages.

I'm ok with a monopoly for an aggregator. If steam morphs into something like Amazon does with linking into other storefronts. If that's ultimately where we end up I don't think it's the worst thing. I don't really think it's the worst thing if steam is the lonley giant in the marketplace either though. Steam has been remarkably hands off and laisse faire with their store. They've tried curators, they've tried greenlight, they've tried more public interaction. They are even diretly responsible for this early access cancer which is legit maybe 2 times out of 1000. But hey, that's 2 good games that got made which otherwise probably wouldn't.

I don't love some things about steam. I don't love the ownership of digital property. It's not perfect. But I don't think Epic is addressing the problems that I have with steam, either. Even if they succeed (and I don't root for their failure) at best it's just a different dude that you're handing money to for something that is either as good or slightly worse.

But hey, more power to them. It's their money.
 
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Luthair

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Yeah, not happy with the exclusivity bullshit they're pulling. Them having a store was great for competition, but exclusivity just nullifies all of that. Fuck closed ecosystems and fuck exclusivity. They're both the enemy of the consumer.

The game will be cracked within a month of release and I'll just play it that way, without dealing with either the retarded useless DRM, or the newfound faggotry of epic.

Fucka-me? No! Fucka-you!

It was always going to happen this way, from start Epic made no bones that they were competing against Steam for developers by fees, not that they were competing for you the user.

The only answer is vote with your wallet, buy it from the store you support. If Steam users simply pirate the title before its on Steam then sales on Steam will be low, which gives them an excuse to not offer it there in the future.

I outright pirate anything I can't get on Steam or GOG. But I don't have a problem with Epic's swing at the King here.

Maybe because you're shouting "Fuck It" and knocking over the game board.
 

a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
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I agree that Valve should
It was always going to happen this way, from start Epic made no bones that they were competing against Steam for developers by fees, not that they were competing for you the user.

The only answer is vote with your wallet, buy it from the store you support. If Steam users simply pirate the title before its on Steam then sales on Steam will be low, which gives them an excuse to not offer it there in the future.

Aye, but they're not just competing via fees. They're also paying for exclusivity similar to how shit was/is working on consoles with things like cash for platform exclusivity for DLC/DLC release dates and so on. Also, in this case I literally can't buy it from the store I support as my agency in that matter was removed due a business deal.
 

LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
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Supporting "stores" is the most absurd thing.

It's less absurd when every "store" I visit requires increasingly larger and more intrusive software to continuously maintain if I just want to play fucking video games.
 
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Luthair

Lord Nagafen Raider
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I agree that Valve should


Aye, but they're not just competing via fees.

I know, that is why I said when they started. It was blatantly obvious they would do deals for exclusives because that is how platforms always end up working.

Supporting "stores" is the most absurd thing.

How so? You need to trust that it will be there, be not intrusive, has your friends list, etc. A synonym here would be frequent.
 
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Ravishing

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I know, that is why I said when they started. It was blatantly obvious they would do deals for exclusives because that is how platforms always end up working.



How so? You need to trust that it will be there, be not intrusive, has your friends list, etc. A synonym here would be frequent.

Stores are there to facilitate sales of products. If the store doesn't exist, the product will be sold elsewhere.
I careless about the stores and more about supporting the actual games & game devs.
Only valid point I've seen so far is regarding the software they install. The software could potentially keep people away. But that's on the devs if they choose a store with shitty software. I'm certainly not going to support stores based on their software, it's a neutral item in my mind, unless it's so grotesquely bad.

And regarding Epic's store, there software is the least intrusive from my experience. But I really only have Steam/Epic/Blizzard. I haven't dealt with EA or others in a while.
 
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gshurik

Tranny Chaser
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Supporting "stores" is the most absurd thing.

Being critical of the epic store isn't the same as supporting Steam. I'll support the store that has the best pro consumer practices, and forced exclusivity is the antithesis to pro consumer practices. It's fine to espouse hate for Steam this late in the game, but they've provided a great service for years and that's why they've fostered such a large consumer base that feels pissed off whenever choice is taken away from them.

It's the same stupid shit that consoles do, and PC should be better.
 
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Ravishing

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Being critical of the epic store isn't the same as supporting Steam.

Never said it was. Dom (1 post before mine) literally was complaining about not being able to support his preferred store.

I strongly disagree that Exclusivity is anti-consumer.