Epic Games General Thread - Its time to talk about what the AAA gaming industry does not understand about the PC console.

[Catgirls are Love]

How much did Epic pay for Borderlands 3 exclusivity? Apparently, it was only six months worth of exclusivity as Borderlands 3 is now set for a March 13th Steam release.

 

[vertexwindi]

How much did Epic pay for Borderlands 3 exclusivity? Apparently, it was only six months worth of exclusivity as Borderlands 3 is now set for a March 13th Steam release.

For such a big title I'm guessing it was still expensive as fuck.

 

[The tired cat]

I was kinda shocked myself that Borderlands 3 is coming out so early. Originally the release date was supposed to be May and yet....well hey least I can get it now. But, it does make me wonder if 2K demandes more cash because even Metro Exodus got faster sales when it hit steam.

 

[ZMOT]

How much did Epic pay for Borderlands 3 exclusivity? Apparently, it was only six months worth of exclusivity as Borderlands 3 is now set for a March 13th Steam release.

it's been known for almost a year that it's only an exclusive for 6 months, it released in mid september so mid march is pretty much the 6 month mark (exactly actually, release was the 13th. looks like gearbox isn't wasting any time).

 

[Catgirls are Love]

it's been known for almost a year that it's only an exclusive for 6 months, it released in mid september so mid march is pretty much the 6 month mark (exactly actually, release was the 13th. looks like gearbox isn't wasting any time).

...now that you mention it, you're right. I guess I just completely forgot about everything Borderlands-related ever since the last iteration was released until last night when to my surprise someone randomly mentioned the pending release in a Steam thread.

I'm not sure if the delayed Steam release is going to do them any favors, so I guess it's a good thing for them that they got as much money as they could from Epic.

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

If you want the absolute worst hamfisted example of this, check out Timespinner. It's a little game that flew under the radar, but oh boy does it shove its agenda in your face. It's also very small, i'm sure you can find it on the high seas for a fair price, because it fucking ain't worth the admission price with the sole exception of the amazing music and some of the visuals.

Ah, Timespinner. Yet another game whose diversity is lesbians, polyamorous lesbians, or bisexuals who only fuck other women.

 

[SiccDicc]

If Epic goes under from all of this I hope EasyAntiCheat follows. Piece of shitty software, CPU hogging, mod denying and CPU anti-prioritizing garbage.

 

[Kane Lives]

If Epic goes under from all of this I hope EasyAntiCheat follows. Piece of shitty software, CPU hogging, mod denying and CPU anti-prioritizing garbage.

Plenty more shitty anti-cheat software will rise to take its place tbh.

 

[KanaPostsonKiwi]

Honestly as far as anti-cheat goes, we've been spared the horror in the west for the most part. We only really need to worry about the likes of GameGuard being dragged over here with games like PSO2 finally rolling over to the west. I enjoyed it for quite a few months with the english patch and my limited JP knowledge, but having to play a game on virtual machine to prevent the "anti-cheat" shit from infecting your puter sure is a thing...

 

[Fagnacious D]

I had a fun little autistic daydream while doing the dishes today.


I was an indie dev who was building a game over which everyone was losing their shit in anticipation. The press calls it "The most intriguing game of the decade" and people stalk my website and social media accounts thirsty for any bit of info they can get their little mitts on.
As time goes by I release trailer after trailer for the game, which only increases the furor my game has created. Millions of people watch my every move in anticipation.

One day I check my business email and spot an email sent to me by Epic Games. They'd like to discuss an exclusivity deal. A wicked smile spreads across my face as I shoot back a quick email telling them that I'm interested but would need to see a contract. They send it along for me to look over and, well, it seems to be of great benefit to me. Millions of dollars guaranteed upon signing.
I shoot the contract to my legal department with a memo expressing my intentions. My lawyers comb over the agreement and tell me that what I intend it perfectly legal.

I agree to Epic's contract, publicly announcing the deal, which is for 6 months. The public are at first pissed until my assurances that the additional funding from Epic will allow me to make beneficial changes to the game and expand it's scope and scale, mollifying some while others resolutely hate me. The game releases on Epic, as planned. It makes Epic back a fraction of what they spent on it in the 6 months that it's exclusive to their store.
Then comes the Steam release.... which is advertised as "The Steam Edition!". Upon release players find that The Steam Edition! features enhanced graphics, more gameplay, a larger world, and generally a lot more content... content that will never see the light of day in The Epic Edition!

Then comes the announcement on my social media profiles. I've played Epic for a damn fool. Their contract never stipulated that I had to ensure content parity across platform releases. I've actively stripped out elements from the The Epic Edition! that will only be seen in The Steam Edition!, including several large DLCs that are The Steam Edition! exclusive, despite me never signing an exclusivity deal with Steam.
To top it off the first year of The Steam Edition! exclusive DLC releases will be completely free, paid for by the chumps at Epic Games. What's more, those that purchased a copy of The Epic Edition! receive free keys for the superior The Steam Edition!
The effect is staggering. All those who detest Epic hail my dev company as the "hero we deserve" and my game sells millions of copies on Steam.

Epic attempts to sue my studio, of course.... but I already planned on this. My case is airtight, nothing I've done violates either my contract with Epic or the law as the promised product was delivered. The Judge rules in my favor within months. In addition I counter-sue Epic for legal fees and am awarded them in full.
I gain the reputation as the man who made Tim Sweeny his bitch and made the cuck fund my studio at his own expense, which he will never see back as it's widely known that The Steam Edition! is far superior due to it's exclusive functionality and content. In the end Epic only makes back 12% of the money they paid me, while Steam makes millions in profit off my game. In all future public appearances I wear a shirt that shows me as a glorious king using Sweeny as my footstool, which causes no end of salt from the Swiener.



And that's my dream. I know it'll never happen, but if someone DID somehow manage to fuck Epic over like that I'd build a fucking temple to the bastard.

This is kind of what Take 2 did with RDR2. They took Epic's money and used it to basically advertise their own service, stealing the press (and pre-orders) away from Epic.

Looks like that is what is currently happening with the formerly epic exlcusive Borderlands 3 on Steam!

50% off until March 20th (a little over a week from today (March 11th). The game will be released in less than 48 Hours as well!

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

Looks like that is what is currently happening with the formerly epic exlcusive Borderlands 3 on Steam!

50% off until March 20th (a little over a week from today (March 11th). The game will be released in less than 48 Hours as well!
View attachment 1183661

It's actually a pretty good move.
"Sorry you all had to wait. Here's 50% off on release, less than the epic chumps paid for it!"

 

[The tired cat]

So, apparently Epic finally installed the wishlist function and seems State of Decay 2 is gonna be on Epic as well, not as an exclusive mind you. Seems either Sweeny knew he wouldn't have enough suitcases fo Microsoft or maybe slowly starting to realize that his shit is starting to fail bigtime.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

So, apparently Epic finally installed the wishlist function and seems State of Decay 2 is gonna be on Epic as well, not as an exclusive mind you. Seems either Sweeny knew he wouldn't have enough suitcases fo Microsoft or maybe slowly starting to realize that his shit is starting to fail bigtime.

Didn't Sweeny the Weenie shit talk Microsoft for some of the practices he's now more or less trying to mirror?
And let's face it, building an entire business model around "Fuck Steam!" is a pretty piss poor decision. For one thing, once the more loyal Steam users figure out that Sweener's entire shtick is trying to specifically starve Steam of releases, they'll turn hostile to it and do their best to turn other people hostile towards it.
Not to mention that they've never, ever proven why Steam doesn't deserve that 30% cut considering everything they hand you when you sign on. Steam handles sales, handles advertising, makes sure people see your game. A lot of the work just gets cut right out with Steam.
And let's face it, most of the VG industry is all about online these days. What dev or publisher doesn't have a Twitter, or a YouTube channel, or a half dozen other free tools of marketing and advertisement? Let's face it, Steam did the industry a giant favor by cutting out a lot of costs, advertisement, distribution, reduction of packaging, centralization of product market, global market access.

Why doesn't Valve deserve it's cut? Why is Epic the "good guy" here? The fact that Epic's entire existence is predicated on Sweeny's hatred of Steam is insanely off putting to anyone who notices it and isn't already butthurt at Steam for whatever reason.

 

[The tired cat]

Didn't Sweeny the Weenie shit talk Microsoft for some of the practices he's now more or less trying to mirror now?
And let's face it, building an entire business model around "Fuck Steam!" is a pretty piss poor decision. For one thing, once the more loyal Steam users figure out that Sweener's entire shtick is trying to specifically starve Steam of releases, they'll turn hostile to it and do their best to turn other people hostile towards it.
Not to mention that they've never, ever proven why Steam doesn't deserve that 30% cut considering everything they hand you when you sign on. Steam handles sales, handles advertising, makes sure people see your game. A lot of the work just gets cut right out with Steam.
And let's face it, most of the VG industry is all about online these days. What dev or publisher doesn't have a Twitter, or a YouTube channel, or a half dozen other free tools of marketing and advertisement? Let's face it, Steam did the industry a giant favor by cutting out a lot of costs, advertisement, distribution, reduction of packaging, centralization of product market, global market access.

Why doesn't Valve deserve it's cut? Why is Epic the "good guy" here? The fact that Epic's entire existence is predicated on Sweeny's hatred of Steam is insanely off putting to anyone who notices it and isn't already butthurt at Steam for whatever reason.

Theres also the fact that steam covers a 2% percent cut when you use other methods of payment. If you say are located in India (where you can get a game via courier somehow) or Russia (where you can pay via phone) steam uses its 30% cut to cover that thing, while Epic doesnt thus means the buyer will have to pay additional 2% ontop of what they are already paying for the game. As for the "why steam doesnt deserve the 30%", thing is usually said how they are greedy, how games/devs suffer because of them or some people cite Nintendo (who apparently started the 30% cut thing) and how they even admit it was wrong and its an outdated idea.

 

[Kane Lives]

Theres also the fact that steam covers a 2% percent cut when you use other methods of payment. If you say are located in India (where you can get a game via courier somehow) or Russia (where you can pay via phone) steam uses its 30% cut to cover that thing, while Epic doesnt thus means the buyer will have to pay additional 2% ontop of what they are already paying for the game. As for the "why steam doesnt deserve the 30%", thing is usually said how they are greedy, how games/devs suffer because of them or some people cite Nintendo (who apparently started the 30% cut thing) and how they even admit it was wrong and its an outdated idea.

Steam also offers regional pricing, and allows the developers to set regional prices for those of us who balk at the exchange rate to the USD. Something EGS still doesn't have and thus shall continue fail in any market that isn't the First World.

 

[The tired cat]

Steam also offers regional pricing, and allows the developers to set regional prices for those of us who balk at the exchange rate to the USD. Something EGS still doesn't have and thus shall continue fail in any market that isn't the First World.

An even that only happened, because of EGS blunder during their 1st sale when Bloodlines and BL3 was on sale fo a price of 5$ in Turkey and Russia.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

Theres also the fact that steam covers a 2% percent cut when you use other methods of payment. If you say are located in India (where you can get a game via courier somehow) or Russia (where you can pay via phone) steam uses its 30% cut to cover that thing, while Epic doesnt thus means the buyer will have to pay additional 2% ontop of what they are already paying for the game. As for the "why steam doesnt deserve the 30%", thing is usually said how they are greedy, how games/devs suffer because of them or some people cite Nintendo (who apparently started the 30% cut thing) and how they even admit it was wrong and its an outdated idea.

It really looks like Epic's business model is set to prioritize themselves and the devs over the customer, whereas Steam at the very least does something to benefit the customer. Which as you pointed out includes eating that 2% cost for alternative payment methods, and like @Kane Lives pointed out they allow regional pricing for poorer countries to whom $60USD is a week's fucking paycheck.

Fuck, they even put up the Workshop to make it easier to collect all the mods in a single place! They absolutely did not have to do that. They're under no obligation to host optional 3rd party content for the benefit of their customers. They could have let people rely on places like NexusMods or ModDB, or the fansites or dev forums that host them. But Steam decided that we, the customer, deserved this. So now they pay the costs of hosting hundreds of thousands of mods for countless games. And some big fucking mods, too. We're talking terrabytes of hosted data. That shit ain't cheap.
Hey Sweeny, where's your workshop? Nigga, you want my money you'd better have that workshop!
And even when Steam implemented the dreaded Paid Mods, they did so in a way that would have overwhelmingly benefited the modders. The basic idea was that maybe these people pouring hours and hours of their lives into mods deserve a little something for their efforts should they choose to charge for it. But that proved insanely unpopular, and they acquiesced to the demands to cease that particular faggotry.
At the end of the day, Steam is a pretty decent company. They have flaws, sure. But they want their customers happy. Because happy customers are returning customers. And returning customers means steady profits.

Outside of a few free (and almost always indie) games (which I've gotten on Steam as well from time to time, btw) what does Epic offer the customer? A superior storefront? Don't make me laugh. Better prices? Not according to what I've heard. Better customer experience? I doubt that highly.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Sweeny the Weenie. I like that.

 

[The tired cat]

It really looks like Epic's business model is set to prioritize themselves and the devs over the customer, whereas Steam at the very least does something to benefit the customer. Which as you pointed out includes eating that 2% cost for alternative payment methods, and like @Kane Lives pointed out they allow regional pricing for poorer countries to whom $60USD is a week's fucking paycheck.

Fuck, they even put up the Workshop to make it easier to collect all the mods in a single place! They absolutely did not have to do that. They're under no obligation to host optional 3rd party content for the benefit of their customers. They could have let people rely on places like NexusMods or ModDB, or the fansites or dev forums that host them. But Steam decided that we, the customer, deserved this. So now they pay the costs of hosting hundreds of thousands of mods for countless games. And some big fucking mods, too. We're talking terrabytes of hosted data. That shit ain't cheap.
Hey Sweeny, where's your workshop? Nigga, you want my money you'd better have that workshop!
And even when Steam implemented the dreaded Paid Mods, they did so in a way that would have overwhelmingly benefited the modders. The basic idea was that maybe these people pouring hours and hours of their lives into mods deserve a little something for their efforts should they choose to charge for it. But that proved insanely unpopular, and they acquiesced to the demands to cease that particular faggotry.
At the end of the day, Steam is a pretty decent company. They have flaws, sure. But they want their customers happy. Because happy customers are returning customers. And returning customers means steady profits.

Outside of a few free (and almost always indie) games (which I've gotten on Steam as well from time to time, btw) what does Epic offer the customer? A superior storefront? Don't make me laugh. Better prices? Not according to what I've heard. Better customer experience? I doubt that highly.

The only ones who get bettet prices are chaps who live in Russia, since those vouchers that Epic was dishing out during their New Years sale (vouchers you can only spend in two games because again no shopping cart still), was quiet a deal maker for some people as it was indeed cheaper for em. But if youre a person who resides in the EU or US? Yea, Epics prices arent different from steams nor do thr vouchers make much of a change, seriously theyre like 10$/€

 

[AnOminous]

Didn't Sweeny the Weenie shit talk Microsoft for some of the practices he's now more or less trying to mirror?
And let's face it, building an entire business model around "Fuck Steam!" is a pretty piss poor decision. For one thing, once the more loyal Steam users figure out that Sweener's entire shtick is trying to specifically starve Steam of releases, they'll turn hostile to it and do their best to turn other people hostile towards it.

Very few people are some kind of weird, irrational Steam loyalists. I think if you had something better than Steam people would flock to it pretty quickly. If you even had an "almost as good" alternative plenty of people would have accounts on both platforms. Even the oldest Steam users remember we were more or less forced at gunpoint to install it in the first place by these fuckers (well okay at threat of not being able to buy Half-Life 2 but same thing really).

People, Steam loyalists or otherwise, are going to (and already have really) hate Epic for fucking up their access to games without having to install an absolutely atrocious client that is even worse than Steam's original really horrible client, which itself only became half-decent 5+ years after it was released.