In other words: Sweeney still can’t get people to use his inferior service. I can’t wait to see him cry about Valve’s alleged anti-competitive behaviour yet again.
Wish I could just wire money straight to Remedy. Best I could do was buy Control again on GOG and consider my seafaring soul free of sin.
mfw i don’t pay them money
So, what’s the over-under on when it’ll show up on Gamepass?
Shame, I’m never buying a game from the Epic Store.
Oh well.
This only hurts us, gamers. Stop this exclusivity BS and be competitive with better features, customer service and convenience.
How does it hurt you? Look, I get that people dislike using multiple launchers, but it’s not like you have to buy a console to play the god damn game. The melodrama is crazy, all you have to do to play it besides buying the game is download epic’s launcher. If you’re in Linux, it’s a bit more of a pain, but hardly.
Apart from the inconvenience (which is a huge reason I dont use Epic) for the same price I get less service.
If you only want to play games thats nothing, no melodrama, just install the game and play it.
…but as soon as you want to interact with your friends in-game, download some mods, look up help with the game, stream stuff from my computer to my living room TV, share my account with family or just play on Linux the Epic store transforms from “just another launcher” to a useless peace of extra software on my PC actively standing in the way of my fun.
Steam’s voice chat/partying functionality is garbage. Discord is widely used for a reason. Remote Play is hit or miss, but I’ve largely resorted to using Moonlight instead on my Steam Deck because it’s more reliable and stable. The guides on Steam vary wildly from game to game, just depends on the community support for it. It is nice when there’s good stuff available, as it is somewhat convenient (though I wished it saved my spot on the page, I constantly have to scroll to where I left off on guides whenever I do use them). Lutris and NonSteamLauncher makes running Epic on Linux a non-issue.
I get it, Epic is a lackluster launcher. No one’s arguing otherwise. But it’s hardly a huge barrier to playing games.
My steam profile is 18 years old. I am using all the above features for many years and they are perfectly functional.
Your solution is to use different third party apps for everything is the opposite of convenience in my opinion. If you prefer the better software for these features, why not the better launcher/storefront for games?
Epic gives no added value to the user experience (IMO) and does not inspire competition to do better, other that the free games extravaganza to try to expand its userbase, while steam does not have to prove anything anymore, yet still investing more money in new features, technologies.
The steam users are used to a certain level of service and have a perfectly valid reason to dislike less functional competitors. If you are just here to grab the weekly free game, download and play then go for it, Epic will 100% serve its purpose , just don’t put it on the same level when talking about everything else.
I was tired last night, toddler hasn’t let me sleep much.
I think I poorly conveyed that I do prefer Steam, and do think Epic’s launcher is lacking. My point is, getting into the gaming retail business has a crazy upfront cost, so if GOG closes shop (which isn’t so crazy to speculate: https://cdaction-pl.translate.goog/publicystyka/wielkie-zwolnienia-w-gog-u-pracownicy-naswietlaja-wewnetrzne-problemy-firmy-tylko-u-nas?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true the original article was in Polish, thus the google translate link), that leaves only Epic competing with Steam. If epic eventually concludes they can’t pull enough marketshare to continue justifying the crazy money they’ve spent trying to attract users from Steam with all their sales, that’ll leave zero competition to Steam. I for one don’t condone monopolies.
Alternatively, studios could just start releasing physical media again, but we all know that’ll never happen…
By using their service and giving them money, you’re validating their shitty practices and propagating this garbage across multiple platforms when other companies see it’s profitable.
If you want gaming to get better, stop giving bad companies your money and attention.
It’s a store not a platform
If walmart doesn’t have a game, you would check gamestop
Don’t try to hijack the platform exclusive argument
When you’re required to use their “store” to play the games too, then it’s a platform. And an isolated one, at that. Imagine you could only buy a game AND PLAY IT at Walmart.
Platform exclusivity is part of Epic Games’ problem. Not the sole issue, but a big one.
The platform is the OS
And you aren’t forced to use their launcher, that’s a Valve thing
Exclusivity has been a thing since the advent of videogames, this isn’t anything new. Epic is just a shitty company, so they’re an easy target to criticize. They funded the development and published the game, it’s their right to do with it as they please. They’re losing money by not bringing it to Steam, so their loss, really. But it’s not even close to the equivalent of console exclusives, as the barrier here is spending 5 minutes to just download their shitty launcher. It sucks, but this really isn’t that big of a deal, in my opinion.
Damn, and I was just about to break my “have never played Alan wake” streak…
Oh well, there are other games to buy.
Why do people love Steam’s DRM on everything, online only gameplay? Why do people love Steams totalitarian control and extortion deals?
If people could built their own Steam client, it wouldn’t be so bad. I use Heroic on Windows for both Epic and GOG and get new games through Heroic so there can’t be telemetry or data gathering. Why won’t Valve allow a libre/free software Steam client to play games and let go of what people choose to install on their computer. I’m nit asking for DRM-free games, I’m asking ti stop dictator how I am allowed to play games.
I don’t love Steam’s DRM at all, but theirs is the least obtrusive platform, and Gabe demonstrably understands that, and I quote the man himself, “Piracy is almost always a service problem, and not a pricing problem.”
Admittedly I’m not happy about the near-monopoly they have on the PC gaming market, particularly because it’ll be a sad day indeed if Valve ever goes public and starts pulling scummy moves like Epic, among other platforms. But I’m happy to spend money with a business that treats its employees and customers like people and not untapped resources.
Piracy is because of price.
Read the documents from the court case against Valve, such as their email communication. Valve got to this level by extortion and bullying.
I do not buy games through Steam store, I will never buy a game directly from Valve.
its the best platform I use to organize my games that only gets better and doesn’t actively try to screw me with bullshit at every turn. once someone outdoes steam, I’ll reward that company with my money.
I do not buy games on Steam, only on 3rd party sites for a Steam key so Valve never gets money from me.
Because Steam’s DRM is entirely unobtrusive, it doesn’t require online-only gameplay and the customer experience is excellent.
When Epic tries to compete with Steam they don’t look to make a better user experience, instead they bribe developers for exclusivity deals to force people on their platform if they want to play a game on release.
You are stating stricty your own opinion when you say “customer experience is excellent”. Read the documents of the legal case against Valve, the documents show Valve to be an extortionist.
I left steam. Only interested in offline installers from GOG… When WWIII hits and players are still reliant on Steam’s Online DRM Leased versions of your games, like come on already!.. No Internet,no games… I’m burning all these games onto M-Disc media… I can sell games for bullets and food in the apocalypse!! Woo!
…assuming electricity is still a thing
I mean that doesn’t really factor in… Electricity isn’t going to just vanish from existence. Just need to find ways to generate like hydro, battery, Solar.
You’re right. In my head, the grid is destroyed because of WWIII so no power. Completely forgot generators exist 🤦♂️
sweeney is that you?
Valve made it super convinient for their customers and they also took steps to encourage content creation with SFM, Source Engine, sharing their own assets. They created working cloud saving and mod sharing solutions, greenlighting a bunch of indies based on votes and being on the side of the customer in disputes over refunds with 2hr rule becomingthe new norm. For years, they provided and improved their service, so it’s rare to see anyone complaining about that.
Ah, and Epic killed UT4 in beta when they found their initial zombie game mode that became Fortnite gave them that much cash they could start their own marketplace with regular giveaways and exclusives going on for years. I’m fucking pissed at them for that even now. It is irrational and personal, but Valve didn’t kill my favorite game series, it’s the opposite, since they kept slowly releasing and constantly updating Dota, CS, create Alyx, keep TF2 alive, and I’m only sad Alien Swarm would never see new content. In game studios and game marketplaces, Valve are golden.
But coming back to your initial displeasment with them, the funny thing is a lot of Steam games don’t need Steam to launch. Unless devs implement some hooks and DRMs themselves, you can just launch their EXE file. Nobody really checks that, but that’s the truth, and I’ve seen some lists of games that don’t do that. On top of that, 99% offline games can be launched without internet with Steam only, you can even backup and then install some game on your PC offline if your client knows you own it. And don’t forget family sharing - although they promised to rework it, I, my partner and our friends used it a lot, and although you can’t use a game from a shared library when you are offline, if the owner plays it offline you can play it too at the same time without messing with each others’ gameplay. This lazy implementation of DRM with many workarounds and general respect to even the sleakiest, cheating customer is why I still buy games there.
Skipping over the game debate, wbere did this “my partnet” fad trend get started, instead of good married people talking about husband or wife, or single people talking about boyfriend or girlfriend? It’s because linguistically it’s not a natural or normal way of speaking, the phrasing sounds like it’s from indocrination, saying “my partner”, unless it.s part of a firm.
The main reason for me is the implication of a certain legal status when you say husband/wife/spouse and that of a short term relationship when you say [boy/girl]friend. The only word I know of that says long term relationship but without the legal status is “partner” or “significant other”.
For something long term like a “partner” of 5 years, is a joke of a relationship because there if there is no interest in marriage and a wedding after 5 years, it proves that at least one of the people is only wanting a good time for awhile and wants the freedom to dump the other person any day they feel like with no consequences or repercussions and move on to someone else any day they feel like it to be free and clear to cut out the other person from their life.
I’m Canadian. Marriage doesn’t have the same meaning here.
Howrar’s being nice about it but here’s the way I see it (sightly less nice):
- What someone wants to call their partner/significant other/husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/whatever is up to them and nobody else. Whether or not it’s clear is irrelevant. They should share exactly as much or as little information about their lives as they want and use whatever word they wanna use because, simply put, we’re randos on the internet and it’s none of our business.
- Whether or not these people get married, are married, or even want to get married is a private matter and who they share and/or discuss this with is up to them and nobody else. Furthermore, we are not allowed to have opinions on how their relationship or marriage works. Whether they want to get married after a week, or they wanna casually hang out for 5/10/50/whatever years without getting married, it’s their life and as randos on the internet, we don’t get and honestly shouldn’t even want a say in it. Live and let live, mate :)
Your views on relationships and marriage seem very traditional to me, and that’s fine. Asking why people use words like “partner” or “significant other” instead of wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend is also fine. But just a heads up, you come off kinda shitty when you say “a joke relationship” and “proves at least one of the people is only wanting a good time” in response to something that’s a little different from what you think a relationship should be.
There are a lot of reasons for this, and it’s been normal in some places for a very long time. If it’s new to you, it’s probably just a regional difference that you haven’t heard it more. The way you worded your question makes me feel like you are trying to start a fight, so I think I’ll push down my instinct to link you to resources.
I don’t want to specify that, what’s your problem?
Valve has not been on the side of the customer when I’ve tried to return games. I’ve had multiple instances now of them refusing returns. I’ve been using Steam from the beginning and only started trying to return games within the past few years, but out of the handful I’ve tried to return at least half have been rejected. The last game was only $5 and was literally broken and unplayable, I had 2 minutes of playtime total and they still rejected the return. I had been really happy with Valve and Steam until this started happening. It’s weird because my partner returns games with no problem. Even the same game that we tried together and discovered it has feral children screaming into microphones and then returned it, mine got rejected.
I’m sprry for your exeprience with Steam.
My own buying and playing routine doesn’t even get to the point that I return games, multiple ones at that.
Sadly, I can’t relate and can’t understand your pov.
I was like that until a few years ago when I bought a broken and unplayable game that had been abandoned by the dev. I spend a lot of money on Steam and have a huge library at this point so its not like I’m trying to abuse the system. I think I’ve tried to return 5 or 6 games total with 2 or 3 rejected since they implemented the return policy.
There is a weird cult around steam, they literally can’t do wrong, and even if they do, well it was deserved. Dunno how that happened but it really does hurt me when games on gog aren’t updated for months for no reason but steam.
Its because the industry is full of companies that are so much worse than Valve. Gamers are used to companies like EA, Valve are saints in comparison to the other major players.
A blind fanatical devotion to Steam/Valve.
As a sound, allow people to develop a libre/open source client to play games from that client, there would be a different perception.
you’re just going to interpret this is as proving you right and me as a cultist but the thing about no updates on gog is nothing to do with steam that’s the publisher steam doesn’t make them do that there’s no reason it’s the publisher/developers I don’t think valve can do no wrong but I would say steams never done anything bad to me valve includes gambling in all their multiplayer games that are full of children they were one of the earliest companies to make loot boxes their business model though arguably even worse as they gave all the tools for an external economy for those skins and gave the crates out abundantly to encourage you to buy the keys because you already have the crate but the steam division in valve has provided me with a consistently great experience in every way games on there own launcher almost always just work on linux refunds are trivial family sharing is great for making it even cheaper I don’t like drm and I’d use gog more if they didn’t kinda suck from a user perspective but even with heroic playing games on gog is a little jank on linux in a way it just isn’t with steam and gog has literally no family sharing I don’t play games from the shared library much but I like having it when I do and my siblings actually do play some games from my library a fair bit steam/valve is a company like any others that ultimately cares about profit not me or any other customer but unlike other companies they understand the value of long term thinking and good customer relationships they don’t care about me but they know I’m more likely to keep coming back and buying loads of games if they don’t keep trying to screw me over and add lots of good features that save me money and make my experience better
There were a few games that explained slow updates with “just download them on steam” when asked, ofc it’s not on steam that publishers are lazy. Publishers are lazy because steam has such an overwhelming majority that they can ignore customers on other platforms. I do prefer gog because they are drm free and offline, so in the inevitable crash of global internet i will have my oldie games, lol.
that’s still the publisher not steam and honestly a bit gog that they let them get away with that you can’t blame steam and customers largely using the better platform for awful publishers scamming people on a different platform
🏴☠️
Hopium take 1:
There’s no reason they’d reveal their plans to bring it to steam early and cannibalize on the epic store salesHopium take 2:
Even if they don’t have plans right now if they ever want some quick money to meet targets or something it’s the prime candidateHopium take 3:
When or if remedy starts making money (like from control 2) they might buy the publishing rights backHopium take 4:
It’ll run better anyways when Alan wake 2 remastered comes out in 10 yearsOption #4 sounds most realistic.
I hope someone Remedies this situation.
I’ll buy it when it comes to GOG then.
I guess I’ll just wait till you dipshits give it to me for free or I’ll pirate it if I ever get the urge to play it.
This kind of thing happened with “American Nightmare” and “Quantum Break”. While I’m not aware of any formal policy that Remedy has, I suspect this happens because they’re a smaller shop trying to leverage whatever they can.
That’s what they said about red dead redemption too
