re: this article.
The title is a joke. “Free, but you have to make an EGS account” is a bit too rich for me.
I’m not as salty about EGS as a lot of PC gamers seem to be.
… But god damn is their default client trash.
Thank fuck for Heroic Launcher on Linux (I think it even got a Windows version?)
But honestly, people complain about exclusivity, and seem to not realise (or care?) that certain games would not exist without this kind of funding deal. They are only funded by the platform that pays for their exclusivity. If you want to be mad at something, don’t be mad at the devs, don’t even be mad at Epic, be mad at Capitalism as an institution, which rules that art needs money to exist.
You point out that the game wouldn’t exist without exclusivity but then immediately point out that it totally could exist if the profit motive did not run our economy.
The existence of exclusives is a form of cultural capture by capitalists (As is copyright). I would argue that it would indeed be better if Alan Wake 2 was never made if it meant that exclusives stopped being made entirely, and Alan Wake 2 looks like a game I absolutely want to play.
Epic: It’s not right that if you want a game on your smart phone you have to go through Apple or Google!
Also Epic: if you want this game you have to go through US!
Tbf, devs don’t have to, and in fact Epic will pay them to be exclusive, unlike Apple who makes devs pay for it and gives no choice.
Though it’s still annoying that Epic does that, from a consumer standpoint. I can’t play any Epic-exclusive games because their CEO has a personal vendetta against my platform (Linux), so their company can die for all I care.
My main gripe with it being on EGS is I just don’t know when it’s on sale. For Steam games I can add to my wishlist and get notified when a game comes on sale. If I can’t do that for a particular game I tend to forget it exists.
I can imagine Epic aren’t too concerned about sales, the funding probably comes from the same bucket that funds all those free games. The long term vision of getting to make EGS a think trumps short term profits.
store simping is really cringe ngl
Is it simping when Steam is just better though? So many useful things that Epic doesn’t have. Especially on the Linux side.
Epic paid them a bunch of money for the exclusivity. Money they needed to produce the game. Remedy needs the money upfront. And Epic takes less of a cut than Steam.
I feel like you’re mad at the wrong people?
The formula goes like this:
- Release the title on first-party platforms.
- Profit until the sales dry up. If potential players haven’t bought the game at that point because of platform-related reasons, they won’t likely be convinced otherwise.
- Once that happens, release the title on all other platforms.
- Profit more.
Sony’s had great success when they started bringing first-party titles to PC. Square is feeling the squeeze after the disappointing sales of the FFVII remakes. DARQ’s developer rejected third-party exclusivity and was met with praise and sales exceeding expectations.
The fact is, some people will never consider buying on EGS. Whether their reasons are legitimate or not is irrelevant. It is only by the choice of one
manovergrown man-child that both Epic and Remedy are kept from greater sales and greater profits.Sony releasing games on PC yet region locking them to countries with PSN access is beyond absurd.
It’s almost like they hate money.
If I huff enough copium, I can sometimes convince myself that they’re just stupid.
Unfortunately, the mandatory PSN requirement probably yields them more profit (through some means) than direct sales would from the non-PSN regions.
Another possibility is something I heard mentioned regarding Nvidia: Japanese and Far-Eastern businesses often favor control over maximized profits, and mandatory PSN might be a way of exercising this control. Just a hypothesis though.
If they want to exercise more control over the gamers who buy their games, they could let more countries sign up for the PSN. At the very least all of the countries in the EU should be able to make an account.
I still have Helldivers 2 in my steam account even though I can’t even look at the steam store for it.
