PC Gaming

Steam doesn't care if a developer uses multiple store fronts.

Epic does care about exclusivity.

I like to to use the platform that gives me the most choice.

EGS is terrible as a store. You can only give reviews only when it asks you to, even then, it is not a free-form review. Your reviews are not visible to the customers. The entire store is designed to bamboozle the customer into buying a shitty game. No wonder most people refuse to use the store to buy games.

I know epic paid for it and that's why it's exclusive to their storefront.

That's also why I haven't played it. They made a choice, I'm respecting that choice. I don't want to support epic, despite me wanting to play this game. So I just won't play it. Not like gamers are starved for content.

Most of my gaming friends refuse to buy games from Epic or use their launcher.

They'd rather wait for the timed exclusive to expire and buy the game on their platform of choice.

I've bought maybe 2 games on Epic because a friend wanted to play it with me at launch. It was Borderlands 3.

But never again, I finished BL3 solo seeing as my friend played with me about 3 times and he never touched it again.

I do collect their free game every week, my Epic library is quite big now and I may play a game from there time to time but I hate the idea of a platform exclusive.

I'd like to know if they are making more money with timed exclusives seeing as nearly nobody I game with wants to buy from them.

You know what it's the worst part of releasing a game in an exclusive store? When the time comes to release it elsewhere, a year or more later, nobody wants to pay full price for a year or more old game and thus they most probably wait for a discount that properly fit older games.

No thanks, I'll wait for a Steam or GOG release.

Release on Steam or we don't buy it.

Sony has been releasing their games on Steam. Microsoft gave up on exclusivity to their store ages ago and have even started releasing Xbox exclusives like Hi-Fi Rush on PlayStation.

For a lot of games, usually ones with Denuvo, I pick up the PlayStation version and either play it in my living room or stream to a PC or the Deck. Perhaps I'll end up doing that with Wake 2. I'm kind of reluctant to give support to exclusivity at all though.

I think I've seen Alan Wake 2 on Epic while I go and claim the free games.

For some reason I can't find my credit card when I'm using the Epic Games Store app. I wonder why. Could it have anything to do with Tim Sweeney having a grudge against Linux gamers?

Nope no one will find it on the epic game store but good luck with your shitty decision.

As a wannabe game developer, I plan to use UE5 and take advantage of the deals that Epic offers for selling on their store, but not the exclusivity. I would actually like to launch there, so that my first sales get me as much money as possible, instead of some storefront, but it's basically game-suicide to do that.

I wish Epic would smarten up about all the complaints about their stores and exclusivity practices and realize that gamers would use their store if it just had the features it needs. They aren't as entrenched in Steam's store as Epic believes. Especially after all the free games that Epic has given away already.

As for "Alan Wake 2 dev"... Wake up! Trying to frame this as a "woe is me" situation is ridiculous. That game had a ton of hype before it was even announced, and failing to capitalize on that is the dev's and publisher's fault, not the consumer. A Kickstarter would have been nuts if money was what was needed.

My 2¢ on the issue.

1. Epic pays you, ever though what are they actually buying from you as Dev/publisher. Epic store don't make the mony Epic is spending... that's because sales on the Epic store aren't even their goal. EGS is basically a huge advertising for Fortnite, games published over there are accessory to the ever present/default Fortnite's events/promotions. On steam page for GTAV you see ads for Saints Rows, on Saints Row's Steam page you see ads for GTAV. On EGS Fortnite is always omnipresent: the goal over there is not gamers buy as much games possible, but rather yell "hey! Free stuff? We have free things... Also Fortnite!". It's a black hole where wallets are swallowed by Fortnite.
2. "EGS vs. Steam-monopoly" is a totally faked presumption. What we see is that quite the opposite is happening. Exclusivity damages more all small and big competition around Steam: itch.io, GoG... but also bigger stores from Ubisoft and EA (which saw fair amount of investment in their own PC store in the pre-EGS era and now are mostly forgotten). Basically EGS is digging a more monopolistic trajectory for Steam. Indie are wondering "why should I publish on itch/GoG if Epic pays me?"

i will use epic the Moment they drop their exklusivity crap. before that Not a chance even if the exklusives are great

“I hope they’ll find my diamond ring in the dumpster out back”

I didn't even know it was having a PC release until like...a game award thing of some kind and was floored that I didn't hear about it. Realized it was on Epic and wasn't gonna be a wider release and lost interest.

Maybe I'm reading into it, but that phrasing seems intentionally vague. If it's a permanent exclusive, they could just say so while praising Epic for supporting them.