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It is still Epic Games, therefore I will continue my streak to not buy from them and claim all the free games without playing them.
I gave up on the free games at this point. Just too much of a hassle to check regularly with what little free time I have as I ironically post mid day.
There are games I have as Epic freebies, but just thought it was easier to re-buy on Steam for convenience sake on my Steam Deck.
Junkstore is worth looking into
They're also encumbered with Epic spyware, so despite having collected some of those free games early on, I won't even run them (or the Epic store app) anymore.
You can use Heroic Games Launcher to download and play Epic games. It doesn’t have any kind of online functionality for the games, plus I block them in my firewall so no calls home. Works great for single player games. Usually end up buying it on Steam if I like the game but it’s great to check stuff out without having to deal with the Epic launcher.
Works on Steam Deck too! Also has GoG and Amazon Games support.
You can use Heroic Games Launcher to download and play Epic games.
I could, but those games contain and execute Epic code. (I checked this by examining the binaries, which is probably against Epic's terms of service, but I don't care if they find out and ban me.) This would still be true even if they were launched with Heroic or some other launcher. After the snooping that Epic code has already been caught doing, I don't trust it to run on my systems.
plus I block them in my firewall so no calls home.
Wise decision.
Crack the executables and then block them in your firewall. Though it's mostly just changes in the directories for where the game and its saves are located that differ from Steam or GOG releases.
Can you elaborate on the spyware part? This is new to me
Probably the most famous example is when their store app was caught copying Steam files, collecting friends play history, and scanning running processes.
https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckepic/comments/wakewr/epic_games_spyware_vs_steam_vs_as_comparision_ea/
https://www.pcgamesn.com/epic-launcher-spyware
Separately, Epic Online Services (which is embedded into many games from the Epic store and some from other stores) collects more information than many people are comfortable with.
And then there's the fact that Tencent owns a sizeable chunk of Epic.
Some folks don't mind these things, but they're not okay with me, so I don't allow software from Epic to run on my systems.
Afger not playing the free games because I hate the launcher I stopped getting them after a couple of months.
Reminder on your phone for Thursday 12pm Eastern, no need to keep checking.
Does it cost epic, when collecting free games?
If I'm not mistaken they pay the devs for installs
But any game you're not purchasing because you got it free means less money going to a billionaire.
Epis is very very bad experience. They are trying too hard to sell, pushing things in your face all the time while there is no option to start the launcher in your library - has to be ads. This library also contains a bunch of games you don't own with the link "get", which you have to "uninstall". After playing a game for 65h, recently epic decided "you don't own this game" when starting it from a desktop shortcut, but then changes it's mind once you are in the library. This game also started kicking me out "by anticheat" at the same time (EASYAntiCheat), I think this is connected to epic weird message. Anyway I tried liking epic but it's a bit too shit. I hope developers don't choose to limit themselves and us to fucking epic.
The launcher has your games on the left on the front page, it doesn't show games you don't own, cut the bullshit.
There was Doom64, Fortnite, Gungeon, and like 3 others in Library, all with tge link "Get" before I clicked 3 dots and Uninstall. It's not bs just because you haven't seen it.
No other report of such a thing anywhere but sure buddy, that happened.
Not your buddy, pal.. Why are you debating this at all? There's no reason to make this up. Here's a link about it: https://www.epicgames.com/help/en-US/c-Category_EpicGamesStore/c-EpicGamesStore_LauncherSupport/why-have-my-games-gone-missing-or-games-i-never-owned-are-appearing-in-the-library-a000090508. If I thought I'd have to prove this to a rando, I'd make a screenshot..
Oh so a bug happened and you're acting like it was intentional?
https://old.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/dgmoan/games_i_dont_own_appearing_in_my_library_latest/
https://old.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1bsezr0/why_are_these_games_in_my_library_ive_never_added/
Get rid of steam then.
These links are about steam..
Yep, to show you that if you don't want to use epic because of a certain bug then you shouldn't want to use Steam because the same bug happened on their side
The bug is just one of the problems though
Okay so now Epic is getting 0% on 0 sales rather than 12% on zero sales.
Just challenge Steam with better buyer protections and you will actually make proper check out your store. Cause we know after years of your service trying to attract AAA publishers that no Steam users swapped over.
This is good for indie devs, but don't get it twisted, this is about attracting major publishers to the platform.
This might make more devs consider putting things up on EGS, but unless they are sold for 30% less on average than everyone else (or lock in to be an exclusive), this means fuck all to the consumer.
Unless the consumer has principles and wants to give more money to the people that are the most like them, i.e. the devs, instead of giving it to a billionaire.
In my case Valve definitely deserves a cut, as I'm only buying the game because steam makes it really easy to play it on linux.
Their work on drivers and proton is what makes me buy the games, because if I have to tinker just to play on my preferred OS, I'll tinker with pirated versions instead.
They could afford to do all of that and take a smaller cut if Gaben didn't collect yachts.
That's true, and I completely despise both billionaires and yachts, but still I'll only buy games through stores that tread my preferred OS as a first party, and currently only steam does that.
If they would do the steam sale prices 100% of the time, I bet people would buy their games over there.
Well it would be great if Steam (allegedly) didn't pressure devs to force price parity with their store. In other words, selling at game at 30% less than Steam on some other storefront could (allegedly) get one delisted. It’s blatantly anticompetitive/anticonsumer and should be illegal.
https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/does-steam-price-fix-and-does-that
It would be like Amazon threatening to pull a brand from their store if it was cheaper somewhere else.
Prefer Steam? Totally fine. But personally I would take a 30% discount for the extra hassle, barring some game-specific benefit.
I know you said allegedly, but the article explicitly says that a policy like that doesn't exist, and the only thing that would happen (if the game is cheaper somewhere else) is that the game wouldn't be advertised during a sale.
When pushed on official policy in his deposition, DJ Powers claims that the ‘if else’ is normally this: “If we get to a situation where a partner is telling us that the price needs to be lower on other platforms than it is on Steam, then we will typically choose not to run curated marketing during times where that game is being discounted.”
He also notes that suggesting a game can’t be on the store at all - if not at parity - is “not our typical process”. Which is semi-believable, because a) it’s not in the contract and b) nobody at Valve has time to check and enforce that. But has it happened before, multiple times? Sure. And Wolfire’s lawyers will use that in the case.
Dude is just a loser shill. Imagine being that far up Epic's ass.
Price parity is pro consumer. This is what consumer cares about. What they shouldn't care about is developers' revenue split because it doesn't affect them.
No one would be selling on Epic for a lower "discount-like" price, even if it would be allowed. This notion was never about "hey dev, get your users a cheaper price", it was always about "hey dev, get yourself more revenue if you choose our platform" (a lie too though since Epic is simply not a good selling platform). Else, you would have seen cheaper games amongst those Epic exclusives that never hit other stores.
Price parity is anti competitive, the fuck you're talking about???
When I buy something, I don't want to be stressed about whether or not it is available elsewhere cheaper. The only case where I think price parity is meaningless is worldwide, but that's only because regional pricing should be a thing, so that's a different matter.
So you're anti competition and anti consumer in a capitalist system.
I'm pro competition. However a lot of people are deceived into thinking Epic is a competitor to Valve. They do not deliver similar levels of value and service.
Price competition is silly in digital marketplace, where you know any product can go on sale randomly at a very high discount. Thinking "I'll buy it here now because it's 30% cheaper, cool" sounds like a recipe for selling your loyalty, for cheap. Though in reality it would never really be 30%, so you're aiming to sell yourself even cheaper.
That's some Mickey mouse logic is I've ever seen it
I wouldn't play games from Epic's storefront if I were paid to.