The Outer Worlds won't launch on Steam, will be an Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store...

[Polycount]

Epic's approach to taking on Steam has been a controversial one, but that hasn't stopped the company so far.

Instead of aiming to compete with Steam's features, Epic's primary method of drawing in users has been to snap up much-hyped titles and make them Epic Games Store exclusives; timed or otherwise.

It's already happened with XCOM-like strategy game Phoenix Point, Metro: Exodus, and now -- to the inevitable disappointment of many -- Obsidian's highly-anticipated "The Outer Worlds." This news was announced by Epic during its GDC 2019 keynote.

According to PC Gamer, the game will also launch on the Microsoft Store, but it won't be coming to any other digital distribution platforms for a full year, especially not Steam.

If you've never heard of The Outer Worlds before, we've covered it in more detail several times in the past. In short, it's a first-person sci-fi RPG that draws heavy inspiration from Fallout: New Vegas.

It will have multiple endings, RPG attributes and skills, companions for players to befriend, and a major focus on giving users freedom of choice; both in terms of the title's story and gameplay.

While The Outer Worlds is still technically listed on Steam, its release date has been changed to 2020 to reflect a new bit of text added to the top of the game's description: "The Outer Worlds will be available on Steam one year after launch on other exclusive digital PC platforms."

So, if you had the game wishlisted on Steam with the intent of pre-ordering it sometime this year, now might be the time to reconsider. Alternatively, Steam fans may wish to wait for the game to officially arrive on the platform next year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79293-outer-worlds-wont-launch-steam-epic-games-store.html

 

[retsxel]

Yet another game I will not be buying.

 

[gamerdood]

Epic handed Steam the brown stick today... I don't play launchers, I play games, so I'll be buying The Outer Worlds and so many other amazing games on the Epic Games Store this year

 

[retsxel]

Epic handed Steam the brown stick today... I don't play launchers, I play games, so I'll be buying The Outer Worlds and so many other amazing games on the Epic Games Store this year

Except that Epic's client is a launcher too.

 

[kevbev89]

Epic handed Steam the brown stick today... I don't play launchers, I play games, so I'll be buying The Outer Worlds and so many other amazing games on the Epic Games Store this year

If Epic is willing to transfer all my games from Steam over I'd consider. Otherwise, I'm REALLY against adding another launcher. I already have Battle.net, Origins, Uplay, and Steam. And I'm honestly not comfortable with that many coexisting on my desktop.

 

[gamerdood]

Except that Epic's client is a launcher too.

Point being... I care more about the game than the launcher, so I'm perfectly fine buying games outside of Steam... lot of people lose their minds at the mere thought

 

[kevbev89]

Except that Epic's client is a launcher too.

Point being... I care more about the game than the launcher, so I'm perfectly fine buying games outside of Steam... lot of people lose their minds at the mere thought

I think it is more of the problem that people feel that their privilege of choice is being taken away-- I'm in that category. Also, it is because Epic is relatively new in this launcher market without a solid game (with legacy, so excluding fornite) that can really back it up.

On a side note, Microsoft Store is genuinely atrocious...

 

[misor]

Epic handed Steam the brown stick today... I don't play launchers, I play games, so I'll be buying The Outer Worlds and so many other amazing games on the Epic Games Store this year

If Epic is willing to transfer all my games from Steam over I'd consider. Otherwise, I'm REALLY against adding another launcher. I already have Battle.net, Origins, Uplay, and Steam. And I'm honestly not comfortable with that many coexisting on my desktop.

solution: buy it on windows store?

 

[psycros]

A few more scores like this and Valve will have no option but to reduce their cut of the sales revenue. And then its back to business as usual and everyone wins (well, except maybe Valve's top executives - boo hoo).

 

[MSIGamer]

The reading comprehension in the comments is low...

 

[Lew Zealand]

Another launcher, whatever. Just as long as it works, then I'm in.

Yes, I'm looking at YOU Microsoft. I opened the Microsoft Store to have a look at the buying process for Forza Horizon 4 and all it'll do is play the overlong trailer that I couldn't care less about. No price, no BUY button. Nothing.

Wow. Congrats, MS. You suck at taking people's money more than any place I've tried to buy things from for at least the past 2 decades.

 

[gamerdood]

I think it is more of the problem that people feel that their privilege of choice is being taken away-- I'm in that category. Also, it is because Epic is relatively new in this launcher market without a solid game (with legacy, so excluding fornite) that can really back it up.

On a side note, Microsoft Store is genuinely atrocious...

Well, to their credit, they're actually an ancient company as far as PC gaming in general goes... I'd love to see how many games on Steam use the Unreal Engine, it's probably pretty high... so new to the launcher market, but Epic's been around a loooooooong time

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Opportunity for a product....a launcher launcher...so I do not have to remember where I bought the game in order to play it. Combine with password manager with 2-factor ID and a 'bed-time' reminder.

You heard it here first. All rights assigned to the public and to the third circle of Hades. Money and high-end GPUs will not be refused.

 

[Polycount]

Opportunity for a product....a launcher launcher...so I do not have to remember where I bought the game in order to play it. Combine with password manager with 2-factor ID and a 'bed-time' reminder.

You heard it here first. All rights assigned to the public and to the third circle of Hades. Money and high-end GPUs will not be refused.

Sign me up!

 

[m4a4]

Opportunity for a product....a launcher launcher...so I do not have to remember where I bought the game in order to play it. Combine with password manager with 2-factor ID and a 'bed-time' reminder.

You heard it here first. All rights assigned to the public and to the third circle of Hades. Money and high-end GPUs will not be refused.

I'd say add the Epic game shortcut to Steam (which will add the Steam overlay), but I tried that before and it didn't recognize the game closed until the Epic Launcher was exited fully.

 

[mrtraver]

A little off topic, but speaking of launchers, I have become a big fan of Playnite launcher (https://playnite.link/).

It will show and launch all of my games, instead of having to check Steam, GOG Galaxy, Uplay, Origin, Battle.net, Epic, and whatever other locally installed games I had such as Crimson Skies, C&C3, etc. It works better than adding non-Steam games to the Steam app (they don't always work well if they need Origin or something else to properly launch) and better than the The My Games tab of the Windows 10 Xbox app. (I did check out Launchbox, but I don't remember why I wasn't crazy about it.)

You can import games from the services above, and it will launch from the service if required. You can scan any folder for games, and you can manually select games it does not recognize. It can even display Steam, GOG, etc. games that are not currently installed.

The developers seem to be pretty responsive to requests, bug reports, etc.

I hope this does not sound like a commercial. I am not employed or paid by Playnite. I just really like it.

 

[vayeate]

The solution is very simple. Epic should offer their launcher on Steam, and vice versa.

 

[ForgottenLegion]

A few more scores like this and Valve will have no option but to reduce their cut of the sales revenue. And then its back to business as usual and everyone wins (well, except maybe Valve's top executives - boo hoo).

Well it's not like Valve does anything good with all the money they're raking in. Zero sympathy from me.

For a game developer they sure love not releasing anything year after year.

 

[Bp968]

A few more scores like this and Valve will have no option but to reduce their cut of the sales revenue. And then its back to business as usual and everyone wins (well, except maybe Valve's top executives - boo hoo).

Well it's not like Valve does anything good with all the money they're raking in. Zero sympathy from me.

For a game developer they sure love not releasing anything year after year.

Yes there terrible. Oh wait, ever heard of Proton? They hired that guy full time to develop linux compatibility inhouse and they are doing an excellent job. Or how about cloud saves (do you pay for that storage space?), or the forums, or the reviews system, or the refunds system, or the easy and free backend "steam works" available to developers, or the steam link functionality, or the ability to share games with your family?

Yup, they are screwing us gamers.

Unlike epic who is awesome. Epic who is *paying* developers not to release their games on steam! That is absolutely pro-gamer right there!

Can you imagine how people would react if amazon paid manufacturers to not sell their product at other retail stores so the only place you could buy it was Amazon? Would people be cheering Amazon on if they did that?

 

[Bp968]

Yet another game I will not be buying.

Agreed. Its not that they are releasing on the Epic store, its that Epic is paying them to *not* release on Steam, and a bunch of morons think Epic (billions of dollars a year, epic) is somehow the underdog here.

Steam has family sharing, steam link game streaming, cloud saves, forums, reviews, linux compatibility, etc etc etc. I really don't understand where this mindset came from that valve just sits back and screws gamers while giving nothing back (heck look at how much they drove VR adoption. Oculus has just about given up on PC gamers while valve developed the lighthouse system, steam VR and open sourced it all). Or Proton for linux compatibility, which is also open source.

 

[Mister_K]

Talk about shooting your self in a foot with a Rocket Launcher.

 

[Johan S]

I guess it doesn't matter...take an a look from both pov
If the game exclusive then gamer have to wait for a year exclusive before they can buy from steam store. Meaning game publisher get money from exclusive deal only.
Publisher want money, gamer want games, but games purchase with money UNLESS it's F2P like Fortnite, DOTA, CS Go

IN OTHER WORD
Most new release games on Steam goes on sale at 20-30% after 6 months.

Developer sell at 10 % discount on the first year when they listed games on EPIC due to bigger cut
Then they back on Steam Store to hold same price (10 % disc) on epic price for another 1 year
Meaning Developer wants to hold game price with max 10 % discount for at least 2 years by switching 2 store using exclusive

Let see what epic can give during summer and winter SALE

 

[Mister_K]

Yet another game I will not be buying.

Agreed. Its not that they are releasing on the Epic store, its that Epic is paying them to *not* release on Steam, and a bunch of morons think Epic (billions of dollars a year, epic) is somehow the underdog here.

Steam has family sharing, steam link game streaming, cloud saves, forums, reviews, linux compatibility, etc etc etc. I really don't understand where this mindset came from that valve just sits back and screws gamers while giving nothing back (heck look at how much they drove VR adoption. Oculus has just about given up on PC gamers while valve developed the lighthouse system, steam VR and open sourced it all). Or Proton for linux compatibility, which is also open source.

Thank you. All of this, costs a LOT of dev money, RND etc... Before these ****ing Indie devs would be unheard of and not making a bank. Competition is good, but drive it with innovation, not ****ing exclusivity.

 

[Dosahka]

Talk about shooting your self in a foot with a Rocket Launcher.

It worked in Quake and it's called Rocket Jump, but your health is limited.

 

[Puiu]

Except that Epic's client is a launcher too.

Point being... I care more about the game than the launcher, so I'm perfectly fine buying games outside of Steam... lot of people lose their minds at the mere thought

Except that on PC you should be able to buy how you want: Epic, Steam, Amazon, developer's website etc. Exclusivity deals have no place on PC, especially when the money isn't used to develop the game (which I can agree with) just to buy a distribution right, and such stupid business practices should not be supported with your wallet.

 

[Puiu]

A few more scores like this and Valve will have no option but to reduce their cut of the sales revenue. And then its back to business as usual and everyone wins (well, except maybe Valve's top executives - boo hoo).

Valve won't do that because they have no need to do it. Epic is just throwing money around to get timed exclusives and that's not how you build a platform and consumer trust (especially on PC). This is just a drop in the bucket for Valve and the majority of games are still launching on Steam.

 

[Badvok]

I'm sorry I just don't get it. What exactly is the issue with having a separate Epic Games Store? I can't believe there are people who will not buy a game just because it isn't on Steam, seems like the old cutting off nose to spite face thing.