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

[Squid Surprise]

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.

Any time you install a game, either from Steam, Epic, etc, there is always an option to have a shortcut to the game itself placed on your desktop.... or anywhere else... I simply have a folder called "Games" on my desktop and have moved all my game shortcuts into it...

Simply a matter of double-clicking the game I want to play...

And watching billion-dollar companies fight out who gets a larger slice of the pie doesn't really concern me - the more "fighters" the merrier, as competition brings out better prices and quality for all of us plebeians

 

[Theinsanegamer]

And much like Metro, instead of buying it for $60 on launch, I'll buy it for $5 on a Steam sale in 2 years, if I wind up buying it at all.

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.

Any time you install a game, either from Steam, Epic, etc, there is always an option to have a shortcut to the game itself placed on your desktop.... or anywhere else... I simply have a folder called "Games" on my desktop and have moved all my game shortcuts into it...

Simply a matter of double-clicking the game I want to play...

And watching billion-dollar companies fight out who gets a larger slice of the pie doesn't really concern me - the more "fighters" the merrier, as competition brings out better prices and quality for all of us plebeians

Except this isnt competition. True competition would be the game being available on every store, with the price change to reflect different cuts and fees, and the consumer choosing which platform to buy on.

One store paying for timed exclusives is just throwing money around. It does not benefit the gamer long term. People seem to have trouble seeing past the tip of their own noses. This kind of "buy up exclusives" is what led to the current streaming situation, where you wind up paying a ridiculous amount to multiple different streaming sites just to watch a handful of content. This is no different then wal-mart coming into an area, "buying" the rights to exclusive access to all the local suppliers, and then saying "well were just bringing COMPETITION". No, you're not, you're just throwing money in an attempt to muscle your way into a market without bringing anything substantial to the scene, and the moment they have control, those prices are going up up up baby!

I, and many others, dont want multiple platforms. We remember the days when every game had its own launcher, an increasingly large amount required online accounts and other BS registration. Steam centralized all that into one service, which is why they grew so fast. Now, we have to maintain Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic, Windows store, and GoG (if you want old or DRM free titles), all with their own accounts, security flaws, data collection, all for the privilege of still paying for the same amount of content, just with more headaches. Competition is welcome, but dont force us to maintain accounts and payment information on half a dozen platforms just to buy a few games.

In short, in an era of digital distribution, this exclusivity model is just silly. 3rd party games being exclusive to a shop only makes sense if said shop paid for development of said game, which isnt happening here, or if the shop is the developer of said game. What epic is doing here is an age old filthy market tactic, the SAME one used by intel to screw AMD out of the market a decade ago. I wonder how many people here cheering EPIC on also derided Intel for doing the exact same thing, paying for "exclusivity"?

 

[Squid Surprise]

And much like Metro, instead of buying it for $60 on launch, I'll buy it for $5 on a Steam sale in 2 years, if I wind up buying it at all.

Except this isnt competition. True competition would be the game being available on every store, with the price change to reflect different cuts and fees, and the consumer choosing which platform to buy on.

One store paying for timed exclusives is just throwing money around. It does not benefit the gamer long term. People seem to have trouble seeing past the tip of their own noses. This kind of "buy up exclusives" is what led to the current streaming situation, where you wind up paying a ridiculous amount to multiple different streaming sites just to watch a handful of content. This is no different then wal-mart coming into an area, "buying" the rights to exclusive access to all the local suppliers, and then saying "well were just bringing COMPETITION". No, you're not, you're just throwing money in an attempt to muscle your way into a market without bringing anything substantial to the scene, and the moment they have control, those prices are going up up up baby!

I, and many others, dont want multiple platforms. We remember the days when every game had its own launcher, an increasingly large amount required online accounts and other BS registration. Steam centralized all that into one service, which is why they grew so fast. Now, we have to maintain Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic, Windows store, and GoG (if you want old or DRM free titles), all with their own accounts, security flaws, data collection, all for the privilege of still paying for the same amount of content, just with more headaches. Competition is welcome, but dont force us to maintain accounts and payment information on half a dozen platforms just to buy a few games.

In short, in an era of digital distribution, this exclusivity model is just silly. 3rd party games being exclusive to a shop only makes sense if said shop paid for development of said game, which isnt happening here, or if the shop is the developer of said game.

Except Walmart DOES bring benefits to the consumer... their prices are lower, and they allow for a far easier purchasing experience....

How does having a monopoly gaming distribution benefit consumers? Now one company gets to decide what games I'm going to have access to? Doesn't sound like that's to my benefit!

Exclusivity does suck for streaming services: it sucks that you need to pay for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc just to watch everything you want (legally that is - wink wink) - but unlike streaming services, game distribution launchers are FREE. There's no real problem installing Steam, Epic, Origin, Battlenet, etc... on your PC. Get yourself a decent password manager, setup your firewall properly, and you're good to go.

And the reason all this is happening? Because Steam has done exactly what you accused Walmart of doing! They seized control of the gaming distribution market and charged developers an obscene percentage - which they had to pay since Steam was the only game in town.

Now there's competition, developers will see a higher percentage of their profits, and can pass the savings into increasing the quality of their games!

 

[yRaz]

I'll buy it when it comes out on steam. I don't understand why there couldn't be a compromise where I could buy it on the epic games store but activate on both platforms. I don't care who I buy it from, I just want to use it on the platform of my choice. If I buy it at Best buy, they get the money for the sale but I can activate it on epics platform.

Honestly, I might pirate this one then buy it when it pops up on steam

 

[VinnyC]

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).

Maybe Valve will have to go back to actually making games in order to make money. HL3 confirmed?

 

[ForgottenLegion]

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?

Woah woah woah, hold your horses there nelly.
Valve need to make games is all I'm saying.
All that other stuff is gravy.
They've got gamers salivating for years over the very rumours of HL3 L4D3 let alone any form of official confirmation.

lol @ Linux gaming. Are people that allergic to Windows they'd spend a week reading up how to attempt getting a game to run.

By parallel: as intriguing as hackintosh projects are if I wanted to use OS X I'd buy an apple computer.
The time and headache required to undertake such an endeavour for real world applications is just counterproductive.

 

[BradT]

Great. Another game I won't buy due to exclusivity. Keep it up, Epic. You're saving me a ton of money.

 

[BradT]

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.

Exclusivity means you, the consumer, have no other option than to buy it from one outlet. I'd have no issue with running it through Epic any more than I have with games that require Uplay, Origin or Galaxy to run. I do have an issue with only being able to BUY a game from one place. That benefits NO ONE and restricts the consumer's options and rights.

And no, I won't buy any game so long as it is exclusive to Epic. This is not competition. It's forcing the consumer to only buy from their store and that is not competition. That's highway robbery.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

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.

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

Combine the two ideas - and have Steam, Epic, et al. make Playnite, Launchbox, et al. available to manage this mess before it gets out of hand...

 

[Avenger001]

Is it wrong to see it as paying or offering incentives to boycott a platform that everyone uses???

 

[FlosAttic]

And much like Metro, instead of buying it for $60 on launch, I'll buy it for $5 on a Steam sale in 2 years, if I wind up buying it at all.

Except this isnt competition. True competition would be the game being available on every store, with the price change to reflect different cuts and fees, and the consumer choosing which platform to buy on.

One store paying for timed exclusives is just throwing money around. It does not benefit the gamer long term. People seem to have trouble seeing past the tip of their own noses. This kind of "buy up exclusives" is what led to the current streaming situation, where you wind up paying a ridiculous amount to multiple different streaming sites just to watch a handful of content. This is no different then wal-mart coming into an area, "buying" the rights to exclusive access to all the local suppliers, and then saying "well were just bringing COMPETITION". No, you're not, you're just throwing money in an attempt to muscle your way into a market without bringing anything substantial to the scene, and the moment they have control, those prices are going up up up baby!

I, and many others, dont want multiple platforms. We remember the days when every game had its own launcher, an increasingly large amount required online accounts and other BS registration. Steam centralized all that into one service, which is why they grew so fast. Now, we have to maintain Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic, Windows store, and GoG (if you want old or DRM free titles), all with their own accounts, security flaws, data collection, all for the privilege of still paying for the same amount of content, just with more headaches. Competition is welcome, but dont force us to maintain accounts and payment information on half a dozen platforms just to buy a few games.

In short, in an era of digital distribution, this exclusivity model is just silly. 3rd party games being exclusive to a shop only makes sense if said shop paid for development of said game, which isnt happening here, or if the shop is the developer of said game.

Except Walmart DOES bring benefits to the consumer... their prices are lower, and they allow for a far easier purchasing experience....

How does having a monopoly gaming distribution benefit consumers? Now one company gets to decide what games I'm going to have access to? Doesn't sound like that's to my benefit!

Exclusivity does suck for streaming services: it sucks that you need to pay for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc just to watch everything you want (legally that is - wink wink) - but unlike streaming services, game distribution launchers are FREE. There's no real problem installing Steam, Epic, Origin, Battlenet, etc... on your PC. Get yourself a decent password manager, setup your firewall properly, and you're good to go.

And the reason all this is happening? Because Steam has done exactly what you accused Walmart of doing! They seized control of the gaming distribution market and charged developers an obscene percentage - which they had to pay since Steam was the only game in town.

Now there's competition, developers will see a higher percentage of their profits, and can pass the savings into increasing the quality of their games!

Except you are 100% wrong. Walmart drives smaller shops out of business by selling things at a loss, then they jack up their prices once they are the only game in town. It is known fact, they have been doing it for over 30 years. Maybe your town/city is still big and still has a Kmart or Target, but smaller towns especially in the mid-west USA have been stuck with only Walmart to shop for general goods.

Also Valve did not set the price cut/share. Apple, Google, and others set the standard 30% fare long before Valve did.

Discord offers 90/10 share, another distributor (I forget the name of it, but offers a way for customers to re-sell their games) offers 95/5 share. Where's all the love for them? Oh, that's right, they haven't thrown a billion dollars at publishers to get exclusives.

You know what people's main gripes about the Epic Games Store is, and it is not so much the exclusives thing as much as it is the TAKING AWAY thing they are doing. Outer Worlds, Metro, Control, etc. had a Steam store listing for a while prior to Epic poaching them. They are still keeping their FREE steam store listing and no-cost-to-them forums while NOT selling a product on Steam.

The Phoenix Point scenario, where backers were promised GOG and Steam keys, were denied that at the 11th hour, and the "indie" company that developed the game said himself they can refund 100% of the backers pre-orders and still be in the black (profit) because of how much poaching money they excepted from EPIC. How in the world can you defend that practice?

 

[ShObiT]

Well, I only have Origin, GOG and Steam, No other launcher will be installed, deleted Blizzard launcher long ago as I don't play Starcraft anymore, Skipped Fornite, will skip Epic altogether!

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Is it wrong to see it as paying or offering incentives to boycott a platform that everyone uses???

"Exclusive" may be only a ticket to position as 'dog in the manger', but I hope it is an actual recognition that the 30% distribution cut is more flexible than it has been. The developer is 'giving' the exclusive which may limit sales in exchange for a bigger piece of the revenue pie.

My issue is 'how do gamers cope with the expanding profusion of launch platforms?" like streamers, it is becoming more than annoying.

 

[Misagt]

Sooner or later Valve will be forced to drop their share. Games are already being sold at lower prices on Epic because of the lower cut it takes. It just adds up for devs they can lower their price and maintain profit. I think by the end of the year valve will drop their cut.

 

[FlosAttic]

Sooner or later Valve will be forced to drop their share. Games are already being sold at lower prices on Epic because of the lower cut it takes. It just adds up for devs they can lower their price and maintain profit. I think by the end of the year valve will drop their cut.

Thing is it take till next fiscal year for them to do it, because like most other big companies budgets/logistics are all planned ahead based on expected revenue.

 

[kevbev89]

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

Definitely not gonna deny that.
I think maybe it is more of a branding issue.
Kind of like how people don't take the Lenovo gaming laptop serious, even though they have been around for a long time (imo).

 

[Misagt]

Thing is it take till next fiscal year for them to do it, because like most other big companies budgets/logistics are all planned ahead based on expected revenue.

Yeah I see your point. I think it will really come down to their Executive. If they are willing to risk Epic making big in roads over the Christmas season or not. Personally I think the summer sale will be having some competition and leave them wanting to make move before end of the year. But I agree ultimately it will happen.

 

[FlosAttic]

Thing is it take till next fiscal year for them to do it, because like most other big companies budgets/logistics are all planned ahead based on expected revenue.

Yeah I see your point. I think it will really come down to their Executive. If they are willing to risk Epic making big in roads over the Christmas season or not. Personally I think the summer sale will be having some competition and leave them wanting to make move before end of the year. But I agree ultimately it will happen.

EPIC really doesn't care if you buy games from them. They just want their software on your PC, smartphone, or console.

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-wants-everyone-to-use-its-online-services-even-if-they-release-on-steam

 

[Badvok]

I do have an issue with only being able to BUY a game from one place. That benefits NO ONE and restricts the consumer's options and rights.

And no, I won't buy any game so long as it is exclusive to Epic. This is not competition. It's forcing the consumer to only buy from their store and that is not competition. That's highway robbery.

Wow, I guess there really are people who won't buy own brand products from stores, or new cars from dealers, or so many other things you only get from one place. I prefer to buy a game, and play it. Not playing a game just because you can only buy it from one place - nuts!

 

[kevbev89]

I do have an issue with only being able to BUY a game from one place. That benefits NO ONE and restricts the consumer's options and rights.

And no, I won't buy any game so long as it is exclusive to Epic. This is not competition. It's forcing the consumer to only buy from their store and that is not competition. That's highway robbery.

Wow, I guess there really are people who won't buy own brand products from stores, or new cars from dealers, or so many other things you only get from one place. I prefer to buy a game, and play it. Not playing a game just because you can only buy it from one place - nuts!

I mean if you dont care about having 5+ different launchers to manage all the games you "own", then I guess you have nothing to worry about.

 

[kevbev89]

Would be amazing if a company comes out that finds some way to centralize all the games you own from different launchers WITHOUT having to have all those other launchers installed.

Granted, that will never happen.

 

[Evernessince]

Sooner or later Valve will be forced to drop their share. Games are already being sold at lower prices on Epic because of the lower cut it takes. It just adds up for devs they can lower their price and maintain profit. I think by the end of the year valve will drop their cut.

Or maybe not. Look at the feature set of the Epic store and then of the steam store. EPIC doesn't even have pre-loading and that's basic of the basics.

Steam developed and released OpenVR for free. What has EPIC given to the community?

Heck Big picture mode in steam alone is a big enough feature for people to stick to the platform. You can easily use steam on a HTPC, you cannot with EPIC.

The list of feature differences is massive and the steam store is way better.

Think about it for a second. Instead of winning customers by providing quality service, EPIC instead decided to force gamers into their store with exclusives. In some cases screwing gamers over in the process. Do you honestly want a company like that to replace steam? I know I don't. EPIC has to earn PC gamer's trust and so far they have done nothing that comes close to it.

 

[Capaill]

Developer sell at 10 % discount on the first year when they listed games on EPIC due to bigger cut

Except they don't. You are using Metro Exodus as an example and it is being sold at full price on the Epic Store outside the US.
So, give me one reason why I should give my money to Epic? Because they are not showing me any love.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Except you are 100% wrong. Walmart drives smaller shops out of business by selling things at a loss, then they jack up their prices once they are the only game in town. It is known fact, they have been doing it for over 30 years. Maybe your town/city is still big and still has a Kmart or Target, but smaller towns especially in the mid-west USA have been stuck with only Walmart to shop for general goods.

Walmart May have increased their prices - but they’re still lower than virtually everyone else.... nowadays, no matter where you live, you have access to items online....so it doesn’t matter nearly as much about driving neighbouring stores out of business. Walmart’s prices remain lower and if you think they’re too high, feel free to buy from Amazon.... and while it may be a “known fact” - I’d love to see some evidence please

As for Steam, what makes Epic so terrible? Honestly, not sure why we need game launchers.... with the world of online, can’t each game just have their own launcher and sell itself however it wishes to? The benefits of Steam/Epic are basically just providing a user base to see what games are for sale...

Again, it’s really not so hard to create a shortcut for each game, regardless of distribution company, and place them in a “games” folder...

 

[Cycloid Torus]

The benefits of Steam/Epic are basically just providing a user base to see what games are for sale...

Again, it’s really not so hard to create a shortcut for each game, regardless of distribution company, and place them in a “games” folder...

I'm not that organized - so Steam is a service which [1] hides my oldies but might play again, [2] titles I'm playing now, [3] keeps my inventory of 'bargains' visible without filling my local storage, [4] updates my installed bunch, [5] provides forum / manual / news relating to my installed, [6] allows me to shift to another system and play on that.

I also have GOG because I hate DRM. I tried Uplay(ugh) and others (ugh and ugh). Why would I want another 'ugh' which allows me to buy a temporary 'exclusive' (wup). Steam serves and doesn't fling c**p in my face.

As I said in an earlier post, I want a 'launcher launcher' which helps me manage all my stuff without spending game time doing it.