Epic Games CEO promises a 'retreat from exclusives' if Steam lowers its revenue share...

[ShagnWagn]

I would rather have a cheaper price than some worthless "frills" for a launch client. I suppose some don't think so. Instead I say to let them pay that extra for a subscription service for those frills.

I just want to be able to launch and play my game. Without forcing me to be on the internet. Is that too much to ask? And if the company goes belly up or disappears (or an outage), I still own and can play my game.

 

[etempest]

CEO "promise" doesn't mean they will actually do it, or change there mind latter.

 

[Kibaruk]

I would rather have a cheaper price than some worthless "frills" for a launch client. I suppose some don't think so. Instead I say to let them pay that extra for a subscription service for those frills.

I just want to be able to launch and play my game. Without forcing me to be on the internet. Is that too much to ask? And if the company goes belly up or disappears (or an outage), I still own and can play my game.

Complain to developers, not the platform they choose

 

[Morris Minor]

I am content with the list I have on steam(ing pile), and the many more I haven't bought yet. I don't see installing yet another game client. There are too many already.

What do I want? To not need to rely on an internet client, as in the good 'ol days. I buy a game - it's mine. Forever.

I don't want/need a service to constantly monitor what I do. If steam were to disappear, all of that money we spent goes up in smoke. What if steam starts with some subscription crap like MS does for xbox? For just the privilege to connect to their servers.

Edit: What could get me to move? Import my owned games from steam to Epic.

in steams terms they say if it were to shut down you will be able to download all your games drm free

 

[Morris Minor]

One thing I have noticed over the last few weeks, steam have had some good weekly sales. good games at really good prices.

personally its all about convenience, when I boot up my pc I open steam and scroll through my 500 odd games to see what to play. I'm already invested, I don't want other launchers.

 

[mgwerner]

12% is kind of low for Steam.

15-20% seems fair.

Their current cut is fair. Why do people not understand that Steam offers a crap ton of features, that is why it is so expensive. Exposure on PC's biggest platform, streamlined update servers, game servers and more. Do people think it is just as cheap to advertise on a Tuesday at 3AM as it is during the Superbowl?

"Why do people not understand that Steam offers crap?"

FIFY

 

[mgwerner]

I am content with the list I have on steam(ing pile), and the many more I haven't bought yet. I don't see installing yet another game client. There are too many already.

What do I want? To not need to rely on an internet client, as in the good 'ol days. I buy a game - it's mine. Forever.

I don't want/need a service to constantly monitor what I do. If steam were to disappear, all of that money we spent goes up in smoke. What if steam starts with some subscription crap like MS does for xbox? For just the privilege to connect to their servers.

Edit: What could get me to move? Import my owned games from steam to Epic.

in steams terms they say if it were to shut down you will be able to download all your games drm free

And you believe this? In that case, wanna buy a bridge?

 

[ShagnWagn]

And you believe this? In that case, wanna buy a bridge?

In terms of your reference to a bridge - that is if someone else offers one, as in their offer. In this case, I was sharing my opinion. How does your post correlate? Mind to share your insightful wisdom among us? Or were you just attacking me?

 

[Icechip]

I think its more they dont want Steam to make a bigger profit from new games. Thing with steam/gamers they like to go to one place to get there games/ there library in once place. Even tho its exclusive titles still but selling non exclusives still end up going to steam.

 

[mgwerner]

In terms of your reference to a bridge - that is if someone else offers one, as in their offer. In this case, I was sharing my opinion. How does your post correlate? Mind to share your insightful wisdom among us? Or were you just attacking me?

Simply made in jest, as in normal conversation around the water cooler.

 

[failquail]

It's probably my stubborn side showing through...
But at this point, Epic could halve their prices and I'd still shop elsewhere.

Their aggressive anti-consumer practices to FORCE me onto their platform has burned all bridges for me.
I'll happily wait and even pretend games don't exist until they're sold elsewhere now. (Steam preference, but I don't care which store, just as long as it's not epic.)

And for this claim that they'd drop exclusivity if steam changed something? I don't believe you, you burned the bridge already...

*sigh*
Just releasing games on epic at a lower pricepoint plus their previous free monthly games thing would probably tempted me onto their store with a bit of a grumble. (after all I have games on steam/uplay/origin/ and some direct dev-only downloads (ie kerbal space program). Not being on steam isn't the issue)
But now they've engineered a situation where I'll actively avoid using their store, even if it means I miss out on games entirely... That takes skill.

 

[Polycount]

Though I am getting tired of using another platform, I feel Epic's policy of 12% cut is a much more comfortable, competitive and rewarding for developers.

The only reason there's no Exodus of developers to Epic yet, is the user base in Steam, and subsequently the loss of the populated market-space. But when more and more developers choose a more viable 12% cut platform for selling their games, the scene will change.

To pull more developers and later attract more user-base to Epic, it will soon have to have games sold at a constant lower price than on Steam.

As for us, for now, the price may be the same across all platforms, maybe cheaper or more sales on Epic later, and it may not be much different from where we got them.

New gen kids are just getting too comfortable with Steam, since it does everything for them after they point out where to install.

Those who whine and review bombing seem to be those who have been emotionally attached to Steam and have become dependent on it.

For me, as long as it's on 75% and above sale, I would get it from anywhere.

There are a great many reasons one would choose to use Steam over Epic, and very, very few of them have anything to do with emotional attachment.

I'm not going to lie and say nobody is emotionally attached to Steam - it's obvious that a vocal minority is (review bombers, though not all fall into this category).

But, for me, it comes down to the following reasons:

• Forcing me to buy a game from one platform is not competition. This makes me not want to buy from them out of spite. But this is only maybe 5% of my reasoning. After all, I buy from Origin, Uplay, and GoG all the time, because their platforms have a decent-enough set of features, frequent sales and freebies, a cohesive interface, and -- perhaps most importantly -- the games sold there as exclusives are usually first-party games, made by that company or its direct subsidiaries. That's acceptable to me. You want our games, you use our platform. Epic's exclusives are not made by them, and were often available for pre-order on Steam far before Epic snagged them.
  
• The 12% revenue cut is having zero impact on me, as a consumer. The savings, with the exception of Metro Exodus (a PR stunt more than anything, it seemed), are not being passed on to me. Start offering me games at $50 or less (or remove MTX) and maybe I'll change my tune.
  
• Epic's storefront and feature set sucks. Bad. And it isn't getting better for, what, a year? I forget what their roadmap looked like, but key features (like a shopping cart) aren't coming for months and months. The search function is extremely limited, too.
• I don't trust Epic as far as I can throw them with my game library. Hackers have tried to get into two of my Epic accounts on multiple occasions, and I wasn't even allowed to delete my account when I asked. This is a personal experience thing, though, and I readily admit that not everybody has these issues (but they do seem to be more common than I thought). For all of their faults, I've never had that issue with Steam, Uplay, Origin, or GoG - ever.

Don't get me wrong, I love Steam. Despite all of Valve's alleged nonsense, I think they're one of the few decent, player-focused companies out there. But I don't let that get in the way when it comes to where I actually buy my games.

Take Cyberpunk 2077, for example. CDPR has already said it won't be exclusive to any one platform, including their own (GoG). But I'll still buy it there because I want to support the devs directly and it's DRM-free - I'm not going to buy it on Steam just for the sake of misplaced platform loyalty.

Hopefully this sheds some light on the "anit-Epic" side of things, if you want to call it that (in reality, I just want Epic to start offering real value).

 

[tacobravo]

Steam might be charging 30% but they don't make money off of keys sold outside steam.

From: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys

"Steam keys are meant to be a convenient tool for game developers to sell their game on other stores and at retail. Steam keys are free and can be activated by customers on Steam to grant a license to a product.

Valve provides the same free bandwidth and services to customers activating a Steam key that it provides to customers buying a license on Steam. We ask you to treat Steam customers no worse than customers buying Steam keys outside of Steam. While there is no fee to generate keys on Steam, we ask that partners use the service judiciously.

For more information on how keys work for customers, visit the customer facing support site here."

 

[Axiarus]

"Why do people not understand that Steam offers crap?"

FIFY

*eyeroll*

 

[Morris Minor]

I am content with the list I have on steam(ing pile), and the many more I haven't bought yet. I don't see installing yet another game client. There are too many already.

What do I want? To not need to rely on an internet client, as in the good 'ol days. I buy a game - it's mine. Forever.

I don't want/need a service to constantly monitor what I do. If steam were to disappear, all of that money we spent goes up in smoke. What if steam starts with some subscription crap like MS does for xbox? For just the privilege to connect to their servers.

Edit: What could get me to move? Import my owned games from steam to Epic.

in steams terms they say if it were to shut down you will be able to download all your games drm free

And you believe this? In that case, wanna buy a bridge?

its in their terms and conditions

 

[ghostf1re]

I think a new version of Half Life or remaster/remake edition can stop Fortnite which means Epic in other words

Not a chance. Half-Life was a game for those of us in our 30's and 40's. Younger gamers are not crying out for another HL, like those of use that were old enough to play it when they came out. While I'd love to see another HL title drop, I don't believe the hype would do a single thing to Fortnite or any other industry leading game.

 

[Evernessince]

Valve will never reduce their cut to 12% but they might be forced to increase the share given to developers who distribute via their platform. Even a 25/75 split would be a huge improvement. If Steam actually gave developers a fair chunk of the revenue Epic could afford to put their games back on Steam while keeping their own store going just to keep Valve honest. Sweeny and company would still come out ahead because they'd be getting a far better deal on the biggest gaming service. The fact that all devs would benefit just makes Epic look even more heroic.

Steam already gives a better then 25/75 split to bigger devs.

https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/valve-revenue-split-changes-1203078700/

If your game has over 50 million USD in sales you get a 20% split. That's far better then the Apple App store or google play and steam provides a crap ton more features then either of those guys.

 

[erickmendes]

* Microsoft should adopt Valve, and purchase them and gain Market share in the gaming market. IMO

They should have bought NetFlix too while it wasn't that big it is now... If MS had Netflix and Valve under it's umbrella, it would be really strong on these playing fields now... Valve could be the "MS Store" for games not only for Windows but also X Box (as MS is trying to make it now with the Ms Store, but will take a long time to traction, if any...).

If only MS had someone with vision, but it seems like MS lost it's capacity to predict things just before the smartphone revolution.

 

[Polycount]

They should have bought NetFlix too while it wasn't that big it is now... If MS had Netflix and Valve under it's umbrella, it would be really strong on these playing fields now... Valve could be the "MS Store" for games not only for Windows but also X Box (as MS is trying to make it now with the Ms Store, but will take a long time to traction, if any...).

If only MS had someone with vision, but it seems like MS lost it's capacity to predict things just before the smartphone revolution.

I hear people say this sort of thing often, but it assumes that Microsoft would keep their hands out of the cookie jar, so to speak.

How do we know Valve/Netflix didn't get to where they are only because they remained (relatively) independent, without a corporate giant controlling them?

Food for thought. For all we know, if Microsoft bought Valve or Netflix, both companies would be absolute garbage today.

 

[techdaz]

I hear people say this sort of thing often, but it assumes that Microsoft would keep their hands out of the cookie jar, so to speak.

How do we know Valve/Netflix didn't get to where they are only because they remained (relatively) independent, without a corporate giant controlling them?

Food for thought. For all we know, if Microsoft bought Valve or Netflix, both companies would be absolute garbage today.

* That could be correct, given Microsoft has had a past with shady / failed business models compared to Apples success. For a purchase to be successful, Microsoft would have to keep its hands out of the core business models that made Valve successful etc.