Steam introduces feature to combat Borderlands review bombings, Gearbox CEO responds to...

Pandy Bitchford just insured that Borderlands 3 will fail to come anywhere near sales projections. Notice how he not only singles out Steam as if their the only platform vulnerable to ratings manipulation but also completely ignores the steps they've taken to fix the process. Oh, riiiight - Valve made the off-topic review filter *OPTIONAL*, which isn't what Bitchford wanted. LOL, I never liked Boringlands anyway.

epic payed him the big bucks to keep his hate toward steam even tho epic is the worse platform
 
2k doesn't realize these decisions are part of why piracy is so big. Let's take greed off the table for a moment and consider users want simple solutions, steam gathered nearly all the games most people wanted in one place and piracy dropped off a few percent. Simply due to the convenience of a single point of purchase.
These percent ticks have gone up recently due to things like always online requirements and exclusive content behind pay walls ie dlc and micro transactions. These have directly caused gamers to find other ways to play the games they want rather than paying for the bad decisions of developers.
That's even ignoring things like day one dlc (looking at you FFXV) preventing gamers from enjoying the game on launch day.
What I see is a ton of gamers waiting 6 months or just pirating B3 because it is simply easier than dealing with a stupid developer decision.
I'll buy a copy but I'm sure I'll be able to play it in the 6 months before I pay.
im kinda hoping the steam sales bring in more money then the epic sales oh wait they will
 
Plus it actually cost less to purchase games via Epic, right? So what's the big deal? Not everyone is made of money, I'll take any saving I can find while supporting the developer. Clearly Valve doesn't care otherwise they would jump on the bandwagon and match their prices yet they stick to their guns... I wonder what are they betting on..?
Valve offers a **** ton of features to the devs for that 30%. Why don't people understand this?
 
Steam is the reason we can no longer buy or sell used PC games... Epic is just doing exactly what steam did and does. Steam has titles that are only available on steam.... Blizzards games are only available on battlenet... Who cares?
Because they use shitty tactics to do so. Like letting studios advertise like crazy on the biggest PC platform then bouncing before release.
 
Is funny you mentioned cdpr because witcher 3 sales on console completly destroyed pc sales. Now imagine what happens with other games.

Also who are you to say pes or any other game is bad?? Thats entirely subjective. His point was that most aaa 3rd party games sell more on console. Thats being objective. Wether you like the games or not.. No one cares.

Also go away with that PCMR mentality, because you basically turned your post into it. Here we are talking about the fact borderlands being epic exclusive wont hurt its overall success, because some random pc steam lovers crybabies wont surprass the game sales on consoles.

No one talked about emulators or league of legends, your speech was useless, leave that to reddit platform wars.

There ware a lot of points being brought up in this conversation, not only Epics exclusivity. Reading comprehension is not one of your strong suits, is it ?

You either misunderstood the things I've said or are incapable of understanding the context in which some things were said.

From the link someone in this thread posted it is clear tha PC was the 2nd platform for the first year, and first in the latter years of sales for Witcher 3. The only platform that got smoked was XONE. Learn to read simple charts.

I wasn't talking about game preferences <facepalm>. Check actual user reviews for PES 2019 and you will see that it is plagued by technical issues. That's not subjective, that's objective. Same goes for other examples I gave like using outdated versions of games for PC ports or just completely botching the job - Batman AK. Those things are not subjective. And no matter how much you get your panties in a bunch fighting games are still going to be a niche genre so expecting them to top the charts is dumb. THAT was my point which obviously flew right over your head.

PCMR ? What ? I haven't said a word about PC being better than consoles. I just put some stats in context - as in why some multi-platform games don't do as well on PC as they do on consoles. Existence of games like LoL is one of them as it is very popular and attracts huge amounts of players pulling them from other titles. Once again, it flew over your head.

Epics exclusivity is going to hurt their sales, even if just a tiny bit. It is also bad for consumers hence the backlash. That's not being a crybaby, that's stating facts.
 
There ware a lot of points being brought up in this conversation, not only Epics exclusivity. Reading comprehension is not one of your strong suits, is it ?

You either misunderstood the things I've said or are incapable of understanding the context in which some things were said.

From the link someone in this thread posted it is clear tha PC was the 2nd platform for the first year, and first in the latter years of sales for Witcher 3. The only platform that got smoked was XONE. Learn to read simple charts.

I wasn't talking about game preferences <facepalm>. Check actual user reviews for PES 2019 and you will see that it is plagued by technical issues. That's not subjective, that's objective. Same goes for other examples I gave like using outdated versions of games for PC ports or just completely botching the job - Batman AK. Those things are not subjective. And no matter how much you get your panties in a bunch fighting games are still going to be a niche genre so expecting them to top the charts is dumb. THAT was my point which obviously flew right over your head.

PCMR ? What ? I haven't said a word about PC being better than consoles. I just put some stats in context - as in why some multi-platform games don't do as well on PC as they do on consoles. Existence of games like LoL is one of them as it is very popular and attracts huge amounts of players pulling them from other titles. Once again, it flew over your head.

Epics exclusivity is going to hurt their sales, even if just a tiny bit. It is also bad for consumers hence the backlash. That's not being a crybaby, that's stating facts.

Most future AAA launches will be exclusive to a store. Thats stating facts. Get used to it or keep conplaining that a certain game wont be on your favourite store.
 
Most future AAA launches will be exclusive to a store. Thats stating facts.

There's a difference between fact and assumption. You are assuming, based on the very recent trend of Epic's exclusivity campaign, that this will continue into the future. There is no way of knowing whether it will continue, or if bad PR and customer backlash makes the marketing tactic undesirable. Unless you have some magic precognitive sources that we don't?
 
Right, the ability for the consumers to show their annoyance after making a controversial decision is so horrible! /s

I don't see myself getting B3. And at this point, if RDR2 goes onto Epic only (instead of letting the "best" platform win), I'll just acquire it another way. I'm not supporting paid exclusives on PC.

I'm skipping purchasing it due to the Epic store as well, but review bombing a game that released years ago isn't the forum to show displeasure at a marketplace decision. It seems like a contradiction that you support the attitude that the marketplaces should be held on their own merits, but think it's okay to damage the merits of a game that is (before the controversy) held in high regard.
 
> angry about the decision that they review bombed the previous games on Steam
How many of'em only buy games during sales? Then there's 30% cut...
Instead of review bombing... why not buy games on day1? Give Valve a good statistic to show devs, to prove that 18% cut means nothing?
 
Why not put it on all the digital platforms?

if you're a big name franchise you'll make your money no matter what, probably even more if you give everyone a choice.

I just dont understand epics greed I guess
1. Deal from Epic.
2. The more copies Steam sells == the more copies Epic loose.
3. DAU/MAU battle.
 
Valve offers a **** ton of features to the devs for that 30%. Why don't people understand this?
I bet devs have their statistics... and you don't.
You just want all your purchase to stay in 1 platform right? No difficult logic imo. Devs know what you want but you don't know what devs want tbh.
 
I'm skipping purchasing it due to the Epic store as well, but review bombing a game that released years ago isn't the forum to show displeasure at a marketplace decision. It seems like a contradiction that you support the attitude that the marketplaces should be held on their own merits, but think it's okay to damage the merits of a game that is (before the controversy) held in high regard.

I plan to vote with my wallet as well - buying games on the stores I want to have them. I will also agree that review-bombing older, good games isn't particularly fair. But you have to ask yourself: what other outlet do gamers have to voice their distaste with a dev/publishing studio that will actually get a response from said entity ? Not a whole lot. So while I don't think it's fair and I sure as hell not going to participate in it, I do kind of understand that it's the easiest way to get a response. I mean look at how Pitchford is melting over this. It is working.

Will it make any difference ? Rather doubt it. If anything it will give devs/pubs excuses to go Epic only. What it would take is for PC gamers to not buy (nor pirate ! don't be as much of an ******* as these CEOs) the games while they're exclusive and once they are availible on your platform of choice - buy it. If enough people did this, it would send the only message CEOs will hear - you're losing money.
 
I bet devs have their statistics... and you don't.
You just want all your purchase to stay in 1 platform right? No difficult logic imo. Devs know what you want but you don't know what devs want tbh.
Well who are they trying to sell things to? Are they the ones buying it or do they need to make their customers happy? This is a very off comment.
 
I bet devs have their statistics... and you don't.
You just want all your purchase to stay in 1 platform right? No difficult logic imo. Devs know what you want but you don't know what devs want tbh.

Devs want to have a successful product launch and make money. No difficult logic for their motives either. Alienating what could be a large chunk of their potential customer base is probably not the wisest way to make that money. Time will tell if their decisions impact them, or if enough consumers just cave and buy early rather than wait to get titles on the platforms they want them on.
 
Devs want to have a successful product launch and make money. No difficult logic for their motives either. Alienating what could be a large chunk of their potential customer base is probably not the wisest way to make that money. Time will tell if their decisions impact them, or if enough consumers just cave and buy early rather than wait to get titles on the platforms they want them on.

I agree with that. This is probably the first iteration where devs are taking Epic's bribe money for a certain short-term gain. Time will tell if this will pay off for the developers and Epic.

I'm against Epic Store, so pass on anything in the Epic Store until something changes. Do what you want/believe in.
 
Devs want to have a successful product launch and make money. No difficult logic for their motives either. Alienating what could be a large chunk of their potential customer base is probably not the wisest way to make that money. Time will tell if their decisions impact them, or if enough consumers just cave and buy early rather than wait to get titles on the platforms they want them on.

Good point and I've been wondering myself about it. I would take it a step further though as I think short-term taking "the bribe" is going to pay off. But what happens when Epic stops paying for exclusivity ? You alienated a significant amount of your fanbase and you don't have Epic's cash to make up for lower sales, what now ?

Then again people have rather poor memory and tend to forgive devs/pubs way too easily. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
 
I bet devs have their statistics... and you don't.
You just want all your purchase to stay in 1 platform right? No difficult logic imo. Devs know what you want but you don't know what devs want tbh.
Right, they can go somewhere else if they want. What I am saying is that Valves 30% is very justified for the amount of features that they offer.
 
Good point and I've been wondering myself about it. I would take it a step further though as I think short-term taking "the bribe" is going to pay off. But what happens when Epic stops paying for exclusivity ? You alienated a significant amount of your fanbase and you don't have Epic's cash to make up for lower sales, what now ?

Then again people have rather poor memory and tend to forgive devs/pubs way too easily. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The idea, and what the devs are banking on, is that this isn't going to be lost profits in the long run and that it will be a direct competitor with Valve. They break even if they lose 18% of the sales, but if they don't notice a hit in sales at all and rake the profit, then Valve is going to need to respond or lose their shares rapidly.
 
The idea, and what the devs are banking on, is that this isn't going to be lost profits in the long run and that it will be a direct competitor with Valve. They break even if they lose 18% of the sales, but if they don't notice a hit in sales at all and rake the profit, then Valve is going to need to respond or lose their shares rapidly.

I'm sure they are hoping it won't hurt them but then again this is AAA games industry we're mostly talking about and they have shown that they are willing to make bad long term decisions to get rich quick. It's hard to say if this is an actual plan or another "get money now, worry later" type of scenarios. I lean towards the latter honestly and here's why:

Late last year Valve have made changes to their profit split system. Most (if not all) high-profile games like Metro Exodus, Borderlands 3, The Divison 2 would fall into the last tier of profit split - 80-20. That means the difference between Epic and Steam is 8%. Now this is just an assumption on my part but I think publishers would make up for that 8% by offering their games on a much bigger platform and by not pissing off a large number of potential buyers.

We have to also mention Discord store. It gives even better - 90/10 - split to devs/pubs and yet I haven't seen all of the praise Epic is getting (including some even suggesting it's somehow making the industry better). There are also no high profile exclusives on Discord.

All of this makes me think that it's not about profit split but rather piles of money Epic is offering to get exclusives. That money, I think, is the reason behind devs/pubs going EGS exclusive. I'm curious what will happen when that money dries up, and it will.
 
Last edited:
- 2K makes the decision to support exclusivity deals and decides to give Epic's store a 6 month head start with Borderlands 3 (probably due to some seriously lucrative incentives, most of which we'll probably never know).
I'm sure a good part of it was down to them agreeing to heavily advertise the game on their platform. When starting up Epic's client, it takes you to their store page, with no option to have the client open anywhere more useful, like your game library. And for the last couple weeks, since the exclusivity deal for this game was announced, there's been an auto-play video advertising the game on this startup page. So, every time someone starts up Epic's client to play a game, they are seeing a video ad for this game. With as many Fortnite players as there are, that works out to tens of millions of people regularly being shown advertisements for this game.

I suppose that could be considered one advantage that Epic's store currently holds for publishers. With so few games in their library (currently fewer than 50, I believe), each game that gets added is given more attention. Compare that to Steam where there are somewhere around 30,000 games now, with hundreds more of varying quality getting added every month, and it's easy for new game releases to get lost amid the shuffle. Epic currently curates their store, much like Valve used to do before they opened the floodgates with Greenlight, and now Steam Direct, where just about anything can make it onto the platform for $100.

One positive that might come out of this is that Valve might put more effort into improving their store. Maybe we'll see some Steam sales this year that aren't as mediocre as they have been in recent years. And maybe they'll improve the systems to help good games get recognized among the sea of shovelware. And perhaps Valve will even start developing games again. You know, that thing they used to do up until about 2012?
 
If they keep acting stupid the way they are now, I won't be buying any borderlands 3 anything for the pc.
A friend of mine suggested I look into BL3, while it "DOES" look a whole lot better.
Its still the same bullshit developers behind it who don't give a good *** damn about anything but money.

They crippled alien colonial marines, according to one modder trying to fix it all.
One line of code keeps train wrecking the game. >_> "WoW"
https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/13/aliens-colonial-marines-typo-ai/
 
Back