Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy… and then it’s only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can’t it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It’s so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic… which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        23 days ago

        Yeah, they expressed that they wanted to join the online game store scene and the big feature they were offering to draw in users was… anticompetitive exclusivity deals!

        Plus the company killed off the unreal tournament franchise because they didn’t want it to compete with fortnite.

        I have no interest in supporting a company that thinks removing options is the best way to get users to use their products.

        It’s the same shit that has turned streaming services from great back when it was new to now having content spread across many competing services. I’d rather they competed based on their own platform’s features and advantages than the whole “if you want to watch x, you must use service y”. It’s just a series of mini monopolies.

        • ZeroHora@lemmy.mlEnglish
          31·
          23 days ago

          Imagine if they succeed with the exclusivity tactics, how other companies will respond to that? Doing the exactly same thing.

          Let some years of exclusivity wars and the PC gaming will look like the streaming, a bunch of storefronts offering the same poor service and the clients doesn’t know where to buy what they want because at any moment another exclusivity deal could be made and the entire library moved to another storefront, just like streaming.

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            23 days ago

            Exactly. Oh and I also just remembered another angle: their anti-linux stance. They used to make games with native Linux support, but as I understand it, they’ve even removed Linux support from some games that already had it, trying to keep the Microsoft monopoly going. I wonder how much money ms is giving epic for that.

            Same reason why a lot of the non-steam handhelds are non-starters for me. And yeah, I can live without games that depend on Windows kernel-level anti-cheat.

            My backlog is so full I could keep entertained even if I ignore every single game I don’t currently have in my steam library. Hell, I even ignore some that are there when I realized they have denuvo or something like that after buying and the refund window has already passed when I do notice.

            • ZeroHora@lemmy.mlEnglish
              2·
              23 days ago

              They used to make games with native Linux support, but as I understand it, they’ve even removed Linux support from some games that already had it, trying to keep the Microsoft monopoly going. I wonder how much money ms is giving epic for that.

              Probably none, the CEO with the small dick energy just hate Steam so if Steam is pro Linux he will do the opposite of it.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.caEnglish
      71·
      23 days ago

      Copying my reply to someone else:

      Epic is anti-customer: https://medium.com/@unfoldgames/why-i-turned-down-exclusivity-deal-from-the-epic-store-developer-of-darq-7ee834ed0ac7

      Tldr: Kickstarter Game with a lot of interest while in development announces a release date on Steam. After the date announcement they get contacted by Epic saying “we’d love to host your game” for an exclusivity deal.
      Dev responds that they would be happy to have their game on Epic but promises were made during crowd funding that it would be available on Steam.
      Epic replies that they aren’t interested if it’s not exclusive.

      This tells me that

      1. Epic is full of shit. "We’d love to have your game, but only if it’s exclusive.
      2. Epic doesn’t care about being a better service for its customers. Having the game available on Epic as well is strictly better for Epic’s customers and they easily could have done that. They chose not to.
      3. Epic is not interested in actually having to compete with other companies. This would require them to provide a better service in some fashion. They are only interested if they can force people “if you want to purchase this game you have to buy it through us” which is anti-consumer.
    • AustralianSimon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      22 days ago

      Basically watch games being promoted on steam pre-release and when games get popular, reach out to them and offer them money to be exclusive on EGS for a period of time despite all the publicity the game got being on Steam.