Epic Games - Store announced

Originally Posted by Rhawkas
Coming soon: "The Overseer" is a software management program that knows all of the digital games you own and which client/storefront they're on. With just a few clicks you can find the game you're looking for and launch it without having to sift through a dozen different clients and platforms.

Playnite pretty much does just that.

https://playnite.link

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
4. Epic Games is owned by a Chinese company. By the name of Tencent. So if number 3 isn't enough to put some gamers off, then this may do the trick. I know its not popular to talk about in the mass media these days, *cough* (I wonder why…) but China is a Communist controlled country. Many Americans will have a problem supporting that, in my opinion anyway. (though, that said, some on the left will have no problems and even be eager to support them)

And yet they buy and support a lot of Chinese stuff.

The whole bloody place is mortgaged to the Chinese!

Also, China hasn't been communist for decades. It's a massive capitalist economy, directed by corrupt authoritarianism for the "good of the nation". Sound familiar?

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
And yet they buy and support a lot of Chinese stuff.

True. But a lot of that is hidden, in a way. Like, made in China in tiny text on a tiny tag on various products. It is clever how Tencent is going through an American company (Epic Games) to try and compete with steam, but its not that big of a secret. All I did was looked up "Epic Games" in wikipedia, saw Tencent listed as the owner, then read some of the company history, and then looked up Tencent as well.

I guess what I'm saying is this isn't hard info to find.

When will the first launcher for launchers arrive?

Originally Posted by tekulte
What do you find bad about Steam? I play a ton of games through Steam and never have issues.

I'll give you a one, a serious one for a someone in circumstances like me: forced patching. Steam no longer gives you the option to opt out of patches. When a patch is available, you must take it before even being allowed to play your game.

Now, I travel a lot for work. My limited gaming time is often spent in a hotel room on a gaming laptop. I'm not sure when devs decided to stop compressing their patches, but the file sizes (not just higher-res graphics) have gotten huge. Anyway, on crappy hotel wifi, these huge downloads often mean I simply cannot play a game that I have most definitely purchased but only supposedly "own." At home, it's not such a big deal on my cable connection, but 6 hours for a download on the road means I'm simply not playing that game until I get home a week or more later.

Originally Posted by skally_wag
It was a shock for me that they take 30% I had no idea.
As much as I agree not having shelf room, I do miss unwrapping and opening the boxes, I miss the lovely manuals that I used to sit and read for hours, I miss that excitement.

Absolutely. I do miss the unboxing and reading manuals in anticipation on the train on the way home from the mall part. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

Another shit store with exclusives and time exclusives; well if they force me to pirate, ill gladly do it.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
4. Epic Games is owned by a Chinese company. By the name of Tencent. So if number 3 isn't enough to put some gamers off, then this may do the trick. I know its not popular to talk about in the mass media these days, *cough* (I wonder why…) but China is a Communist controlled country. Many Americans will have a problem supporting that, in my opinion anyway. (though, that said, some on the left will have no problems and even be eager to support them)

Widely off topic, but I would hardly call China communist, apart from the name of their ruling party. They have a mish-mash of different ideologies and practices (like most countries today I guess?) Market economy with private ownership, but with rigid control by the state. It's more the Big Brother syndrome than the Communist part that I think could make people think twice (just look at all the bans on Hyuawei phones and other electronics).

Big brother syndrom but also chinese market regulations forced on games who want to reach that market. Some companies tend to extend those regulations to the whole world because of 'costs'.
And if you thought than the Americans were weird and hypocritical with their ultra-violence is fun but the word 'nipple makes me feint compared to Chinese they look well balanced.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
Exactly…I see what is in the deal for the game developer, but what's in it for me, the pc gamer??

In theory better games as a bigger part of the revenue goes to development instead of distribution.

And what's the alternative? Accept that Steam is the one distribution platform to rule them all because it's convenient to have only one client, allowing them to charge what they like as the de facto gatekeepers of PC game distribution? Not to mention that the tariff charged by the distributor is ultimately going to be passed on to the consumer.

I dream about open source software client standard that different digital distributors share or are compatible with. Maybe in distant future…

I hope they do well and give customers a reason to use the platform and not just the devs.
Also the 5% fee for using unreal engine is included in the 12% which is a damn fine move.

I think its time for game client manger type apps! I think couple of them might exists already but anyone else got good recommendations? I want it to support

Steam
Gog
Origin
Uplay
Twitch Store
Epic store

Originally Posted by tekulte
What do you find bad about Steam? I play a ton of games through Steam and never have issues.

Their curation is non existent which leads to the flood of shovelware so a bunch of smaller games that are actually good failed because too few people knew about them. I've heard about the cut they take before, and what I heard was 25%. If what Epic is saying is correct, it's even worse. Even 25% is a lot. And last, it has to run in the background in order to play your games. Battle.net, for example, can be closed, for example, and a bunch of other launchers, too. I know those launchers only have that publisher's games and they don't have things like Steam overlay (which I find clunky and outdated), but Steam can at least give us an option to play games without it running in the background. If the overlay has to go in such scenario, I willing to let it go.

Originally Posted by lostforever
I think its time for game client manger type apps! I think couple of them might exists already but anyone else got good recommendations? I want it to support

Steam
Gog
Origin
Uplay
Twitch Store
Epic store

Launchbox and Playnite on Windows, Lutris on Linux. They're all pretty good, and are nice if you like emulators, as you can set those games up as part of your library, too.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I dunno, I think Epic Games might not make much of a splash as some may think.

1. Many steam users will stay loyal to steam. Despite the odd complaint here and there, steam is very popular among many (if not most) gamers. It's very convenient to have your games all centralized and collected in one place. Plus, steam is very good in "community" aspects, which Epic Games is not going to provide - see next point.

Centralization is good. That is what communists say, at least.

2. Epic Games has drawbacks. They will have no game forums at all for their games. None! So if you want to get help or have a question about a game, like you can on steam, nope, sorry, you are out of luck. What a great service model by Epic Games! (sarcasm)

Comment posted on a forum dedicated to vid products. Sure, no way but the Steam forum way. Could be no other.

3. Epic Games is all about "games as a service" model. Yep, the model most old school gamers seem to really hate. So, keep in mind if you decide to become a customer you will be supporting that business model full force. I think some gamers will refuse to support Epic Games just based on this philosophy.

Could be. But they are not yet into the thing like "games as a service" bloated with useless services like forums, friend lists etc that Steam is.

4. Epic Games is owned by a Chinese company. By the name of Tencent. So if number 3 isn't enough to put some gamers off, then this may do the trick. I know its not popular to talk about in the mass media these days, *cough* (I wonder why…) but China is a Communist controlled country. Many Americans will have a problem supporting that, in my opinion anyway. (though, that said, some on the left will have no problems and even be eager to support them)

Communism seems an upgrade: players are not charged for services they do not need and they distribute free games in the breadlines.

Free games. Games. Nothing like the crowdfunded scene that get people to pay for vid products that are revealed later as not even being games.

Definitively sounds like an upgrade.

In 2018 there are still people to believe than 'free' means anything else than 'use our product so we can extract one way or another even more money from you than a simple price tag'.

One good marketing strategy for developers would be to eat a part of the difference of that cut that Epic/Valve take. That way, the games would be cheaper for customers, meaning more sales (well not necessarily, but if played right it does), while they still get to keep more money. Win-win situation.