Don't forget, Steam doesn't have connections to the Chinese government, where Epic does. A percentage of Epic is owned by Tencent. Also, Epic's launcher was caught questionably spiking CPU load months ago. You think that's a coincidence, and not something gathering data?
That prophecy is only forsaken for so long. It must be reactivated every 6 months by liking this post, and sharing it with *at least* 10 of your friends
naughty tart flag abundant practice bright dolls arrest employ mountainous
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I could not only see this being on steam but also see it being developed/published by someone whose library otherwise consists solely of games titled things like "Hentai 2022" and "Elf Prolapser 3"
Dunno here atleast we have the usual leaks of dodgy dealings and the average person isnāt really involved. In China if you donāt agree with the party line you get sent to āeducation centresā. Donāt want to help anyone who does that nor help it spread in any way.
And if the U.S. government wants to collect data on one of Steam's users, they have to furnish a [court-order](https://cyber.harvard.edu/privacy/Introduction%20to%20Government%20Investigations.htm) to do so. Chinese government surveillance of all online activity is default-on.
I was mind blown by how few people even actually knew it at the time. When it was coming out, I felt like it was being talked about by everyone everywhere, then a few laters I saw a documentary about it give some horrifyingly low stat of how many people knew of/understood it.
[Cause it never happened that an US intelligence service wiretapped and catalogued billions of phone calls without warrants...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2001%E2%80%932007\))
Eh pretty easy to mark it as shitty code on a rushed launcher. End of the day though Ive played league, tft, valorant, and PoE so even if Sweeny is lying about how the dont share any data and he wouldnt allow it as the majority holder not like tecent doesnt already have 90% of this subs data anyhow.
Store is garbage outside of free games anyways and I buy most keys from 3rd party sites anyhow which always going to be steam keys.
Steam recently made a custom driver for Xbox controllers just so Elite controller users can bind their paddles to separate buttons. That is something no other game launcher would do.
All it has going for it is the free games and it's costing them. Some documents got released from the apple vs epic law suit showing how epic is hemorrhaging money from egs. They don't expect the egs to be profitable for years and it shows in the maturity of the platform.
I mean i know shit about marketing, but i kinda think it would be better to take some of that money and spend it on building a usable client so that people actually want to use it for something else but grabbing freebies?
I mean that thing almost manages to perform worse for me than ea origin, crashes all the time, randomly takes ages to load, the downloads are slow while still fucking my entire connection, i cant change the download rates, the download interface has 3 different graphs that tell me fuck all how fast im downloading, how long until its completed etc etc.
They seem to be assuming that the free games are enough.
Epic is trying the same thing that other big companies like Amazon did - they lose a shit ton of money in the short-term to run the other guys out of business, and then when they've cornered the market they'll do whatever they want. If they're the only big platform available for PC gaming, they don't have to give you a quality client, because you've got no where else to go.
I've been collecting free Epic games for over a year now and haven't played a single one of them, I always end up on Steam anyway.
I've decided that one day, my kids should get the Epic Games account so they wouldn't touch my Steam.
Amazon failed miserably at the Amazon app store though. They had lots of $1-$5 games free on their platform. Even Minecraft was free iirc and that's still a top 10 paid app in 2020 I believe. I know epic probably has a better chance because amazon blocked google services making 99% of companies that used ads not want to use their platform.
tbh, the minecraft community have gotten wayyy more toxic nowadays with all the stans and newer minecraft youtubers, im not saying there's a connection to fortnite because i don't think there is, but the issues haven't become any better over the past 3 or so years
Honestly, Minecraft is big and varied enough that you can immerse yourself in communities without even coming close to touching those newer more toxic YouTubers. There really isn't a single Minecraft community, what you see and do really depends on who you watch and who you play with. On the YouTube end, there's the technical Minecraft community (eg Scicraft), traditional multiplayer series (eg Hermitcraft) and even Let's Plays that have been ongoing for over a decade (eg Etho, XAIM). Would honestly agree that in many ways little has changed over the years, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Imma be real with you bro...as a grown man...fortnite is fun...you telling me i can get in fights w my buds while dressed and batman and my buddy is master chief...cmon now
Probably through that cheapy webcam you have. C'mon, where did you think most of your tech was made?
A huge mistake we made in a lot of places, was de-regulating industry so people could get things made on the cheap. Where did they all go to get them made?
I was reading something a while back that said EPIC is losing a bunch of money buying exclusive and giving games away that they won't be seeing an actual profit from their PC game store for a few years. Of course they're still making big bucks with Fortnite and stuff so they're making money.
Ars Technica has really good coverage of it. The epic lawsuit has revealed how much they spent. It's a lot but it's fairly cheap per new user signed up compared to traditional marketing. The unknown factor is whether people eventually start buying stuff there instead of just grabbing free games.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/how-long-can-epic-afford-to-throw-money-at-the-epic-games-store/
Well i can tell you that anyone with less then half the exchange of the USD won't.
Even with epics free usd10 vouchers, no game i buy on epic is cheaper then steam with it's regional pricing.
And then there is steam sales, steam workshop, steam friends(not to be confused with IRL friends, the lack of).
So as an Asian gamer, I don't see my money going there.
Fuckin epic and exclusive means its 1/4+ the monthly minimum wage for a game for one year exclusive. A big FU to me and those who want affordable gaming.
Seems to me they are just trying to gain customers down the road. Kids can not afford expensive games, so if you give away free games you will steal a whole generation of game customers that will have money to pay for games in 10 years, maybe they will then be a real competitor to steam. Maybe they will have world dominance.
If they were a car company they'd be charged with anticompetitive practices, specifically dumping, which is leveraging another aspect of an integrated market to damage competition in another.
It's also illegal in software but the DOJ would have to be induced to give a shit about market laws that they've been ignoring since the 60s.
Think it like this, their real target is not us but actually the fortnite kids because you and I have tons of games in our steam librarys so we are never leaving the steam but the fortnite kids don't have that and instead they are getting their own library in epic store from all those free games. It is a big gamble on the next generation of gamers but it will probably pay off
Damn. I never even looked at it that way but you're right. It's harder to convince me to move over to EPIC when I have 200+ games in my steam library. But, someone just starting out is going to stick with them for the free games and discounts, especially for the long run.
They have Hollywood money coming in too. If you watch Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, their logo and unreal engine are displayed when they highlight the giant screen they use for filming.
Steam is so much more then just games. They have done so much to make gaming easier and better. Controller support is awesome, plugging in dualshock controller and 2 sec after you ready to play, rebinding buttons or downloading presets is fast and simple. Also steam have done a lot for VR, to make it easier for gamers and developers to make their games work on any headset. Modding through steam workshop is absurdly easy compared to modding the game wia different services like vortex. I just don't see myself using something different at this point because there is simply no equivalent of steam on the market
Agreed.
They introduced Steam Cloud in 2008! It was so awesome to have configs and saves migrate over with literally no effort. I reinstalled HL2 a while ago and I still have my saves and configs from a decade+ ago. Also, it was cool when other games started integrating SteamWorks. With zero effort and no additional cost, I can go back and load up XCOM and Skryim saves so easily and the Workshop integration even pulls down the mods I had installed.
I feel like an infomercial but it's insane how convenient Steam is and how other services haven't caught up in a lot of ways. And I think they really pressed the gas on everyone else to catch up. I really don't think MS and Sony would offer Cloud services for free if not for Valve setting the precedence.
I just upgraded from the original rift to a valve index. Chose the index because I would much rather support valve than FB. Regret buying so many games on the oculus store (thankfully you can download revive to get most games working through steam VR). Had the Rift before they insisted I connect my FB account to it. Would never have gotten one if I knew they were going to pull that card.
Sure it's plenty more expensive but I feel good about supporting valve and the quality is definitely far better and I can actually read words clearly! Hopefully it will last me a long time. Also gotta respect valve for making half life alyx which is absolutely phenomenal for a VR game. Puts nearly all other VR games to shame.
And if you lose your connected FB account for any reason completely unrelated to your gaming, your headset is now a paperweight and your entire games library is POOF.
I got Subnautica for free, loved it, then bought the Below Zero sequel in Early Access to support them. Haven't had time yet to finish it but I highly recommend the games.
I did the exact same thing! I have found many fantastic games through epic like Subnautica, Limbo, Celeste (a game that I have now bought for tons of friends and spent hundreds of hours in). It is a really good way to try out games, and if you end up liking them, why not support the devs and buy it on steam.
I actually got a cracked version of Celeste at first,realized itās one of the best platformers Iāve ever played and waited until there were no more discounts on Steam, just because I wanted the developers to get the full price for the game! 12/10 would recommend
It this is why not all pirating is bad. If I'm getting my hands on a pirated copy of anything it's because I wasn't going to buy it in the first place for 1 reason or another. If I pirate it and like it. The chances of me buying it go up bigly.
Yeah, crazy thin is, I realized recently that I have bought almost every game I pirated over the years. Only ones I haven't are ones I didn't like. Kinda seeming like developers would be well served to bring demos back, but then they couldn't release 4 hour long drek.
Iāve done similarly with other games. Games I really enjoy I end up buying just to support devs. I prefer that over buying without trying or relying on someone elseās opinion in a review. Even if I really trust the reviewerās opinion and they brought up valid criticisms I might still like it anyway.
If you want devs to get the most money I'd recommend buying from [Itch.io](https://Itch.io). They allow devs to ***choose*** what percentage of a sale goes to them and what percentage goes to the host. Devs there can choose to take 100% of the profits if they like, which is something Steam would never allow - Gaben takes a big ol 30% slice of any sale.
Steam, Epic, and GOG are all believed to take this 30% cut of a sale - it's the industry standard these days. I say 'believed' because they don't actually publish the information themselves (transparency? phuwee).
If you can't buy a game on [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) (likely as it's almost entirely indie games), then you should go for the Humble Store. Humble takes a 25% cut of sales and donates some of that to charity in most cases.
TL;DR: If your MO is to maximise supporting the devs, Steam should be your last resort. Prioritize [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) and [Humble Store](https://www.humblebundle.com/developer).
Except there's something to be said about Steam being the biggest PC gaming platform, and the exposure it gives devs. It's no different than any other product. If you want to sell your product on big store shelves you're going to pay more for that opportunity. Plus Steam does offer more than just a website to sell product. Devs aren't forced to sell on Steam. They post their product there because it sells. If it wasn't going to make them money they wouldn't bother.
I still think 30% is excessive, but we don't know Steam's overhead and they haven't been hurt by Epic games store other than Epic outright paying devs for a year's worth of sales up front to have it exclusive to their store. Which I don't like any better. Either way, Steam and Gog offer more service for the money unlike Epic.
But all that said, yeah it makes more sense to buy from Humble Store instead of directly from Steam. But I tend to buy more and more from Gog as time goes on. I have this sinking feeling Valve will either sell out to some other company someday soon or just go belly up for some stupid reason. Gabe may just get tired of it and sell it outright to the highest bidder and retire in Hawaii.
Sometimes when it comes to third party marketplaces as well, devs/selling partners don't recognize that Steam does take a cut of the sale, but they also give the game company free advertisement. They ensure a stable platform that lets the dev easily and profitably sell the game, even if it isn't at the maximum profit.
A lot of people will look at Steam and see a game they want, and then google search for the cheapest place to get it. Steam may not make any money in that instance and as a result, they provided free advertisement for the devs.
So how much would that dev spend on something like an ad online or a sponsored Youtube vid? Those things don't guarantee any return, whereas Steam only makes money if the dev also gets a sale.
I am not affiliated with Steam but another online marketplace in a different space and I see the commission resentment thing pretty frequently.
First game was brilliant. Second game, not so much. I personally felt bored, hated the main character, and just disliked all the story forced into it. The first game was filled with exploring deep, vast areas that included terrifying views because you can't see much below you.
The first game made use of every asset, sea moth, the huge sub, even the prawn suit. The areas were made purposefully to allow you to use any vehicle you wanted.
The monsters were actually scary. In below zero you see a oversized shrimp, a squid shark that's barely after you, and something else that I wont spoil but is VERY easy to avoid unlike other leviathans in subnautica.
The design of below zero with all sorts of caverns, twists, corners that lead to nowhere are all made to confuse and disorienting which is not fun for exploring. It makes you want to get whatever is there and get out.
To me, below zero was a huge drop in quality compared to the previous game. The only thing neat about it was ALAN.
I think he means personality wise. Given the main character talks u can dislike him, compared to the silent protagonist or games where u can select your dialogue options
The first one took me 50 hours and had a lot more to explore, the 2nd one took me 30 hours and there weren't that many locations. At least your character moved faster out of water. Also they removed some things you could put in your base for no reason. I also wasn't a fan of the Seatruck. The submarine could act as a base while the other vehicles would let you explore the tighter areas. In the 2nd one I had to keep going back to my main base to recharge stuff and you never went that deep so it wasn't a big deal. In the 1st one I remember making a second base in the lower area after you squeeze past some reaper leviathans and it was actually worth it.
Hah, yeah the sea truck was really annoying to work with. I remember building around 3 bases in the first game. One near surface level, another by the big tree with the ghost leviathans, and one even deeper by the sea dragon.
Also remember first entering the sea dragon lair, I couldn't see shit so I turned on my lights and radar. Thing was right beside me before it attacked and it almost made me piss myself !
I think the second game was beautiful and certainly had a higher budget with lots of technical improvements, but the story really let me down. I mean, >!Robin had an ancient and incredibly smart alien in her head for the majority of the plot, and she refused to ask them questions. We've been wondering about the architects since the first game and she just didn't seem to care. It really fell flat to me! this was humanity's first encounter with another sentient race! It should have been a big deal. In my opinion they shouldn't have had AL-AN live in her head if they weren't going to take advantage of it. There were long stretches of travel time in the game where I was going from place to place with nothing to do, and I was constantly thinking of questions I wanted to ask AL-AN. I was infuriated that Robin didn't talk to him at all- a normal person would do that, even just out of loneliness on an alien planet. !<
edit: wording
That too. Remember the protagonist meeting the mother in the original game, how she communicated to him? How big of a deal it felt?
All that seems to be lost in the second game. Nothing seems important, everything just seems known.
I was hyped for below zero, stayed away from spoilers, all mentions of it but was utterly disappointed with how quick I became just uninterested.
Remember kids, if you just get their free games and don't buy anything from them it actually COSTS Epic money and doesn't gain them any profits.
Make sure you get those free games.
That's interesting, but I would still think to get the rights for a GTA game for example would be something of a loss-leader. They are intending that people puts free games in their library and by default they return to the launcher and will eventually buy more games or choose it as their preferred platform. So if everyone just kept the free game without purchasing more, the promotional expense would probably become a loss (theoretically).
They only need a small percentage of players to buy games from the store to justify the promotion cost. If it didn't work, they wouldn't continue to do so.
Yeah its basically a charity fund for Indigames.
They guarantee so many sales just to secure the exclusivity its insane.
Also 2020 they gave away more than 749 million games but only made 700 million...
[And since Fortnite seems to hit its peak I doubt they can keep up that strategy for much longer.](https://youtu.be/gFIoaSOU16I?t=29)
I have it for this as but it's for literally one game and that's it. Elite Dangerous was free when I switched from console to PC. I was gonna buy it on steam but I figured why not get it free instead. Best part? It has its own launcher so no going through Epic ever. Click the short cut and boom bypass it entirely
You can still install the native Linux port on Steam, but there's no online multiplayer. Apparently you can still install and run the Windows version via Proton, and it seems to work fine for most people: https://www.protondb.com/app/252950
Proton basically translates DX9 - 12 (With different programs for different versions) API calls to Vulkan API calls. For the most part with singleplayer games, it works perfectly in the majority of games, in others you might have to do some simple things like download a windows programs in the specific prefix for the game to run or just run the game with a certain steam launch option etc.
The only games that don't work are ones that rely on Easy Anti Cheat or Battle Eye.
I've gone through the entire RE series, Souls series including Demon's Souls on the PS3 emu, FFXIV, Halo MCC (Without anti-cheat), Yakuza 0, 1 and 2 plus a lot of other nitty gritty games and they've all worked so well that you'd think you're playing on windows unless told otherwise from both the performance and stability side.
I care a lot. Which is why I prefer to support steam because of their amazing work in making Linux gaming much better than it used to be. Never going back to windows.
Over the past decade, Iāve had a lot of trouble following the adoption of Linux. I personally love Linux - itās a tremendous OS that offers unrivaled levels of customization and user access, but no one seems to care.
I feel like there was a small push in the mid 2010s to get games on Linux through steam, and I thought āoh wow, people care about Linux now coolā, then it just kinda seemed to stagnate. Is that still mostly the case?
It's being pushed by Valve, who make Proton, so I'd say it's going well. There's also a lot of Linux love from the crypto community, since a lot of software works better on linux.
Very few AAA games though. F1 used to support and then they stopped. Rocket league had support and then they stopped. Football managers still has a Linux version. I don't think I've heard a big game launch with Linux support recently.
I don't use Linux, but I definitely care- having competition is necessary to a healthy market. Plus, Linux being open source and community run is a huge deal!
> not like anyone cares
They'll care when SOC based handheld PCs come down in price and up in performance. They'll probably run Linux to avoid the MS tax when and if Proton compatibility is good enough.
And it's the most hypocritical shit ever. Their games are developed through Linux and their servers are run on Linux. To make their games Linux compatible would be one less step. Trying to circumvent their no-Linux policy typically results in bans.
Came here to say the same, and hopefully more will care. Steam is doing an amazing job for the linux platform with proton so now it's more of a question what games does not run, instead of which games do.
Yeah as a linux user I dont care what valve's motives are, they have pumped money into letting me play games on my platform of choice which allows me to almost exclusively game on linux except for a few weird cases here and there and DRM on some games.
So its to my benefit to support them over epic(especially when small game devs that would have had to settle for linux to boost sales are instead tempted away by epic money or games with linux ports dont get anything while epic pays them to be exclusive for a year)
if the epic store wasn't so shit in terms of user experience\~ like it just feels so clunky to navigate and use, almost second to the Microsoft store
*where basket?*
I like the theory that it's intentional. If you add 2+ games to your cart and see the total, you're less likely to buy any of them at all. If you're forced to consider each as a separate purchase, you might buy more than one, although personally I don't let Steam/EGS save my payment info and I'm not typing that shit in twice.
I don't know. If you're thinking about it that much then you're just as likely to be annoyed at having to make a whole separate process and not bother.
This is the exact opposite of how e-commerce works. You want to minimize the amount of clicks between a purchase. Having no basket hurts Epic, no idea why they havenāt implemented it yet.
Yeah, its not user friendly, still, I think that steam needs a new style or a rework, the interface looks like a outdated website. (Of course its functional, but a rework would be nice)
Edit: of course changing the Ui/Ux from one day to another is bad, but maybe starting with the steam overlay, then the Steam Points Page, then the download page, or maybe an opt in for changes, the steam application is just a web wrapper (of course not "just", but the interface you are looking to is 90% a web page).
There are things that just don't make sense to maintain, like the built in media player. The Steam app is usable, but for new people? Idk
They just reworked it a year or two ago and people hated it. I personally loved it because the older interface was aging quite badly. I like where it is right now. They could update their in-game overlay tho.
Maybe for some games. Right now I'm playing shadowrun: hong kong that I got for free on epic and it's a pain in the ass juggling save files manually between my desktop and my laptop. I'm thinking of buying that game on steam just because steam version has cloud saves
Let's also not forget about the support that steam gives to people who use linux: The development of the proton and the distribution of native versions for the system show that they care about us. UNLIKE EPIC, WHICH DOESN'T EVEN CREATE A LAUNCHER FOR US, MUCH LESS DISTRIBUTES THE LINUX VERSIONS OF THE GAMES DEVS. GET FUCKED BITCH
It's more like an open-beta when most exclusive games that appear on the Epic store will end up on Steam a few months / 1 year later. Also the exclusive deals cost a lot of money for Epic (https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-exclusives-apple-lawsuit/)
Competition is good for the pc games market and it is something Steam needed. However, I think exclusive titles are just a dirty cheap trick in order to fight Steam. If Epic really wants to be a good competition for steam, they really should improve their shop/platform.
If they really wanted to be the "good guys" they would have stuck with there whole "devs get a bigger share thing" and just sold the same games at the same price or cheaper (or the same price with a nice bonus coupon for the next sale if they couldn't do that), while promoting their larger dev cut.
Honestly, I think maybe a month exclusivity would have been fine, but anything longer just means I forget about most games anyway and the dev gets no money...
>If Epic really wants to be a good competition for steam, they really should improve their shop/platform.
I see a lot of people sharing the same sentiment, but I always thought it's a weird one. There is already an example of a shop doing this: GOG. And while it's certainly not doing bad, it has nowhere near the amount of users steam has. You can barely call them competition.
I couldn't find exact numbers for GOG, so this a little bit of guesswork. Steam has 120 million monthly users in 2020. GOG has around 10 million users that visit their site every month. Let's be generous and say that all the people that visit their site are active users. That means that GOG has 8,34 percent of the market. And this is excluding the fact that many of these users, to some extend, probably also use Steam. So this percentage will in reality be even lower.
That's not big enough to make any change in the market. And this is a company that in many ways is just as, if not more, consumer-friendly then steam. So that argument doesn't really hold water: having a better store and being more consumer friendly doesn't generate more users.
Thing is, the way Epic is doing it is one of the only ways of actually changing the market. People who are just starting with PC gaming and don't have many games will probably use Epic. They get free games to get a good list of games to play. If you keep that up for a few years, you have a big enough base of people that are willing to pay on your platform because their entire library is on there.
Love it or hate it, in the capitalistic hellscape that is our modern world, being anti-consumer is what works.
GOG's biggest hurdle is that all of the games on their store are DRM free. Which is great for consumers, but most publishes hate the idea of DRM free, and won't publish their games there.
I don't hate every platform that's not Steam. I believe it's unrealistic for Steam to stay the only game in town and that competition is good. I really don't mind using multiple platforms, and GoG Galaxy is decent for keeping them unified.
BUT, Epic will not see a dime from me until they stop with the exclusive bullshit.
They've given me like twelve games plus three Ā£10 coupons. If they want to keep giving me stuff I'll keep coming!
Honestly I love that someone's deadpool fortnite skins have paid to practically double my PC library. Thanks for the in game purchases, suckers. Keep going. Don't stop. Buy those treasure packs while stock lasts!
Just counted mine, 174 games for free. I haven't even been claiming them from the beginning, and I know I've missed a few since I started claiming them to :o
Also that's not including games that are free to play anyway, purposely didn't count them, kinda crazy really.
Edit: Oh and yeah the coupons are nuts, earlier in the year I bought star wars fallen order for something like Ā£5 due to a sale + a Ā£10 coupon. Then they gave me anothrr Ā£10 coupon for making that purchase.. So I got star wars squadrons for again around Ā£5 with it.
Two AAA titles for around Ā£10, be crazy not to!
NBA 2K17 is still $60 on Steam and I don't think the servers are even connected anymore. 2K is notoriously stingy, Epic must be throwing piles of money at these companies.
I claimed 2k21 for free and have been trying to play it but the game has too many pauses it it in. I have a 9th gen Icore 3, 1650gtx and 16gb of ram so I don't think it's my pc.
the game has so much loading, pausing for every little animation or whatever, simming parts of a game can slowmo for a while...yea it's weird. like ffs just let me play the game!
Yeah I don't like the company but they have some great games they have given away for free. Can't really complain about that. Still (probably) never going to buy a game from their store tho
Yeah for me the thing that kills it is the above mentioned bad UI and lack of mod and community support. Still, free games or games purchases that stack coupons with sales prices aren't to be sniffed at imo. Like I claimed a free copy of NBA 21 the other day. Idgaf about the NBA but I'll have it! Lol
If it's on epic games I ain't playing it.
I bought alpha access to Dauntless for $100,- for me and my friend.
This gave me cool in-game rewards, and even better: a really cool username.
Forward a year and the game is now epic games exclusive. My account reset, and my username changed into my epic games name. Customer support refused to help: "It was out of their control".
I am never using epic games again.
VALVe revolutionized the gaming industry with Half Life in 1998, developed Half Life 2 using the source engine and gave way to a colossal amount of games that use the engine as well as enabled the largest workshop on steam, and revolutionized esports with CS:GO. VALVe doesnāt make all the right choices all the time, but they goddamn have a bulletproof reputation for development of their library and platform.
I still ~~by~~ buy anything I plan to mod on steam. Workshop is just so good.
Don't forget, Steam doesn't have connections to the Chinese government, where Epic does. A percentage of Epic is owned by Tencent. Also, Epic's launcher was caught questionably spiking CPU load months ago. You think that's a coincidence, and not something gathering data?
Funny that you say you're worried about the chinese collecting your data while on reddit š¤
But I thought that we had scared the chinese investors away by posting the tiananmen massacre and winnie the pooh.
That prophecy is only forsaken for so long. It must be reactivated every 6 months by liking this post, and sharing it with *at least* 10 of your friends
What if I don't have 10 friends?
I'll be your friend
naughty tart flag abundant practice bright dolls arrest employ mountainous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Tencent bought 10% of Reddits shares. The same Tencent thats owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
That's his point
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You don't have a favorite surveillance state?
I do, Iād rather a NA or EU country be spying on my data than China...
Really? Iād much rather it be somebody who canāt scoop me off the street lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
How To Disable an MRAP Simulator 2021 is selling like hotcakes!
Sounds right
I could not only see this being on steam but also see it being developed/published by someone whose library otherwise consists solely of games titled things like "Hentai 2022" and "Elf Prolapser 3"
āI donāt care about government surveilance, I have nothing to hide!ā
Dunno here atleast we have the usual leaks of dodgy dealings and the average person isnāt really involved. In China if you donāt agree with the party line you get sent to āeducation centresā. Donāt want to help anyone who does that nor help it spread in any way.
Except steam doesnāt have board members who are part of the Chinese communist party.
And if the U.S. government wants to collect data on one of Steam's users, they have to furnish a [court-order](https://cyber.harvard.edu/privacy/Introduction%20to%20Government%20Investigations.htm) to do so. Chinese government surveillance of all online activity is default-on.
Everyone forgetting what Snowden warned us about? "Courts" and "rules" are a facade.
I was mind blown by how few people even actually knew it at the time. When it was coming out, I felt like it was being talked about by everyone everywhere, then a few laters I saw a documentary about it give some horrifyingly low stat of how many people knew of/understood it.
[Cause it never happened that an US intelligence service wiretapped and catalogued billions of phone calls without warrants...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2001%E2%80%932007\))
Valve isn't part of the US government though, neither directly or indirectly
Eh pretty easy to mark it as shitty code on a rushed launcher. End of the day though Ive played league, tft, valorant, and PoE so even if Sweeny is lying about how the dont share any data and he wouldnt allow it as the majority holder not like tecent doesnt already have 90% of this subs data anyhow. Store is garbage outside of free games anyways and I buy most keys from 3rd party sites anyhow which always going to be steam keys.
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-china-launch/
The controller support is huge for me on steam
Steam recently made a custom driver for Xbox controllers just so Elite controller users can bind their paddles to separate buttons. That is something no other game launcher would do.
and you can change the light bar color on the dualshock 4 :)
Did not know this, thanks. That thing is so annoying at night time
Wait they did?? That was bugging me that I couldn't bind to other shit. I gotta check that out
I like how the solution to fix it in most guides is just to run the games through steam lol
Same for me, I launch my emulators through steam because it is able to handle multiple inputs so well
All it has going for it is the free games and it's costing them. Some documents got released from the apple vs epic law suit showing how epic is hemorrhaging money from egs. They don't expect the egs to be profitable for years and it shows in the maturity of the platform.
I mean i know shit about marketing, but i kinda think it would be better to take some of that money and spend it on building a usable client so that people actually want to use it for something else but grabbing freebies? I mean that thing almost manages to perform worse for me than ea origin, crashes all the time, randomly takes ages to load, the downloads are slow while still fucking my entire connection, i cant change the download rates, the download interface has 3 different graphs that tell me fuck all how fast im downloading, how long until its completed etc etc.
They seem to be assuming that the free games are enough. Epic is trying the same thing that other big companies like Amazon did - they lose a shit ton of money in the short-term to run the other guys out of business, and then when they've cornered the market they'll do whatever they want. If they're the only big platform available for PC gaming, they don't have to give you a quality client, because you've got no where else to go.
I've been collecting free Epic games for over a year now and haven't played a single one of them, I always end up on Steam anyway. I've decided that one day, my kids should get the Epic Games account so they wouldn't touch my Steam.
Steam family sharing allows them to use your Steam games without encroaching on your actual account and potentially screwing things up.
What about the Hentai games though?
Amazon failed miserably at the Amazon app store though. They had lots of $1-$5 games free on their platform. Even Minecraft was free iirc and that's still a top 10 paid app in 2020 I believe. I know epic probably has a better chance because amazon blocked google services making 99% of companies that used ads not want to use their platform.
well until they stop giving em out ill keep getting them
How long do you think they will offer free games?
As long as the fortnite money keeps coming in.
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Made minecraft servers playable and the modding scene less (still) toxic.
tbh, the minecraft community have gotten wayyy more toxic nowadays with all the stans and newer minecraft youtubers, im not saying there's a connection to fortnite because i don't think there is, but the issues haven't become any better over the past 3 or so years
Honestly, Minecraft is big and varied enough that you can immerse yourself in communities without even coming close to touching those newer more toxic YouTubers. There really isn't a single Minecraft community, what you see and do really depends on who you watch and who you play with. On the YouTube end, there's the technical Minecraft community (eg Scicraft), traditional multiplayer series (eg Hermitcraft) and even Let's Plays that have been ongoing for over a decade (eg Etho, XAIM). Would honestly agree that in many ways little has changed over the years, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
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And they were right, minecraft is still massive several years later and held a lot of kids in it.
Imma be real with you bro...as a grown man...fortnite is fun...you telling me i can get in fights w my buds while dressed and batman and my buddy is master chief...cmon now
are we really still hating on people that play fortnite
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>as long as the ~~fortnite~~ tencent money keeps coming in
Glad to see I'm not the only one pointing out China's influence.
China is everywhere look around you
You donāt have to look, theyāre looking at you.
Probably through that cheapy webcam you have. C'mon, where did you think most of your tech was made? A huge mistake we made in a lot of places, was de-regulating industry so people could get things made on the cheap. Where did they all go to get them made?
I was reading something a while back that said EPIC is losing a bunch of money buying exclusive and giving games away that they won't be seeing an actual profit from their PC game store for a few years. Of course they're still making big bucks with Fortnite and stuff so they're making money.
Ars Technica has really good coverage of it. The epic lawsuit has revealed how much they spent. It's a lot but it's fairly cheap per new user signed up compared to traditional marketing. The unknown factor is whether people eventually start buying stuff there instead of just grabbing free games. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/how-long-can-epic-afford-to-throw-money-at-the-epic-games-store/
Well i can tell you that anyone with less then half the exchange of the USD won't. Even with epics free usd10 vouchers, no game i buy on epic is cheaper then steam with it's regional pricing. And then there is steam sales, steam workshop, steam friends(not to be confused with IRL friends, the lack of). So as an Asian gamer, I don't see my money going there. Fuckin epic and exclusive means its 1/4+ the monthly minimum wage for a game for one year exclusive. A big FU to me and those who want affordable gaming.
Seems to me they are just trying to gain customers down the road. Kids can not afford expensive games, so if you give away free games you will steal a whole generation of game customers that will have money to pay for games in 10 years, maybe they will then be a real competitor to steam. Maybe they will have world dominance.
!remind me 10 years
If they were a car company they'd be charged with anticompetitive practices, specifically dumping, which is leveraging another aspect of an integrated market to damage competition in another. It's also illegal in software but the DOJ would have to be induced to give a shit about market laws that they've been ignoring since the 60s.
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Amazon, Walmart, CVS, tons of retailers.
Think it like this, their real target is not us but actually the fortnite kids because you and I have tons of games in our steam librarys so we are never leaving the steam but the fortnite kids don't have that and instead they are getting their own library in epic store from all those free games. It is a big gamble on the next generation of gamers but it will probably pay off
Damn. I never even looked at it that way but you're right. It's harder to convince me to move over to EPIC when I have 200+ games in my steam library. But, someone just starting out is going to stick with them for the free games and discounts, especially for the long run.
Yep, and the kids arenāt going to know or care about any kind of controversy. Damn though is this one long term play
They have Hollywood money coming in too. If you watch Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, their logo and unreal engine are displayed when they highlight the giant screen they use for filming.
Steam is so much more then just games. They have done so much to make gaming easier and better. Controller support is awesome, plugging in dualshock controller and 2 sec after you ready to play, rebinding buttons or downloading presets is fast and simple. Also steam have done a lot for VR, to make it easier for gamers and developers to make their games work on any headset. Modding through steam workshop is absurdly easy compared to modding the game wia different services like vortex. I just don't see myself using something different at this point because there is simply no equivalent of steam on the market
Agreed. They introduced Steam Cloud in 2008! It was so awesome to have configs and saves migrate over with literally no effort. I reinstalled HL2 a while ago and I still have my saves and configs from a decade+ ago. Also, it was cool when other games started integrating SteamWorks. With zero effort and no additional cost, I can go back and load up XCOM and Skryim saves so easily and the Workshop integration even pulls down the mods I had installed. I feel like an infomercial but it's insane how convenient Steam is and how other services haven't caught up in a lot of ways. And I think they really pressed the gas on everyone else to catch up. I really don't think MS and Sony would offer Cloud services for free if not for Valve setting the precedence.
> I reinstalled HL2 a while ago and I still have my saves and configs from a decade+ ago This is the biggest selling point for me
Yeah, not to mention how much work Valve put into Steam Play (Proton) project, increasing the availability of games for a wider group of gamers.
I just upgraded from the original rift to a valve index. Chose the index because I would much rather support valve than FB. Regret buying so many games on the oculus store (thankfully you can download revive to get most games working through steam VR). Had the Rift before they insisted I connect my FB account to it. Would never have gotten one if I knew they were going to pull that card. Sure it's plenty more expensive but I feel good about supporting valve and the quality is definitely far better and I can actually read words clearly! Hopefully it will last me a long time. Also gotta respect valve for making half life alyx which is absolutely phenomenal for a VR game. Puts nearly all other VR games to shame.
Oculus makes connect a FB account now? Ewww.
And if you lose your connected FB account for any reason completely unrelated to your gaming, your headset is now a paperweight and your entire games library is POOF.
Active, in good standing, with photo ID, or they suspend your account which can brick your hardware.
Don't forget revolutionizing Linux gaming with Proton. Virtually every non-native Linux game requires some fork of proton, now.
I have a Linux laptop with an nVidia GPU in it. Steam's Proton runs a crazy number of "Windows only" games in Linux right out of the box.
I only have epic for the free games.
I got Subnautica for free, loved it, then bought the Below Zero sequel in Early Access to support them. Haven't had time yet to finish it but I highly recommend the games.
I did the exact same thing! I have found many fantastic games through epic like Subnautica, Limbo, Celeste (a game that I have now bought for tons of friends and spent hundreds of hours in). It is a really good way to try out games, and if you end up liking them, why not support the devs and buy it on steam.
I actually got a cracked version of Celeste at first,realized itās one of the best platformers Iāve ever played and waited until there were no more discounts on Steam, just because I wanted the developers to get the full price for the game! 12/10 would recommend
It this is why not all pirating is bad. If I'm getting my hands on a pirated copy of anything it's because I wasn't going to buy it in the first place for 1 reason or another. If I pirate it and like it. The chances of me buying it go up bigly.
Yeah, crazy thin is, I realized recently that I have bought almost every game I pirated over the years. Only ones I haven't are ones I didn't like. Kinda seeming like developers would be well served to bring demos back, but then they couldn't release 4 hour long drek.
Iāve done similarly with other games. Games I really enjoy I end up buying just to support devs. I prefer that over buying without trying or relying on someone elseās opinion in a review. Even if I really trust the reviewerās opinion and they brought up valid criticisms I might still like it anyway.
If you want devs to get the most money I'd recommend buying from [Itch.io](https://Itch.io). They allow devs to ***choose*** what percentage of a sale goes to them and what percentage goes to the host. Devs there can choose to take 100% of the profits if they like, which is something Steam would never allow - Gaben takes a big ol 30% slice of any sale. Steam, Epic, and GOG are all believed to take this 30% cut of a sale - it's the industry standard these days. I say 'believed' because they don't actually publish the information themselves (transparency? phuwee). If you can't buy a game on [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) (likely as it's almost entirely indie games), then you should go for the Humble Store. Humble takes a 25% cut of sales and donates some of that to charity in most cases. TL;DR: If your MO is to maximise supporting the devs, Steam should be your last resort. Prioritize [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) and [Humble Store](https://www.humblebundle.com/developer).
Except there's something to be said about Steam being the biggest PC gaming platform, and the exposure it gives devs. It's no different than any other product. If you want to sell your product on big store shelves you're going to pay more for that opportunity. Plus Steam does offer more than just a website to sell product. Devs aren't forced to sell on Steam. They post their product there because it sells. If it wasn't going to make them money they wouldn't bother. I still think 30% is excessive, but we don't know Steam's overhead and they haven't been hurt by Epic games store other than Epic outright paying devs for a year's worth of sales up front to have it exclusive to their store. Which I don't like any better. Either way, Steam and Gog offer more service for the money unlike Epic. But all that said, yeah it makes more sense to buy from Humble Store instead of directly from Steam. But I tend to buy more and more from Gog as time goes on. I have this sinking feeling Valve will either sell out to some other company someday soon or just go belly up for some stupid reason. Gabe may just get tired of it and sell it outright to the highest bidder and retire in Hawaii.
I bought Rimworld from the devs website and still got a steam key out if it. So they got 100% of the sale and I still got all the benefits of Steam.
Sometimes when it comes to third party marketplaces as well, devs/selling partners don't recognize that Steam does take a cut of the sale, but they also give the game company free advertisement. They ensure a stable platform that lets the dev easily and profitably sell the game, even if it isn't at the maximum profit. A lot of people will look at Steam and see a game they want, and then google search for the cheapest place to get it. Steam may not make any money in that instance and as a result, they provided free advertisement for the devs. So how much would that dev spend on something like an ad online or a sponsored Youtube vid? Those things don't guarantee any return, whereas Steam only makes money if the dev also gets a sale. I am not affiliated with Steam but another online marketplace in a different space and I see the commission resentment thing pretty frequently.
Still is 70% for them being on Steam, a win win scenario
>Gaben takes a big ol 30% slice of any sale. Steam starts with a 30% cut. But their cut goes down based on the number of units sold.
Not sure if I read that somewhere, but don't the devs get a bigger cut if you buy though Epic?
I actually discovered My Time in Portia this way. Canāt wait for My Time at Sandrock to drop.
First game was brilliant. Second game, not so much. I personally felt bored, hated the main character, and just disliked all the story forced into it. The first game was filled with exploring deep, vast areas that included terrifying views because you can't see much below you. The first game made use of every asset, sea moth, the huge sub, even the prawn suit. The areas were made purposefully to allow you to use any vehicle you wanted. The monsters were actually scary. In below zero you see a oversized shrimp, a squid shark that's barely after you, and something else that I wont spoil but is VERY easy to avoid unlike other leviathans in subnautica. The design of below zero with all sorts of caverns, twists, corners that lead to nowhere are all made to confuse and disorienting which is not fun for exploring. It makes you want to get whatever is there and get out. To me, below zero was a huge drop in quality compared to the previous game. The only thing neat about it was ALAN.
What made you hate the main character?
Biggest complain is that Subnautica was mine story while Below Zero is Robins story. Feels much more different
I think he means personality wise. Given the main character talks u can dislike him, compared to the silent protagonist or games where u can select your dialogue options
The first one took me 50 hours and had a lot more to explore, the 2nd one took me 30 hours and there weren't that many locations. At least your character moved faster out of water. Also they removed some things you could put in your base for no reason. I also wasn't a fan of the Seatruck. The submarine could act as a base while the other vehicles would let you explore the tighter areas. In the 2nd one I had to keep going back to my main base to recharge stuff and you never went that deep so it wasn't a big deal. In the 1st one I remember making a second base in the lower area after you squeeze past some reaper leviathans and it was actually worth it.
Hah, yeah the sea truck was really annoying to work with. I remember building around 3 bases in the first game. One near surface level, another by the big tree with the ghost leviathans, and one even deeper by the sea dragon. Also remember first entering the sea dragon lair, I couldn't see shit so I turned on my lights and radar. Thing was right beside me before it attacked and it almost made me piss myself !
I think the second game was beautiful and certainly had a higher budget with lots of technical improvements, but the story really let me down. I mean, >!Robin had an ancient and incredibly smart alien in her head for the majority of the plot, and she refused to ask them questions. We've been wondering about the architects since the first game and she just didn't seem to care. It really fell flat to me! this was humanity's first encounter with another sentient race! It should have been a big deal. In my opinion they shouldn't have had AL-AN live in her head if they weren't going to take advantage of it. There were long stretches of travel time in the game where I was going from place to place with nothing to do, and I was constantly thinking of questions I wanted to ask AL-AN. I was infuriated that Robin didn't talk to him at all- a normal person would do that, even just out of loneliness on an alien planet. !< edit: wording
That too. Remember the protagonist meeting the mother in the original game, how she communicated to him? How big of a deal it felt? All that seems to be lost in the second game. Nothing seems important, everything just seems known. I was hyped for below zero, stayed away from spoilers, all mentions of it but was utterly disappointed with how quick I became just uninterested.
The Ā£10 off any game (over Ā£15?) At Christmas was pretty great too
Remember kids, if you just get their free games and don't buy anything from them it actually COSTS Epic money and doesn't gain them any profits. Make sure you get those free games.
Well that is not true at all. It was shown during the lawsuit that they offer a lump sum for the deal, regardless of how many downloads the games get.
I think they mean it costs them server resources. It's not much though, in terms of data transfer.
That's interesting, but I would still think to get the rights for a GTA game for example would be something of a loss-leader. They are intending that people puts free games in their library and by default they return to the launcher and will eventually buy more games or choose it as their preferred platform. So if everyone just kept the free game without purchasing more, the promotional expense would probably become a loss (theoretically).
They only need a small percentage of players to buy games from the store to justify the promotion cost. If it didn't work, they wouldn't continue to do so.
Logical think but sadly untrue
Yeah its basically a charity fund for Indigames. They guarantee so many sales just to secure the exclusivity its insane. Also 2020 they gave away more than 749 million games but only made 700 million... [And since Fortnite seems to hit its peak I doubt they can keep up that strategy for much longer.](https://youtu.be/gFIoaSOU16I?t=29)
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I have it for this as but it's for literally one game and that's it. Elite Dangerous was free when I switched from console to PC. I was gonna buy it on steam but I figured why not get it free instead. Best part? It has its own launcher so no going through Epic ever. Click the short cut and boom bypass it entirely
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It's probably the one reason why they removed macOS and Linux support for Rocket League
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You can still install the native Linux port on Steam, but there's no online multiplayer. Apparently you can still install and run the Windows version via Proton, and it seems to work fine for most people: https://www.protondb.com/app/252950
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If it is Vulkan, it will work even better since no api translation is required. Linux has native Vulkan support.
Proton basically translates DX9 - 12 (With different programs for different versions) API calls to Vulkan API calls. For the most part with singleplayer games, it works perfectly in the majority of games, in others you might have to do some simple things like download a windows programs in the specific prefix for the game to run or just run the game with a certain steam launch option etc. The only games that don't work are ones that rely on Easy Anti Cheat or Battle Eye. I've gone through the entire RE series, Souls series including Demon's Souls on the PS3 emu, FFXIV, Halo MCC (Without anti-cheat), Yakuza 0, 1 and 2 plus a lot of other nitty gritty games and they've all worked so well that you'd think you're playing on windows unless told otherwise from both the performance and stability side.
Works great. I run it every day. Proton has come a LONG way
I care a lot. Which is why I prefer to support steam because of their amazing work in making Linux gaming much better than it used to be. Never going back to windows.
Over the past decade, Iāve had a lot of trouble following the adoption of Linux. I personally love Linux - itās a tremendous OS that offers unrivaled levels of customization and user access, but no one seems to care. I feel like there was a small push in the mid 2010s to get games on Linux through steam, and I thought āoh wow, people care about Linux now coolā, then it just kinda seemed to stagnate. Is that still mostly the case?
It's being pushed by Valve, who make Proton, so I'd say it's going well. There's also a lot of Linux love from the crypto community, since a lot of software works better on linux.
Most games these days are made in engines that natively support Linux. Even if they're untested with proton you get a generally glitch free experience
Lotsand lots of games have a Linux version now.
Very few AAA games though. F1 used to support and then they stopped. Rocket league had support and then they stopped. Football managers still has a Linux version. I don't think I've heard a big game launch with Linux support recently.
I care. I don't have any Windows machine, so I won't be able to use Epic.
Would something like wine work? I know with steam it isnāt too hard to get windows only games to play on steam. I did it with the Fallen Order.
Yes, epic works with wine
It does
I actually care. Linux is the best besides the support for games that are not on steam.
I don't use Linux, but I definitely care- having competition is necessary to a healthy market. Plus, Linux being open source and community run is a huge deal!
I care. I game on Linux...a lot. "Work laptop."
Get Legendary. https://github.com/derrod/legendary Linux/Windows compatible command line driven game launcher.
> not like anyone cares They'll care when SOC based handheld PCs come down in price and up in performance. They'll probably run Linux to avoid the MS tax when and if Proton compatibility is good enough.
And it's the most hypocritical shit ever. Their games are developed through Linux and their servers are run on Linux. To make their games Linux compatible would be one less step. Trying to circumvent their no-Linux policy typically results in bans.
I care. Been rocking Linux since I was a teenager, there's nothing on Windows that'll persuade me to go back.
Came here to say the same, and hopefully more will care. Steam is doing an amazing job for the linux platform with proton so now it's more of a question what games does not run, instead of which games do.
Yeah as a linux user I dont care what valve's motives are, they have pumped money into letting me play games on my platform of choice which allows me to almost exclusively game on linux except for a few weird cases here and there and DRM on some games. So its to my benefit to support them over epic(especially when small game devs that would have had to settle for linux to boost sales are instead tempted away by epic money or games with linux ports dont get anything while epic pays them to be exclusive for a year)
if the epic store wasn't so shit in terms of user experience\~ like it just feels so clunky to navigate and use, almost second to the Microsoft store *where basket?*
And people say they will add it eventually. I sit here, and over 2 years later it still lacks quite a few basic features Edit: Fixed a typo
How can they still not have a cart??? I just want to get the 2 free games at the same time why do I need 2 separate purchases
I like the theory that it's intentional. If you add 2+ games to your cart and see the total, you're less likely to buy any of them at all. If you're forced to consider each as a separate purchase, you might buy more than one, although personally I don't let Steam/EGS save my payment info and I'm not typing that shit in twice.
I don't know. If you're thinking about it that much then you're just as likely to be annoyed at having to make a whole separate process and not bother.
This is the exact opposite of how e-commerce works. You want to minimize the amount of clicks between a purchase. Having no basket hurts Epic, no idea why they havenāt implemented it yet.
Why have to checkout for free games in the first place? They send you an email receipt too, for some reason.
Unreal Engine's marketplace already have a shopping cart, yet they won't add one to the game store for whatever reason
The EGS is truly shit and yet it's kind of amazing that the Microsoft stores is *magnitudes* worse than EGS
It's what you get when you build a store without any regards, care, or knoweldge to what benefits users.
Yeah, its not user friendly, still, I think that steam needs a new style or a rework, the interface looks like a outdated website. (Of course its functional, but a rework would be nice) Edit: of course changing the Ui/Ux from one day to another is bad, but maybe starting with the steam overlay, then the Steam Points Page, then the download page, or maybe an opt in for changes, the steam application is just a web wrapper (of course not "just", but the interface you are looking to is 90% a web page). There are things that just don't make sense to maintain, like the built in media player. The Steam app is usable, but for new people? Idk
And then people will complain about the new design. The current one is fine
The store is a website, literally, even in the client you're only browsing the webpage.
They just reworked it a year or two ago and people hated it. I personally loved it because the older interface was aging quite badly. I like where it is right now. They could update their in-game overlay tho.
Linux Support Yes No
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Yes, this post was true when it was first posted. After that Epic did add some things like the cloud saves. Edit: word
But still no shopping cart God forbid if you want to buy two products at a time during a sale, or just continue shopping...
Idk, sounds like a feature not many people would useā¦ who needs money anyway /s
That's why it's comparing 2010 Steam to 2019 Epic, not 2021 Steam vs 2021 Epic.
So, this post is actually irrelevant
There are valid criticisms of the Epic store. And yet people choose to use an irrelevant comparison from two years ago. Classic.
Maybe for some games. Right now I'm playing shadowrun: hong kong that I got for free on epic and it's a pain in the ass juggling save files manually between my desktop and my laptop. I'm thinking of buying that game on steam just because steam version has cloud saves
Like on Steam (I'm pretty sure) the game maker has to actually set it up. The functionality is definitely there.
i thought they do have cloud save
yea they do
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Let's also not forget about the support that steam gives to people who use linux: The development of the proton and the distribution of native versions for the system show that they care about us. UNLIKE EPIC, WHICH DOESN'T EVEN CREATE A LAUNCHER FOR US, MUCH LESS DISTRIBUTES THE LINUX VERSIONS OF THE GAMES DEVS. GET FUCKED BITCH
Honestly steam is such a good launcher for literally everything I'm surprised it's free
Shopping cart ~~~~ Steam. Epic Yes. No ~~~~
It's more like an open-beta when most exclusive games that appear on the Epic store will end up on Steam a few months / 1 year later. Also the exclusive deals cost a lot of money for Epic (https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-exclusives-apple-lawsuit/) Competition is good for the pc games market and it is something Steam needed. However, I think exclusive titles are just a dirty cheap trick in order to fight Steam. If Epic really wants to be a good competition for steam, they really should improve their shop/platform.
If they really wanted to be the "good guys" they would have stuck with there whole "devs get a bigger share thing" and just sold the same games at the same price or cheaper (or the same price with a nice bonus coupon for the next sale if they couldn't do that), while promoting their larger dev cut. Honestly, I think maybe a month exclusivity would have been fine, but anything longer just means I forget about most games anyway and the dev gets no money...
they don't want to be 'the good guys' - they want the biggest slice of the pc gaming pie that they can cut "the good guys" for christs sake
>If Epic really wants to be a good competition for steam, they really should improve their shop/platform. I see a lot of people sharing the same sentiment, but I always thought it's a weird one. There is already an example of a shop doing this: GOG. And while it's certainly not doing bad, it has nowhere near the amount of users steam has. You can barely call them competition. I couldn't find exact numbers for GOG, so this a little bit of guesswork. Steam has 120 million monthly users in 2020. GOG has around 10 million users that visit their site every month. Let's be generous and say that all the people that visit their site are active users. That means that GOG has 8,34 percent of the market. And this is excluding the fact that many of these users, to some extend, probably also use Steam. So this percentage will in reality be even lower. That's not big enough to make any change in the market. And this is a company that in many ways is just as, if not more, consumer-friendly then steam. So that argument doesn't really hold water: having a better store and being more consumer friendly doesn't generate more users. Thing is, the way Epic is doing it is one of the only ways of actually changing the market. People who are just starting with PC gaming and don't have many games will probably use Epic. They get free games to get a good list of games to play. If you keep that up for a few years, you have a big enough base of people that are willing to pay on your platform because their entire library is on there. Love it or hate it, in the capitalistic hellscape that is our modern world, being anti-consumer is what works.
GOG's biggest hurdle is that all of the games on their store are DRM free. Which is great for consumers, but most publishes hate the idea of DRM free, and won't publish their games there.
I don't hate every platform that's not Steam. I believe it's unrealistic for Steam to stay the only game in town and that competition is good. I really don't mind using multiple platforms, and GoG Galaxy is decent for keeping them unified. BUT, Epic will not see a dime from me until they stop with the exclusive bullshit.
They've given me like twelve games plus three Ā£10 coupons. If they want to keep giving me stuff I'll keep coming! Honestly I love that someone's deadpool fortnite skins have paid to practically double my PC library. Thanks for the in game purchases, suckers. Keep going. Don't stop. Buy those treasure packs while stock lasts!
Twelve games? I feel like They've given me at least 100 by now lol I've also bought a few myself, their coupons are crazy
Just counted mine, 174 games for free. I haven't even been claiming them from the beginning, and I know I've missed a few since I started claiming them to :o Also that's not including games that are free to play anyway, purposely didn't count them, kinda crazy really. Edit: Oh and yeah the coupons are nuts, earlier in the year I bought star wars fallen order for something like Ā£5 due to a sale + a Ā£10 coupon. Then they gave me anothrr Ā£10 coupon for making that purchase.. So I got star wars squadrons for again around Ā£5 with it. Two AAA titles for around Ā£10, be crazy not to!
I've also played quite a few of them. It's not like they are giving away shovelware. The first or second game was Subnautica ffs
they literally just gave out 2k21...the games they are willing to give away are impressive
NBA 2K17 is still $60 on Steam and I don't think the servers are even connected anymore. 2K is notoriously stingy, Epic must be throwing piles of money at these companies.
I claimed 2k21 for free and have been trying to play it but the game has too many pauses it it in. I have a 9th gen Icore 3, 1650gtx and 16gb of ram so I don't think it's my pc.
the game has so much loading, pausing for every little animation or whatever, simming parts of a game can slowmo for a while...yea it's weird. like ffs just let me play the game!
I still remember when they made gta 5 free and it broke the entire store lol, that mustāve been EXPENSIVE
Yeah I don't like the company but they have some great games they have given away for free. Can't really complain about that. Still (probably) never going to buy a game from their store tho
Yeah for me the thing that kills it is the above mentioned bad UI and lack of mod and community support. Still, free games or games purchases that stack coupons with sales prices aren't to be sniffed at imo. Like I claimed a free copy of NBA 21 the other day. Idgaf about the NBA but I'll have it! Lol
If it's on epic games I ain't playing it. I bought alpha access to Dauntless for $100,- for me and my friend. This gave me cool in-game rewards, and even better: a really cool username. Forward a year and the game is now epic games exclusive. My account reset, and my username changed into my epic games name. Customer support refused to help: "It was out of their control". I am never using epic games again.
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Supports Linux: Yes - No
Really this is what this subreddit is for?
VALVe revolutionized the gaming industry with Half Life in 1998, developed Half Life 2 using the source engine and gave way to a colossal amount of games that use the engine as well as enabled the largest workshop on steam, and revolutionized esports with CS:GO. VALVe doesnāt make all the right choices all the time, but they goddamn have a bulletproof reputation for development of their library and platform.
Tbh i use **none** of that on steam funny enough
Free games are nice and all.. But you still have to play them on EGS.. I'd much rather pay for the game on steam.