Author Topic: Epic announces Epic Games Store  (Read 22409 times)

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Epic announces Epic Games Store
« on: Tuesday, December 04, 2018, 08:24:14 AM »
Announcement and info
This appeared in the Epic launcher the other day, and now the announcement comes. There are a few things that make this very interesting.

1. It's in the Epic launcher, which millions of people already have installed because of Fortnite. Getting people to download the client is usually the hardest hurdle and it's already taken care of.
2. Devs will get 88% of the money from each sale with Epic taking only 12%. This is a huge difference from Steam and pretty much every other digital store that takes 30%. Very attractive to devs.
3. Will eventually also sell Android games. I guess thats neat.

Anyway it will start off slow with hand picked games allowed on but will open up sometime next year to more games. It will be very interesting to see what happens and how Steam might react to the news.

Tim Sweeney Q&A about the store

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday, December 04, 2018, 10:25:11 AM »
Well, there we go.  Competition = better deal for all.  Those small devs pissed off at Valve will have an alternative to Steam.  I have a feeling Valve will have to make more adjustments at some point, unless the Epic service tanks.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday, December 04, 2018, 03:37:37 PM »
Tim Sweeney Q&A about the store

Quote
Does the store use any style of digital right management, and can players play these games offline or is an internet connection required?

We do not have any store-wide DRM.
Developers are free to use their own DRM solutions if they choose.

Nice to know the Epic Launcher itself is not laced w/ DRM; and that it's up to dev's/pub's if they want to use their own DRM schemes.

Offline Quemaqua

  • 古い塩
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 16,498
  • パンダは触るな。
    • Bookruptcy
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday, December 04, 2018, 04:58:45 PM »
Interesting. I have my doubts that this will go anywhere, honestly, but my limited experiences with the launcher weren't terrible, and there certainly is now a huge install base. Maybe that will finally give someone other than Steam some traction. It would certainly be long past due time for Valve to get its shit together and actually improve something about Steam. It feels worse all the time because it never gets any meaningful usability updates. Interface is now kinda like ... cluttered and obnoxious.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #4 on: Thursday, December 06, 2018, 10:58:31 PM »
Launched

Game Awards were tonight and a LOT of games were showing the Epic Store logo instead of Steam. Seems to be the place to be for those bigger budget indie games. They've got some exclusives and early access exclusives. The page also shows they will be giving games away for free, one game every 2 weeks. Starts next week with Subnautica and then after that Super Meat Boy.

Epic is making some plays.

Offline Quemaqua

  • 古い塩
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 16,498
  • パンダは触るな。
    • Bookruptcy
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #5 on: Friday, December 07, 2018, 04:04:45 PM »
Yeah, that's a much grander and more robust start than I expected. Especially Subnautica right off the bat. That game is one of my top of the last 15 years. Strong way to start.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #6 on: Friday, December 07, 2018, 07:36:22 PM »
Epic is making some plays.

Hades (from SuperGiant) looks to be Epic Games Store exclusive...at least for now.
Also, former PlayStation exclusive Journey is listed as coming soon.

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #7 on: Sunday, December 09, 2018, 12:30:34 AM »
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw will be exclusive for a year.

Quote
Q) Exclusives are anti-consumer, why would you do this? (you monster)

A) OK, so that’s a little complicated. And our answer is long-winded. Bear with us.

So, before Valve and the 70/30 split it was pretty darn rough to be an indie (both in terms of royalty share and in terms of the ability to sell things without a publisher). We can all thank Valve for using their leverage to make that happen, and usher in the era we have now. We think it’s safe to say that a large percentage of the games made today wouldn’t exist without it.

Epic is using their leverage to push that even farther, to 88/12. That’s another whole strata of developers who can survive.

Would we like that to become the new standard?
Yes.

Can that be done without leverage?
No.

Is some form of exclusive content required to get the momentum to make that happen?
Yes.

And we’re willing to get on board to make that happen. The only way this gets any traction is with some exclusive content and we’re willing to be one of the canaries in the mineshaft.

Do we hope there is a big upside for us? Sure. That’d be amazing. But we also hope this is the start of establishing a new standard.
More Q's get A'd in that there Q&A.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #8 on: Sunday, December 09, 2018, 07:53:27 AM »
I think this part of the Q&A is worth quoting, so I will:

Quote
Q) So I have to have another launcher running in the background all the time? Hell no!

A) Offline games (which Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is) can be played offline without the launcher.
In the future, when achievements and stats come online, you’d need to be logged in to benefit from that.

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday, December 12, 2018, 02:32:03 PM »
Epic 2019 Cross-Platform Online Services Roadmap

Basically looks like Epics answer to Steamworks, except it supports more platforms and is not tied to any engine or store.

Quote
At Epic, our goal is to help game developers succeed. Throughout 2019, we’ll be launching a large set of cross-platform game services originally built for Fortnite, and battle-tested with 200,000,000 players across 7 platforms. These services will be free for all developers, and will be open to all engines, all platforms, and all stores. As a developer, you’re free to choose mix-and-match solutions from Epic and others as you wish.

All services will be operated in a privacy-friendly, GDPR-compliant manner.

Epic’s Online Services

The service launch will begin with a C SDK encapsulating our online services, together with Unreal Engine and Unity integrations. We’ll start with a core set of features and expand over time. Specifically:

    Cross-Platform Login, Friends, Presence, Profile, and Entitlements (coming Q2-Q3 2019 to PC, other platforms throughout 2019): Provides the core functionality for persistently recognizing players across multiple sessions and devices; identifying friends; and managing free and paid item entitlements. This will support all 7 major platforms (PC, Mac, iOS, Android, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch) to the full extent each platform allows per-title.
    PC/Mac Overlay API (coming Q3 2019): Provides a user interface for login, friends, and other features in a game-agnostic, engine-agnostic way.
    Cross-Platform Voice Comms (coming Q3 2019 to all platforms): Epic is building a new in-game voice communications service supporting all platforms, all stores, and all engines, which will be available for free. (For developers needing an immediately-available voice solution, check out Discord, Vivox, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, and Mumble.)
    Cross-Platform Parties and Matchmaking (coming Q3-4 2019 to all platforms)
    Cross-Platform Data Storage, Cloud-Saved Games (coming Q2 2019)
    Cross-Platform Achievements and Trophies (coming Q3 2019)

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday, December 12, 2018, 08:59:03 PM »
Looks like they're really serious about this.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #11 on: Friday, December 14, 2018, 07:29:51 PM »
Subnautica is FREE on Epic Store now.
Go get it.
And it's DRM-FREE there too.

EDIT - 1/13/2019:
Well, it was once DRM-FREE.

Hope you backed-up your Subnautica (Epic) DRM-FREE copy elsewhere before X-Mas or so...b/c they added DRM to force the client to be running to use it, in an update recently.

EDIT - 4/3/2019:
If you have Subnautica from Epic Game Store, you can bypass the DRM check...if you know the command line.
Create a shortcut from the game folder; go to the Properties; go to Shortcut tab; and add to the Target Line -EpicPortal.
So, the Target Line might look something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Game Store\Subnautica\Subnautica.exe" -EpicPortal
« Last Edit: Wednesday, April 03, 2019, 08:50:52 PM by MysterD »

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #12 on: Sunday, January 13, 2019, 06:24:40 AM »
Epic Game Store is changing its refund policy:
https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/11/18179100/epic-games-store-refund-policy-steam-pc

To get a refund, you must meet these requirements of Epic's:
- 14 days from or less from the time you first time you launched the game.
- And you must have less than 2 hours played.

Basically, that's Steam's refund policy.
« Last Edit: Sunday, January 13, 2019, 06:57:21 PM by MysterD »

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #13 on: Sunday, January 13, 2019, 10:57:42 AM »
Subnautica is FREE on Epic Store now.
Go get it.
And it's DRM-FREE there too.

EDIT - 1/13/2019:
Well, it was once DRM-FREE.

Hope you backed-up your Subnautica (Epic) DRM-FREE copy elsewhere before X-Mas or so...b/c they added DRM to force the client to be running to use it, in an update recently.

So they're now like Steam, forcing game buyers to run a service in the background constantly, even for offline games?  That's disappointing.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #14 on: Sunday, January 13, 2019, 06:48:35 PM »
So they're now like Steam, forcing game buyers to run a service in the background constantly, even for offline games?  That's disappointing.

Eh, not entirely.

Steam doesn't force it and neither does Epic actually.
It's always up to the developers and/or publisher, if they want to use DRM.

There's plenty of games unprotected DRM-FREE games on Steam, not using CEG (CEG is Steam's homebrew DRM, which always forces the client to boot) and not using any other crap - i.e. old DOSBOX games; a fair amount of old games; Wizardry 8; Gone Home; a good deal of games from Larian (they hate DRM); etc etc. A fair deal of AA and Indie games are unprotected.

Sure, you need the client to get the game and download it in the first place - but if it ain't protected, you'll not have any issues booting it from the EXE in the game-folder directly or creating a shortcut directly from the EXE in the game-folder.

You have to boot the game directly from the game-folder and the EXE file (not from Steam client) to do boot it without DRM.
The thing is: most publishers and dev's usually do actually force the DRM on Steam.

If you are trying to figure out what games on Steam ain't protected, look here on PC Gaming Wiki and here on Steam Fandom page.

To me, as usual, looks like Epic's trying to copy Steam: let dev's/pub's decide if they want to use DRM (or not).

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #15 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 01:48:36 PM »
Axiom Verge is now free for the next 2 weeks. Though something funny has happened. If you play it, it 100% crashes when going into a certain area of the game. Log file indicates a sound effect is missing. The sound effect?

Steam.xnb

(Axiom Verge is real good, grab it)

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #16 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 02:46:25 PM »
My version of the game has steam.xnb.  It's only 325 KB.  Want me to get this to you somehow?

Goes in . . .\Content\Audio\SoundEffects (for me).

Edit:  I wonder if they zapped everything with the word "steam" in it on purpose.  Heh.

Edit 2:  Link at Uploadfiles.io  Supposed to be good for 30 days.  Site reads as safe everywhere I checked.
« Last Edit: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 03:07:22 PM by Cobra951 »

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #17 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 04:15:14 PM »
In case you guys ain't been following...

Metro: Exodus got pulled from Steam Store.
It's Epic Game Store exclusive for a whole year.

Tons of other madness has happened, in the process...

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #18 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 04:32:23 PM »
Yeah, I have been.  Madness is the right word for it too.  People irate over the Epic "exclusive".  Christ.  It's a single-player game.  Any launcher will do; and this "exclusive" will run on the same PCs that Steam games do.  God of War--there's an exclusive.  Can't play it on Xbox by downloading PSN.

It's an overblown backlash.  I welcome the competition against Steam.

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #19 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 05:01:04 PM »
It got fixed pretty quickly. The developer said they had made the mistake of trying to delete all the steam dlls and didn't realize it had caught the sound file. People still trying to blame Epic over it because they didnt play to the 3rd area of the game to get a crash. Like...do you expect them to play the entire game to make sure it doesn't crash somewhere down the line?

There is a weird irrational hatred for the Epic store.

EDIT
And the Metro thing (and a few other games). Ok yeah, its a weird situation where games have taken preorders or been listed on Steam before going Epic store exclusive. Thats just going to happen for a bit because the Epic store wasnt a thing when those went up originally. A new opportunity had been offered to devs/publishers and they are taking it. Why would you think they should have any loyalty to Steam? Money is money.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #20 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 10:02:50 PM »
I hate exclusivity period. I don't like seeing games exclusive to a platform period. I don't like games being console-exclusive anyways - and yes, I know, it's supposedly how it sells consoles. I don't want to see Spider-Man shackled to the PS4, Heavy Rain and other Quantic games shackled to PS4 (that one might not last, as Quantic's looking to get out of their PS4 exclusive deal now),  Nintendo games stuck on Nintendo platforms, etc etc - especially when on PC, I have the ability to run games at 1080p at up to 240hz and 240fps w/ G-Sync if I have the PC and monitor to handle it in a butter-smooth manner.

But, to me, this is even worst when it's a PC-store exclusive somewhere, chopping-up the already fractured PC fan-base. Seriously, dev's and pub's - just put it everywhere and let the customer decide where to buy it - Steam, GOG, UPlay, whatever their preferred service is. The more options for the consumer, the better.

Likely, when this exclusive crap happens on PC, the games are sold at a Premium when it's not on any other store - you know, like most of Microsoft's Windows 10 games on the Windows 10 Store. Good luck trying to get games Forza Horizon 4 W10 and Gears of War 4 W10 version cheap...at least for a long time. We're just starting to finally see Gears of War 4 W10 PC version hit $10, for crying out loud. Took long enough, TBH.

You also won't have 3rd party stores like Amazon, Gamersgate, Direct2Drive, etc selling the Epic Game Store version - and trying to under-cut each other either. At least if there's a Steam-required version out there, these guys can fight over best price somehow - even if it means offering $5 gift cards, percent-off promo codes, and/or other methods to get around publisher's set price.

I don't see Metro: Exodus Epic Game Store version being sold for download on ANY other stores...except the Epic Store. Doesn't mean it will or won't get good discounts later - but, this ain't a good thing. Chances for possible discounts could be weaker, especially if they try to do what Microsoft does w/ their W10 Version of games that remain exclusive to only their store.

Also, in terms of features for a game-client store features - Epic Game Store is SEVERELY lacking. Most lack quite a bit compared to Steam, but Epic's right now as freakin' bare bones as it gets. Hell, it's even worse than GOG's Galaxy, for crying out loud. At least GOG offers DRM-FREE on everything, Cloud Save Support (if game supports it), and User Reviews. Epic hasn't gotten that far yet.

« Last Edit: Wednesday, April 03, 2019, 08:52:16 PM by MysterD »

Offline Quemaqua

  • 古い塩
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 16,498
  • パンダは触るな。
    • Bookruptcy
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #21 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 10:48:45 PM »
Wow, that is some seriously dismissive bullshit. Sure, Epic's got a ways to go, but Steam didn't have a lot of that shit when it launched either, and a lot of what they did have was totally broken. They have the advantage of having had 15 years of building up what was originally a pretty garbage service into something that now at least mostly functions except when it still doesn't. And I can count on one hand the number of those features I ever actually use. Epic's shit came out a couple of months ago, so they'll need a minute, most especially to set up relationships with other retailers.

Also, Steam isn't a platform. PC is a platform. Steam is just a storefront, and because the PC is open, we can have many of them, and publishers and developers are going to go where they're getting a good deal. Steam has been treating especially smaller devs like shit so a lot are jumping ship, and good for them, that's exactly what they should be doing. And if Steam doesn't work to actually fix the problems they're having and offer them a fair deal, then fuck Valve, they deserve to lose the customers. The consumer is not the end-all, be-all of the consideration, and this still ultimately benefits them regardless because a storefront monopoly is always a bad thing.

Lastly, on actual exclusivity, of course that's how they sell consoles, why would anyone pay probably five times as much money to buy a fancy PC just to play the same games at a slightly higher fps? Most people could give less than 0 fucks about that stuff because they aren't hobbyists, they just want to play some games. Hell, *I'm* a hobbyist and I don't even give a fuck about fancy PC specs. And why would any company even develop their own console just to then sell games on a competitor's platform? That makes no sense. Of course you don't care because you've never even owned a console, but that's not where most of the gaming market is and it never has been. You are a huge statistical outlier. Either way, nothing here counts as platform exclusivity, you can still buy the games and play them on any PC that can run them, you just need to use a different storefront. And like okay, so Gears of War 4 is only now $10 because it's on the Windows Store. The game is only two fucking years old, how fast did you expect it to get to ten bucks?

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #22 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 11:42:47 PM »
Wow, that is some seriously dismissive bullshit. Sure, Epic's got a ways to go, but Steam didn't have a lot of that shit when it launched either, and a lot of what they did have was totally broken. They have the advantage of having had 15 years of building up what was originally a pretty garbage service into something that now at least mostly functions except when it still doesn't. And I can count on one hand the number of those features I ever actually use. Epic's shit came out a couple of months ago, so they'll need a minute, most especially to set up relationships with other retailers.

Epic doesn't even have most of the basics down, which most other services already have. Lack of Cloud Support, user reviews, and forums are a very big deal to me - as these are very important things that both GOG and Steam have, which I use. When GOG of all places has a better service than Epic (and Bethesda.Net, while we're at it - since Bethesda.Net has been out a bit and still have almost NO features), there's a problem - as GOG is still pretty damn bare bones actually. At least GOG is very functional, despite not being feature-rich.

Most publishers and dev's are thinking about that 88/12 split. No matter how you cut it - that's a good deal. Thing is, though - are they going to move units like they did on Steam? Eh, given the revolting, especially w/ a title like Exodus, I'd doubt it. Something huge in name like COD or GTA (if those were there) could probably sway people, but a much more niche AAA title like Exodus won't. And we've seen that, as review-bombing of Metro 2033 Redux and Metro LL Redux became a thing b/c of the Exodus going Epic-exclusive backlash.

I'm also betting it's more than this, as Epic is likely also tossing extra $$ to pull them away from Steam, GOG, Origin, and other services - as they are trying to get Epic Exclusives; which they've done w/ (at least) Hades, Division 2, and now Metro: Exodus. They have those...probably for at least a year, like they do w/ Exodus.

As someone who has multiple PC's, posts lots of screens, has SteamLink built into my Samsung HDTV, Big Picture mode usage, multiple PC's (one desktop and 2 gaming laptops) that I have games on (yep, Steam Cloud works good and I use that all the time) - yeah, I use Steam and its features a ton.

Quote
Also, Steam isn't a platform. PC is a platform. Steam is just a storefront, and because the PC is open, we can have many of them, and publishers and developers are going to go where they're getting a good deal. Steam has been treating especially smaller devs like shit so a lot are jumping ship, and good for them, that's exactly what they should be doing. And if Steam doesn't work to actually fix the problems they're having and offer them a fair deal, then fuck Valve, they deserve to lose the customers. The consumer is not the end-all, be-all of the consideration, and this still ultimately benefits them regardless because a storefront monopoly is always a bad thing.
Metro: Exodus isn't even on Steam anymore for purchase on PC. It's exclusive to Epic on the PC period...for a whole year. Consumers can't order it now anywhere else but Epic, as it got pulled from Steam for a year. It also can't come to GOG and anywhere else (usually, any pub/dev worried about piracy, they'll put their AAA titles months to a year later on GOG over there - Metro 2033 Redux and LL Redux are both on GOG for sale).

Expect the consumer to be saddled w/ premium pricing. Only recently, did finally EA sell the ME2 DLC Pack, ME3 DLC Pack, and DA2 DLC Pack after all these years for around $13 (or less) - and you cannot get those anywhere else but Origin. With no competition, I think if Epic, 4A, and Deep Silver/Koch wants - they can pull similar stunts: keep pricing high. Good for the dev's/pub's if it still sells at high prices, but not good for the consumer.

About Steam being a platform - well, when Proton actually finally becomes part of the Steam game-client, then Steam could then really become its own platform. (Proton is basically their version of Linux with WINE support and DX-intercepts made by Vulkan API).

Quote
Lastly, on actual exclusivity, of course that's how they sell consoles, why would anyone pay probably five times as much money to buy a fancy PC just to play the same games at a slightly higher fps? Most people could give less than 0 fucks about that stuff because they aren't hobbyists, they just want to play some games. Hell, *I'm* a hobbyist and I don't even give a fuck about fancy PC specs. And why would any company even develop their own console just to then sell games on a competitor's platform? That makes no sense. Of course you don't care because you've never even owned a console, but that's not where most of the gaming market is and it never has been. You are a huge statistical outlier. Either way, nothing here counts as platform exclusivity, you can still buy the games and play them on any PC that can run them, you just need to use a different storefront. And like okay, so Gears of War 4 is only now $10 because it's on the Windows Store. The game is only two fucking years old, how fast did you expect it to get to ten bucks?
Given how most PC games devalue themselves w/ Expansion Passes, Season Passes, DLC's, MTX's, and even winding up in Humble Bundles (and other bundle sites) - actually, PC games really fast can hit really cheap actually really fast. Within a few months, actually. Very competitive market.

W10 Store games; Activision games and especially COD games (except Infinite Warfare, which tanked in price pretty fast); and Blizzard titles - yeah, those can take quite a bit of time to actually get devalued.

And yes, if I can't buy Metro: Exodus on GOG, Steam, Direct2Drive - yes, it's an exclusive somewhere. And right now, that's Epic's Game Store. Timed exclusive, albeit (for a whole year). But it's still exclusive.

Also, it's nice to run Yakuza 0 on the PC here at 120-240fps on a regular basis w/ G-Sync. The butter-smooth gameplay, combat, and everything is fantastic - running maxed-out here at 1080p. No input lag, responsive as can be, no screen tears, no issues. Perfect gameplay. Why would I want to play that on a platform (consoles) where it's likely only running at 30fps or maybe 60fps, when I don't need to or don't have to? If you haven't ran a game w/ some A-Sync method (G-Sync or FreeSync) at high framerates (i.e. 90fps-240fps), you're missing out.

I used to think 60fps was the "be all, end all" and that high framerates and G-Sync were unnecessary. Even when people were telling me how much better it is to high framerates and G-Sync, I was like "Why do I need over 60fps?" Now, I know, from experiencing it. God, was I ever wrong, until I actually experienced it for myself.

Some games like GR: Wildlands (which has A LOT going on it, in its huge open-world), even capped at 60fps, they just didn't feel right w/ no A-Sync method when at 60fps or below. Too many stutters, slowdowns, and other things - even if it dipped a few frames. Eh, that's an UbiSoft game for you...not the best optimized, no matter how gorgeous they often are. Don't have any of those issues, when I'm in the 60-90fps range w/ G-Sync and either my desktop 970 or laptop's 6gb 1060.

Also, I already have tons of game-client apps/store-fronts. Many of them are so basic and are lacking features. Most of them, they feel like they're there for DRM purposes (except GOG, in which they have no DRM period on any of their titles). How many more do I have to install? I have W10 Store/Xbox Store; G4WL; GOG; Origin; UPlay; GOG Galaxy; Battle.Net; Bethesda.Net; and now Epic Store. I'm sure I have a few more, but that's a fair deal of them listed. Who's next w/ their own game-client/app? Deep Silver maybe?

Offline Cobra951

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8,934
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #23 on: Friday, February 08, 2019, 07:16:24 AM »
Well, thanks for detailing the reasons for the backlash.  They don't change my feelings about it, though.

(1) Valve is not entitled to be the center of the PC universe.  They may have worked their way into that position, but monopolies are bad for everyone except the monopolies.  Competition is always a good thing in the free market, and Epic is trying hard to engage in just that.

(2) I understand gravitating into reliance on one particular service over time.  Seldom will that situation last forever, though.  Things change; new players come in.  Look at TV.  There used to be 3 noteworthy networks, plus PBS.  We knew where to find the quality programming, and who was going to inform us about the world at 6:30.

(3) Launchers are not platforms.  To stick with the rocket analogy, launchers sit on a platform.  In this case, the platform is the PC.  There are several launchers on it.  Steam is only one of them.  None of them have exclusive control of the platform.  I don't care about launcher exclusives (and Steam has had quite a few).  I care about platform exclusives.  If it runs on what I have, it isn't excluded from me.

(4) PC games aren't any less worthy if they don't get a forum or cloud saves.  You realize you can create your own cloud saves for anything on the PC, right?  Or external-drive backups?  Unlike consoles, it's entirely under your control.  And you can go talk about particular games in several places.  When I was heavily into No Man's Sky, I spent hours a week in its Reddit pages.

Edit:  About 60 fps vs higher, wait until a good display tech comes along for PC monitors.  LCD sucks.  Pixels respond too slowly and persist way too long.  As a result, in order to get a short persistence and higher-frequency strobing, you need a ridiculously high frame rate.  I can see smearing at 60 fps on LCD.  I can't on CRT or plasma (where 60 fps looks as good as infinity to me).  OLED may fit the bill.  I think that, like plasma, it strobes at a rate much higher than the frame rate.  Just saw something about it recently, some (lack of) ghosting tests.  Regardless, something should come along eventually which restores the quality of motion we had before LCD took over the world.
« Last Edit: Friday, February 08, 2019, 07:46:29 AM by Cobra951 »

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #24 on: Friday, February 08, 2019, 03:52:24 PM »
Nobody ever said Valve deserves the monopoly.

The fact is this: they (Steam) have the monopoly (more or less), a lot of people use Steam, and actually like it.

Do I like it? Yes, it's the best service by far. I don't know where to begin on this, but I think the chart full of features pretty much sums up plenty for me.

But I do actually prefer GOG's client-app program is optional and their NO DRM attitude. Games are often much cheaper on Steam (or on 3rd party stores selling that) and/or Steam-versions get frequently bundled, so I end-up w/ those versions.

I often end up w/ Ubi games on UbiSoft alone b/c you can often get better deals on Ubi games everywhere else except Steam. Steam versions of their games are often a bit pricier purposely, since they also have to keep into considering that Steam gets 30% or so. Ubi's service is basic and solid - but nothing special. And I'm okay w/ that.

I could go into depth about how W10 Store sucks (little to no file manipulation, pain to figure out folder names, folders are protected, need to "Own them" - but it STILL might still be to re-download games to the a different PC so registry actually gets it working right) and how basic Epic Game Store is - but obvious is obvious.

I want Epic to challenge Steam for real, by actually offering up the same games, offering-up better pricing for those same games, and flat-out offer a better service - but they do almost NONE of that right now. Metro Exodus might be $10 USD cheaper - but, really, I'm probably not the target here. I don't buy games on Day 0 release, especially since I am a very heavy-buyer of games.

EDIT:
About Cloud Saving - Steam and GOG does this seamlessly. I can jump from PC-to-PC, go online on Steam or GOG Galaxy (Both support it - you'd have to check what games do support it) - and boom, never had to do the USB transfer process or anything. All done for me already. Call me lazy, but...yeah, I also have very fast into (1gig) - so, it pretty much does it for me and does it very fast. Yes...I have USB sticks, hard drive docks, SSD's, and whatnot - but when it does it for me, I'm good to go; pretty seamless.

Offline gpw11

  • Gold Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7,180
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #25 on: Friday, February 08, 2019, 10:55:37 PM »
I agree the Epic store has a ways to go and Steam offers a ton more features but here's the thing:  Almost every consumer-focused argument against the Epic store can be negated by just installing both launchers.  What you're left with are the following arguments:


-I don't want to run two launchers.

-I want to play the Epic-Exclusive games with Steam features.

The former is just people being entitled - what else can you say when people are just opposed to installing two pieces of free software?

The second argument is more of the same but at least has some merit.  But here's the thing:  Like other have pointed out, Steam didn't have these features at launch.  And guess what, neither did GoG Galaxy.  I remember playing Witcher 3 with it at launch and it was just about as bare bones as the Epic launcher is now.  But here's the weird thing - three years ago or whatever, people were saying they were going to look past that and buy Witcher 3 on GOG Galaxy to support CD Project Red. Yet now it's viewed entirely differently. And I get why, to a point, but the base thought remains the same - if you buy Epic you support the developers/publishers more. You take a hit in platform features, etc but you support the developers/publishers more as they get a higher cut.  Did Epic do this out of the goodness of their hearts?  No, they did it because they knew that they could only compete with Steam by doing so (and by giving away free games and locking up exclusivity agreements with that sweet, sweet Fortnite money). 

Really, nothing but good could come from an alternative free store and delivery platform actually giving Steam a run for it's money. 


"I want Epic to challenge Steam for real, by actually offering up the same games, offering-up better pricing for those same games, and flat-out offer a better service - but they do almost NONE of that right now. Metro Exodus might be $10 USD cheaper - but, really, I'm probably not the target here. I don't buy games on Day 0 release, especially since I am a very heavy-buyer of games."

-Offering up the same games:  They mainly will.  They're getting their foot in the door this way but the ultimate goal is to have a catalog as deep as Steam.

-Offering-up better pricing for those same games: Believe it or not, pricing, for the most part, is still tied to physical retail. A new store can't really start up and just say "Hey, we're cutting 10% off all digital downloads" because all of those publishers are now not being carried by Walmart, Bestbuy, or Gamestop and that's still a huge chunk of sales. It's not as easy as saying "Hey, we can just sell games for cheaper all the time!". As things move more and more into digital being the main way to deliver games you may find that this changes in the future but keep in mind that without competition there would be no incentive for any of the platforms to compete on standard price.

-And flat-out offer a better service:  They're not going to flip a switch and launch a brand new service to compete with a platform which has been the defacto in the market for like 15 years.  It's not laziness, it's how these services develop.  If anything, Epic store launched earlier than it should have, but that doesn't make it any less valid of a platform.

And everyone seems to go back to cloud saving.  Yeah, it's great. Ten years ago I had a library of like 100 Steam games and only the Valve games had cloud save.  Three years ago, zero GOG Galaxy games had cloud saves.  I bet you six months from now every game on the Epic store will have it. 

But here's the thing, don't want to play a game without cloud save?  Don't. What you're left with is a group of people complaining over some restriction they made for themselves.

Metro thing was def handled poorly, but treat that for what it is rather than playing it off like the Epic store is somehow bad for consumers because they can't compete with the entrenched market leader on already integrated features after 15 years of ongoing development, they can't compete on across the board standard pricing because of industry standards, and they want to get a foot through the door so they compete with timed exclusives, free games, and incentivizing those who make the games by giving them a bigger cut.

Whole thing is a meme carried on by gamers just dying to get worked up by something. When your battle cry is "I want to play this game and I totally can but I'd need to run another launcher with my 16gb of ram and it doesn't have cloud saves yet!" you're standing on shaky ground.  You'd be better served just admitting that you're probably not as down with Steam having real competition as you all would like to say you are.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #26 on: Saturday, February 09, 2019, 07:01:45 AM »
I don't think Epic will have a library as deep as Steam's b/c....well, Steam's curation is garbage. Pretty much, almost anything can get on there these days and age. Epic's likely going to be much more curated, which could be a benefit to the Indies, AA games, and AAA titles - especially the ones that aren't getting the exposure that they need/deserve on a regular basis. Of course, the 88/12 split is excellent for dev's and pub's...and there's no denying that one.

About companies selling games cheaper - yes, a lot is tied to other services and retails wanting "X" price - i.e. normally $60 MSRP (Standard) or $80-$100 USD (Gold Edition w/ base-game and Season Pass in one package. But, they can get around this - by offering coupons, $5 rewards if you meet certain requirements (similar to what Steam's doing w/ Lunar Sale - but they are eating the bill on that one, so that's another thing too) and other things of that sort for new releases. But, again - I buy everything, so I ain't their demographic b/c I buy most stuff later and at lower prices (i.e. offer at 70% off or better; and/or $10 or less; and/or in a Bundle from Humble or Fanatical).

Epic, as a platform, is very bare bones. They don't have anything competing w/ Steam or GOG here, in terms of features. Both Steam and GOG have Cloud Saves support, while Epic doesn't....at least not yet, anyways.

Like Steam, some games are actually DRM-Free there on the Epic Store. Axiom Verge is one...currently (currently free on the EGS, BTW). Subnautica was DRM-FREE upon release...but that got changed REAL fast and got DRM-forced to it (Epic launcher became required, in a patch in late December).

Epic doesn't support user reviews from all games, while GOG and Steam do. I find these important, as sometimes you can get an idea of how a game performs...in case you want to know if users reviewed the game and flesh out how it performs technically (poor, good, okay, great, or whatever). Also, you can find out if a game's stable, too - if it's buggy, crashes, stuff like that. Sometimes, they are specific and mention exactly what hardware it runs on - and if you got something similar, you can get an idea of what to expect...and if you should buy now (or later). Epic is planning to support user reviews, BTW - but that's only going to be for those dev's/pub's that actually want to opt-in to allow for user reviews.

The Epic Game Launcher has been around for years, actually. Just been re-branded. The Store Front's new in this rebranded app/game-client launcher - but eh, that's about it. It has had games like Shadow Complex Remastered and Unreal Engine support for years. So why they ain't still done Cloud Save support when other services have it (i.e. Origin, Steam, Uplay), that's beyond me. It's not like Epic just put this app out. It might've launched back in 2017...or maybe even earlier. It's been around, for a bit - just like before EA turned EADM into actually Origin. It's just...well, like you said, w/ all this Fortnite money, they now want to and are trying to compete w/ Steam.

In an ideal world for me - GOG would be the digital distribution leader here and have all the features of Steam (Big Picture, built-in controller support for all kinds of controllers, screen-shot taking & posting, their own SteamLink thing built into HDTV's, remote desktop support, etc etc)...b/c they're the only damn digital store where everything there is DRM-FREE. Not everybody is going to launch their games on Day 0 b/c of this, so they'll likely always remain niche. A lot of companies, they're using a game-client store and tossing Denuvo anti-tamper DRM crap on top. Nobody else has that "everything here is DRM-FREE" mentality - not Steam, not Epic (Epic allows for dev's to use DRM, if they want - just like Steam), not EA, nobody else.


Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #27 on: Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 05:58:41 PM »
The list of Epic Exclusives (for at least one year) grow:
https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/20/18274456/epic-games-store-exclusives-outer-worlds-control

Add Quantic Dream's games (which were once Sony PlayStation exclusives) to the Epic Exclusive list now:
    Heavy Rain
    Beyond: Two Souls
    Detroit: Become Human

Also add these Private Division/2K Games:
    The Outer Worlds from Obsidian Entertainment.
    Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey from Panache Digital.

Other Epic exclusives:
    Afterparty from Night School Studios.
    Control from Remedy Entertainment and 505 Games.
    The Cycle from Yager.
    Dauntless from Phoenix Labs.
    Industries of Titan from Brace Yourself Games.
    Journey to the Savage Planet from Typhoon Studios and 505 Games.
    Kine from Chump Squad.
    Phoenix Point from Snapshot Games.
    The Sinking City from Frogwares and Bigben.
    Spellbreak from Proletariat Inc.
    Solar Ash Kingdom from Heart Machine and Annapurna Interactive.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #28 on: Thursday, April 04, 2019, 04:13:06 PM »
The Witness is currently FREE on the Epic Game Store.
You have until April 18th to grab it.

Transistor will be the next EGS Freebie.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #29 on: Friday, April 12, 2019, 05:42:44 PM »
Jason West (from MOH:AA, COD series & Titanfall) has signed w/ Epic Games:
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-hires-infinity-ward-and-respawn-co-founder-jason-west/

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #30 on: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 03:27:03 PM »
Transistor is now free on Epic Store:
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/transistor/home?sessionInvalidated=true

You have 2 weeks to add it to your Epic Games Account, so that you can keep it forever.


Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #31 on: Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 02:53:42 PM »

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #32 on: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 02:19:24 PM »
A couple things worth noting. Stories Untold is free on EGS right now. I'm looking forward to digging into it as I really enjoyed the demo. Its like a retro text adventure that plays around with the act of actually playing a text adventure...kinda? Anyway it was neat and now its free so hooray!

Epic is also running a sale in the store, with games being $14.99 or more getting an extra $10 discount that comes out of Epics pocket. Devs have confirmed that they are getting full price out of the sales made. Prices shown reflect that discount so don't be doing mental math thinking they will be even less, heh. Some notable examples:

John Wick Hex preorder for $8
Ashen $20
Hades early access $7!
Shakedown Hawaii $10 (just came out last week)
Operencia $10
Subnautica Below Zero preorder $10

So yeah, check it out. The announcement also mentioned they will be giving out a game for free every week for this sale, which lasts a month.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #33 on: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 03:09:45 PM »
Also worth mentioning from this Epic Mega Sale:

Quantic Dream Pre-orders - Timed Epic Exclusives
Heavy Rain = $10
Beyond: Two Souls = $10
Detroit: Become Human = $40

Telltale's The Walking Dead series - Timed Epic Exclusives
$5 each:
TWD: Season One
TWD: Season Two
TWD: Michonne
TWD: A New Frontier
TWD: The Final Season - Season Pass.


Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #34 on: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 05:20:23 PM »
Some prices got updated it seems. Hades is back up to $15.

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #35 on: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 05:22:28 PM »
Some prices got updated it seems. Hades is back up to $15.

:( @ Hades went up.
And Bloodlines 2 got tossed off the sale too.

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #36 on: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 05:29:39 PM »
Yeah its actually really weird. Bloodlines 2 was removed from the sale, as well as Oxygen Not Included. Hades is even weirder because they raised the regular price of early access, which made it more expensive overall. They are claiming it was a misunderstanding but supergiant replied to a tweet just hours ago saying they werent sure if they would raise the price. Then they did, just after the sale started. Really fucking strange.

Offline idolminds

  • ZOMG!
  • Administrator
  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 11,930
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #37 on: Friday, May 17, 2019, 03:00:06 PM »
Hades got price adjusted a couple times. It seems like developers/publishers didnt like that their games were displayed as being so cheap with Epics bonus discount. With sites like isthereanydeal keeping track of the lowest price on games, the fear would be people using this special sale as an indication to wait for the game to be this cheap again even if it isnt the devs/publishers themselves making it that cheap.

As such, Epic has changed how the prices are displayed. https://twitter.com/EpicGames/status/1129504856820076545

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #38 on: Friday, May 17, 2019, 03:13:44 PM »
Destructoid on Bloodlines 2 pulling and the Hades issue from the Epic Games Mega Sale:
https://www.destructoid.com/epic-games-store-s-first-sale-is-off-to-a-rocky-start-554005.phtml

Offline MysterD

  • Forum god
  • *
  • Posts: 18,049
  • OWNet 4 Eternity & Beyond
Re: Epic announces Epic Games Store
« Reply #39 on: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 06:00:14 AM »