kotaku.com

BudgieMania, do gaming w Epic Games Admits In Court That Its PC Store Still Isn't Profitable

In my eyes, part of the reason for this is that they forgot a key element of penetrating a market... you need a potential customer base that is actually displeased with the current available solutions and is actually looking for an alternative. And, by and large, the current storefronts had done a good enough work of pleasing their customer base that, when the Epic Store rolled out, few people were actively looking for a switch, to the point that no bonuses or goodies or exclusives that Epic offered could outweight the friction of moving from a platform that was perfectly serviceable, please and thank you.

The whole thing was just mistimed. They should have waited to see if Steam committed some sort of fuck up. They should have waited for some type of negative sentiment. I don't know. I know that developers did feel displeased with some of the conditions on Steam, but Epic could only do so much to win them over with 88%'s and paid guarantees and what have you, when they couldn't offer them the most important thing: a paying customer base.

LinkOpensChest_wav,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one avatar

I was never happy with Steam. It always seemed bloated with unwanted features that had nothing to do with playing a game, constantly wanted to run in the background and update, launched at a snail’s pace.

I’ve found myself liking EGS a lot more because it’s clean and simple.

Both are owned by big gross corporations, so really I’d prefer no launcher at all.

Gordon_Freeman,
@Gordon_Freeman@kbin.social avatar

launched at a snail’s pace.

If speed is a problem, The EGS is painfully slow. I don't use is because it needs like 15 seconds to load the library (and it's just the part that is on screen if you scroll, it needs more time to load the games), in the rest of the launchers is practically instant

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

There are problems with Steam that a competitor could win customers from by solving those problems, but they didn't bother. They only went after the people producing games, not buying games.

plistig,

People who don’t like Steam already have GoG. To most people Epic Games is the fortnite launcher, and fortnite is in rapid decline:

https://imgur.com/a/aZ7J4iG
www.statista.com/…/fortnite-number-viewers/

ripcord,
@ripcord@kbin.social avatar

As much as I like GoG, it doesn't really solve any problems that Steam has that I can think of. In fact, in several ways it seems like they've gone backwards in the last several years, imo (as a launcher/storefront alternative)

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

DRM-free games is already a big one.

Mini_Moonpie,

My understanding is that GoG does some work to make sure that old games they sell will work on new PCs. I have at least one game that is bugged on Steam, but works fine from GoG.

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@kbin.social avatar

When I bought Vampire the Masquerade from GoG it came pre-bundled with the primary community bugfix patch, I thought that was pretty neat. It didn't come baked in, so they still give you the base version of the game, but I pretty much just checked a box on install and it added it on.

Mnemnosyne,

Yep. I have not and will not give epic store money because they didn’t try to make a better product.

In fact they attacked me as a customer, in essence, by offering a worse product but then paying for exclusivity on various games. And in exchange they try to bribe me with free games.

Well, I’ll take the bribes, as I try to remember to collect my free games each week, but I’m not giving them money.

Vilian,

but at the same time steam have a fuckton of features, it take tine to implement everything

Zorque,

It does take time, but when you launch a product that's missing basic features (like a shopping cart, something almost every online store in existence has) you tell on yourself to your customers, and let them know they're not a priority.

I don't disagree that Steam's feature rich platform makes it hard to compete with on that level... but for fuck's sake, at least try a little bit. Especially if your first move is to say they're unfairly gaming the market by... providing something people want.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, it will. But start with the most important features while also building some of those features that solve problems.

ampersandrew, (edited ) do gaming w 2023 Is The Best Year For Games In A While (And Maybe Ever?)
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

It is.

The last time the deck felt this stacked was 2017

Agreed. I'm putting 2023 in my pantheon alongside 1998, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. A great year for RPGs and fighting games, with the latter bumping up two of my favorites from previous years, Skullgirls and Guilty Gear Strive, a few notches via updates. Hi-Fi Rush is the first game in the character-action genre that clicked for me, and I've tried to make it click so many times before.

SnotFlickerman,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Hi-Fi Rush just consistently reminds me how comically bad I am at rhythm games. I love the game, but man I got burnt out because even though they made it “easier” for folks with no rhythm like myself, it’s still tough if you just can’t match the beat.

I am some kind of masochist though, because in the past I beat both Parappa the Rapper and UmJammer Lammy.

Ashtear,

It hasn’t exactly been banger after banger for me personally this year, but I can still recognize how big 2023 has been and how much excitement there has been year-round, from Hi-Fi Rush’s shadow drop to Alan Wake 2 right now.

It’s also been a great mix of new properties and long-running franchises. Zelda, Resident Evil, Diablo, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Baldur’s Gate, Mario, and even Armored Core all had well-reviewed, major releases this year.

I’m nowhere near calling 2023 the best ever–I think it’ll take a complete paradigm shift in the industry to ever top 1998–but a lot of people have been eating very good this year.

thorbot, do games w Every Franchise Xbox Now Owns After Buying Activision

There was a glimpse of prototype in that trailer and I can only dream of a new version of that game

reverendsteveii, do gaming w Capcom President Says ‘Game Prices Are Too Low’
pythonoob,

At this point every game company would have to produce super solid, super polished games for like 4 years before they’d get my trust back.

reverendsteveii,

Wanna know which game I last broke my “no pre-orders” rule for?

No Man’s Sky. The game that was a tech demo for the first year or so after release. It’s become a hell of a game since then, but it taught me a valuable lesson and I haven’t bought a game since then.

It’s kinda the natural progression of late stage hypercapitalism though. Used to be that you spent all your money up front, then your sales recouped your investment and hopefully generated you a profit. Once game companies figured out OTA patches they realized that they can push a lot of QA back until after release and use pre-orders and day 1 sales to fund it. Then with DLC they realized that they can sell the untested skeleton of a game up front and use presales and early sales to fund development. The natural progression seems to be the Star Citizen model, where you get huge chunks of your sales up front and use that to determine what you’ll develop and when (if ever) you’ll release it

RickRussell_CA, do gaming w Capcom President Says ‘Game Prices Are Too Low’

Capcom has absolute authority to price its games however they see fit.

If they make choices that put them out of business, that’s on them.

devilish666, do games w Long-Gone Classics The Sims 1 And 2 Are Finally Coming Back To PC

If you want The Sims 3, 2, 1 complete you can get by cough…cough… Torrent created by cough…cough… MR.DJ

some_guy, do gaming w Elon Musk Admits To Cheating In Path Of Exile 2 And Diablo 4 Amid Fake Gamer Controversy

And taxes, and business, and everything in life.

dev_null, do gaming w Epic Adds Ugly Tesla Cybertruck To Fortnite

What’s up with everyone calling it ugly? It’s a shit car, but I think it looks cool. Something that has no place in reality, but fitting in a video game.

sleepybisexual,

Fitting in a Mario 64 romhack you mean

tomato,

People tend to judge everything Musk related like that. I also think it looks cool. I’d love to drive something this unusual.

dev_null,

The cybertruck has enough issues that I wouldn’t want one, but yeah I would like a car looking like that, if it was actually a good car not made by Tesla.

tomato,

What if it was a really good car but made by Tesla?

dev_null,

Then it would be good. But they already tried making one.

punkwalrus, do games w The First Borderlands Movie Clip Looks Like An SNL Skit
@punkwalrus@lemmy.world avatar

I remember hearing that some Hollywood contracts require that if you sign up for some studio, you must make X amount of films. Big stars get to chose those films to some degree, but once in a while, they have to do “a stinker” to end the contract as “X amount of films done, okay?” or something. Contractual Obligation and all. This film feels like a dumping ground of a lot of those contractual obligation hires from the trailer alone.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks,

Requirements like that in the music industry are why there’s an excess of Christmas music albums. I like the idea that video game movies and other slush-level movies are the equivalent.

RampantParanoia2365,

Wouldn’t it be smarter to do a lower budget drama, then? This seems like an expensive throwaway.

bigmclargehuge,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

True, but a movie like this, if successful, has a much higher potential profit than a small drama. As an actor, why not take a bit of a gamble on a big blockbuster for a potentially massive paycheck?

Carighan, do gaming w Geoff Keighley Wants You To Lower Your Expectations For Summer Game Fest
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

How would I possibly go even lower?! Not even Doritos and Mountain Dew?!

BallShapedMan, do games w New FPS Built Using Doom Tech Is Better Than Most AAA Shooters
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

Been on my wishlist since 2001! I can’t wait to have time to play.

Retrograde,
@Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

Whattt 2001??

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

Oops… 2021. Fail me!

Retrograde,
@Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

The funny thing is that with these doom engine games it might as well be a project from 2001 :)

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

Good point! They could have even had a period accurate trailer, with that guy with the really deep voice like in movie trailers back then “A game, 20 years in the making…”

Retrograde,
@Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

(Online features require 56k modem)

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

The sound of Internets!

I swear when I had dial up I could tell how fast my connection would be by the sound of the static. If it didn’t sound clean I’d get a crap connection and just hanging up and dialing a different connection number would do the trick.

Retrograde,
@Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

Oh, trust me I know the 56k dance, too bad I never learned how to actually dance…

However! I have since purchased the game, and it is just as spicy as the reviews say :) level design is interesting, it throws in some puzzle mechanics between the gore fest

BallShapedMan,
@BallShapedMan@lemmy.world avatar

Same, and it’s great! I can’t wait to dive back in. But I need to read the stuff more because I get lost and I feel like they’ll tell me what I’m supposed to be doing.

Retrograde,
@Retrograde@lemmy.world avatar

Damn, that’s the same singular issue I’ve been having too lol

superfes, do gaming w Half Of PlayStation Players Still Haven't Upgraded To PS5

I still have a PS2…

SturgiesYrFase,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

I have a ps1, 2, 3 and 4, a psp, a vita, I also have a NA snes, OG xbox, xbox360 and xbox one. I pretty much don’t play with any of them, I work too much…

Eol, do gaming w Half Of PlayStation Players Still Haven't Upgraded To PS5

Sometimes I forget it is a thing.

teawrecks,

PS5 owner here. Me too.

pete_the_cat, do gaming w Fallout 4 Fans Are Begging Bethesda To Stop Updating The Game

So, they’re giving it the Skyrim treatment. I think it’s received about 10 version updates since AE launched like 2 years ago. I ended up downloading a modlist that was 1.5.97 (the original version of Skyrim SE) and ended up sticking with it since it’s future proofed.

PolandIsAStateOfMind,
@PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

1.6 mods are also stable now, but of course Bethesda shits out the patches every now and then so you need to downgrade anyway, just to 1.6.

pete_the_cat,

They definitely are, I have been using 1.6 for a while, it’s just a pain in the ass to keep updating SKSE mods or those mods that support 1.6 but only older versions because the authors don’t make mods anymore.

mrfriki, (edited ) do gaming w Helldivers 2 Community At War Over Controversial PSN Requirement

People going crazy over a PSN account requirement but nobody cares a shit about the game having root access to their PCs. Funny times we live in indeed.

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • test1
  • ERP
  • fediversum
  • rowery
  • Technologia
  • krakow
  • muzyka
  • shophiajons
  • NomadOffgrid
  • esport
  • informasi
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • retro
  • Travel
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • gurgaonproperty
  • Psychologia
  • Gaming
  • slask
  • nauka
  • sport
  • niusy
  • antywykop
  • Blogi
  • lieratura
  • motoryzacja
  • giereczkowo
  • warnersteve
  • Wszystkie magazyny