lemmy.world

Grandwolf319, (edited ) do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

So I own some games on epic store cause they were free and I said fuck it I’ll sign up for free games.

Haven’t installed the epic games store yet, and it’s been years. The benefits don’t outweigh the drawbacks, clearly.

xavier666,

I use Heroic and got all their free games. I also have Prime so I get more free games on Epic. But Hell will freeze over before I buy a game on Epic.

bitwolf,

Same.
And I hope they can see I’m not even interested in their free games.

Mango, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Exclusivity is stupid for everything but sex partners.

Zahtu, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

What about Windows Store 😏

Nikls94,

It seems you don’t know, but we don’t talk about that

nieceandtows, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

I haven’t created an epic account even for the free games I don’t care how many awesome games they give out for free. Fuck Epic

SplashJackson,

But One Must Fall 2097 was pretty sweet

Scolding7300,

Excuse my ignorance. What did Epic do?

ZeroHora,
@ZeroHora@lemmy.ml avatar

Exclusivity deals with companies.

Buddahriffic,

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

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

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

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

ZeroHora,
@ZeroHora@lemmy.ml avatar

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

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

Buddahriffic,

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

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

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

ZeroHora,
@ZeroHora@lemmy.ml avatar

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

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

CileTheSane,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Copying my reply to someone else:

Epic is anti-customer: medium.com/…/why-i-turned-down-exclusivity-deal-f…

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

This tells me that

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

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

Baphomet_The_Blasphemer,

I created an epic account solely for the free games, which I claim and never play. Fuck Epic. I still haven’t forgiven them for ruining Rocket League.

CileTheSane,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Downloading the games does not cost Epic anything. They paid a flat rate to make it free to download, regardless of how many people actually download it.

You signing into the store and claiming the free games provides user metrics that Epic can use to entice investors.

Passerby6497, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

Yar, me as well.

ZeffSyde,

Hey sailor… ;)

slurpeesoforion,

Hoist the sales!

Shampiss, (edited )

For what reason? Why is Epic so bad? I’m not fishing for a reaction. I genuinely don’t know why most people here hate Epic

Edit: ok, so what I gather from the comments is that Epic has a slightly worse service and that you guys are way too invested in a stupid dispute between two companies that only care about your money. Cool 👍

Passerby6497,

Copied from a comment I posted in this thread:

I got exactly one free epic game (subnautica) that I uninstalled and bought immediately the day I couldn’t play the game because I lost Internet and there was no goddamned offline mode.

Epic store is shovelware, and I can’t believe the amount of people who defend a 4th rate store comparing itself to the gold standard that can’t even offer basic functionality expected of a modern platform.

Cris16228,

comparing itself to the gold standard that can’t even offer basic functionality expected of a modern platform.

Remember when they spent 3 years “developing” a shopping cart?

Pepperidge farm remembers

Buddahriffic,

Lol I stayed away because the anticompetitiveness was immediately obvious (they should have opened with the free games but showed their hand early by starting with exclusivity deals), but I’m not surprised it gets even worse.

zalgotext,

The Epic Games Store is a user data collection platform first, and a pretty bad game store/client second. It’s slow, buggy, difficult to navigate (though that’s somewhat subjective), and sometimes doesn’t work without an Internet connection, even for games you already have downloaded locally and installed.

Disclaimer: I understand that any games store, including Steam, collects user data. But at least those other stores provide working, user friendly features in exchange for the data collection they do.

CileTheSane,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

Epic is anti-customer: medium.com/…/why-i-turned-down-exclusivity-deal-f…

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

This tells me that

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

But why?

DuckWrangler9000,
@DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world avatar

Yo ho ho, There is no sailing on the high seas when we are talking about multiplayer games! Alive service game, it be!

Passerby6497,

I only play single player games, so your attack has no effect on me!

sag,

online-fix ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

Twerp10,

Literally anything? Great news!

If you go to the official website for the game Infinity Nikki, where the pic is taken, and look to the left of what the OP cropped, there is a standalone Windows download. You can just download the game.

The game is F2P so while it’s not some big accomplishment to pirate like you’re implying, it is almost certainly loaded with predatory monetization.

CoCo_Goldstein, (edited ) do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Other than Fortnite, what game is only available on Epic?

Edit: Thanks for the responses!!

Bartlebad,

During their early access days Hades and I believe Satisfactory were only on Epic.

Raab,

Metro, borderlands, basically any game that Epic pays to have exclusivity on for the first 6 months after release.

AustralianSimon,
@AustralianSimon@lemmy.world avatar

MW5 and Satisfactory amongst others were limited to Epic for years.

Coskii,
@Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Which is why I bought satisfactory twice.

Though for coffee stain I’d do it again.

Zalzabar,

Alan wake 2

brucethemoose, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

I get it being annoying… But why is it such a deal breaker? If the game is good, why not just install it, play the game, leave it when you’re done?

The other storefronts have some cool features (namely gamepass for xbox and all of steamworks and the app stuff for steam), but it doesn’t really matter if the game doesn’t use em.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

Speaking for myself, if it’s Epic only, it means I have no assurances as a customer that they’re going to keep letting me play the game on Linux. If I bought Alan Wake II, I’m doing so knowing that they don’t support my operating system and could break compatibility with Wine with any random update. If that happens on Steam, I can reasonably expect a refund if it was previously Verified, and because of the verification system, they also have an incentive not to break compatibility. So if I play Alan Wake II some day, it’ll be because it was a free giveaway on Epic, because I’m not paying for that.

brucethemoose,

Now this is a good reason.

And random note, but I didn’t get a notification for this reply?

Khanzarate,

Sorry I forgot to send it, won’t happen again, boss.

brucethemoose,

What do you mean, are you on some client that has notifications disabled by default?

Genuine fediverse noob here.

dabaldeagul,
@dabaldeagul@feddit.nl avatar

The guy you’re replying to was joking, saying they are in charge of your notifications.

Lemmy notifications depend on the client you’re using. I’m using Sync which is far from perfect with push notifs, usually they only pop up when I open the app.

brucethemoose,

I am just using the browser UI, and just mean the notifications on the site.

Sometimes I get a reply with no notification even within Lemmy, and someone else said this happens to them too.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

I think sometimes they’re just slow, so you may have clicked into the thread before it found out you needed a notification. I’m not an expert though. It’s just a guess based on personal experience.

brucethemoose,

Its happened to me after a full day too.

MudMan,

Yeah, that's true on Steam as well.

There are a whole bunch of games that actively removed compatibility with SteamOS, and Linux by extension. Apex Legends was the most recent and the most vocal about it.

Zorque,

That was on the developers, not the storefront, though. Epic has specifically decided they don’t give a flying fuck about Linux.

MudMan,

Well, you still don't get to play it, and you sure as hell aren't getting a refund, so I'm not entirely sure how that changes the situation at all.

Zorque,

… because now your weird obsession with blaming Steam for all things going wrong with gaming has less ground to stand on?

MudMan,

Because not having a game available is not having a game available. You still, and I can't believe I have to type this twice, don't get to play the stupid game.

For the record, I blamed Steam for nothing here. Some guy said he feels more assured that Steam will keep Linux compatibility, I pointed out that this is not the case. It's not even Steam's fault, compatibility is being dropped either for technical reasons or due to anticheat, and there is no indication that it will be any different with Epic going forward.

laurelraven,

What they said, exactly:

If that happens on Steam, I can reasonably expect a refund if it was previously Verified, and because of the verification system, they also have an incentive not to break compatibility.

Emphasis mine.

They didn’t say it won’t happen. They said they have far more confidence that it’ll be much less likely to happen. And that they have a reasonable expectation of refund if the developer pulls that.

There are no guarantees here, but Valve has put a lot of time and effort into making Linux games work, and Epic has not. No, they can’t stop developers from pulling those stunts, but they’re no more happy about it than we are and, from everything I’ve been seeing, are actively working on getting developers to stop doing that.

Also, the anticheat excuse is mostly a lie, the ones Destiny 2, Rust, and Apex Legends use are compatible with Linux, and just require, as I understand it, checking a box and including a file in a specific spot, so those are just outright anti Linux for the sake of hating Linux and Linux gamers.

MudMan,

Yeah, but that's not a reasonable expectation, is it? Because it's happened multiple times and nobody got anything refunded.

So there is no meaningful incentive and no reasonable expectation, demonstrably.

And, for the record, the Apex Legends guys at least didn't say they couldn't support Linux or the Deck. They used to, in fact. They actively pulled support because they said they saw disproportionately more cheating under those platforms. I have no idea if that's true, but it's certainly what they said. It sure doesn't sound like that'll change anytime soon, unless Windows enacts the same restrictions on Kernel-level access or Linux develops some equivalent.

I'd say that's probably a distant priority over, I don't know, getting decent Nvidia support, but knowing the way Linux progresses that may absolutely not be true.

laurelraven,

Well, of the three I mentioned, 2 are free to play, and the other they did issue refunds for Linux players… Which ones were you thinking of?

MudMan,

Free to play games do take your money, though. Especially Destiny 2, which is a free to play game that happens to cost about sixty bucks a year. And Rust did offer a refund to users, but not because Valve made them do it (my understanding is they had to actually negotiate with Valve how that would even work). They issued a refund because they announced a native Linux client and then backed out of that promise.

So yeah, no, I don't see what reasonable expectation for refunds there is, I don't see Valve having ever mentioned that Steam Deck compatibility being rolled back or removed would be grounds for a refund (at least outside their time limited no-cause refund policy) or that the reaction to compatibility changes with Proton or Linux would be any different across Epic, GOG or Valve at this point. Things may change if the Deck platform gets a lot bigger in the future and Valve decide to push for it as a closed environment, but that's not where we are.

To your question, the other big game that comes to mind having done the same thing as Apex would be GTA V, which to my knowledge is still listed as "Unsupported" due to adding anticheat, despite initially working on Deck. And I guess you could count the FIFA franchise if you see it as a single game, because I think there was at least one of them supported on Deck before they rolled out Anticheat and all the newer ones have not been supported.

So it's definitely not a one-off thing, and there has been no action from Valve.

Kecessa, (edited )

No, you see it’s different because Steam is love and Gabe is perfection, you know?

MudMan,

The level of quasi-religious fervor is... kind of scary. Especially given that it's over this one billionare techbro. I mean, good for them, they have a great product and a better understanding of how to make money with only light enshittification, but still...

laurelraven,

If and when they do something shitty, I’ll be right there with you calling them out for it, but I don’t see anything here that fits that description

MudMan,

Well, they refused to offer refunds for a long time after people like EA and GOG had already implemented it, and only relented when forced by regulators. And they screwed up their Green Light process for a long time despite every developer telling them it sucked. There's the ongoing use of loot boxes and monetized UGC, of course. Your tolerance for that one may vary.

I think Valve makes very good software and good hardware, and they have a way better handle on where they can squeeze users versus side with them than pretty much anybody else in the industry.

But, you know, they're a corpo ran by a reclusive techbro, they're still frequently sketchy.

Which is also very much true of GOG and CD Projekt, for the record.

stardust,

I just save my money and play something else or buy something else. There’s more games than can be played that I’ve never felt like I was losing out by not buying a game from epic.

brucethemoose,

Right but I dont see how its anything but a minor annoyance.

Like, if the game is really good… What is so bad about installing the epic client?

stardust,

I don’t have it installed. I claim through the website.

pivot_root,

Some perspective from someone vocally against Epic:

They entered the market and tried to get their foot in the door not by providing a better service or experience to the consumers, but by being underhanded and anticompetitive while accusing their competition of being underhanded and anticompetitive. Add on that with the fact that their CEO lacks any sort of humility and integrity, and I simply do not trust them to give a single shit about me as a customer. If they achieved their goals, I’m confident that they would leverage their position to extract value out of me immediately—be it through ads, increased prices, or selling my data to third parties. I don’t want to support that by giving them any of money.

While I don’t think Valve is my friend either, they at least:

  1. Have a history of doing things that provide some benefit to their users, even if its clearly out of self-interest.
  2. Aren’t publicly traded.
brucethemoose,

Epic Games is not publicly traded.

And TBH their history with Unreal is not that bad. And Valve is already extracting a truckload of money out of us through their percentage cut.

Carmack is absolutely a character though, lol. I have to wonder how controversial EGS would be without him.

pivot_root,

Fair point with neither being publicly traded. I should have been more clear on that.

Unreal the engine, or the game series? From the perspective of a consumer, I don’t think either of them seem to be in good shape these days, unfortunately.

Er… Carmarck is in Id. Epic’s founder and CEO is Tim Sweeney.

brucethemoose,

Ah yeah I meant Sweeny.

Vespair,

Some people prefer not to do business with entities whose business practices they don’t support.

drdiddlybadger, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store
@drdiddlybadger@pawb.social avatar

If a game is only released on Epic, it hasn’t been released yet. Its just in some weird alpha state until it has broader release.

AustralianSimon,
@AustralianSimon@lemmy.world avatar

We waited years for MW5 to come off Epic and finally got it. Same with Satisfactory.

xavier666,

This is the way

Affidavit, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

I recently discovered that I can buy, download, and launch games from my Epic Games library without having the Epic Games Bloatware even installed.

Heroic Games Launcher serves as a storefront, installer, and launcher for Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon.

mrvictory1,

This needs to be the top comment. Yes, you can use it on both Windows, Mac and Linux.

TychoQuad,

Steam Deck included!

I installed it when I got my deck earlier this week, even though I don’t have any games on Epic (yet)

AustralianSimon,
@AustralianSimon@lemmy.world avatar

NOW this is interesting. Still won’t give Epic my money but I get plenty of games from Twitch for EGS.

TachyonTele,

Exe files exist in the games folder.

AustralianSimon,
@AustralianSimon@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll still skip games with multiplayer for obvious reasons but this is great.

gnomesaiyan, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store
@gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world avatar

The only games I have on EGS are the ones I collect via Amazon Prime. It’s basically a game key graveyard.

But GOG? That’s where all the good games come from.

tigeruppercut,

Why not the free weekly epic giveaways as well? There have been some good games for free in the past

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

I think I got the latest tomb raider trilogy and death stranding, uh, last year or the year before? All free. My perception of time is getting fucky again tho so take that into account.

AlligatorBlizzard,

I got Bear and Breakfast a few weeks ago and that’s one I had on my Steam wishlist. Along with quite a few others.

I do feel the slightest bit of guilt whenever I get a have that I definitely would have bought otherwise, especially because I tend to like indie games, but from what I’ve heard they’re paid reasonably well to do it.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, I was about to buy my wife the tomb raider series (it’s one of her faves) for Christmas and then I had to think of a new present. No complaints with that.

pyre,

gog doesn’t have regional pricing and their launcher at this point is worse than epic’s. as an old fuck I like having old games back but it’s not convenient at all.

SaharaMaleikuhm,

Heroic Games Launcher is on Windows also. If you buy a game on GOG through the Launcher it even compensates the devs a little bit. Very neat.

AlligatorBlizzard,

Wait, really? I guess I just noticed the affiliate link, I should order through the launcher in the future. It’s pretty great.

Ganbat,

Galaxy definitely sucks, but to say it’s worse than EGS seems pretty far out there. EGS has been caught snooping around files and taking system logs without notice on top of just being overly resource intensive, totally bare bones and easily broken.

pyre,

I’m talking user experience. egs used to be the slowest app I’ve ever used but right now egs starts and works faster for me than gog. also its video player works faster than steam’s, by like a mile. I don’t know if it’s just me because I never hear anyone complain about steam’s video player but for me it’s so goddamn terrible in so many ways I want to punch a wall every time I’m curious about a game while browsing steam because the video just takes fucking ages to get going and the controls are horrendous. I end up just searching on YouTube.

CowsSayPotato, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Pretty sure this is a screenshot of the upcoming game Infinity Nikki and OP must have checked before they added the windows launcher for preload. https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/3b4c3ee4-f9d3-4d81-bf6a-95cf37e7cbbf.webp

stringere,

ding ding ding

I’m wondering if it will run on the Steamdeck I bought my daughter for Christmas.

Twerp10,

Ragebait :(

delticus,

I just recognized the username; it’s the same dude who keeps trying to complain about monetization and wow and all that regularly lol. Seems like he deleted his last post on it? But it’s still in his comment history.

TachyonTele,

Lol this is the same OP that was mystified that games on steams Autumn sale were… on sale.

Nexy, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store
@Nexy@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

For me, its like it didn’t have a release at all. There are allot more game I want to play of years ago. No fomo.

johannesvanderwhales,

Yeah I don’t really buy pc games before they fall below a certain price point, anyway. So I don’t really care about these limited exclusive periods.

I wonder how much these deals are paying off for epic. Outside of exclusives and the weekly free games I’ve basically never even thought of buying a game on EGS. Definitely the worst launcher experience. Easily ignorable.

BoxOfFeet,
@BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t buy hardware until it drops below a certain price point, so when I finally have a PC capable enough, the game price is coincidentally also lower.

Wahots,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

Not even just ignorable. I literally don’t even hear about them until they release on steam and people talk smack in steam reviews. It might as well not exist unless it’s on Steam or GOG.

Apparently Alan Wake 2 came out on PC awhile ago, and I literally had no idea until someone bitched about it on Lemmy, lol.

Xylight, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store
@Xylight@lemm.ee avatar

If there’s an epic games game you want but don’t want to use the epic launcher or you’re on Linux, Heroic Games launcher id a good choice

Eternal192, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Just wait till it’s on GOG or Steam, no game is worth the hassle of Epic Games store.

ICastFist, do games w I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Available on both Apple and Google stores? That’s a near instant pass to me, too.

HawlSera,

They say: “Sonic Dream Team is an Apple Arcade Exclvusive, maybe we’ll do a port one day if our contract allows” I hear: “Sonic Dream Team is in devleopment hell and may never be released”

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