Epic Game Store is focused so hard on making it good for devs but they have also intentionally neutered it for gamers. Does it even run on Linux yet? We all know that’s the direction Valve is taking things and it’s why Microsoft is starting to panic.
It kinda does? You have to use a third party app like lutris/heroic.
You could argue that steam doesn't fully work on linux either (multiple windows like chat, friendslist or library opened on the same workspace regularly crash on Wayland and I havent had the steam overlay working on any non linux native game) but these features arent even part of the epic launcher
Huh, I’ve never used chat, I rarely use the friends list, and I think I’ve intentionally used the overlay maybe a handful of times. So I don’t think that’s a big loss.
However, they did work fine on xorg (I haven’t used any of them since switching a few months ago).
Regardless, the launcher works for the primary use cases: buying, organizing, installing, and playing games. So I think that qualifies as supporting Linux, even if there are some bugs here and there.
It’s (relatively, don’t use the embedded browser) pure Python and runs anywhere. I also use it on my Win7 retro machine because the Epic Launcher sucks. It also supports epic DRM and can log the game in.
Wait… that math does not possibly check out. In the worst case scenario (Steam), they pay 30% of the revenue from the game in platform fees. If they spend less than that for settlement, simple math tells us that there is at least 41% of the revenue basically unaccounted for.
There’s a bit of overhead in every company, like HR, IT and facilities, so maybe these don’t count for “development cost” (which makes no sense tbh, that’s not how project budgets work). Marketing can eat a ton of money, too, but the numbers still seem bafflingly high.
What? It just means that they spend less than 30% on development. That doesn’t sound too far off, as a lot of the money probably goes to marketing, management, administration or (gasp) profits.
Unless I live under a rock I don’t see the point of spending a lot on marketing ads for games. Two big examples of games that sold extremely well that I never saw an ad for were elden ring and boulders gate three. If you just make a good game word of mouth will tell how good the game is not an ad on TV.
It seems like it can make sense. Platform fees aren’t an initial outlay, they’re effectively a cut of profits based on sales.
For the sake of argument using fake numbers, if a studio spends $1m making a game, and then they put it on Steam and it does $10m in sales, then Steam’s cut of that at 30% will be $3m
So, spending more on store fees than development seems possible - especially if your game is selling really well
I have no love for this company whatsoever. Most of the their revenue streams should frankly be illegal. But I’m not exactly thrilled about every glorified software repository taking a pound of flesh off all revenue, licit or otherwise.
it sucks having to wait on get it on PC. I want to be optimistic and say it gives them time to fix bugs but so far no delayed PC release I know of has ever done that or at least hasn’t introduced new issues when porting it over
Same bro. Just completed the first gow a couple days ago. Ready for the second one now. Will definitely be picking up the new gow and horizon forbidden West!
Same here. I bought a PS4 late in its lifecycle to catch up and then was amazed when they started bringing stuff to PC. I’ve really been missing out on some PS5 titles but I’d be much happier to play them on PC. I think I’ll probably be waiting a while for Spider-Man 2 as well.
Yeah, it’s wonderful. I was playing it for nearly 2 hours straight on a flight recently. If you adjust the CPU clock speed and a couple other things, you can squeeze some solid play time out of the Deck with Zero Dawn. It runs amazingly smooth.
If it ran well on a PS4, it runs well on the Deck (at 800p). The Deck is really close to a portable PS4 in performance, ignoring architectural differences.
The Deck struggles with modern titles targeting the PS5. It technically can play these games… But the kind of “technically” that really doesn’t result in a good experience.
Valve’s doesn’t help with it’s ‘Verified’ status. I picked up Dead Space because it’s verified. Within an hour I’d hit the refund button. It ran. It ran at 20fps and looked like absolute ass, but it ran. Not sure that’s what they should be pushing people towards however.
Yeah I agree. They’re super inconsistent with the verification.
Sometimes a game plays perfectly, with zero crashes, at 60 FPS and great graphics… But it’s not verified because one line of dialogue uses a font Valve considered too small.
Then you have a game barely running at 20 FPS and potato graphics, crashing every 43 minutes, and yep totally verified, ready for the Deck.
I guess they’re wanting to show that it can handle the very biggest games? Problem is if people can’t trust the verification process then it’s effectively useless. After my Dead Space issue I’ve already made it standard practise to check ProtonDB before I grab a game.
What I mean is it isn’t a bad story, but in comparison to h:zd that had the slow plot reveal that made me go: what? What?! And want to eagerly know more about the story.
But gameplay is great and the skills you can unlock makes it very fun to play.
RIP Lance Reddick, him voicing Sylens is so great. I really hope they have enough recorded material for the next game.
Porting to PC isn’t minimal effort. It takes a lot of dev time to optimize and make it run well on the wide variety of PC hardware, not to mention the additional PC specific technologies like DLSS that often get implemented. First game had quite a few performance issues at launch that were ironed out over the span of several months.
The point isn’t that it’s quite literally free. It’s a figure of speech.
Between taking a game you’ve already completed and is already popular and reworking it to sell to a brand new audience… versus creating a new AAA title, which one is more expensive?
that were ironed out over the span of several months
It still runs like garbage on my 13700K and 3060Ti, depending on the area. Sometimes, High settings are fine, but way too often I have to drop down to “Original” to get somewhat acceptable FPS (>40) at 1440p with Balanced DLSS. Am I doing something wrong, or was it just even worse at launch?
videogameschronicle.com
Aktywne