Crowdfunded game Outer Wilds is now an Epic Store timed exclusive

[Bananasplit_00]

isnt this ilegal? you back a thing with certain promises and they sign away those promises in a deal... 

[Doobeedoo]

Old news. Well I guess it's timed exclusive at least heh. 

[samcool55]

1 hour ago, Doobeedoo said:

Old news. Well I guess it's timed exclusive at least heh. 

It's not outer worlds, which is known to be an EGS exclusive for a while.

Outer worlds and outer wilds are very similar names, but are 2 different games.

[Doobeedoo]

9 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

It's not outer worlds, which is known to be an EGS exclusive for a while.

Outer worlds and outer wilds are very similar names, but are 2 different games.

Oh yeah you're right lol was looking this on a phone so just skimmed through...

[Stroal]

20 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Another less game to give a fuck about then... Don't support this Epic exclusivity shit.

Unless the exclusive is to steam, then we support it. 

[ARikozuM]

Time for people to do chargebacks.

[MattLifewalker]

21 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Time for people to do chargebacks.

Probably won't make a huge difference. I am sure Epic's offer ensures they stay well in the black no matter what.

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, MattLifewalker said:

Probably won't make a huge difference. I am sure Epic's offer ensures they stay well in the black no matter what.

I would still do it. The $35 chargeback fee on the vendor hits pretty hard and could cause quite an issue over time. 

[RejZoR]

3 hours ago, Stroal said:

Unless the exclusive is to steam, then we support it. 

What game is actually exclusive to Steam by contract like with Epic? Other than Valve's own games, I don't recall a single one. Anyone releasing a game on Steam is allowed to release it on GOG or any other store. What about Epic? Haha, good luck with that as they are hoarding exclusives and poaching them from other platforms to a point they are removing crowd sourced games this way. Ridiculous and boycott worthy.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

20 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

I was gonna say wasn't what they pulled illegal? I'm fairly sure that's illegal under EU laws if not also American laws because that is straight up false advertising in my opinion.

 

9 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

isnt this ilegal? you back a thing with certain promises and they sign away those promises in a deal... 

 

Remember, "backing" is not buying nor investing, it is donating. And I'd bet in the crowdfunding pages, somewhere, whether prominently displayed or in a footnote, it says that all plans are subject to change. I mean, we already know that crowdfunded projects can simply call it a day, shutdown, and never deliver anything. It's basically people telling them what they'd love to do, and you giving them money no strings attached. It's probably unethical on the developers' behalf, but not more than a beggar asking money because he's hungry, then spending it all on booze.

 

It's sad because there are games for which crowdfunding worked perfectly, delivered everything as promised, and probably could not have been funded any other way (e.g., Thimbleweed Park), but it's hard to argue against a "no pre-order, no crowdfunding" rule of thumb...

[DaltonM]

idk, i actually really like the idea of buying my indie games (that aren't on switch) on Epic Games.. I like the idea of indie devs getting a bigger cut.

 

But **** M$ owned obsidian, and Take 2. These publishers don't need the money that bad. I will probably never buy BL3 until it's 4.99 on Steam, because in 6 months, everyone will have moved on. 

 

I haven't seen anyone else in this topic bring up the bigger pay cut for indie devs. It's really the best way to support a dev by buying games alone. 

[Giganthrax]

Outer Wilds? More like Pirate Wilds, amirite?

 

Scratch that, game looks like trash and I can't even figure out what genre it is. Seems to have survival elements and you can fly a spaceship, but beyond that, it's ???? 

[D13H4RD]

Honestly, I'm not surprised. 

 

Sweeney did say that unless Steam tweaks their revenue share to match Epic's (it's a pipe dream, if you ask me), then this will continue. 

 

Doesn't make a move like this any less scummy (the BL3 exclusivity was actually less scummy because it was announced at reveal) but money talks and it's more than likely that the money that Epic is offering in exchange for exclusivity is just that lucrative, a la Phoenix Point. 

 

The truth is that Epic is doing this to get EGS off the ground as quickly as possible. It's not all about revenue split and it's not all about consumers. Epic Games is a company (one that is backed by one of the largest and potentially shadiest mega-corps around) and unless this meets the bottom line, they're not gonna do it. 

[jagdtigger]

36 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

Sweeney did say that unless Steam tweaks their revenue share to match Epic's (it's a pipe dream, if you ask me), then this will continue. 

Which was proven to be unsustainable....

[WereCatf]

I'm just pretty disappointed by all this. Epic has now grabbed a good handful of titles I'd like to, meaning that I'll have to wait for over a year to play them I sure do hope this exclusivity-deals-thingy is just a temporary fad and it'll die for good in a few years.

[D13H4RD]

4 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Which was proven to be unsustainable....

Hence pipe dream.

 

88-12 is an oddly specific split. It’s usually 85-15 or 90-10.

[Stroal]

18 hours ago, RejZoR said:

What game is actually exclusive to Steam by contract like with Epic? Other than Valve's own games, I don't recall a single one. Anyone releasing a game on Steam is allowed to release it on GOG or any other store. What about Epic? Haha, good luck with that as they are hoarding exclusives and poaching them from other platforms to a point they are removing crowd sourced games this way. Ridiculous and boycott worthy.

Now you're getting into semantics, there are plenty of games on steam that are only on stream because steam is huge. They have a monopoly, and gamers support it.

 

Steam was a huge trash pile for years after it came out, literally everyone hated it. It was nothing like it is today. Platforms take time to develop, and while I don't like these timed exclusives, the fact is I'll still play the games, because I want to support the developers. 

[Humbug]

19 hours ago, Stroal said:

Now you're getting into semantics, there are plenty of games on steam that are only on stream because steam is huge. They have a monopoly, and gamers support it.

What? it's not semantics.

 

Every 3rd part dev/publisher on steam has the right to sell their game anywhere they please. Devs can wake up one morning and say let me expand to xyz store and see if I can move a few extra copies. That's the reason there are 3rd party games available across Steam, GOG, Origin etc for devs who have a strategy of maximizing reach. Witcher 3 is one such example. Devs have no ironclad contract with steam which limits them.

 

On the epic store they are offering cash incentives for devs to sign away those rights in an exclusive contract. They are signing away their freedoms, that's why for example we are seeing devs backtrack on the Linux releases. Because the epic store does not support that OS and the Devs are not allowed to work with a store which does, so they have to abandon native support for that community of gamers.

 

Devs relinquishing their freedoms to store fronts is a bad direction for the industry.

[jagdtigger]

16 hours ago, Stroal said:

They have a monopoly

Yeah and there arent any games that are also available on other stores and there arent any games that only use steam to fire up their own launcher.... /s

[Humbug]

2 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Yeah and there arent any games that are also available on other stores and there arent any games that only use steam to fire up their own launcher.... /s

Yep, more store competition is good and welcome. But Steam is not a monopoly.

 

They are not the gatekeepers of PC gaming. PC gaming outside of steam is a multi billion dollar industry when you consider Origin, Battlenet, GOG, humble bundle, Star Citizen, Oculus Store, uplay, bethesda store, windows store etc... Lots of publishers reaching customers without going through steam. None of them are as big as steam, but that's not the same as a monopoly.

 

To be clear I welcome more store competition as it drives the industry forward, and I already buy games from multiple stores.

[Misanthrope]

You know how I have always maintained that crowd funding is always a fucking scam? I know many here have been critical of my purists views on never accepting crowd funding due to it's fundamental flaws of having 0 protections and guarantees towards backers, something that's decisively not true of a normal investment where you could potentially do something about it.

 

This Epic Store deals are basically confirming my extreme bias every day now: don't be a sucker don't crowd fund anything at all, just wait to see if it actually becomes a product that you want (And that obviously include the distribution method of your preference, whatever that might be).

 

If you want to be more positive minded about it

Spoiler

Eeww that's just yucky.

Then consider that you should feel a lot less guilty about not backing indie games: Epic evidently has more than enough money and will to finance a lot of ventures provided they become exclusive so make them do that instead of giving them more kickstarter targets for them to steal while you continue to be uselessly raging about it from your computer chair because you were fucking had and now have learned the valuable lesson that everybody is out to get their own shit only, including supposedly dedicated and passionate indie devs.

[CookieSmasherGus]

And here I was thinking "No way that Epic could get any scummier" and then they pull something like this. I really hope fortnite gets old quick and Epic will have to start making good decisions otherwise the money will go away.

[xAcid9]

9 minutes ago, CookieSmasherGus said:

And here I was thinking "No way that Epic could get any scummier" and then they pull something like this. I really hope fortnite gets old quick and Epic will have to start making good decisions otherwise the money will go away.

As much as i hate epic store exclusivity, this is all publisher/dev decision. They probably the one that approached epic's for the exclusivity deal too. Can't blame them to take easy money but yeah, fuck this game.

[Stroal]

7 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Yeah and there arent any games that are also available on other stores and there arent any games that only use steam to fire up their own launcher.... /s

So steam isn't totally dominating the market? 

 

Literally all these arguments were used when steam first launched. You HAD to install steam to play CS and HL, you HAD to have steam to play L4D. It's funny how people are ok with exclusives so long as the platform and game are owned by the same company. An exclusive is an exclusive. The only issue people have here is that Epic paid for it, which somehow makes it worse.

 

So the devs get more money, but you have to install epic launcher, and everyone loses their minds. Just don't play the game. It won't be effective, and it won't change anything, but at least you'll know you didn't install the epic launcher. 

 

 

EDIT:

Also, exclusivity is the only way to even compete with Steam, it's such a monster that the only way to compete is through exclusives. That's a problem, sure, but don't act like it's some crime against humanity. It's what is required in order to establish yourself as a player in the market, due to the overshadowing monster that is Steam. 

[jagdtigger]

4 hours ago, Stroal said:

So steam isn't totally dominating the market? 

They are the most popular one but a far cry from a monopoly.....