Yeah I've made my opinion known in Game Discussion and System Wars a lot, I'll just say this: it's bullshit.
@sban83 said:
It's just economics. If you were Epic, would you pay Steam a cut to sell your game? I wouldn't. It was just a matter of time before publishers woke up to it. EA was the first, now Bethesda, Ubisoft and Epic are too.
To me, it's just another icon in my taskbar...
I don't think you get it:
1. Bethesda and Ubisoft (and EA) sell their own products, whether developed in-house or by a developer they contracted. The point is, they are selling something they brought to the table. I don't really like it, but whatever, I can understand it.
2. Epic did not develop or have a hand in the development of Metro: Exodus, or most of the other titles they sell.
3. Exclusives take away from the consumer. On Steam, I have a network of friends, mod support, discussions, game guides....not to mention it's where I keep about 85% of my games. I also use GoG and Origin. When you remove a game from an open platform and make it available at a single, sub-par storefront like Epic, you are in essence stealing from the consumer; you take away all that the former has to offer, and put nothing in it's place. Epic charges less from developers to sell on their store? Good for them. But what's in it for me? Nothing.
4. "Exclusivity" is, for lack of a better word, the antithesis to what PC gaming is. PC gaming is about choice, open developments, open sales....it's about saying "Wow, where do I want to buy this game from!? Steam, GoG, or maybe even just download it straight from the developer's website!" It's about saying "I don't support the ethics of this company, so I'm going to give my money to the other company".
5. Finally, it might be "economics" to you, but to me I think it is the dark side of capitalism. I love capitalism when it's done on a level playing field, but exclusivity is not on the level at all. In an ideal world, Epic would offer something that would entice people: better support, cheaper prices, a better community...SOMETHING. Instead what they done is offer a monopoly. "Buy from us. Oh, who are we kidding, you can ONLY buy from us HAHAHAH" is basically what they are saying.
Meanwhile, the superior places to buy it (Steam and GoG) don't get access to it.
And you know what? Not even the developer or publisher was really given a choice. Yeah they were not forced to choose Epic, but when they throw money at you in an effort to gain exclusivity, you're not going to turn it down.
In the end, it's not really fair to anyone except Epic.
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