Generally is extra competition not a good thing for customers?
Comment on I'm a console gamer so, Why the hate on the Epic Games Store?
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
As a customer, why would I ever shop at Epic if the game is also available on Steam and typically has more features? Epic doesn’t solve any problems for me and actively introduces others, like a lack of Linux support. Do I want to play Alan Wake II? Of course I do. Am I going to buy it when they could push an update tomorrow that breaks compatibility with my operating system and offers me no recourse as a customer since it was unsupported in the first place? No, I’m not.
There are things worth solving that Steam does poorly (if they also support Linux customers). Finding out if my multiplayer game will be playable without external servers is a nightmare; DRM sucks, and I want none of it; Steam’s multiplayer/friends network has more downtime than is acceptable; Steam Input should be a platform agnostic library; etc. Instead of solving those problems, they made the store enticing for suppliers (publishers) but not customers. If I’m shopping someplace other than Steam, it’s GOG and not Epic.
adeoxymus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ulrich@feddit.org 1 day ago
Generally, yes. But Epic is not competitive in any way.
stoy@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Absolutely, competition is allways good for the consumer, even in this case.
Since EGS offers a worse experience, I will use Steam instead.
ech@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Blackmailing customers onto your service isn’t competition.
Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 1 day ago
Unless it’s infrastructure or something with a natural monopoly.
The main competition with steam is buying physical copies of things. If we want to support retailers selling physical copies of games and bricks and mortar shops, that’s a good thing.
Alas, I think the games industry is chosing to abandon them. And Steam has the ability to add games purchased outside of Steam to it for convenience. Unlike Epic it puts the user close to the top of priorities.
CameronDev@programming.dev 1 day ago
Does steam really have frequent multiplayer downtime issues? I’ve never notice any issues, but I don’t play a lot of multiplayer anymore.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s a lot of cutting out for about a minute, but that’s just enough to interrupt a fighting game match. If it was once per week at a predictable time, that might be okay, but it’s been happening more and more lately when it used to only be on Tuesdays.
CameronDev@programming.dev 1 day ago
Isn’t steam responsible for match making only, and the actual game company is responsible for the servers? Are you sure its not the game servers?
Either way, that would be very frustrating if its happening mid round.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Typically, when Steam handles the matchmaking, it’s peer to peer. But in general, they also sort of broker the connection between you and the other player or server. Street Fighter 6 runs its own servers and matchmaking, but if Steam cuts out, I lose my connection to them.