Submitted 2 months ago by Xatolos@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
The one thing I like about them is they recognized why people really wanted to stick with steam: they have a large established library and don’t want to bounce back and forth.
They took that and said “ok we’ll give you free games every week until you have a large library here and won’t want to leave!”
Jokes on them, I now have a large library of completely free games on epic and still use steam for the games I want to buy because I refuse to support their exclusivity bullshit.
I mean, Steam is also very functional and has a ton of support features. Especially for modding. It’s not just stockholm syndrome.
I get the games on epic but I haven’t Eben bothered playing them because I game exclusively on linux and just have not bothered with lutris / heroic etc. Proton on ste is just effortless and after years of tinkering with wine back in the day I want the simplicity
Heroic also makes it effortless, but I agree with all your points.
I resolved to never give Epic a dime when I got a popup forcing me to agree to a binding arbitration agreement in order to launch games I already have installed and in my library. It tells me that they think people will have good reasons to sue them in the future.
You can send a snail mail to opt out, which is scummy at best, but technically you can opt out.
You don’t need a subscription like Prime to get the free games? I was under the impression you do.
There are even more free games from prime for the epic store, but the epic store has it’s own free games too that don’t require any subscription to anything.
They were giving them away to anyone who made an epic account.
Can you also launch the games through steam to get features like the overlay and stuff
I believe you can, I haven’t tried though. The games install like any other and have an .exe you can point to through steam so it would probably just be a matter of having the epic launcher open as well when you go to play.
Epic feels like a kid’s toy compared to steam imo. Just overall less usable and dumbed down.
Steam is the only game store that is on linux
itch.io is also has a Linux app
Oh yeah
you didn’t mention your distro. is that because it’s ubuntu?
No, because it isn’t 2015 anymore.
Nag it’s not ubuntu
I use arch btw
Let me know when Heroic integrates it
The Epic Games Launcher is so far behind on features compared to Steam it’s not even funny. Epic chose not to try and compete with Steam on that front and to try and force users onto the platform with exclusivity deals and sweeten the deal with free games.
The one user-centric killer feature Epic has in their stack IMHO is the built-in multiplayer crossplay. Except it’s not even exclusive to their store ironically (you do need an Epic account for it though).
Epic chose not to try and compete with Steam on that front
Forget competing, they lack even the basics.
Things I need a storefront/launcher to provide me:
Nice to have:
As a family…I need the family sharing provided by steam. Especially the recent beta version. It’s fantastic.
Two things that would be nice to have is:
If Steam’s mod directory didn’t REQUIRE you to buy the game on Steam
Shares Games could be played simultaneously
Their store, their policy, their framework, their infrastructure, their rules. Deal wirh it and install mods like any other user does. Manually
Lose the ‘infinite growth’ promise to shareholders (in fact, lose the whole shareholder thing entirely). That’s the root of all evil right there. It’s the cause of all woes suffered by gamers, devs and even the very sociopathic CEOs who think Epic exclusivity is a sound financial strategy. We all suffer for it, and all to benefit shareholders who, in 2024, still believe the lie that next year’s profits will exceed this year’s. It’s delusional, and even if it weren’t, it would quite literally be cancerous. Cancer is just a board of shareholders in a biological system.
One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates. – Gabe Newell, 2011
Time and again, digital distribution platforms have proved this. Apple Music became a dominant music distribution platform at the height of Napster, LimeWire and other peer to peer sharing apps. They did it, because it was easier to just buy the tracks/albums you wanted than to dig through trackers and websites which may or may not actually have what you want. Netflix became the de-facto source for streaming movies at a time when BitTorrent was common and well known. Again, they made it easy and convenient, while not charging an arm and a leg. Steam also faced competition from BitTorrent piracy. But again, Steam made buying, downloading and running games easier than the pirates. And people are willing to pay for that convenience and not dealing with the crap which floats around the high seas.
And, so long as Steam continues to treat it’s customers right, those customers will keep coming back. And that’s the problem with Pitchford’s whole premise. Developers will go where the customers are. Sure, you’ll get the odd case of a publisher/developer doing an exclusivity deal. But even then, it’s probably limited, because the customers are on Steam. If another storefront wants to draw customers, they need to start with treating customers well. They will still face headwinds, as Steam has a large “first mover” advantage. But, success is going to start with making customers want to come back.
yea let’s just forget about the illegality of those things and how companies, ISPs and law enforcements fight tooth and nail to shut those services down repeatedly.
You ever wonder why these companies don’t operate in countries that don’t have strict piracy laws and can’t shut down sites with court orders? Because it’s still easier to pirate than face criminal charges.
Re-read what I wrote, but hop down off your high horse first, it’s obvious you weren’t able to read it clearly from up there. I’m neither promoting nor defending piracy. Quite the contrary, I’m praising the legitimate services (and Steam in particular) for understanding that competition with piracy isn’t all about money, it’s often about the quality of service. Funny enough, your own comments are actually a point in favor of this:
You ever wonder why these companies don’t operate in countries that don’t have strict piracy laws and can’t shut down sites with court orders? Because it’s still easier to pirate than face criminal charges.
Yet somehow, with a lot of time, money and effort put into shutting down piracy, the pirates were able to provide a better service. Seriously, step back from the whole “napster bad” for a moment and think about the dissonance of the situation. Large companies, pulling in millions of dollars a year, with no need to worry about law enforcement or monied interests coming after them, somehow failed to create anything resembling a functional digital marketplace. They were stuck in the physical distribution paradigm and fought tooth and nail to avoid digital distribution. At the same time, a few kids, with little money, and law enforcement trying to shut them down created a pretty good user experience. Sure, some of that is not having to worry about licensing. But, a large part of it is understanding what the users want and giving it to them.
It wasn’t until Apple came along and basically created “Napster, but legitimate” that music piracy really fell off. Netflix pulled off something similar with video (though that is rebuilding some rough edges at the moment) and Steam did it for games. Sure, piracy still exists, and it will always be a problem. But, a lot of piracy can be tamped down by having a good service available.
No shit. Everyone was saying this from day one, but Sweeney was too stupid to realize it.
After the Borderlands 3 incident, not surprising.
There’s only one thing I want from gearbox anymore. For them to re-enable the online servers for Battleborn so I can finish the damn story mode for a game I bought.
ReBorn doesn’t work on Linux yet, (or at least it crashes for me).
Be sure to sign the citizen’s initiative!
Already have. Unfortunately even if it become law one day, it will only apply going forward in time.
I want them to let Civvie 1v1 Randy, it’s been a long time coming.
Let them fight in a sewer.
A glorious mental image
well the only thing i want from gearbox is them not sucking so i guess we can’t all have what we want
Any decent person who would have been “overly optimistic” at the time would have supported epic, and just that. There was no need to go out of his way to trashtalk others like a whiny bitch, especially when at the time said “others” where the place they had a chance to make money before.
I log into EGS via heroic a few times a year to claim a free game. Yet to ever play any said free games 🤷
Remember to claim The Callisto Protocol!
Huh, that was what 5 years ago now? I will remember telling randy he was wrong (in perhaps an alcohol fuelled rant 🤭) only to get swiftly blocked.
Brick voice ‘Ahhh good times!’
Don’t feel too bad. GOG sucks too, it just never had Epic’s enormous pool of Chinese hype money.
Why does GOG suck?
Telorand@reddthat.com 2 months ago
I have some personal qualms about supporting “the biggest fish” in the pond, since that tends to lead to the Apples, the Googles, and the Microsofts.
However, Steam hasn’t particularly abused its market power, and has even used it to create a very successful Linux handheld that has both helped propel Linux desktop adoption and added upstream improvements to Linux in general.
I’ll revise my opinion when Valve changes to a more overtly predatory model of capitalism, but for now, I’ll enjoy only needing to keep a partial eye open.
yamanii@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The joys of not having a duty to shareholders.
fluxion@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They’re also directly funding linux devs to work on related projects, which the most mutually-beneficial way to build products around linux
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
GoG exists and I always check there before going to Steam. I just won’t deal Epic.
Telorand@reddthat.com 2 months ago
GOG is great, but they need to make a Linux launcher, already. Or if they can’t, they should make it so the community can.
big_slap@lemmy.world 2 months ago
this is the correct approach towards how a society should support big buisnesses. the companies that don’t fuck us over will continue to get my public support and money