Submitted 2 months ago by Azrael@lemmy.ca to games@lemmy.world
I get that Steam is where everything and everyone is at. And that the user experience and functionality is best there BUT having another player to try an compete with Steam is a good thing, right?
If anyone can try, it’s the Fortnite Bank.
So, why the hate?
Part of the hate is against Sweeny. The rest of the hate is that it isn’t steam.
Don’t forget about exclusives!
People are going to list all the features Steam has over Epic, ignoring that Steam has had ~22 years to get to where it is. The original Steam experience was garbage, and lots of us older gamers knew what would happen and hated that Steam would be the primary catalyst to killing off physical media for PC games back in the mid-2000s, especially as broadband internet access was becoming far more accessible.
Don’t get me wrong, Valve has done alright so far in terms of game ownership, but once Gabe dies/retires, it’s only a matter of time before some greedy fucks force Valve to go public and the pure enshittification process begins.
Okay, but have EGS really improved in any significant way in the 7 years they’ve been up? I don’t see it. Plus, a smart competitor would absolutely look at Steam’s history and learn from it; they don’t seem to have done that at all.
If they had spent the same amount of money on developing the storefront that they have on exclusivity deals, EGS could have been a worthy competitor.
I don’t disagree that Epic could definitely be doing better with their storefront. They have made improvements, albeit at a glacial pace. They’ve added achievements and reviews, but it’s still a pale comparison to what Steam offers. That being said, no one seems to dig at GoG’s shitty storefront and app nearly to the same degree. Luckily, GOG allows third-party access, so you can at least replace their app with other alternatives.
Regardless, I’m not defending Epic, I was simply trying to avoid doing the mindless “fuck Epic” and offer some counterargument. Epic is a shitty company, but some competition is better than zero competition. Yes, GOG exists, but they hardly have any marketshare at all and if CDPR ever stops supporting it as much as they have been, their future likely isn’t looking so great. It’s like AMD vs Nvidia. Both companies aren’t great, but I’d rather both exist than only Nvidia and/or AMD; and of course, even more competition would be even better.
People are going to list all the features Steam has over Epic, ignoring that Steam has had ~22 years to get to where it is.
And then there are people talking about how steam has had those 22 years, while completely ignoring how epic could just copy how steam did things and work from there.
Sure, they can’t see what happens in the back end, but I somehow doubt that valve is doing anything ground breaking there that others can’t think of.
Lol, no one is listing steam features. Epic is perfectly capable of being pieces of shit and a garbage company without needing comparison.
EGS is today as old as steam was in 2010. Yet it is still behind 2010 steam’s features. All that on top of all the unethical and shady stuff they have done and the many different ways they make gaming worse for everyone.
Their Guides feature didn’t come out until 2012sh, same with workshop. The only thing Steam had in 2010 that Epic doesn’t have right now is Community, which launched around 2007sh.
People are overly loyal to Steam and don’t realise the huge market share they have. It’s not technically a monopoly but everyone else is fighting over the 20% that Steam doesn’t have so who can blame Epic for throwing money at the problem.
Console gamer here as well, though with a PC and redeeming my weekly Epic Games since a few years back.
Most of what I hear I believe it’s mostly due to the Epic Launcher being quite a bit behind standard, and the store not having great costumer service policies. I think Epic’s games with timed exclusivity don’t garner a lot of respect from the gaming community either, as they rather have freedom of choice to purchase their games on their main storefront.
Now, I think it’ll be obvious, but all of what I mentioned is further impacted by the comparison between Epic (or most other launchers, really) and Steam. Steam might as well be called the “default launcher” at this point, and naturally not everyone can compete (or they don’t want to) with the numerous and consistently good business decisions Steam tends to have, which keeps it in the top.
Not only that, and even though I still benefit from it, I’d say Epic’s strategy of offering weekly free games might feel like a sort of ‘obvious bribe’ to some, a cheap way to try and vainly make gamers turn on their main competitor. Which isn’t really moving the needle that much, because gamers preference for Steam isn’t due to free games, but good and consumer-oriented business practices.
I’m sure from gamer to gamer there’s more depth to this, but I’d say that’s the gist of it.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with epic games store. People think just because everyone on the internet told them not to like it so they have to not like it. It’s a store. It sells you games then when you click on the game it opens so you can play. That’s it literally that’s all it does same as steam same and Xbox.
After reading your comment I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I tend to not buy where owner of the store treat me like shit. Neither in real life nor online.
It’s a bad experience overall
The UI was super buggy for me
I want all my games on Steam and to not have to install multiple apps
I don’t really know all the details other than Tim Sweeney seeming like a shit head. I just collect my free games sometimes and have never bought a thing on there, I don’t even think I have payment info on there.
The other platforms on PC, for example Steam, itch, gog, all do better things.
Itch really supports game jams, which in turn supports smaller devs and puts out a lot of unique stuff, much of which is free. They also allow devs to choose what percent itch gets with even zero as an option.
Valve is a massive contributor to open source projects and the game dev community. They have contributed a ton to SDL which is used to make many games and engines, and Proton is rocketing wine development forward. Steam also allows adding non-Steam games and even lets you run them with Proton just as easily as Steam native games.
GoG is DRM free, enough said. That in and of itself is one of the most pro consumer stances.
The only plus for Epic is they give out free games, no other redeeming qualities or features.
Don’t forget the beauty of PC is that it’s an open platform, and Epic does nothing to support that.
Not only that, but they made the platform ever so slightly less open when they bought a bunch of games just so that they could remove them from other stores. They garner hatred because they don’t try to gain a competitive edge by being good or unique in some way, they’re just making gamers who aren’t willing to download their launcher suffer.
I do both PC and console gaming, and I’ve personally never gotten the Epic hate. As a store it’s not amazing but it’s fine. I will generally go to Steam first but I’m also not going to boycott a game just because it’s Epic exclusive.
I’m not petty enough to give up on their free games. I just claim them in the browser to avoid dealing with their launcher.
But it’s important to note that, if their UX is so terrible that people avoid their launcher like the plague, they get fewer chances to tempt users into buying anything. If the sales are low, most developers won’t even bother listing their games on EGS. It’s a death spiral.
As others said, EGS is just a fucking cancer, not a competition. A good competition to Steam is actually Microsoft App Store. It’s a very streamlined mobile-like experience.
Eww
I’m just there for the free games
Threatening Steam’s monopoly. And the unwashed Stockholmed masses hate that.
we’ve been rumbled!
so thats what this drama ive been seeing on reddit as well.
Noerknhar@feddit.org 2 months ago
Honestly, haters gonna hate.
I don’t care about features, I care about a good price. If the game is cheaper on Epic, I buy it there.
People should like Epic for giving more money to developers than Steam.
Overspark@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Except that’s also a lie. Steam does keep a higher percentage of the sales price for itself than Epic does, but it also allows people to activate game keys without taking any money. Steam only makes money from games sold on Steam itself. So developers can sell games through other stores and even through their own website, and keep up to 100% of the sales price. Effectively, this means that Steam takes roughly the same amount of money that Epic does, or in some cases even less probably.
Noerknhar@feddit.org 2 months ago
They don’t get a cut from keys, yes, but the magnitude of all this is an assumption for which I haven’t seen a credible source yet.
Without putting these amounts in perspective, “that’s a lie” is quite a bold statement.
drasglaf@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
They give more money to publishers* That may or may not translate to more money to developers, but seeing how the industry is going, I’m more inclined to believe devs don’t see a cent from the extra cut in most cases.