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What's up with Epic Games? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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I can't seem to find that one comment explaining the issue with them...

But for the sake of promoting conversation on Lemmy, what's the issue with Epic, and why should I go for Steam or GoG?

Note: Piracy is not an answer. I understand why, and do agree to a certain extent... But sometimes, the happiness gained by playing something from a legitimate source is far greater 🥹... coming from someone who could never ever afford to purchase games, nor could my parents... Hence I've always played bootleg, or pirated games.

TL;DR

What's wrong?

Their launcher has a terrible UI AND UX.
They make exclusive deals with studios to prevent other platforms from getting games. (Someone mentioned that Steam did the same thing in their infancy. Also, I have another question; why is it ok for Sony and Microsoft to make exclusive games for their consoles but not ok for these PC platforms to do so?)
They have been invested in by a Chinese company, Tencent. (Someone mentioned that it isn't that big of a deal, but idk.)
They are actively anti-linux for some reason.

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[-] Veritrax@lemmy.world 55 points 7 months ago

I personally don't like Epic for paying developers for exclusivity deals, keeping games off other PC platforms for a year or more. Artificial scarcity is bad for consumers.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Even worse is that they do this while trying to paint themselves as the underdog against the Steam monopoly. It's not only hypocritical, but also deceitful. A new monopoly is not a solution to an existing monopoly, but a solution to investments paying off.

[-] Killer@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Don't forget them being hypocritical again for suing google/apple for being monopolistic because they don't want to have to go through them for payment.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -1 points 7 months ago

You guys don't understand what a monopoly is...

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I do know what it is, and I don't actually think Steam is one. They have a considerable market share, but they are by no means the only way to get games on PC, nor do they exercise their dominance in a way that stifles competition.

I'm pretty sure Tim Sweeny knows this as well, but he still calls it a "monopoly" whenever he has the chance.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -4 points 7 months ago

They were sued in the EU for violating anti trust laws, lost and decided not to cooperate.

They're currently getting sued for forcing devs to not sell their games at a lower price on other platforms.

Their marketshare is more than enough to consider them a monopoly, you don't need 100% of the market to be one, you just need to be so implanted that you become the default solution. Google doesn't have 100% of the market, it still is considered a monopoly for search engines

[-] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Definitely a terrible idea.

Using money to jump ahead in the line is a terrible mindset. Provide good features, you'll get your recognition.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Which they don't do. Their platform has very few features, and doesn't even have a cart. (Well last time I booted EGS like a year ago).

They have almost no features and of the features they do provide, none of them are great. Their only "feature" is operating at a loss, subsidized by megacorps, for many years like Amazon to gain a bunch of market share.

Luckily for gamers, steam already existed so they couldn't corner the market and enshittify the entire industry like amazon did.

[-] hh93@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

No it won't - people are lazy

Even CDProjekt sold many more copies on steam than GOG when you

Actually own the ge there instead of renting a licence for it.
Know that 100% of your money go to the game developers.
Get many additional goodies for free

Don't tell me people are choosing the better deal when it's all just steam having the might of "I have most of my games there already" on their side...

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -5 points 7 months ago

Why not say fuck the developers instead? They're the ones accepting guaranteed income in exchange for exclusivity, maybe you should be mad at then for not taking a chance at the "influencer making your game popular enough that you recoup your cost" lottery.