Hmmm, I wonder if there was something unnecessary created to limit their market? They wouldn’t shoot themselves in the foot and cost themselves huge revenue like that though, would they?
The game was acclaimed and beloved by virtually everyone who played it, and it’s only becoming profitable now? Is it too simplistic to say that a normal release across multiple storefronts, namely Steam, would have made it profitable in a matter of months?
I genuinely keep forgetting the game exists. An article like this one will pop up from time to time, and only then will I remember about it. Epic is a black hole.
But… but… Epic funded the game, this means they physically cannot put it on Steam! Nevermind the dozens of games on Steam published by owners of competing platforms, such as UbiSoft, Activision, Sony, CDPR, EA…
An excellent game that was undercut by their exclusivity deal with Epic
Epic was the publisher and funded the game so not the basic Epic exclusive what we’ve used to see with many games.
Which is why I haven’t played it. Epic will never see my credit card number. I’d throw money after the game on GOG or Steam, and I think there are quite a few of us.
I’m out of the loop. Why hate epic more than others?
They lock up games under exclusivity contracts that others do not, which means you’re stuck with their launcher and all of its problems or lack of features. In this case, they’re the publisher, so it’s a bit murkier. They’ve also got strong ties to Tencent, so some people are cautious of the influence of the Chinese government. For me personally, it’s that they don’t support Linux at all, and unlike GOG, I can’t guarantee that they’ll never push an update that breaks that compatibility. Seeing as my platform is unsupported, I’m not entitled to any kind of make-good, so I’m just not going to spend any money with them. I’ll only play it at this point if it leaves Epic or if it’s one of their free giveaways.
So, ok.
- They introduced exclusivity requiring people to use their storefront. So some would argue that Steam did that first… though only with games they made. This in of itself may not normally be that big a deal… if they didn’t rug pull customers of a few anticipated games into thinking they were getting steam keys because they were advertised as being on steam.
- The EGS is still not feature complete. This goes hand in hand with problem one. The exclusivity bars the “”free market”” from making a choice as to which platform is better. And the ceo blatantly said that he did not care about trying to make a good store front, he could just force people into a worse system with exclusivity.
- The EGS was against the very idea of a refund policy. Its owners were very very loud about it. As a matter of fact the ceo himself has caused a lot of the hate for the EGS though they have since given up and i think they match steam now.
- The actual user interface and customer service are terrible. In contrast steam has been outstanding in its implementation
- EGS did not initially allow user reviews, and wile i hear that there is some form of it now, they take a much less open approach to silencing dissent. As opposed to stream who still keeps dissent, but will give context to the scoring.
The EHS has given up on most of its open disdain for the consumer, but it apparently is going to take a lot more than a few years and free games to win over the crowd. And i personally REFUSE to have competing launchers on my system, and stream has the best good will with me by such a long shot, i don’t see how it would be remotely possible to get me to consider adding EGS.
can’t wait for it to hit steam so I can play!
It’s not happening, this is more than just a publishing deal - Epic financed the game’s development and they’re not going to budge.
Just pirate it at this point if you’re so adamant about refusing to install the Epic launcher. The game is too good to rob yourself of the chance to play it over trying to make a point to Tim Sweeney.
Really hope control 2 doesn’t have this problem
Remedy already confirmed that they are going to self-publish Control 2.
eh, maybe I will pirate it and then buy it at a discount on console or something. I just do my best to not give money to wrong companies.
To be honest I cared more about rewarding Remedy for their creation than holding a grudge against Epic. But then again I’m a bit of an odd duck around these parts. I don’t even refuse to use an app if it isn’t FOSS. Hell, I don’t even run Linux these days.
At the end of the day though I just found Alan Wake 2 to be one of my favourite gaming experiences so it makes me sad whenever I see people refuse to play it.
The angry Linux nerds showed up to downvote you
hey that’s valid! I’ll play it one day 🙂
Unfortunqtely Epic said it will never be released on Steam.
don’t you just hate it when money gets in the way of having fun? smh
Well, Tim Sweeny can suck his own wiener then. I have hundred(s) of games on Epic and I haven’t spent a dime there. And still won’t spend, because I have principles.
Yarrr harrr fiddily de dee
I’ve been waiting for a sale before grabbing it on xbox. Moderate fan of the original AW and absolutely loved Control. Remedy are amongst the most unique devs out there right now.
I loved Control.
I absolutely could not get into AW, and it bums me out because it seemed intriguing.
Same. I wanted to like the mechanic but the flashlight levels just feel grindy and repetitive. The rest of the game is beautiful. Control feels like you can recover from your mistakes more.
You should try the second. It’s an excellent game, and you can very much get by without having played the first. Just read a synopsis of the first and you’re good to go.
They also made Max Payne. Shame they don’t own the IP, tho.
I completely missed this since it apparently came out on Epic.
It took so long because Steam is a monopoly.
That’s what it means, when half the comments lament how the game isn’t on Steam. People will say there’s only one store that matters, and then insist there’s plenty of meaningful competition, and utterly refuse to understand their own words.
Epic is an eight-ton gorilla. Half the industry licenses their engine. They made four billion dollars a year off one game. They offer lower prices, they give things away, they create exclusivity, and they offer a better revenue cut for developers. And they still can’t move the needle. Blaming a janky storefront is grasping for any excuse.
I love that you’re saying monopolies are terrible, while crowing about how successful Epic is and how they licence their game engine to half the industry (presumably making them the largest share, given the remaining 50% is shared among every other alternative).
Seems like this Steam monopoly isn’t having the negative affect you’re suggesting.
I’m agnostic to all storefronts and platforms, I just hate exclusivity contracts.
It’s always wild to see Valve be blamed for another company shooting themselves in the foot (or in this case, yet another company entirely).
Why doesn’t matter.
The fact is - there’s one store anyone cares about. We have a word for that.
Why does matter. A lot. Just pointing to something and saying it’s a problem doesn’t help. You need to know why it happened to have any chance of changing things. That you and epic both apparently think throwing cash around should solve it suggests little will actually be done.
You’re not listening. This is not about “blame.” It’s barely about change. It is about the plain meaning of a common word, and how people will point fingers and clutch pearls to avoid acknowledging a simple fact.
Steam is a monopoly. No matter what I say, and no matter what you say. For whatever reason: they have a supermajority market share, on PC. People glibly treat major desired games like they don’t exist unless they’re on this one store.
Infrastructure monopolies are the nastiest. This one is so insidious too.
The weirdest part is, it’s fine. Steam’s only clear sins are the 30% cut that they copied from consoles, and the real-money charges that must be legislated out of existence. But they have the power to become a problem - and we can’t guard against that if we don’t recognize it.
Having one good option is a single fuckup away from having no good options.
