EGS, DARQ good enough for an exclusivity deal, Not good enough for a non-exclusive.

[Edge-]

I can dislike the Chinese government and their overreach while not having anything against Chinese people. Calling me indirectly racist is also far below the belt.

Never implied you were racist. But I'm not sure what the Chinese government has to do with a Chinese company owning a minority stake in a western developer. There's plenty of issues related to privacy in China and with Chinese companies, but that's domestic and it's related to those companies products.

Epic remains a western owned studio and has final say in all things.

Huawei was also just a conspiracy at first. You might not like it, you might not want to accept it but the people's party of China does not have the best interest at hand when it comes to the west.

Not in the slightest. There have been very longstanding security concerns related to Hauwei hardware, I used to work a gig at a company that repped them about 7ish years ago and this was one of the big things they were trying to address on behalf of the company. It's not remotely new.

Also, it's apples to hand grenades again. The issues with Huawei are related to their hardware and software that they wholly own and manufacture. Tencent is a minority (albeit a large minority) stakeholder in Epic. That gives them some pull, but nowhere near enough to demand user data.

Also minority share holder? You seem to have forgotten that they helped get Fortnite off the ground and bought over 40% of the company in 2013.

Get Fortnite off the ground?

And yes, as mentioned they have a large minority stake but at the end of the day it's still < 50% which leaves the final say in all things to Epic.

this is the company Sweeney is getting aided from, most likely in more than just money.

Be explicit here, what are you alleging?

[Odintdk]

Tencent is a fucking conspiracy theory. They're a minority stakeholder in Epic and have no control over the company proper, nor any rights to their data. I've yet to see anything that backs up that conspiracy theory beyond rank xenophobia - Tencent is heavily invested in a lot of US gaming companies (including Riot, who they own) as part of their efforts to diversify their portfolio.

I wish..

The thing is, one of my favorite cultures in history overall, is China (and Japan). I am simply fascinated with that part of the world overall. I just do NOT want any sort of massive corporation, that can even remotely have political ties, to have it's filthy hands in gaming. I would literally say the same if it was GOOGLE in this case (infact, I may despise them even more). Anything of that sort needs to remain the fuck away from gaming, if we're to continue having our space for escapism left alone and in peace. Xenophobia in particular, is probably my biggest problem with "modern society" right now, and I promise you this has nothing to do with it.

Edit: Hell when shit gets political, I often don't disagree much with China (when it comes to their issues with the US), but then again I'm no American.

[Edge-]

I wish..

The thing is, one of my favorite cultures in history overall, is China (and Japan). I am simply fascinated with that part of the world overall. I just do NOT want any sort of massive corporation, that can even remotely have political ties, to have it's filthy hands in gaming. I would literally say the same if it was GOOGLE in this case (infact, I may despise them even more). Anything of that sort needs to remain the fuck away from gaming, if we're to continue having our space for escapism left alone and in peace. Xenophobia in particular, is probably my biggest problems with "modern society" right now, and I promise you this has nothing to do with it.

I mean...industry has had lobbyists working with governments for decades, this isn't new.

I get the concern related to privacy with Chinese companies but as stated - Tencent is a minority stakeholder and doesn't have the kind of sway to force Epic to hand over any user data.

[Zenfoldor]

I won't boycott a game studio over an exclusivity agreement. However, I will not buy games from the EGS.

I prefer my library on Steam, all in one place. I also begrudgingly have battle.net. That's it. I'm done. Even if I did decide to branch out, I don't like the vibes I'm getting from the EGS.

[Tenjen]

I won't boycott a game studio over an exclusivity agreement. However, I will not buy games from the EGS.

I prefer my library on Steam, all in one place. I also begrudgingly have battle.net. That's it. I'm done. Even if I did decide to branch out, I don't like the vibes I'm getting from the EGS.

Im sad that Galaxy Rebels Outlaw will be a years wait (its very freelancer-ish in feel from what ive heard and seen) but they provided good honest answers in return.

[NoRest4Wicked]

I'm fine not buying a game that comes out on EGS exclusively until it comes to Steam or GoG. No game out there is "omg I can't live with out it", and there will be another better game on the horizon.

All these games that get crowd funded, with a promise for a steam launch, then go EGS exclusive are some bullshit too. I feel Sweeney is trying to curb crowd funding by going after these high profile indie games, in order to bring developers back under the heel of a publisher. Once the crowd funding dies off, then the EGS money will dry up, because they no longer have a choice.

[minteK917]

Hey edge, answer me this. If the great and mighty epic store is so good. WHY CANT IT FUCKING SPEND THE MONEY TO ADD A FUCKING SHOPING CART? The store is downright pathetic. EA did a better job day one with origin then epic is doing now day 360. Ubisoft had a better store day one. MOTHER FUCKING GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE HAD A BETTER STORE. They give 0 shit about consumers, they cant put the fucking most basic option a webpage store have. I seen fucking website done in 1996 with fucking shopping carts? How long is it ok for epic to claim to be rich as fuck and spend money to have exclusive and still have a store that looks like it was made in 1999? One year, two year? Five year? Give me your ETA on how long we can expect these scum to actually have a real store with even 25% of the options of any of its competitor?

[Acidbaron]

Never implied you were racist. But I'm not sure what the Chinese government has to do with a Chinese company owning a minority stake in a western developer. There's plenty of issues related to privacy in China and with Chinese companies, but that's domestic and it's related to those companies products.

Epic remains a western owned studio and has final say in all things.



Not in the slightest. There have been very longstanding security concerns related to Hauwei hardware, I used to work a gig at a company that repped them about 7ish years ago and this was one of the big things they were trying to address on behalf of the company. It's not remotely new.

Also, it's apples to hand grenades again. The issues with Huawei are related to their hardware and software that they wholly own and manufacture. Tencent is a minority (albeit a large minority) stakeholder in Epic. That gives them some pull, but nowhere near enough to demand user data.



Get Fortnite off the ground?

And yes, as mentioned they have a large minority stake but at the end of the day it's still < 50% which leaves the final say in all things to Epic.



Be explicit here, what are you alleging?

The people's party has quite a lot of influence and does get involved with big business, what we know off it is limited to their nation.

The question is not whether they have enough pull to ask for it, the question is do you see Sweeney as a person with enough integrity considering all latest events to simply not comply if he sees a personal benefit? You know my answer on this.

40% is a major share holder when they got involved is not minor and they got involved before Fortnite became a success. So they aided in the process financially or otherwise.

What i imply is that without a doubt he got business advice, and seeing how little regard both companies have for their customer base i bet he got the mustard there, or he could simply be a born bastard, that's something i would not write off.

[Tech614]

40% is a major share holder when they got involved is not minor and they got involved before Fortnite became a success. So they aided in the process financially or otherwise.

There is no such terms as "major" and "minor" share holders.

There is the majority share holder(>50%) and the minority share holders(<50%). They aren't the majority share holder so which one are they my guy?

Anyways this Tencent shit always getting brought up is a joke. If you're scared of Tencent as a minority share holder I hope you don't buy/play/have accounts on any of the following: Activision/Blizzard games, Ubisoft games, PUBG, H1Z1 or Path of Exile because they have a minority stake in all of these companies.

[qwerty123456]

I get the concern related to privacy with Chinese companies but as stated - Tencent is a minority stakeholder and doesn't have the kind of sway to force Epic to hand over any user data.

They shouldn't even be worried about Tencent:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fo.../1100-6469051/

This is like what the 3rd or 4th major data breech/hack they have had in the last 4 years?

[Leyre]

Hey edge, answer me this. If the great and mighty epic store is so good. WHY CANT IT FUCKING SPEND THE MONEY TO ADD A FUCKING SHOPING CART? The store is downright pathetic. EA did a better job day one with origin then epic is doing now day 360. Ubisoft had a better store day one. MOTHER FUCKING GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE HAD A BETTER STORE. They give 0 shit about consumers, they cant put the fucking most basic option a webpage store have. I seen fucking website done in 1996 with fucking shopping carts? How long is it ok for epic to claim to be rich as fuck and spend money to have exclusive and still have a store that looks like it was made in 1999? One year, two year? Five year? Give me your ETA on how long we can expect these scum to actually have a real store with even 25% of the options of any of its competitor?

User has been banned for this post

[Acidbaron]

There is no such terms as "major" and "minor" share holders.

There is the majority share holder(>50%) and the minority share holders(<50%). They aren't the majority share holder so which one are they my guy?

Anyways this Tencent shit always getting brought up is a joke. If you're scared of Tencent as a minority share holder I hope you don't buy/play/have accounts on any of the following: Activision/Blizzard games, Ubisoft games, PUBG, H1Z1 or Path of Exile because they have a minority stake in all of these companies.

Probably a case of misunderstanding here, as i was reading it as major and minor share holders. Don't play any of those games you listed and i don't trust Actiblizz or Ubi that much either however they are larger and around longer if i am not mistaken.

Let's assume i am wrong about tencent, that doesn't really change my opinion much about EPIC as a whole as it's their general practice that concerns me, the ties with tencent just make it slightly worse.

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User has been banned for this post

Swearing does not get you banned.

[SirBeef]

Probably a case of misunderstanding here, as i was reading it as major and minor share holders. Don't play any of those games you listed and i don't trust Actiblizz or Ubi that much either however they are larger and around longer if i am not mistaken.

Let's assume i am wrong about tencent, that doesn't really change my opinion much about EPIC as a whole as it's their general practice that concerns me, the ties with tencent just make it slightly worse.

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Swearing does not get you banned.

I mean Epic was already caught secretly gathering personal information on people that had the installer installed. Even if there is no connection with that and Tencent, which is surprisingly coincidental considering all the spying shit they do for the Chinese Government, it was still a shitty thing to do. Plus a billion dollar company that cannot add a shopping cart or other industry standard features from 11 years ago is just asinine.

[Yriel]

Hey edge, answer me this. If the great and mighty epic store is so good. WHY CANT IT FUCKING SPEND THE MONEY TO ADD A FUCKING SHOPING CART? The store is downright pathetic. EA did a better job day one with origin then epic is doing now day 360. Ubisoft had a better store day one. MOTHER FUCKING GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE HAD A BETTER STORE. They give 0 shit about consumers, they cant put the fucking most basic option a webpage store have. I seen fucking website done in 1996 with fucking shopping carts? How long is it ok for epic to claim to be rich as fuck and spend money to have exclusive and still have a store that looks like it was made in 1999? One year, two year? Five year? Give me your ETA on how long we can expect these scum to actually have a real store with even 25% of the options of any of its competitor?

I agree. I'm a web developer and did shopping carts myself, it's not that hard. Granted my customers don't have the traffic epic has but epic also has budgets and team-sizes that i can only dream of.

[Dhrizzle]

How long the boycot will last.. i dont know. But i realy dont want the exclusivity by stealing happen on pc games. Conzole is fine as they sell the system.

I never understood this. Console/system exclusives mean you have to spend a few hundred quid on hardware. Store exclusivity means you have to spend a few minutes and give up a hundred megs of space on your hard-drive.

[Yunru]

I never understood this. Console/system exclusives mean you have to spend a few hundred quid on hardware. Store exclusivity means you have to spend a few minutes and give up a hundred megs of space on your hard-drive.

They are cheaper to buy most of the time than a new pc and they are a good option for other people. And they kinda need exclusivity to sell the system as they are generaly selling them at not that huge profit. (they lose a lot of money due to advertising)
Most of the money comes from title sales. They are a option.

But with epic store locking games forces people who spend shitload of money on pc using something they dont like. They are simply not needed on pc. There is no reason to sell exclusivity on pc. And epic is doing it wrong when it comes to exclusives.
I would understand if they created the game and dont want them on other shops (as it moves trafic to them), but what they are doing is just buying out a market.

They are also damaging the trust of people into a founded videogame projects as they can just sellout now. Wich translates into --- must work for big company to survive (limits the freedom). Sounds a bit like communism doesnt it?

[Dhrizzle]

I won't boycott a game studio over an exclusivity agreement. However, I will not buy games from the EGS.

I prefer my library on Steam, all in one place. I also begrudgingly have battle.net. That's it. I'm done. Even if I did decide to branch out, I don't like the vibes I'm getting from the EGS.

Heh, and I'm sat here with nearly a dozen launchers :-)

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They are cheaper to buy most of the time than a new pc and they are a good option for other people. And they kinda need exclusivity to sell the system as they are generaly selling them at not that huge profit. (they lose a lot of money due to advertising)
Most of the money comes from title sales. They are a option.

But with epic store locking games forces people who spend shitload of money on pc using something they dont like. They are simply not needed on pc. There is no reason to sell exclusivity on pc. And epic is doing it wrong when it comes to exclusives.
I would understand if they created the game and dont want them on other shops (as it moves trafic to them), but what they are doing is just buying out a market.

They are also damaging the trust of people into a founded videogame projects as they can just sellout now. Wich translates into --- must work for big company to survive (limits the freedom). Sounds a bit like communism doesnt it?

Wait, you know you don't need to buy a new PC to have a second (or third, fourth, fifth) store, you can install them all on the same system - you don't even need a different HD or Windows installation - I have Steam, Epic, Ubi, Origin, Battle.Net, Windows, Bethesda and stand-alones for MW:O. E and FFXIV all sat next to each other.

Also, how is competition between massive corporations like Communism?

[Yunru]

Heh, and I'm sat here with nearly a dozen launchers :-)

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Wait, you know you don't need to buy a new PC to have a second (or third, fourth, fifth) store, you can install them all on the same system - you don't even need a different HD or Windows installation - I have Steam, Epic, Ubi, Origin, Battle.Net, Windows, Bethesda and stand-alones for MW:O. E and FFXIV all sat next to each other.

Also, how is competition between massive corporations like Communism?

Work for us or starve. Before the invention of founding via other people, the talented people were forced to work for big corporations (publishers). It is not abauth the competition here.

Steam helped the small video game developers to start off. But epic can just say no as with this recent news, wich can ruin the person who worked hard on its project. Its a free market.

Also i dislike the launchers on my pc. Mostly because i generaly just *lend* those games via store. And i prefer games on cd. And when this is not possible, i just move files from the launcher, find a file that fixes it to work without it and then place it on a cd. (totaly legal to make 1 copy of stuff you own)

Owning (---lending

[Acidbaron]

I never understood this. Console/system exclusives mean you have to spend a few hundred quid on hardware. Store exclusivity means you have to spend a few minutes and give up a hundred megs of space on your hard-drive.

It is about financially adding a practice you agree or disagree with, what i don't understand is people making this about convenience when it's not as GoG is creating a decent app that connects several platforms.

Beyond that you need to trust EGS is going to be around for a long time, what is uncertain at this point.
You need to assume that once they have a corner of the market they aren't going to screw over consumers more, what they already are if you look at the pricing for certain regions and currencies.
It is also splitting up your game collections, digital game collections and there's quite a bit of concern over this when regards to my first point. How long every one of the will be around.
And so forth..

In any case my point was to stress the hypocrisy coming from EPIC, where they claim to be doing this for the developers to give them a larger cut, while in reality it is merely to acquire exclusives titles as the moment you refuse to sign the exclusive deal they won't even carry your game.

[dadev]

Work for us or starve. Before the invention of founding via other people, the talented people were forced to work for big corporations (publishers). It is not abauth the competition here.

Steam helped the small video game developers to start off. But epic can just say no as with this recent news, wich can ruin the person who worked hard on its project. Its a free market.

I see it as exactly the opposite. As a developer, before EGS, you had zero choice of selecting a store when you wanted to sell on the PC. You could not sell on Steam, but if you were a small developer then good luck with that. Sell on Steam or starve, excellent choice.

In any case my point was to stress the hypocrisy coming from EPIC, where they claim to be doing this for the developers to give them a larger cut, while in reality it is merely to acquire exclusives titles as the moment you refuse to sign the exclusive deal they won't even carry your game.

Epic has forever sided with actual developers. It is a company lead by technical skill rather than marketing skills, so they do understand developers far better than Valve (for the most part). The company was always about creating better and more robust tools to make games. Do they make missteps here or there? Sure, but who doesn't? They obviously want to grow too, but at this point they're competing against an effective monopoly, while Valve's excuse that Steam is not a monopoly is the Blizzard app. That's an excellent excuse...

Where was Valve when their engine was still relevant, did they give it away for free? Did they invest a dime into it to make it more useful rather than being a set of disjoint semi functional tools? Did they support any game dev communities with all the money they hoarded? Did they make friendlier pricing for smaller developers? Valve was definitely an excellent company (and very friendly) for consumers, but don't be surprised if they don't get much love from developers.