The thing is, what WoW offered was the illusion of choice. Many of the talents were straight stat increases, and not choosing them was objectively a bad decision, especially at the end game. That meant that what was important for play was what meta build you put together, and not choosing optimal build talents would…

It’s not your fault that everybody took the conversation train incredibly off-topic.

That’s, uh, quite a typo, there. Socinianism - Wikipedia

It’s not competition if they aren’t trying to offer a better product.

If you want Steam to have competition, it’d be great if it were competition based on features, on offering a better product, rather than timed exclusives. As it currently stands, EGS continues to lack basic store features, after all this time, because they don’t need them to secure a market share.

Honestly, I don’t care where other people buy their games, but it gets tiresome when the pro-EGS fans attack me for waiting on games showing up on other launchers. They seem more invested in minimizing every criticism than anything else.

The fact that you can’t see anti-competitive practices as being anti-consumer shows your lack of knowledge in basic economics. Something that is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the EGS still lacks basic store functions, as they were not considered to be important, no matter how much people complained about that…

Yeah, they are. With a contract. There is no option for a developer to decide that going with EGS was a mistake or otherwise decide to cancel early and go with other stores. It is locking out competitors. That’s anti-competitive. The fact that you don’t understand that shows your lack of knowledge in basic economics.

If you can wait a year, you can wait til the game is no longer full price, because you’re not caught up in the hype. And you might not buy the game at all, simply because you’re not caught up in the hype. Those are real, wallet-hitting effects.

Actually, I don’t give two shits about Steam. GOG has the right model, with an optional launcher that unifies libraries and attempts to unify launcher features. That you can’t see this as more than a fanboy fight suggests that you aren’t actually thinking about this issue, just blinded by “lol free games.”

Welp. The deadline was apparently August of 2019, so I’m out thirty bucks. I’m not willing to shell out full price for a game I already paid for, so no Shenmue 3 for me.

Because Steam isn’t buying exclusives. Epic is. Steam isn’t locking people out of selling copies of their games on other stores. Epic is. Steam isn’t eliminating choice. Epic is.

Oh, Steam has loads of problems, and could use a major redesign. I’m by no means a Steam apologist, I much prefer GOG’s take on things, with an optional launcher that unifies libraries, and a robust, non-launcher store with plenty of features to it. And compared to the major Epic apologists, you’re doing just fine,…

Which is why Epic doesn’t need exclusives to compete, right?

Yessir, consumers have no right to dictate how businesses function. Let there be no limits on employment abuses, monopolistic and anti-competitive behavior, or reductions in quality. Onward!

It does, it’s called an “advance,” and is common in large-scale contracts. Either you’re just shitposting or have never been in spitting distance of large quantities of cash.

Apparently you don’t, judging from your replies. Happy trolling!

You are a consumer. They are making things worse for you to make things better for other people. The people who benefit most are publishers, not developers. And Hades is an outlier; none of the other games on the store have been measurably improved by being an Epic exclusive.

Timed exclusives hurt GOG and itch.io. The reason that timed exclusives are a sticking point is because the most sales are made at the beginning of a game’s release. If those games aren’t available on smaller storefronts, they miss out on that early rush, with people going to Epic instead of those storefronts. And…

Epic gave the publishers the money they already had, the lower cut had nothing to do with it. They did that for a timed exclusive, so they could have access to hype sales. They did nothing for you, they haven’t even delivered on basic store features. You aren’t Epic’s customer, you’re their product, and they are…