[onien11235]

The link you provided doesn't say what you claim it says. The parent post is discussing giving away free games, not acquisitions. What is unhealthy about the way Epic is trying to attract users? I know they've received some negative press but I have yet to see a good argument for this.

[Causality1]

Buying IP in order to pull it off competing storefronts is anti-consumer.

>thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers

[onien11235]

From the update at the very top of the article the GP linked:

> Epic has offered an update on the confusingly worded statement issued to press earlier today regarding Rocket League's future status on Steam, now insisting that it has "not announced plans to stop selling the game there".

Even if they do pull future sales of Rocket League off of Steam why is that a problem? Valve has purchased game companies. I've never seen anyone complain that you can't buy Left 4 Dead on GoG.

[MayeulC]

IIRC, Valve games were available on Origin.

When EA pulled their games from Steam, Valve replied in kind.

One thing that irks me is that Valve seems way more committed to interoperability, open standards and its consumers' wellness than its competitors (likely as a result of being privately owned); while the competitors in question use every trick in the evil corporate playbook to try to increase their marketshare. We've seen how they play, and the friendly façade is likely to change to ad more value-extracting one once/if they gain marketshare.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

No shit. Linux gaming make's Valve a ludicrously small amount of money compared the the, frankly herculean, effort they've put into making it viable.

[ripdog]

Valve made L4D2. Or at least did a significant portion of the work. The problem with Epic is that they are either paying publishers for timed exclusives, or purchasing publishers outright in order to create artificial monopolies, and restricting consumer choice.

[onien11235]

Turtle Rock made L4D. Valve bought Turtle Rock.

If paying for exclusives is bad what viable alternative strategy should Epic be using to get users to their store?

[Insanity]

But you are talking about different games. TR made L4D and Valve bought them. but Valve made L4D2.

And they released L4D2 a year after L4D sparking a lot of community uproar, starting things like the L4D2Boycot groups.

Man, just talking about the game makes me want to play it again. That was such an addiction for me xD

[onien11235]

What Valve did on L4D2 isn't relevant. My point was that Valve did the same thing with L4D as Epic is doing with Rocket League. Talking about L4D2 does not show that this point was wrong.

[benj111]

Making a good store that people want to visit?

Edit: I was being serious.

"what viable alternative strategy should Epic be using to get users to their store?"

What's preferable for the consumer? buying a monopoly, or competing on quality, price, customer service, etc, etc, etc.

[onien11235]

> competing on quality, price, customer service, etc, etc, etc.

What metric are you using to define quality and how would it make people use this store over Steam? How much cheaper would you need to sell games to get people to go to the Epic store? Would developers put there games on the Epic store if the price had to be so low that they made more per sale on Steam? Good customer service being a factor requires having customers to experience it. It helps long term but won't get your first wave of customers.

[noirbot]

This is really a big part of it for me. I have no problem using multiple launchers, but Epic has given me little reason to think that they'll secure my payment info or account details.

[sshagent]

How about releasing the games at a cheaper price, as Epic charge so much less? Cheaper prices for games, shows a real commitement to the End User.

[aepiepaey]

I've seen several comparisons showing that Epic's prices are not actually lower than Steam's (in general).

Can't find them right now, and don't have the time to do a thorough comparison, but looking at the first three games on the Epic Store front page that also have Steam pages with prices seems to confirm this. That's "Oxygen not Included", "Vampire: The Masquerade® - Bloodlines™ 2" and "Outward", all of which are priced the same on both stores (€22.99, €59.99 and €39.99, respectively).

[wolfgke]

> If paying for exclusives is bad what viable alternative strategy should Epic be using to get users to their store?

Offering the games DRM-free (the audience that GOG is aiming - though I am really concerned about what GOG is currently doing with GOG Galaxy and cloud synchronisation).

[onien11235]

I don't have time to look it up right now but I'm pretty sure GOG had layoffs a few months ago. DRM free doesn't seem to be a winning strategy.