Tuesday, April 2nd 2019
Steam AAA Bleed Continues: Anno 1800 to be UPlay and Epic Games Store Exclusive
Ubisoft has pulled the upcoming entry to its smash-hit RTS franchise, "Anno 1800" from Steam. For the PC platform, the game will be available only through Ubisoft's own UPlay, and the Epic Games Store, which continues to vacuum AAA titles from Steam on the promise of higher revenue share for the game developers. Ubisoft is giving Steam fans a chance to put their money where their mouths are, though.
You will be able to pre-order "Anno 1800" on Steam until April 16. The pre-ordered game will remain in your Steam library, and you will receive updates for the game through Steam. Also, people who purchased the game on Steam will be able to play multiplayer with those who bought their copies through UPlay or Epic Games Store. This presents Steam fans with a unique opportunity to tell a big studio like Ubisoft what they want.
Source:
Ubisoft
You will be able to pre-order "Anno 1800" on Steam until April 16. The pre-ordered game will remain in your Steam library, and you will receive updates for the game through Steam. Also, people who purchased the game on Steam will be able to play multiplayer with those who bought their copies through UPlay or Epic Games Store. This presents Steam fans with a unique opportunity to tell a big studio like Ubisoft what they want.
180 Comments on Steam AAA Bleed Continues: Anno 1800 to be UPlay and Epic Games Store Exclusive
Let's drop it there. When you can add 1+1 come back.
Alternatively you can check out other big shooter releases of the past years and compare the review counts. Metro is pretty high up there, consistently with every part. For giggles, put those numbers next to Call of Duty BLOPS 4, with a measly 300 reviews. Or are you going to tell me now that doesn't say anything either?
Edit: I bought it last night and so far I really like it. I have not played the other two so I can't compare in that regard.
Another writing on the wall is the scope of the game itself. It has become a LOT bigger than its predecessors and will likely receive further DLC treatment down the road.
And... yes. Successful franchises get sequels. Do I really need to give you a list of examples, is the plank really that thick?
Incorporating VR is far and away different than adding a monthly fee onto something already in place. We are already seeing the trend into this with Origin Premiere Access getting games weeks in advance.
Thanks for the update.
Stop asking for a source, there's no reliable source for these things, especially this close to the launch of a game, what you claim to be a source just isn't, no matter you keep pushing that at all costs, it isn't, because reviews say nothing, and mean nothing, you have no idea where those reviews come from what they say. No problems for the update.
Ubisoft publishes the game (series) Anno. I'm kind of surprised they haven't started pulling more games from Steam to be strictly sold on their Uplay store. Look at EA. When was the last time EA released a game on Steam? According to search by Publisher on Steam, and sorting by Release date:
YEAH! Sims 3! (what a garbage game, if you ask me)
EA shifted from Steam, but left a lot of older games they already offered on Steam to be available through Steam (though they probably require Origin to be used to actually play the games), so they didn't truly cut ties with Steam, they just stopped offering newer games.
Steam needs a kick in the ass to correct how it does thing. More and more companies are coming around with their digital stores. Steam will soon feel the pinch once they start to lose enough of their slice of the pie. They'll have to adjust how much they cut off the top for their take. They may even realize that companies with big, triple A games (Tom Clancy games on Uplay, BattleField games on Origin and so on) are keeping the sales and more money for themselves by skirting Steam and using their own digital store or other launchers (such as EPIC) that takes a much smaller cut.....maybe Steam will stop f'ing around and get back into game development....?
Now, unless Steam has something in their "sell your game on our platform" contract that says you can't pull your game and they make it illegal, a publisher can do whatever they want with their game even after they offered it up on Steam.
I looked through (quickly, it is possible I missed something) the Documentation you go through for posting games on Steam and I didn't see anything mentioned about pulling a game off steam. Other then the fact that you'd be obligated by consumer rights to still offer the game to those that paid or issue a refund. You can go through the documentation here, if you're bored.....and I'm not that bored, nor do I have the time to read every single word while I'm at work.
Here's another comparison: also released at around the same time, with a 50 million player peak... and free to play.
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I think you can safely cross off a lot of ifs and buts to the reliability but what remains is a pretty solid indication.
At the same time, I realize this was caused by Epic Store not being around when per-orders started. Maybe without this particular conjecture, we won't see dick moves like this again.
But friends lists, and other community features, trading cards... all of that is largely irrelevant to a developer looking to release a game. These perks only matter to the end user and are unrelated to the game. Also, developers don't really choose. Publishers choose, and they look at the bottom line only.
I realize its all about money, but what Steam does is not all that unique or essential to a developer or publisher. What they care about is reach of a platform and in that, Steam has better reach but we also see a steady trend of people getting their content elsewhere. So, again, we have no clue whether Steam really does have such a great offer. Our consumer logic doesn't always apply on the business side... in fact it usually doesn't.
Their main edge is userbase, nothing else.
Their engine is antiquated and while the documentation is ok, unreal and unity is as good for a much more advanced game engine.
They don't offer grants to Indies like epic, or as much free content or even the same level of interaction with Devs as you get from both unreal and unity.
Valve have needed a kick up the arse like this for years, I just hope they do react and don't think they can keep selling old rope like they have since origin, uplay and battlenet all took titles away from them.