Steam AAA Bleed Continues: Anno 1800 to be UPlay and Epic Games Store Exclusive

[btarunr]

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.



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[Esse]

This presents Steam fans with a unique opportunity to tell a big studio like Ubisoft what they want.

Of course you should not fall into the trap of pre-ordering. History tells us this.

Exclusives can suck a dick. Make it available on all platforms and let the user decide.

 

[kings]

People complain, but at the end of the day they end up buying it anyway, if they like the game!

See Metro Exodus, huge success in the Epic Store, despite all the hate on the internet!

 

[rtwjunkie]

Make it available on all platforms and let the user decide

Well it’s already on the PC PLATFORM, so you want it on all consoles as well?

 

[Metroid]

soon only old games prior to this revolution of greedy publishers and valve games will be on steam hehe, the user base on steam is huge and that is bad for the greedy publishers cause if they don't exclusively sell their games in their stores then their userbase will never grow, so basically this is a war against steam and nothing else.

 

[Warlen]

So much for Epic saying 'we don't want to pull another Metro Exodus'.

 

[rtwjunkie]

So much for Epic saying 'we don't want to pull another Metro Exodus'.

You’ve not been paying attention. They’ve bagged nearly a dozen games in the last month. What they meant was they weren’t going to get exclusivity on a game in the future that was already on presale on another game store/launcher/service.

 

[Basard]

I still don't see why companies can't just pass the extra cost of doing business with Steam onto the customers.
If we all love steam so much, an extra five bucks for a sixty dollar game is not too much to ask.

 

[jabbadap]

You’ve not been paying attention. They’ve bagged nearly a dozen games in the last month. What they meant was they weren’t going to get exclusivity on a game in the future that was already on presale on another game store/launcher/service.

Well this one is presale on Steam, though you can always buy it from Ubisofts own Uplay. Putting blame to Epic this time is a bit unfair, though. the blame should really be now on Ubisoft side rather than Epic.

 

[ShurikN]

What they meant was they weren't going to get exclusivity on a game in the future that was already on presale on another game store/launcher/service.

ANNO 1800 was on preorder (and still is) on Steam before this exclusivity deal was announced.
So much for that then...

 

[Tatty_Two]

Irrespective of personal views/values, any discussion around pirating is against our guidelines therefore it either stops or points will be dropping..... thank you.

 

[Vayra86]

People complain, but at the end of the day they end up buying it anyway, if they like the game!

See Metro Exodus, huge success in the Epic Store, despite all the hate on the internet!

As it should be... Perhaps people will learn that talk is cheap and the internet is all talk.

But this is one hell of a weird mix, though. Now we can pre-order to buy a product in our preferred store, as if that is even a perk...

let the user decide.

That is exactly what exclusives force the user to do. And it is exactly why they work and why Epic uses them. Commerce 101, you need to have something the competitor doesn't.

 

[Warlen]

That is exactly what exclusives force the user to do. And it is exactly why they work and why Epic uses them. Commerce 101, you need to have something the competitor doesn't.

How long until all 3rd party launchers start forcing exclusives? Doesn't matter because the launchers are free right? How long until launchers start charging a monthly fee to access these exclusives? This is the direction this is going.

 

[Vayra86]

How long until all 3rd party launchers start forcing exclusives? Doesn't matter because the launchers are free right? How long until launchers start charging a monthly fees to access these exclusives? This is the direction this is going.

And then there will be someone who doesn't charge a fee and we flock to it... people worry too much. The market has pretty good ways to correct itself, and believe it or not, Epic's current actions are such a correction to break a Steam near-monopoly for publisher-independent stores. You may or may not like that, but it is what it is. You have every opportunity to have your say on the matter by buying what you like.

An example. Consider the actual sale price of games. Games get more expensive to produce over time, we have inflation, and also, on the plus side, the target audience is larger. But, there are also far more games to choose from. This makes a game's success a high risk factor and any investment doubly so. At the same time, we as consumers will not accept super high game prices, historically we gamers have shown to be pretty crafty at avoiding high pricing and a large audience simply hasn't got the funds, mostly (very) young gamers - this explains why we get free content that explodes like PUBG. There is a group of fans that buys at launch and the rest will wait for budget bin. That on its own, is already the market at work. That budget bin wouldn't even exist if we didn't ask for it.

How do we ask for such things, simply by not buying at full price. Why do you think we get lured with pre-orders? Publishers want us to buy at launch, at full price, because they know it will drop like a stone shortly after, with promotions, key selling and reselling etc etc.

But the average sale price of a high profile game, is STILL, even today, at best 60 EUR/$. I remember that being the same norm 10-15 years ago. That is quite something and it completely contradicts the sentiment that we as customers are 'powerless'. We have power, we exercise it, and most of the time barely even realize that. Actually it got even better, because you can also buy tons of smaller / indie games at any price between $5 and $40,- and some of those offer 10x the value of a triple A release.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

Not to worry, Gabe's already earned more than enough from Steam to keep him in pies for the rest of his life..

 

[rtwjunkie]

Well this one is presale on Steam, though you can always buy it from Ubisofts own Uplay. Putting blame to Epic this time is a bit unfair, though. the blame should really be now on Ubisoft side rather than Epic.

ANNO 1800 was on preorder (and still is) on Steam before this exclusivity deal was announced.
So much for that then...

Yeah, that does make things look worse. I didnt realize it was already on Steam pre-sale, since this game is not on my radar.

 

[Crackong]

Game = Yes
Epic Store = No No
Yes + No No = No.

 

[Warlen]

And then there will be someone who doesn't charge a fee and we flock to it... people worry too much. The market has pretty good ways to correct itself, and believe it or not, Epic's current actions are such a correction to break a Steam near-monopoly for publisher-independent stores. You may or may not like that, but it is what it is. You have every opportunity to have your say on the matter by buying what you like.

Do you have a Netflix account? And Amazon Prime? And Hulu? And YouTube Red? And Disney? And CBS all access? And HBO GO? And BritBox? Once someone is successful doing it, they all do it. (Sorry, edited that last part before your reply)

 

[Vayra86]

Do you have a Netflix account? And Amazon Prime? And Hulu? And YouTube Red? And Disney? And CBS all access? And HBO GO? And BritBox?

Only Netflix and only because it offers something I didn't have before. I'm already starting to scratch my head as the price of the sub went from 7,99 to 12,99 over the course of two years. If they keep that up, its going out... Alternatively, I will cancel my cable TV entirely when I can get a fiber connection over here.

See, there's a real simple thing going on here, I can only spend as much as I can every month, and there are far more important things to spend money on. I also prefer ownership over on-demand in a basic sense, but for entertainment, especially film/video which is 'fully consumed' if you've seen it once, I think on-demand is a perfect vehicle. So I consider it worthwhile. For gaming, I don't see that at all. The always online component is already a huge red flag, but no control is another I simply cannot get around. And then we have the ever-present latency, quality problems. It won't fly. Going deeper, there is also the problem of mod support, persistence, (fixable but not as such in the current offering of services) and in the long run a cost aspect, because if you do any more than casual gaming, this will run a higher cost - its like you say, its easy to stack a dozen subs on top of each other. But I only have limited time, so what's the point.

EDIT: (response to yours above) They all do it? A few years back everyone did VR, look where that is at today. They all TRY it and they fail left and right as quickly as new services get fired up. Its a novelty on the marketplace, and everyone wants to get their share of the pie. In the long run, a few large players will dominate, even if only because of the problems I pointed out above. You can't feasibly have dozens of services and make good use of them all.

 

[oxidized]

See Metro Exodus, huge success in the Epic Store, despite all the hate on the internet!

Huge success? Where exactly? And please don't link me that news where exodus sold more than last light in the same amount of time on steam, because it's just stupid and makes no sense.

 

[Vayra86]

Huge success? Where exactly? And please don't link me that news where exodus sold more than last light in the same amount of time on steam, because it's just stupid and makes no sense.

Check this out - reviews, overall score and number of it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/412020/Metro_Exodus/

Doesn't look like a boycot to me.

And how about this then, for numbers

2883 ratings (over a much longer period of time)

versus... 2788 in a month post launch.

Reality check...

 

[64K]

I suspect Borderlands 3 will be the next Epic exclusive but possibly for only 6 months due to some tweets yesterday by Randy Pitchford. 2K will make the decision though and afaik they haven't.

Not to worry, Gabe's already earned more than enough from Steam to keep him in pies for the rest of his life..

Newell is fairly wealthy already. Around 4 billion dollars in wealth. He's a self-made billionaire who dropped out of college.

 

[oxidized]

Check this out - reviews, overall score and number of it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/412020/Metro_Exodus/

Doesn't look like a boycot to me.

And how about this then, for numbers

2883 ratings (over a much longer period of time)

View attachment 120071

versus... 2788 in a month post launch.

View attachment 120072

Reality check...

Reality check? What reality? Yours maybe, basing "reality" on metascore reviews. I played the game, i honestly didn't like it as much as is did the previous 2, it's pretty poor and kinda rushed, besides the exclusivity fact.

Also i don't really care what the majority of people does anyway, in these things especially is where they're wrong pretty much all the time.

 

[Vayra86]

Reality check? What reality? Yours maybe, basing "reality" on metascore reviews. I played the game, i honestly didn't like it as much as is did the previous 2, it's pretty poor and kinda rushed, besides the exclusivity fact.

That is great, but this is simply statistics at work, these numbers are pretty representative. If you want to avoid that and instead believe in your gut, by all means, but I don't think we have to discuss which is more credible. It also has nothing to do with the game's quality itself. This was about who bought it and whether we boycotted it. I say we didn't and numbers support that.

I also don't think this was ever about whether you cared or not, you disputed the news article about 'more sales' and are convinced it didn't sell, I'm just showing you sources that support the opposite. Grow up a bit... Or provide some source YOU think it credible that supports your statement - maybe we'll learn something beyond this temper tantrum.

 

[bug]

First of all, I'm not sure why we need a piece of news for every game release that goes to Epic. Until Steam yields and lowers their cut, this is going to keep happening. It's not even unexpected.
Second, I like how people listed their pros and cons of having yet another game manager, yet the publisher's choice seems to be based (again, not surprising) on revenue cut only.