Epic Games Begins Moving its Games Off Steam and on to its Own Store Platform

[StrayKAT]

Uplay works, but it feels dated, Origin has come along way, I wish they would stop trying to be cute with the change logs, and Steam still has the easiest to use UI, though somewhat old.

This kind of reminds me of Origin, though EA only removed DAII and Crysis 2.

I haven't used Origin in awhile. What do you mean by the change logs?

 

[TheOne]

I haven't used Origin in awhile. What do you mean by the change logs?

For the client.

Release Notes
Most Recent
Version 10.5.31

• We fixed an issue causing Premier exclusive game notifications to linger for a while, like that neighbor that always catches you between your car and your front door to just “say hi.”
• Some dragons went on a team-building retreat causing all Fade to break loose and disrupt users’ ability to download free DLC packs for Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2. They’re back now and, being the tech-savvy ones, have restored the DLCs.
• After downloading a game patch & restarting Origin, the play button would be grayed out. The inert gray portal that was the play button has since been scrapped, rebuilt, sonic screwdriver-ed and is now back in business.
• We exorcised the ghosts that prevented The Count Lucanor from opening the Origin In Game.
• Users encountered a bug where they couldn’t place voice calls. We swam to the bottom of the sea and reclaimed the stolen voices and calls from a sea witch and her moray eels.
• Everything looks amazing in 4K. Except for crashes on startup. We worked out the kinks causing Origin to crash for some players with 4K monitors.
• Don’t worry, we bagged and tagged the gremlins causing some games to start changing drive locations after users log out of Origin while repairing or locating another.

 

[rtwjunkie]

For the client.

I have to say, I like those! We need a little humor in these things.

 

[moproblems99]

The only "one" store I'd like to see dominate is Microsoft's (it's their platform, after all) because they can tie things even more closely to the OS experience. But that isn't happening 1) because they are too stupid to realize Xbox is dead and Windows gaming needs the actual focus and 2) because everyone seems to hate Microsoft anyways and purposely avoid them as much as possible. Second best thing is just see different publishers do their own thing, and let Windows be a "platform of platforms".

The one store I would like to see is any on linux outside of Valve games. But then part of doesn't want that because 'that isn't what linux is for'. It would be really nice to drop the need for Windows though.

 

[newtekie1]

I feel like the game market is going to start experiencing the same issue the video market has. There are now so many streaming services, that people are actually going back to pirating.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Epic has a small game library:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_by_Epic_Games

The old ones are on GOG and they're probably staying there. Unreal/Unreal Tournament are still on Steam. Gears of War was contractually created with Microsoft so they were never on Steam and never will be on Steam.

Bulletstorm was never on Steam because it was made after Origin was created and Electronic Arts stopped putting their games on Steam.

Shadow Complex Remastered is still on Steam

Robo Recall was paid for by Occulus as a promotional game for the Rift. It was never on Steam and likely never will be on Steam.

In other words, Epic has removed nothing from Steam so far. What inspired this news article? Did Epic say they were going to pull games? If so, what? When?

Epic Games titles are being pulled out from Steam store.

Cite an example.

Ubisoft still keeps their games on all of the platforms because of exposure. More eyeballs means more revenue even if a larger share of it goes to a competitor. Electronic Arts shot itself in the foot by narrowing itself to Origin only. EA is mostly a mobile company anymore. Their presence in the PC space is small and shrinking. Most of their revenue comes from the EA Sports brand:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/42...-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=4
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4216153-electronic-arts-inc-2019-q2-results-earnings-call-slides

2019, EA only has 7 announced games coming out: Unravel Two (low budget, low income), FIFA 19 (low budget, high income), Madden NFL 19 (low budget, high income), NBA Live 19 (low budget, high income), NHL 19 (low budget, high income), Battlefield V (moderate budget, moderate income), and Anthem (high budget, hoping high income).

Look at what titles they're promoting to investors:

EA has effectively become a shovelware company but instead of cheap asset swapped Unity games, they're licensed sports games, Battlefield, and The Sims.

Anthem is likely EA's last Hail Mary pass. If it is a market flop, Bioware is likely getting closed and EA will be done with narrative games.

 

[TheOne]

Anthem is likely EA's last Hail Mary pass. If it is a market flop, Bioware is likely getting closed and EA will be done with narrative games.

I think thats why they've been hyping ME and DA this year, even showing a teaser for DA last night even though, like ES, it is years away.

 

[coonbro]

It's annoying enough when I go to start a game on Steam and it requires Uplay to launch, I personally don't want more launchers for games.

1. I don't care for Origin - I honestly only used it to get free games. Granted, a couple of them I already had and others I still have yet to play, but they're there for me should I ever feel the need.
2. GoG - I actually like how unobtrusive GoG Galaxy is. I can run the program and launch games from there or I can simply just launch the game from a shortcut like the good old days after installing a game from a DVD/CD.
3. I don't really like Uplay. It feels clunky and slow when compared to Steam. Every now and then Uplay fails to actually launch a game when I start it. Also there seems to be constant server disconnects means some games won't save progress because the server communication is down - Assassin's Creed 3 got me here. Played for a few hours and quit the game, the game couldn't sync because the server connection was down (my internet was up and working). I had to replay a large chunk of the game because of this.

Steam, it works and I have lots of games on it. I haven't purchased any game on Steam for a good year or more, but any game I'm gifted is on Steam or tied to Steam from other places (Humblebundle.com or Fanatical.com where I pick up the odd game from time to time). Generally, these days, I stick to GoG when buying single player games and Steam for Co-Op games.

It's always good to have healthy competition, but I'm content with what I currently use. Epic doesn't have any games that I'm interested in so if they take their games from Steam, I wouldn't notice. Much like when EA started pulling games or not listing new games when Origin was being pushed hard.....never bothered me because last EA game I picked up with ME3 and I purchased an actual physical copy (which it wish was still a thing) of it a good year or more after it released.

but its so great and wonderful and that's what you want and pay for , right .


use to if you wanted a game you would go to newegg or wal- mart or a store . buy the game full retail disk get home stick the game disk in your opt, drive load it up enter a key code [if it even required that foir single player ] then click play and play the games ,. ''I'' own the full game software not a account or need to go to a 3ed party if I loose it like a hd fail I hold the full game disk to load at my conveyance not theres .

you did not need steam , uplay or origin . you did not need internet connection you did not need a malware client you did not need to download something for hrs no 3ed party involvement tio ''allow '' you to play or even begin to load it [ you got the full game on the disk ] . I could mP just as easy I could get a patch if I wanted [ not forced by the likes of steam ] no client collecting my data and no telling what else .

but yet you don't like that at all . se all this steam type 'digital download games are what the X-Box babysitter generation got hooked on and all they know not how real pc games were and sold to be use in private not a 3ed party granting you the use as they see fit and cancel you out at any time .

only way I could lose any of my games / fully use them is if I lose or damage the disk [ and I'm not that careless ] not because something or someone from steam blacklisted me then what ? me . I just load and go forever

todays games are chump bait sorry to say , but hay, you ask for it and wanted all that so now you got it ...booo hooo

 

[StrayKAT]

but its so great and wonderful and that's what you want and pay for , right .


use to if you wanted a game you would go to newegg or wal- mart or a store . buy the game full retail disk get home stick the game disk in your opt, drive load it up enter a key code [if it even required that foir single player ] then click play and play the games

you did not need steam , uplay or origin . you did not need internet connection you did not need a malware client you did not need to download something for hrs no 3ed party involvement tio ''allow '' you to play or even begin to load it [ you got the full game on the disk ] . I cvould mP just as easy I could get a patch if I wanted [ not forced by the likes of steam ] no client collecting my data and no telling what else .

but yet you don't like that at all . se all this steam type 'digital download games are what the X-Box babysitter generation got hooked on and all they know not how real pc games were and sold to be use in private not a 3ed party granting you the use as they see fit and cancel you out at any time .

only way I could lose any of my games / fully use them is if I lose or damage the disk [ and I'm not that careless ] not because something or someone from steam blacklisted me then what ? me . I just load and go forever

todays games are chump bait sorry to say , but hay, you ask for it and wanted all that so now you got it ...booo hooo

I like boxes as much as anyone, but I have something like 200+ titles on Steam alone. That's too much to store anywhere. Even my discs for consoles take up a whole level of a big wall unit I have.

 

[coonbro]

I like boxes as much as anyone, but I have something like 200+ titles on Steam alone. That's too much to store anywhere. Even my discs for consoles take up a whole level of a big wall unit I have.

pretty sad thinking

like I said what if your drive fails and steam closes your account / what do you got then ? I got my full retail disks to load right up and go not hope steam allows me to

I forgot + the time trying to download all tht to hope to retrieve them ? what a joke I just stick the disk in and in 5 min I'm playing not waiting for steam and there content and downloads and all that mess

 

[StrayKAT]

pretty sad thinking

like I said what if your drive fails and steam closes your account / what do you got then ? I got my full retail disks to load right up and go not hope steam allows me to

I forgot + the time trying to download all tht to hope to retrieve them ? what a joke I just stick the disk in and in 5 min I'm playing not waiting for steam and there content and downloads and all that mess

I've had this account since they literally started Steam. Over a decade now. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. I don't harass people, I don't do shady things.. I'm a good boy.

There's nothing sad about saving space. This is even more important for someone who doesn't live somewhere affordable like me. Other people can't even use bookshelves or wall units. The average person in Japan or something is squeezed into a dehumanizing crevice and they call it an "apartment".

 

[Ubersonic]

Wow, well **** them then lol.

 

[R-T-B]

pretty sad thinking

like I said what if your drive fails and steam closes your account / what do you got then ?

Optical media has a shelf life too. In around 20 years all those discs will literally be nothing but coasters.

You have a point somewhat: One should have a good backup system. But that has nothing to do with cd-based media.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Optical media has a shelf life too. In around 20 years all those discs will literally be nothing but coasters.

This is why so many people who buy movie dvd’s Or blu rays also will rip them to various media storage/playing devices. Those movies are in digital form and can be preserved forever, especially if backed up.

 

[R-T-B]

This is why so many people who buy movie dvd’s Or blu rays also will rip them to various media storage/playing devices. Those movies are in digital form and can be preserved forever, especially if backed up.

I know, which is why I added the point about backups. But that applies to everything, not just CDs. One can backup GOG content or even steam content if one desires.

 

[Schrodinger's Bodybag]

Well, if Epic applies these takedowns for the developers on their platform it'll end up being a developer trap. Steam may take a larger cut but with a much larger audience, a developer tends to sell more copies than they would on an "alt-coin" of a launcher. Not exactly selling physical copies here, you don't need huge margins to offset the cost and you'll make more overall(and reach more gamers) by selling a game on Steam. Not to mention Steam doesn't necessarily forbid developers from selling on other platforms.

Even if Epic doesn't force developers on their launcher to agree to a written contract forbidding them from selling on other launchers and bludgeon them with take-down requests there's the consumer aspect of the problem. The problem being is that the market is already oversaturated(or at least perceived to be so by consumers) with launchers. Even if you disagree with the market being oversaturated with launchers a lot of PC gamers are annoyed with the addition of yet...another launcher. It's not hard to find multiple comments of annoyed gamers whenever a new launcher is announced. Which you'll probably download such said launcher again, register an account again, verify it again, hand out your card/paypal information again, then FINALLY get to play that "one game" you can't get on the other dozen or so launchers already out there. When you're done playing it you'll never touch the launcher again unless forced to, because ultimately you'll be shopping/browsing on Steam or Amazon because their game library extends beyond a dozen games(maybe add a few if you include indie titles).

 

[Ravenas]

Oh no don't take away Unreal Tournament 2004!!! Whatever will I do?!

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Epic has a small game library:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_by_Epic_Games

The old ones are on GOG and they're probably staying there. Unreal/Unreal Tournament are still on Steam. Gears of War was contractually created with Microsoft so they were never on Steam and never will be on Steam.

Bulletstorm was never on Steam because it was made after Origin was created and Electronic Arts stopped putting their games on Steam.

Shadow Complex Remastered is still on Steam

Robo Recall was paid for by Occulus as a promotional game for the Rift. It was never on Steam and likely never will be on Steam.

In other words, Epic has removed nothing from Steam so far. What inspired this news article? Did Epic say they were going to pull games? If so, what? When?

Cite an example.

Ubisoft still keeps their games on all of the platforms because of exposure. More eyeballs means more revenue even if a larger share of it goes to a competitor. Electronic Arts shot itself in the foot by narrowing itself to Origin only. EA is mostly a mobile company anymore. Their presence in the PC space is small and shrinking. Most of their revenue comes from the EA Sports brand:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/42...-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=4
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4216153-electronic-arts-inc-2019-q2-results-earnings-call-slides

2019, EA only has 7 announced games coming out: Unravel Two (low budget, low income), FIFA 19 (low budget, high income), Madden NFL 19 (low budget, high income), NBA Live 19 (low budget, high income), NHL 19 (low budget, high income), Battlefield V (moderate budget, moderate income), and Anthem (high budget, hoping high income).

Look at what titles they're promoting to investors:
View attachment 112112
EA has effectively become a shovelware company but instead of cheap asset swapped Unity games, they're licensed sports games, Battlefield, and The Sims.

Anthem is likely EA's last Hail Mary pass. If it is a market flop, Bioware is likely getting closed and EA will be done with narrative games.

*looks at bulletstorm in steam library*

You want to reconsider bulletstorm never being on PC there bud? It takes, what, 5 second to google "bulletstorm removed from steam"? Scratch that, it is CURRENT FOR SALE ON STEAM.

Other MS games are on steam, GoW being made for MS does not preclude it from a steam release, see several halo games and AoE IIHD. It was never released because the PC port was worse then no mans sky, so abysmal it killed the series on PC for years.

If Epic has begun removing games from steam, or announced it will, then there is a likely chance of the games being removed from GoG as well.

The game satisfactory was removed from steam, link here "https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/467301-epic-games-store-exclusive-steam"

So there is your example bud.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Bulletstorm = EA = Origin
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition = Gearbox Software = Steam

The latter is a remaster. Bulletstorm: Full Clip Won't Be a Free Upgrade on PC, Here's Why

Posting on Twitter, Pitchford said although Gearbox is teaming up with Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly for the new version, the game was originally released by EA, thus making a free upgrade impossible.

The game satisfactory was removed from steam, link here "https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/467301-epic-games-store-exclusive-steam"

So there is your example bud.

Satisfactory never launched though so that hardly qualifies. The OP makes it sound like Unreal Tournament (or some other big Epic Games titles on Steam) were removed when that isn't the case. A lot of future games may not launch on Steam now, especially from devs like Coffee Stain Studio that exclusively use Unreal Engine because that 12% is so damn attractive. Every sale they make on Steam versus Epic Games Store loses the developer 23% in revenue (30% goes to Steam, 5% goes to Epic Games for using their engine = 35% for selling the same game on Steam versus 12% for selling on Epic Games Store = 23% difference in how much developers pocket per sale) even if the retail price is identical. That's incentive enough to make most new Unreal Engine based games go exclusively to Epic Games Store.

In the short term, that kind of sucks, but in the long term, I think it's going to force Steam to cut their share which is long, long overdue.

 

[rtwjunkie]

You want to reconsider bulletstorm never being on PC there bud? It takes, what, 5 second to google "bulletstorm removed from steam"? Scratch that, it is CURRENT FOR SALE ON STEAM.

Are you sure you don't have the Full Clip Edition, published by Gearbox?

 

[swirl09]

I have Bulletstorm on Steam too. No mention of "Full clip edition" anywhere, its just listed as Bulletstorm in my library, on the splash screen, and on the menu. It was added to my library in 2014.

As for the new store, competition is a good thing. Not sure what it will take for me to buy something elsewhere when its available on Steam. I purchase most of my stuff from 3rd party sites which tend to sell Steam keys (unless its a rare platform specific title). https://isthereanydeal.com/

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Bulletstorm (EA version) was removed from Steam back in 2014:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bulletstorm-removed-from-steam-but-why/1100-6418469/

Making things even more weird, Origin has "Battlestorm - Lite" which is apparently a derivative of "Battlestorm: Full Clip Edition" because the marketing material and publisher (Gearbox Publishing) refence it:
https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/bulletstorm/bulletstorm-lite

I'm getting the impression Epic Games had nothing to do with it other than licensing the engine. People Can Fly own the rights to it and have made it available on multiple distribution platforms under multiple titles. Epic Games doesn't have the authority to remove it from any store because it's not their title. The original point stands that no Epic Games title has been named that has actually been removed due to the creation of Epic Games Store.

Digging deeper: People Can Fly released Bulletstorm via EA in 2011, they were bought by Epic Games becoming Epic Games Poland in 2012, they went back to independent under the name People Can Fly in 2015, and they created the Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition via Gearbox Publishing in 2017.

 

[coonbro]

Optical media has a shelf life too. In around 20 years all those discs will literally be nothing but coasters.

You have a point somewhat: One should have a good backup system. But that has nothing to do with cd-based media.

not seeing that at all I got games way older then that [but good try ]

I've had this account since they literally started Steam. Over a decade now. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. I don't harass people, I don't do shady things.. I'm a good boy.

There's nothing sad about saving space. This is even more important for someone who doesn't live somewhere affordable like me. Other people can't even use bookshelves or wall units. The average person in Japan or something is squeezed into a dehumanizing crevice and they call it an "apartment".

saving space ??? so I cant uninstall as needed and reinstall as I want [quickly and easy as much as I want and need ? then not ever have to fool with steam crap or hrs of another download ? lol... you guys just keep trying to highlight that steam way of things and good luck

then like I said no malware clients involved or internet comnnnection needed .. ya steam is sooo good [for them ]

 

[StrayKAT]

not seeing that at all I got games way older then that [but good try ]



saving space ??? so I cant uninstall as needed and reinstall as I want [quickly and easy as much as I want and need ? then not ever have to fool with steam crap or hrs of another download ? lol... you guys just keep trying to highlight that steam way of things and good luck

then like I said no malware clients involved or internet comnnnection needed .. ya steam is sooo good [for them ]

I'm talking about physical space. People can't hoard hundreds of game boxes.. especially in city apartments or colleges.

 

[coonbro]

I'm talking about physical space. People can't hoard hundreds of game boxes.. especially in city apartments or colleges.

maybe if you lived in a 6x8 cell I guess your right

then the guy above said ''I've had this account since they literally started Steam. Over a decade now. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon ''

so when the rest like epic ditches them they may still be there with crickets chirping [???]

all I know is if a game was sold like it was in the real pc game days with no ''steam'' strings attached no internet required I'd have -0- issue paying 100 bucks for it well before I'd give the likes of ''steam '' 9.99$ for it .

I posted this before look at what you agree to


you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

For reasons that include, without limitation, system security, stability, and multiplayer interoperability, Steam may need to automatically update, pre-load, create new versions of or otherwise enhance the Content and Services and accordingly, the system requirements to use the Content and Services may change over time. You consent to such automatic updating


key words in that --- ''' without limitation '' ---- system security -- stability ? think lontg and hard on what you gave some one somewhere in the world access to ''without limitation ''

you can fool your self all you want but your not going to convince or fool me . I don't need to game that bad in any way to give up something as that , they can keep there crap buggy games

I'm talking about physical space. People can't hoard hundreds of game boxes.. especially in city apartments or colleges.

maybe if you lived in a 6x8 cell I guess your right

then the guy above said ''I've had this account since they literally started Steam. Over a decade now. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon ''

so when the rest like epic ditches them they may still be there with crickets chirping [???]

all I know is if a game was sold like it was in the real pc game days with no ''steam'' strings attached no internet required I'd have -0- issue paying 100 bucks for it well before I'd give the likes of ''steam '' 9.99$ for it .

I posted this before look at what you agree to


you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

For reasons that include, without limitation, system security, stability, and multiplayer interoperability, Steam may need to automatically update, pre-load, create new versions of or otherwise enhance the Content and Services and accordingly, the system requirements to use the Content and Services may change over time. You consent to such automatic updating


key words in that --- ''' without limitation '' ---- system security -- stability ? think lontg and hard on what you gave some one somewhere in the world access to ''without limitation ''

you can fool your self all you want but your not going to convince or fool me . I don't need to game that bad in any way to give up something as that . they can keep there crap buggy games , i'll keep my privacy and money