Problem is, they do it in a way that forces gamers to either install a mediocre platform they don't want or wait a full year for a new AAA title. They could instead compete in terms of price and/or the quality of their platform, and this would not hurt the gamers in any way, shape or form, but that is not how they chose to do it.
It is their prerogative to do it this way and mine to vote with my feet and my wallet, which is - and in this I agree with you - as it should be. Each choice has consequences.
However, it puzzles me how some people defend practices that are (IMO) abusive and manipulative and hurt those who want nothing to do with the Epic store. Yes, despite being the consequence of a choice
That is exactly what business is always about. Its about creating demand. History is chock full of mediocre platforms, services, stuff that straight up fails when you need it most, etc etc. Then some competitor figures out a better one and gets attention. OR, you cave and install EGS anyway to get those free things and then get seduced into a purchase.
Its not about defending practices that are abusive or manipulative. If you want thát to change, change capitalism. Its the way we designed the game to be played. Its pointless complaining people follow the rules we all agreed on. Even the principle of marketing is abusive and manipulative. The way we hide and turn a blind eye to modern slavery is another. It all serves to preserve a system that really can't be maintained without someone or something being damaged. For filthy rich you also need bottom-end poor - lots of them, it seems.
Its much better and more effective to point your attention to the actual way those rules develop over time. Capitalism and its system(s) is rapidly showing its problems lately but always has, really. No system is perfect. But its something we need to worry about, think about, and vote for people or ideas that make it better, or perhaps change it altogether.
The activism surrounding Epic is directed at the wrong players. And when people are told to read into the reality of things and make a well thought out decision, they're too busy upvoting and hashtagging the same bullshit as everyone else. Its the tyranny of stupidity, this, and if anything, thát is something that needs a fix right now. Its self destructive - in this case in terms of how publishers have invested in EGS and a lot of them are those that still budget big single player, real games without MTX. That's what you're really damaging here. Not EGS, not Steam, they'll just fish for another one.
Maybe the world is too complex so people are content worrying about insignificant BS like this rather than invest that energy into something that amounts to substance in the actual world. I don't know. But most of the internet sentiment of the day is so off the mark, its unreal.
The problem I see coming out of this is that publishers will put even more pressure on developers to crank out games ahead of schedule and likely with day 1 patching (plus several more following that first), and giving the games lower review ratings than necessary. Sure the budgets might be bigger but at a cost, either to gamers or developers, or both. Studios will have to have top notch quality, if not it could lead to gamers avoiding a particular game studio in the future, and snowballing into even weaker sales. Pressure from distro-plats™ (
) driving prices do... STOP, Its all a viscous circle really, well all know the layout.
I think if you look back, quality has always been a very important factor. The things that truly last, ooze quality in some way or another. The things that get yearly sequels, that's the actual cesspool, and that's mostly stuck with big publishers that already run their own stores.
All we can really try as consumers is to funnel money, the highest possible amount (%) of what we spend on games, to the publishers and studios we like best. Its out of our hands, beyond that. In case of EGS: the publishers THEMSELVES are 50% of every deal that was made. This is telling - it tells us they also see a problem with Steam's distribution costs, and the exposure/value they get in return. And this is obvious because there's still only one Steam app but many more games to sell.
