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What's up with Epic Games? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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I can't seem to find that one comment explaining the issue with them...

But for the sake of promoting conversation on Lemmy, what's the issue with Epic, and why should I go for Steam or GoG?

Note: Piracy is not an answer. I understand why, and do agree to a certain extent... But sometimes, the happiness gained by playing something from a legitimate source is far greater 🥹... coming from someone who could never ever afford to purchase games, nor could my parents... Hence I've always played bootleg, or pirated games.

TL;DR

What's wrong?

Their launcher has a terrible UI AND UX.
They make exclusive deals with studios to prevent other platforms from getting games. (Someone mentioned that Steam did the same thing in their infancy. Also, I have another question; why is it ok for Sony and Microsoft to make exclusive games for their consoles but not ok for these PC platforms to do so?)
They have been invested in by a Chinese company, Tencent. (Someone mentioned that it isn't that big of a deal, but idk.)
They are actively anti-linux for some reason.

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[-] cottonmon@lemmy.world 101 points 11 months ago

I posted about this in another thread, but Epic also bought exclusivity for games that were crowd-funded then had the option to have the game on Steam removed or you'd get the Steam key after the exclusivity period expired. This pissed off a lot of people.

[-] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

Wow. That's understandably frustrating.

[-] cottonmon@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, this caused A LOT of controversy back then. As far as I know, Epic has stopped doing this and has pivoted a bit more into funding game development (i.e. Alan Wake 2.) That being said, that gave Epic a terrible reputation when they initially launched EGS.

[-] tristan@aussie.zone 25 points 11 months ago

They are still doing it. I'm still waiting for dead island 2 to come to steam because it's a 1 year timed exclusive on epic

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

They still sign exclusives, they don't do it with crowdfunded projects that promised a Steam release anymore.

[-] cottonmon@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I meant with crowd funded games. I'm aware that they still buy exclusivity. Though from what I know they pay indies less compared to what they used to pay.

[-] Wrrzag@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago

I didn't know this. Which games did it?

[-] cottonmon@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I don't actually know all the games that did this, but the most famous examples are Phoenix Point and Shenmue 3. I already read that Outer Wilds was another one that took the exclusivity deal.