As has been said several times already, it's not competition if the consumer doesn't have a choice. They are not deciding to use the Epic launcher because it offers better features or services, being forced to use something because you have no other option is not competition. That's a monopoly. Epic are trying to "combat" Steam's monopoly (which, they don't really have because of the multiple other launchers out there) by creating their own monopoly. And all they are doing... is upsetting people.
I completely understand that from consumer point of view, having the choice is the ideal, and dealing exclusives game which were in the past promoted as releasing on Steam is borderline outrageous. If this exclusivity policy were to expand beyond 1-2 years i would be extremely pissed, but right now , to 'kickstart' their store i'm a bit more lenient. I know that as a consumer, if games were on both Steam and Epic Store, and i wouldn't have Epic launcher already installed. Even if the game were 5$ cheaper on Epic store , i wouldn't probably make the jump, and would stick to Steam which has 20 years of features built into it, and lots of my games already. From a business point of view, how do you promote a launcher still actively in developement (offline mode for the store was just released a couple days ago), with an empty catalogue of games, against Steam? Come on... Epic Isn't creating a monopoly by signing merely a couple 1year exclusivity deal. Now i'm curious to see if they plan on keep doing it in 5 years time, that would be another story. My guess is that they're just doing it right now to reach a minimum viable user base and traffic for their store, to at least not lose money from it.
You put the time and energy into it and make it worth using. Maybe, Epic should have waited to launch such a platform until it was in a position to actually compete in the market.
They launched while they had the most media attention, at Fornite peak. Pretty sure they knew Apex was coming.
And, personally, that was a mistake. They were banking on the popularity of a niche game to carry their platform. Instead of making a platform that could go toe to toe with any digital store in the market. Had they taken their time, made the service right. Released it when it was ready, with the proper features, services... able to actually stand next to Steam, Origin and other services... and still offer cheaper rates for developers and consumers, they would've had a stronger, more positive reception. Now, they've released an unfinished service. That has poor download speeds, no community, awful customer service... and it's only reason to use it... is playground level crap. "I got this and no one else does... you have to be my friend" I get the idea of striking while the iron was hot, but, they drastically over estimated the "iron was hot" with Fortnite in the PC community.
I never had to deal with customer service, but as far as download speed and community on the unreal engine part of the client i've had no issue at all (the download speed max out my fiber optic connection) and the developping community is amazing.
By "no community" I'm talking about how there are no dedicated forums for the titles on Epic's service. People running into issues with Metro, are using the Steam forums for support. And, Epic's customer service with the launcher is awful. It's security is a joke, people constantly report their passwords and accounts getting stolen. And, a friend of mine tried to contact support about his account getting hacked, and they ignored his issue and tried to quiz him about Fortnite instead. There could be a place for Epic's launcher, but, they have a lot of work they need to do before that happens.
I just want to say that I stopped visiting this forum a while back because literally every game thread is now poisoned with this meaningless rant on EGS vs Steam vs "whatever store you hate". You already have one thread dedicated to this, so stay there. This is getting ridiculous... like locking RDR2 thread? Seriously?
To be fair it is currently not a PC game so it being in the PC gaming section kind of didn't make sense. If it ever comes to PC though that would be cool.
Yes, it's like l4d in that respect. The other 3 player become bots.It feels like l4d with a bit more to do and updated graphics. Only played the tokyo map so far in solo mode and I think with other players this will be fun.
100% agree with this, its got to the point that no one cares about the actual game that the thread has been created for but arguing over where it can be bought at. Are people actually interested in the F****** games or just the launcher and how many features it comes with ( where you know half of the features people are arguing for are useless anyway IMO ofc). I used to like reading current topics where people would actually discuss the games but not anymore, just crazy people ranting over nothing really when there are bigger issues in real life that are more important and more worthy of arguing over.
Played for a few hours with friends and I would say that solo you are right. If you like l4d but want something a bit updated then I would recommend it. The gunplay is obviously much better than l4d as it should be and the classes adds a something extra. However, if you find l4d boring, definitely stay away from this.
This should've been a SP game with a compelling story, maybe a Days Gone competitior. As it is i agree its boring.
I liked L4D when it was new, but by the time L4D2 came around... I was long since burnt out on the concept. I'm with Undying here, should've been a story driven campaign.
Well I kinda like this game, it has good potential to be a serious L4D alternative. I would improve 2 things... 1. Transition to next map within one episode should be seamless - without loosing weapons or special items, also it should not automatically refill first aid kits etc... 2. They should add LAN play. It's perfect game for our LAN parties