Epic Games Store - Free game every two weeks !

[Ozone]

I will not support Epic games, it feels like their actions actually hurt me as a consumer regarding how they pay devs to keep 3rd party games exclusive, I don't like how ambiguous they are about refunds and our privacy, especially considering the hell I went through with my Epic account this summer.
To me, it just feels like they made too much money from Fortnite and don't know how to spend them. They just try to throw potshots at steam and money at indie devs and hope something good comes out. Steam prove its reliability in the last 14 years. All my games are there, so unless they screw up really badly, I won't be looking for a replacement

[raremens]

I do not agree with Epic's stance on exclusivity. PC Exclusives should not exist in any way, shape or form. The rumor that Epic pays devs to make their games exclusive to the store is concerning.

Also, steams refund policy is much better imo.

[Tom]

Steam's refund policy is indeed the best i've seen

[ryvrdrgn14]

I'll be sticking with Steam. I use GoG to gift games to friends when Steam's regional lock won't allow me to.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

I think this is the most eye opening thread I have read on Epic Store so far. On twitter, there’s only a few whispers that gamers won’t be supporting the store.

I’m glad people are liking the idea of competitiveness, because a free market is the best market.

I’m working on a game that is sure to be controversial, called GamerGate Trolls, so my main concern about a store is a commitment of that store to keep my game in there, because I know the politically correct vigilantes will come out of the woodwork and demand it to be taken down. The fact I’ve seen some Steam stories where they censored some Japanese adult anime game makes me slightly cautious of their commitment to free speech.

Will Epic Games be better or worse than they will be? I hope it will be better.

And maybe I just setup some payment processor with PayPal or Stripe and hope the PCVs don’t go after them.

[Mario]

For anyone having an Epic Account anyway, something to also have a look at:

Even if you just "buy" the free game (Subnautica right now), you'll have to double check and make sure you tick a checkbox to disallow them spamming you with advertisements/newsletters related to the game or developer.

This is a more or less "hidden" opt-out, which – as mentioned in the tweet and also according to my layman opinion – violates German and/or EU consumer rights.

As a customer you have to specifically and knowingly opt-in to receiving promotions and other communications. An optional opt-out with opt-in by default is forbidden.

[Tom]

Those intrusive actions and schemes of Epic* were very concerning lately, especially in the EU.

[Sneed]

I have some privacy concerns about Epic and about their customer support. Some months ago I tried making a Fortnite account to play with my nephews and it turned out to be big mistake. I only played 2 days, never used an Epic account before and yet almost immediately I started receiving warnings in my email about someone trying to get into my Epic account and failing to input the correct password too many times. This went on for about 2 months of daily notifications. It's obvious their system is susceptible to brute force attacks as you can see in their forums. You will also note the complete lack of response from Epic.

Also, I'm not happy with the idea of drm exclusives, it's fucking ridiculous. To date I have yet to play a single Origin/Uplay exclusive, partly because EA and Ubisoft are garbage, but also partly because I can't be bothered to install a DRM launcher each for every hack developer out there.

I was skeptical about Steam at first but I'm fairly comfortable with it now, I think their status as a "monopoly" has been beneficial for the customers and I'd rather it stays that way. We have free online, cloud saves for nearly every game, unlimited downloads at great speeds, almost no downtime ever, almost impeccable security and privacy standards so far and reliably decent sales (They used to be great, I'll admit they've declined in recent years). We have it good, and I don't want that threatened by a company with more money than sense such as Tencent.

[Tom]

I think that in the end i am sticking to how you worded this regarding the matter

[teawithaura]

I am the kind of guy who likes to collect free games. I do not even think about whether or not I will play them. At least this gives me a reason to run the launcher every so often, and already I see that Journey is getting a PC release on there later --I hear it is a must play.

I think I'll take their shit and never use their platform.

That is basically what I did with EA's Origin. Since they no longer have the On The House feature, I uninstalled it.

[ethansito]

I am the kind of guy who likes to collect free games. I do not even think about whether or not I will play them. At least this gives me a reason to run the launcher every so often, and already I see that Journey is getting a PC release on there later --I hear it is a must play.



That is basically what I did with EA's Origin. Since they no longer have the On The House feature, I uninstalled it.

I'm the same way XD

I'm subscribed to the Humble Bundle newsletter so I get notifications about the free game keys. I've never used Humble Bundle though.

[Hobbes]

I turn my back for one moment, this thread... smh.

The exclusives do not help the consumers at all, because we don't get a choice in where to shop. Epic is the only winner in making a bunch of games exclusive, because they create an effective monopoly on the sales of those particular games. There's no competition as such, just the devs being able to fix prices and say "If you don't like the facilities on offer, tough", which given Epic won't be allowing user reviews, and is unlikely to allow user forums, is a pretty good indication of how consumer friendly the Epic store is going to be (i.e. not at all).

It's pretty easy to offer a 88/12 split when you do nothing *for* that 12%, given Epic's store has only the most barebones functionality in comparison to even Origin (which is hardly a shining beacon of usability).

If you think about it steam and epic and gog and whatever "launcher" is replacing the InstallShield wizard of old times, nothing else. This isn't fragmenting the market, you're still running games from your desktop, from the same os, you don't need an additional investment to be able to get exclusives. And they allow you to put icons for games directly on your desktop. You don't even have to have the launcher in startup.

It seems some gamers really did become whiny.

For someone who claims to be cogent in computer matters...

They're not InstallShield wizards. Those clean up after themselves once they are done. Store launchers are effectively Terminate, Stay Resident programs. So! When you load up Origin, Uplay, Steam, GOG, Epic, etc to run all the games you've got installed because in most cases those things need to be active (with the exception being GOG and to a lesser extent Epic if the developer opts for no DRM) what you're doing is clogging up your system with lots of apps that eat memory and sit in the background. You DO need to have those launchers present in many cases which means you're wasting CPU and RAM because those launchers insist on being around to mind your game (I dare you to run most Ubi games without Uplay these days as an example).

Now, this is me being polite in correcting your inaccuracies. You posted the same nonsense twice, if I have to correct you again, it won't be pretty

[ImmersiveGaming]

You can't just assert that's a bad take, and then double down on the trivial inconvenience issue that I already addressed in that very post. Your biggest problem is that you have to quit the launcher too after playing a game, that seems like whining to me. OK, you don't want the icons on your desktop, then put them in start, or on the tray.

Tell me honestly, why is it worse to launch "origin.exe" or "epicstore.exe" or "goggalaxy.exe" rather than launching "setup.exe" to install a game?

It all boils down to this : You want a total monopoly, because having more than one launcher slightly inconveniences you. Now that's a bad take, if I've seen one.

yea i can really care less if it sounds whiny, but i DO NOT LIKE having multiple launchers. I like JUST having steam and I will stick to Steam. You white knighting for them won't change anyone's mind and you being rude to people especially won't help Epic Game launcher store.

[Doomie]

Weeeeellll, I'm not a very big fan of Epic Games, after their cancellation of Unreal, among other things, but I'll gladly accept a free copy of Subnautica any day.

[danskmacabre]

I can't be bothered using another launcher. I already use the Steam and GOG launcher.
I'm pretty happy with Steam anyway. Still, it's good to see competition.

[monnef]

I might get it for free games, but I am for sure not buying anything from there. Bringing rotten "exclusives" limitation to the PC market. Epic store has deliberately omitted user reviews, user ratings and forums. I view it as highly anti-consumer practices, essentially trying to cover up for publishers'/devs' mistakes. The store is only good for Epic and developers, for gamers it is garbage and in no way a competition to Steam. I won't support such store with my money. http://archive.is/FWNTH

Edit: I totally forgot about shilling links for YouTubers, IMO another anti-consumer "feature".

[Zenryu]

Since I already have the Epic Games launcher installed, it's existence wont bother me as much. I'll mainly be using it for the free games for now. If they start to get more on Steam's level, I may consider them as a second platform for my games. I agree that I wouldn't want them to have exclusivity, mainly on larger games. Won't mind as much if they take exclusivity on smaller ones though.

Definitely happy to see Subnautica for free though. It's been on my plan to buy list for a while now.

[Eno]

I was skeptical about Steam at first but I'm fairly comfortable with it now, I think their status as a "monopoly" has been beneficial for the customers and I'd rather it stays that way. We have free online, cloud saves for nearly every game, unlimited downloads at great speeds, almost no downtime ever, almost impeccable security and privacy standards so far and reliably decent sales (They used to be great, I'll admit they've declined in recent years). We have it good, and I don't want that threatened by a company with more money than sense such as Tencent.

Microsoft had monopoly with Windows too. But still there was Linux all the time for users who wanted an alternative.
I think it was better this way than having 5-6 operating systems and games made for only one or two of them.
I wonder why the XBOX and PS stores are not extended to support PC games too.

I like the steam due to the open way we can write reviews. I learned meanwhile that mixed rated games with 150000 reviews can be better than very positive games with 2000 reviews.
I am fine with the Steam but I would like also to be able to save in their cloud, notes why I ignore some games. It takes sometime 1-2 hours to analyze enough reviews and discussions of forums to find out if the game is going to be what I seek.

On epic store I will have no such reviews and forums where I can go to find out the truth. It will be funny if their lack of forum will drive people to the Steam forum to discuss the games.
In this world where AAA publishers want to take my money for low quality games and Indie developers want to acquire the experience to create PC games by doing their first Early Access, also on my money, I simply cannot trust a site like Epic where rating and discussions are suppressed.

But if Epic will accept only developers who have a reputation and if those developers do not come to Steam I have no choice.
If the sequel of Subnautica will come on Epic only, what should I do?
For sure I will come to this forum or a similar one, to read reviews first.

In the end if developers trust Epic... it just a store. I will buy the good games from whichever store offers them. It is not about helping Epic, Steam or the developers. I want their game.
Also I blame Steam for advertising me so many games and now I have many I played less than 2 hours, or even not started.
I often filter and read only the negative reviews to be able to suppress the urge of buying one more nice looking game which looks like something I used to play 10 years ago.

On steam it takes a few clicks to navigate to this list.
https://store.steampowered.com/searc...ed_DESC&os=win
10-20 games are released every day.
Who has time to check the list, to buy and to review them?

It feels like every programmer who doesn't have a job tries to put a game on Steam. Epic could take them, but they don't want them.