Let's talk about Epic Games and the Division 2

[hickups]

If you haven't heard Ubisoft has recently announced that the Division 2 will not be available for purchase on Steam but exclusively on U-Play and the new Epic Games Store, it's actually stirred up quite a bit of buzz and seems to be very divisive as to how gamers feel, I wanted to see how folks here see the move.

 

I myself not am pleased with this decision and consequently will not be buying anything from the Epic Game Store, even before this announcement, when the Epic Game Store was launched and some of the policies they put in place became known it raised my eyebrow their terms of service is decidedly Pro Game Developer and Anti Consumer and they give Game Developers the ability to have no user reviews on their games, they finally put in a refund policy after backlash which only barely matches steams and if you grill down granularly is actually worse.

 

Make no mistake I realise Steam has quite a few faults and it took them years to put in place a refund policy after legal pressure for one, but keep in mind Epic only put one in place begrudgingly despite having the opportunity to learn a lesson from Steam before even opening the storefront, do i think Steam needs to treat game developers better ? yes as much as it's possible without stepping on the consumer's toes too hard but its obvious Epic is going to the entire opposite extreme of the spectrum with its policies.

 

I've heard the point made that more competition is good for Steam to which I agree, but it is also important who the Store is competing for and I'm decidedly concerned that Epic is not competing for the consumer but the game developers they are using a ring fence approach to cajole gamers into their service rather than providing proper incentives to us, They seem to be using the same anti-consumer tactics employed by gaming console manufacturers something PC gamers often scoffed at and I for one will not be sending any money their way till I see that change.

 

Someone responded to this matter noting that Valve no longer behaves like a game developer but just a hollow storefront as if that is a necessarily a bad thing, it isn't actually, if you think about it Steam has always come down on the side of the Consumer versus the Game Dev probably because they behave like a hollow storefront, Epic in its decisions is behaving like a Game Developer and not a Storefront.

 

Eager to hear other opinions on this cheers.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

I saw TheQuartering's video about EG and I even commented on this on YouTube. The only club consumers have when publishers and distributors get cocky is the boycott. We've seen it work on several gaming companies just over the past three months. Even so-big-we'll-sue-Belgium-to-keep-loot-boxes EA lost nearly half of its stock price from boycotts. Activision got schooled hard in the power of the boycott and their stock price is still at five-year lows. I say keep it up. If that means including EG, then no skin off my nose.

[FauxFurry]

I have never actually purchased an Epic Game when I think about it (the only Gears of War games that I have were gifts) so it isn't going to affect me any.

Of course, that means that I can't boycott any more than usual grievance mongers who don't actually play anything other than mobile games can boycott the AAA-publishers.

[Captain Cobra]

Epic can go hang as well.

[Sagebrush61]

The last game I bought from Ubisoft was Silent Hunter 3.  This was before they went to "we'll require a constant internet connection for single-player games and anyone who doesn't like that will just buy a console version".  That didn't work, many people were like me and just stopped buying their games.  Then Ubisoft decided we'll just require you to run UPlay and Steam at the same time.  The only thing more stupid than running one DRM client is running two for one game.  I've never played an Epic game, they don't have anything that interests me, so I couldn't care less if Ubisoft only sells games I don't play on a Service I'll never use.

 

Until a competitor comes along who isn't trying to sell their own games and don't see customers as a resource to be controlled and harvested I don't see anybody really making any headway against Steam.  You have to offer something better for the people who are actually buying the games if you want to gain significant market share.  It isn't developers that Epic needs to court, it's consumers.

[patches13]

I hadn't planned on buying Division 2 anyways due to the way they announced they would be implementing their micro-transactions. I don't remember the exact price, but it's hundreds of dollars if you want the full game with full inventory. No thanks.

[winny257]

18 hours ago, patches13 said:

I hadn't planned on buying Division 2 anyways due to the way they announced they would be implementing their micro-transactions. I don't remember the exact price, but it's hundreds of dollars if you want the full game with full inventory. No thanks.

lol, purchase price 69 euros, In addition, this year will appear 3 DLC and more content, ATTENTION for all free.
a season pass is not needed, because everything is free.
paid content is only for beautification, no influence on the game.
They want to win players and not lose, Lootboxes and micro-transactions scare away players!

[Ernest Lemmingway]

7 hours ago, winny257 said:

They want to win players and not lose, Lootboxes and micro-transactions scare away players!

I wish I could believe Division 2 won't abuse those systems. Every company that includes them, even cosmetic stuff, sneaks in ways of convincing people to spend more. If you live in the States, please, please, please contact your senators and representatives to pressure the Federal Trade Commission to rule that loot boxes are legally a form of gambling! It was a lack of voter involvement that allowed our current president to be elected and that allowed for Net Neutrality to be repealed.

[winny257]

2 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

I wish I could believe Division 2 won't abuse those systems. Every company that includes them, even cosmetic stuff, sneaks in ways of convincing people to spend more. If you live in the States, please, please, please contact your senators and representatives to pressure the Federal Trade Commission to rule that loot boxes are legally a form of gambling! It was a lack of voter involvement that allowed our current president to be elected and that allowed for Net Neutrality to be repealed.

I can only that say what I know from a renowned computer magazine, actually the best in Germany.
they have already played this game, but the official rating is not there yet.

 

 

in the second video is clearly stated, almost everything is Free.

Spoiler

 

 

[Bast1990]

Can`t say much, I won`t buy The Division 2 anyway. I don`t have a problem with the Epic Store, no reviews there? No problem, there are enough sites for this with better reviews. Can`t give it back? Also no problem for me, never had to, I watch and read alot before I buy a game. I think it is good that steam has to really keep moving forward now.

[klesk]

why