this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
225 points (85.5% liked)

Games

32664 readers
1301 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Strepto@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Steam had none of those things in 2008

Yes, true. But it's not 2008 anymore. It makes no sense for companies to compete based on features and functionality equivalent to their age.

If someone starts a company today offering only old 1960 color TVs, I'm not going to say "Well they're new, and that's what TV manufacturers would have had at the time". That makes zero sense.

If Epic wants to compete with steam they need to actually compete. They offer nothing of value presently. They have the money and the technical talent to make a good launcher. They just appear to choose not to.

[–] HonorIsDead@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

They have the money and the technical talent to make a good launcher. They just appear to choose not to.

This is completely the case. You can't tell me the makers of Unreal Engine couldn't figure out how to replicate at least some of the more commonly used features of Steam. Of course they can do it. Someone somewhere in the corporate ladder decided they don't need the extra features to compete with steam. Maybe burning money on the exclusivity contracts and game giveaways will work out in the long run, but I doubt that when they flat out said they're spending more money than they earn in their 800+ person layoff just a few months ago.