Three Major February PC Games Are (Surprisingly) Not Releasing On Steam

@dondemcforge: Fk Steam

@dondemcforge: Why, exactly? Epic is more developer-friendly and are forcing Steam to stop acting like a monopoly. I do not understand the loyalty to Steam. In fact my GoG.com game library has grown a hundred times faster than my Steam library over the last few years, because Steam still wants to use their blasted DRM as well as not pay developers/publishers a greater share of revenue.

@dondemcforge: steam is garbage. they did this to themselves. there is plenty of japanese porn simulation though.

@Richardthe3rd: Lol, you can't have both? That's like saying "I own a PS4, won't get a Switch because I don't want 2 consoles."

@john_matrix_007: Number of people that care: also 0.

@Richardthe3rd: I hope that day comes soon. Valve got so much money from the storefront and their GaaS (Dota 2, CSGO) selling skins that they basically have no reason to pump money into a new singleplayer game anymore. The most recent cashgrab called Artifact is proof that Valve only know about profits now...

@Richardthe3rd: Epic games have never created a game as good as any of Valve's original titles.

@RELeon: And the choices that are best for the consumer are not always the best ones for the business. Nobody would buy their game on Epic's store if it was available on Steam as well. We all know that and Epic and the game's devs do so, too. The devs gotta make the choice that seems best for them, and getting to keep a bigger share of the profits must have seemed like the better choice.

It's easy to pretend like companies should only care about the consumer, but that's not how it usually works. Or is Apple nice enough to sell their products at reasonable prices? Doesn't seem that consumer friendly to me. There's always a balance between doing what brings in money and doing what the costumers want. Because those two goals usually don't align.

@xantufrog: Even the MOD knows this article is clickbait.

@Hagan: Metro and The Division have never been MS or EA exclusives.

@rickjamesia: Yep, it's been out for awhile. I am not sure if the PC version of Forza still supports Xbox Play Anywhere, but I know Gears of War 4 does. So essentially if you buy the PC digital copy of Gears of War 4 through the Microsoft store, you get it for your Xbox One as well -- provided you use the same account for both.

Edit: Looks like PC version of Forza Horizon 4 does support Xbox Play Anywhere.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/games/game-titles/forza-horizon-4-faq#afffa6f2cdc44accad48879723510e16

@bdrtfm: Steam is just too big. They have no reason to freak out over small stuff like this. But they might eventually if this trend keeps on going. At which point it might already be too late to keep their predominant position, but that's how the giants fall.

But of course nothing might change and so things will return back to normal eventually, without Valve having to do anything about it. Although I doubt that at this point. Steam will have to at least lower their cut of the profits as they're just blatantly ripping developers and publishers off. And now that there are alternatives more and more companies will probably decide to take those instead.

@bdrtfm: Epic is paying big money for games to be timed exclusives to their store.. Spending loads of cash for a window where the game will only be available.. Paying for games to be given away for free.. Lets wait and see where Epic games sits after hemorrhaging money for the next year or so.. Then Steam comes along and gives the Killshot by dropping their share to 20% for all games..

Why would Valve get in the market of paying for exclusives on their store.. They have something like 20 million unique daily players, a massive player base,

I'd be interested to see how many people have purchased something from the Epicgamestore,

@bdrtfm: Steam is huge, so they can probably afford to wait and see with the Epic Game Store, and they probably can't turn on a dime to compete.

@neurogia: lol do you know what a monopoly is.. a monopoly would be if no other stores existed because Steam took them out.. if anything Steam has been anti monopoly.. Notice how all these stores exist.. Greenmangaming, Gamersgate, humble bundle, Indie gala, Fanatical, Uplay, Origin, MS gamestore, Groupees, Dailyindiegame Notice how steam takes zero cut from steam key sales..

If they are a monopoly they are surely doing a piss poor job of controlling their monopoly.. They aren't a monopoly by any stretch of the imagination..

@neurogia: "Valve has held a monopoly on PC game distribution"

??? Really when and how???

@neurogia: I generally would agree with this... except... the major competition is now Epic Store, scion of one of the more vile publishers out there. Epic Games is one of the major companies who pushed for online codes on console games in the late 00s and early 2010s. They have been anti-consumer for quite awhile.

Second, the precedent of locking down exclusive third-party games is rather alarming on the PC. This isn't giving us more options. It's actually creating a false proprietary platform within an open PC gaming platform, which fundamentally kills competition and the PC free market. Right now the Deus Ex series can be purchased through 5 different PC gaming portals, including GOG, Steam, and Origins. Now imagine if Epic Store decides to make a historically portal agnostic third-party series like this an exclusive. This isn't good for the PC community. This kind of business maneuver should be frowned upon.

Adam Jensen: "I didn't ask for this..."

@neurogia: And that's why every PC game should be on all store fronts with no exception. It's not Valve that needs it, but Origin, Microsoft, Uplay, and Epic games as well. If all games were on all store fronts, we'd have true competition and reduce the risk of PC gaming becoming the dumpster fire that console gaming has become with exclusives and paid online.

@neurogia: exactly