Epic Store deals another horrendous blow to Steam with pro-consumer practice

Highly anticipated sequel to previous GOTY from much loved Publisher has been poached. Could this be the beginning of the end?

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-division-2-will-be-on-the-epic-store-not-steam/

The Division 2 will release on the Epic Store, not Steam

Ubisoft and Epic have announced a semi-exclusive partnership for PC game releases.

Epic Games scored a big one today with the announcement of a partnership with Ubisoft that will see at least some of its future PC releases come to the Epic Games Store, and not to Steam. As reported by Polygon, the semi-exclusive deal will begin in March with the launch of The Division 2.

"We have no plans currently on releasing Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on Steam," a Ubisoft rep said. Ubisoft and Epic will "also partner on additional select titles [coming to the Epic Games Store] to be announced during the coming year."

"We entrust Epic to deliver a smooth journey for our fans, from preordering the game and enjoying our Beta to the launch of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on March 15," Ubisoft vice president of partnerships Chris Early said in the announcement. "Epic continues to disrupt the videogame [sic] industry, and their third party digital distribution model is the latest example, and something Ubisoft wants to support."

The Division 2 had been listed on Steam, and can still be seen in the Steam Database, but the product page has been removed. It will also be available for purchase through Ubisoft's own storefront.

It's so pro consumer it has almost looped back around

I don't like Epic doing this, but if it means I'm getting free games every 2 weeks to incentivize me to use their store, I don't mind :P. Subnautica is great!

Epic Store is giving Edith Finch for free starting tomorrow, so they're alright in my book.

It's worth noting although Tim Sweeny comes across as the villain here, he's done more good for the world than Gaben (who got children into gambling).

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/285149/Epic_Games_chief_pays_15M_to_protect_7000_acres_of_North_Carolina_wilderness.php

What a trooper.

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Still, Epic Store can get fucked. 2 refunds? Haha, probably shit like that is the reason Ubisoft is gravitating towards them. The promise of a 1984 like environment where they can screw the shit out of the unsuspecting consumer.

Once you can play it on the same hardware, its all good.

Oh my Valve better start putting there games out. This is a small thing but biz folks don't like to see percentages go down.

@XVision84: that promo has to end soon - they're gonna run out of games! I've got it pegged as a "first year" kind of thing

For sure, I don't expect them to maintain the promo indefinitely. If they do maintain it, it'll probably contain smaller/very indie games (which can still be a good thing like how Rocket League took off as a PS+ game).

Do I need dual-DRM to play the game or only one (either Uplay or Epic only)? If I need two, it's no better than Steam + Uplay.

Ubisoft use Denuvoas well lol

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Never really had a problem with that personally. I think alot of pc gamers try to blow it up, because it's been difficult to get around, to steal the games.

Regardless, highly doubt Ubisoft give a shit if Denuvoa, or really any DRM has an adverse effect on the consumer. It goes without saying they are a scummy as shit company and I'm willing to bet the reason for this move is explicitly some behind the scenes anti-consumer promise than the shit they are shoving in there "message of peace", like any dumbo buys that.

@uninspiredcup: wait, you're only allowed 2 refunds?

Apparently you get a bunch of questions as well. Could be outdated, didn't bother checking.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/lets-discuss-the-awful-epic-game-store-refund-policy.86741/

Even if that's not the case you get all this bollocks -

Steams refund policy is "put any dumb ass reason here".

Click, done.

I deleted the tencent spyware off my pc.

Epic is just hooking you in.

@uninspiredcup said:

@xantufrog said:

@uninspiredcup: wait, you're only allowed 2 refunds?

Apparently you get a bunch of questions as well. Could be outdated, didn't bother checking.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/lets-discuss-the-awful-epic-game-store-refund-policy.86741/

Even if that's not the case you get all this bollocks -

Steams refund policy is "put any dumb ass reason here".

Click, done.

Long live Steam.

@SolidGame_basic:

I bought What Remains of Edith Finch on PS4 for like $2.99 CAD on sale...

Worst purchase I made in years. The game is horrible. It is a freaking terrible walking sim.

Here’s the first 10 minutes of the game: You walk down a hill.

Next 10 minutes. You walk across some train tracks.

After that? Who knows. Because I gave up out of pure boredom.

Too anyone wanting to try this game out for free...save your time. The game sucks LOL

@uninspiredcup: good, steam needs some competition. I have origin already which is an ubisoft online service for only ubi games. So this doesn't mean much to me anyway. Either way, good news, more competition lower prices. Consumer wins.

They've had plenty of competition.

It's just been inferior.

true, hopefully Epic steps things up

I honestly don't know why people are against more competition. Steam has a big monopoly and their business practices have become less consumer friendly in the past couple of years. If anything this will force them to step up their game.

@blaznwiipspman1: You must mean Uplay. When it comes to road trips, Uplay is the only DRM client I run because it doesn’t ask me to contact the mothership unlike Steam and Origin. The latter two ask for login stuff after a few days without Internet, even when offline.

I've never understood why games release exclusively on certain digital store fronts. Have you ever seen this in a brick and mortar store? Seriously, Ubisoft just shot themselves in the foot with this, because I know a lot of people only buy on Steam. If it was sold on the Epic store along with Steam, cool. But I'd hate the thought of having to clutter my PC with launchers just because publishers sign deals with digital stores... Just dumb.

Oh noes... Division 2 gets no Steam version. Whatever shall I do. /sarcasm

@JustPlainLucas: It doesn’t feel cluttered to me because the DRM client only runs when I’m playing a game. When the game is turned off, so is the client. They don’t take up much room either. I have screenshot folders that are bigger in size than all the DRM clients combined. ;)

Thank you for the reminder. I knew it was coming soon, but thought it was next week at the earliest.

Sure have. From retailer-exclusive Funko Pop figures at GameStop to retailer-exclusive packaging (Best Buy) to exclusive home of a physical Blu-ray (Best Buy again), brick-and-mortar plays the exclusivity game hard. Michael Graves has a bunch of cool stuff for the home that's available only at Target.

Then again, in the hyper-competitive world of retail, you're looking for anything, no matter how small, to get an edge.

Can't wait for the ubisoft press releases saying people don't play pc games anymore because sales are way down.

Dude these games are adding up pretty soon steam will have to confront this threat I mean this is huge you got super meat boy forever 1 year timed you got division 2 you got subnautica free edith finch free wheres my free shit on steam wheres the division 2 on steam wheres all this shit that just should be there but isn't going to be there

People are easily enticed by shit it seems.

https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/19182-video-game-company-epic-games-has-f-rating-with-bbb?bbbid=0593

What a wonderful company.

Is this thread intended as satire? Exclusives are pretty much the definition of anti-consumer.

The difference is that if I buy an exclusive product from a brick and mortar shop, that shop doesn't set up permanent residence in my home.

Of course it is. The irony is that many people are presenting this move as pro-consumer when in actuality this move was made to benefit Ubisoft only (so they pay less royalties). Gamers aren't getting anything out of this.

Uhm:

• Red Orchestra 2
• Left 4 Dead
• Payday
• Payday 2
• Company of Heroes 2

Plenty of free games on steam

Why would you buy Usoft's games from anywhere else than Uplay? You'll get 20 % discount there.

@uninspiredcup said:

@xantufrog said:

@uninspiredcup: wait, you're only allowed 2 refunds?

Apparently you get a bunch of questions as well. Could be outdated, didn't bother checking.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/lets-discuss-the-awful-epic-game-store-refund-policy.86741/

Even if that's not the case you get all this bollocks -

Steams refund policy is "put any dumb ass reason here".

Click, done.

That was changed months ago. You only need the invoice number now, and they're working on an automatic process.

Still though, paying for exclusives is bullshit and shows that they either lack faith in the platform or don't want to put in the effort necessary to make it attractive to consumers.

And here I thought I would be buying The Division 2 since I managed to have fun playing The Division January, last year. Since it won't be coming to Steam, I won't be buying it.

P.S. FYI Steam is the cheapest place to buy video games in the Philippines. Well, outside buying bundled games from Humble Bundle and the likes of it.

But I thought Hermits loved the freedom and openness of PC gaming?

Sooner or later Gabe's testicles are going to run out of semen and y'all just end up sucking on air.

Just do the sensible thing and buy a Uplay key from a decent key site. You'll get the game cheaper and you don't need to run two store fronts to play it. At the very least get it direct from the Uplay store, it's still going to be cheaper than Epic.

I'm not convinced by the Epic shop and I'm definitely sticking with Steam for the time being (considering I have a lot of games on there It'd be daft to do otherwise) but I don't buy Ubisoft games through Steam and wouldn't through Epic either. To be perfectly honest I don't buy a lot of games direct fro Steam, I just get Steam keys from elsewhere.

Nice.

Time to watch PC gamers cry some more.

No shiz, sherlocke.

@Bread_or_Decide:

They cheer now n complain later n do not realize it their own dang fault.

I get that they're trying to compete against the Valve behemoth, but really? Exclusivity deals? Very annoying, and it just looks desperate.

Not that I'm interested in the game anyway, or that I would even buy the game from Steam if I was. Don't like running two clients at once.

people keep posting stuff like this, not realizing that this store is being run OPPOSITE to those ideals, which is why people are upset. They've shut down the community voice, they offer a restricted vision on mods and social features, they tried to get away with a completely worthless refund policy as discussed above, and they are TAKING AWAY choices by trying to strong-arm people into using their platform through forced exclusivity. That's not a choice. A choice is between the game on multiple platforms, based on price, features, ancillary ecosystem, etc. This runs opposite that.

A healthy example of consumer-friendly opposition to Steam that offers openness and choice in platform is GoG. This Epic model is more akin to creating a PS vs XBox rift within PC (don't get us started on MS itself on that front).

So sure, spout off about cum guzzling if you must. But it seems clear you just don't understand the situation or if you do you aren't on a pro-consumer side of it.

I have no problem with Epic offering a store to rival Steam. I have a problem with the store they are trying to offer. If that distinction makes sense

I'll only be using the launcher/storefront for the free games. This is just strong-arming consumers into a singular storefront, one that has yet to hold the reach and sway of Steam.

Epic offering is an option. If it succeeds, it then becomes the option that gamers' prefer. At the end of it all, its all various options on the same platform. Not all options are to everyone's liking but not being to a specific preference doesn't negate it from being an option. That is what the PC platform allows.

Exclusivity deals are now "offering an option".

I don't see people complaining when games are exclusively available on Steam. Why is it a concern now for Epic?