Epic says that it wishes video games Steam doesn’t have for its store to compete with Steam. To that end, the Fortnite megacorp has been making year-length Epic Games Store exclusivity offers, most lately with The Outer Worlds and Control. That has predictably irritated many PC gamers who are used to Steam and do not need to replace a different launcher for unique games. (Though it is already common because of Origin, Battle.Net, etc.)
But is Epic’s method more than just an inconvenience? Is it honestly negative to PC gaming as a whole? That’s the topic of our mid-week PCG Q&A. Our solutions are below, and feel free to add yours to the comments (while sticking to our commenting rules).
Samuel Roberts: Who is it better for?
I don’t actively suppose they may be horrific, nor does the concept of them hold me up at night. I even speculate if Epic’s approach has allowed console-handiest video games previously to leap to PC, as is the case with the Quantic Dream games and Journey coming to PC. I’m no longer negative about having greater launchers on my taskbar, which is not new. At the same time, you consider Ubisoft and EA’s necessities when you use their systems (even if you could buy Ubisoft games on Steam, too, till The Division 2). I will say this, though I don’t see how they may benefit players. An Epic one-of-a-kind is there to tempt you into using that save. But what’s the revel in of purchasing that doing for you that Steam is not? I suppose that may be a question worth asking.
Exclusives are currently being used as essential marketing. I suppose it is good for Valve that Epic is there to eat its lunch on some of this year’s largest games and possibly get it to be a more active competitor. But for the client paying $60 for a game, I don’t see what the gain is; shop for maybe a barely cheaper reproduction of Metro Exodus (however, only if you stay in the United States—we didn’t get that provided in Europe). They’re just the usage of a distinct store because any person, somewhere, made a deal.
The top result, at most, is some slight inconvenience by beginning any other launcher; it truly is proper. But at the same time, as the expanded sales cut makes the Epic Games Store attractive to developers (and honestly sufficient, it is an amazing result), there is no immediately obvious upside to the consumer. It’s simply a shop war.
Jarred Walton: It’s more of the identical
Are we all going to say that save exclusives are, in reality, dangerous to stop users? Inconvenient, positive, and I think each additional app we must set up is a capacity safety hole. But keep an exclusive experience like part of the 2019 PC gaming marketplace. A particular sport will be hurt or helped by an extraordinary person, especially a paid person, but the storefront certainly doesn’t count to me as long as recreation is to be had for PC.
