The Platform Wars (Steam, Epic, GoG, etc)

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:11 pm

I'm moving this over here to stop polluting the Outer Worlds thread.

ColdSteel wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:21 am My problem with using the Epic store is one of trust. I don't trust them at all. I saw over at Qt3 that they've engaged in the following:

- The “SteamSpy” app was actually an Epic employee that was gathering data for the Epic Store.

- They had a client in PUBG for years, then launched a directly competing product targeted at the same users. This prompted a lawsuit, which was later dropped.

- They were caught scraping the users’ Steam data.
Maybe none of that was directly illegal but it's sleazy as hell and makes me not trust them enough to use their store.

There have been way too many conspiracy theories from angry gamers about Epic. Epic hired him after he created SteamSpy, and nobody was secretive about it. The whole 'scraping steam data' bit has, from what I've seen, been exaggerated. They create a local copy of one Steam file, then use it to import your friends list from Steam if you specifically give them permission to. It might not be the smartest way to go about it (since it does put them in the crosshairs), but there's no indication they did anything more than that. As far as the PUBG bit, we're in a hobby run by corporations. They do backhanded stuff all the time. Valve does. Epic does. Ubi and EA thrive on it. We're not going to find a 'boy scout' corporation to take loving care of our libraries. If we only want to play with the good guys, we need to find a different hobby.

The exclusives keep getting compared to console exclusives, but while the motivation is the same (to force customers onto a platform) the impact is completely different. I own a PS4. When there is an XBox timed exclusive, I can't play it. That's shitty. Here, though, we've got PC exclusives being made exclusive to PC. We can, if we choose, play each and every one of them. Besides, Steam doesn't do that. Except Steam was famous for doing that. For years nearly every PC game out there was a Steam exclusive. People ranted about how they'd go to the store and by a physical disc and still have to come home and install it through Steam. I remember Fallout 3 being targeted particularly for that, as well as whichever game it was that first came with a DVD case and a cardboard 'disc' with nothing but a code on it. People hated that they were being manipulated and forced to use Steam to play their games. I don't know. Maybe I've just played enough console games that I'm not phased by the idea of exclusives to manipulate customers. It's standard for every aspect of the industry other than ours now. Especially when I get to play Game X regardless of who has the exclusive

I don't love Epic. I don't love Valve. I don't even love GoG. I don't trust any of them. (Although GoG is arguably better than the others, they're also the most at risk for playing nice, having just laid off a bunch of staff a few weeks ago after reports that they're in financial trouble. GoG may be the most friendly, but they're also the most likely to vanish.) We're in a business full of bad guys, hoping none of them set their sites on us for a screwing-over. Given that, I'd prefer that they spend their efforts fighting over us than lording over us. In fact, Steam just announced a bunch of changes a day or two ago that were pretty clearly inspired by the competition with Epic. That's what I want.

Again, I don't love Epic. I've never spent a penny on Epic. I won't until they have something I really want that I can't get anywhere else. I just dislike overreactions, and overreactions are all I've seen.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:41 pm

I have a lot on Steam and Gog and a few on whatever the Paradox one is called.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:36 pm

I basically agree with Blackhawk. I avoid conspiracy theories like the plague and bought Satisfactory on the Epic Games Store. I will note that their customer service is nowhere near as good as Steam's, the steps they wanted me to go through to recover my account were ridiculous (date of last login was one of eight different things they wanted to know before they'd recover my account) and they are very slow to respond (took four days after first logging a ticket to get a response).

So unless Epic improves its customer support, I'll be mostly sticking to Steam. I mean if some really good game (like Satisfactory or another Anno) released on Epic then I'd still get it.

And what about Stadia? That's going to be a platform soon as well, I'm interested.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:42 pm

maybe it's just me but for the most part I have seen people reacting thusly:

"I was mildly interested in game Y but now EPIC made it exclusive for a while. I already have too many games in my steam backlog. So ehhhh, I'll just play my backlog until it comes out on Steam."

Yes, some people end it with "*!@Q$#!@ EPIC!" but so what? Those are probably the same people that complained about Steam and in the end they accepted it. Are we afraid that EPIC is not being given a fair chance by the market? Perhaps we should let the market decide whether PC gamers can tolerate timed exclusives or not.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:00 pm

Of course that's what we do! But since we all love the hobby, we'll debate it, argue about it, change each others' minds back and forth, and end up a better understanding of something that affects what we all share.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:06 pm

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:54 pm

I'm fully entrenched with STEAM. I own games on Origin; I never use it. I own games on Battlenet; I never use it. UPlay is only fired up because it's still forcing STEAM to verify I'm not a dirty pirate every time I want to play one of their games. Otherwise? I'd never use it.

I activate every game I can on GoG but it's for insurance in case something happens to STEAM. I'll activate free copies of every game they offer on Epic, but I doubt I'll ever use them either.

I like badges. I like achievements. I like the activity feed. If game publishers start disappearing from STEAM because they want to be exclusives on Epic, good luck. I didn't follow Dragon Age or Mass Effect to Origin, but I'm sure others did. I get that competition is good for everyone, but exclusives and blackouts are terrible.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:10 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:54 pm I'm fully entrenched with STEAM. I own games on Origin; I never use it. I own games on Battlenet; I never use it. UPlay is only fired up because it's still forcing STEAM to verify I'm not a dirty pirate every time I want to play one of their games. Otherwise? I'd never use it.

Same.

I activate every game I can on GoG but it's for insurance in case something happens to STEAM. I'll activate free copies of every game they offer on Epic, but I doubt I'll ever use them either.

Wait, you can activate Steam games on GoG?

I like badges. I like achievements. I like the activity feed. If game publishers start disappearing from STEAM because they want to be exclusives on Epic, good luck. I didn't follow Dragon Age or Mass Effect to Origin, but I'm sure others did. I get that competition is good for everyone, but exclusives and blackouts are terrible.

I don't care about badges or achievements, but do like having everything in one place. If Steam ever goes down, I'd be fucked.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:14 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:10 pm
I activate every game I can on GoG but it's for insurance in case something happens to STEAM. I'll activate free copies of every game they offer on Epic, but I doubt I'll ever use them either.
Wait, you can activate Steam games on GoG?

GoG Connect. It comes and goes and only works for a few games for a limited time. Not deemed worth it to me. I am not sure it has ever worked for anything for me and I have over 600 games on Steam (note that I only tried it a couple times).

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:23 pm

Yeah, as coop said, check here.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:06 pm

In the end you'll either use it or not so no matter.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:12 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:11 pm In fact, Steam just announced a bunch of changes a day or two ago that were pretty clearly inspired by the competition with Epic. That's what I want.

as detailed here?

https://kotaku.com/steam-libraries-are- ... 1833473185

i hope there's a way to disable 'broadcast' notifications, as i don't care and don't want those polluting my Steam homepage. what's exponentially more of a waste of time than playing video games? watching other people play them.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:58 pm

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:12 pm
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:11 pm In fact, Steam just announced a bunch of changes a day or two ago that were pretty clearly inspired by the competition with Epic. That's what I want.
as detailed here?

https://kotaku.com/steam-libraries-are- ... 1833473185

i hope there's a way to disable 'broadcast' notifications, as i don't care and don't want those polluting my Steam homepage. what's exponentially more of a waste of time than playing video games? watching other people play them.

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:34 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:06 pm In the end you'll either use it or not so no matter.

I guess I feel a little different in that I think "outrage", or pressure, from customers can make a difference. For me, I will not use anything but Steam for purchasing games. Yeah, its probably a dated stance, but it is what it is. I value my privacy and internet security and seek to keep my "profile" as low as possible. So adding other applications to my computer that harvests data and sells it off to the highest bidder is something I avoid, especially in cases where its strictly a money-grab type of situation like it is outer worlds. Not to mention I actively work to keep the number of applications running to a minimum for performance reasons.

By expressing my stance and actively boycotting games that have these horrible exclusivity deals, my hope that future devs take notice and maybe don't go for these year-long deals, instead crunching some number and possibly seeing they will make more money by decreasing the exclusive period.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:30 am

Here is Epic's roadmap. Lot's of new "basic"features I can't believe weren't at launch (wishlist, search by genre, etc). It's getting more fleshed out while staying true to it's "style" IE, just a storefront not a social gathering spot. I'm ok with that.

https://trello.com/b/GXLc34hk/epic-games-store-roadmap

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:54 am

I have my social gathering spots. None of them are Steam. The Steam reviews are so tainted they're useless. The forums tend to be toxic and full of trolling kids. When I want to talk games, I come here. When I have a question about a specific game, I come here or Reddit (or Google in general.) The only real social element I use Steam for are the friends list, which is pretty much just OOers and a half a dozen real-life acquaintances. I'm perfectly happy with just a store front.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 3:58 pm

Agree, the Steam 'Discussion' pages are awful and the reviews are suspect. I guess I’ll just go where the games I want are, it’s bad to have to have all these clients.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:18 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:11 pmAgain, I don't love Epic. I've never spent a penny on Epic. I won't until they have something I really want that I can't get anywhere else. I just dislike overreactions, and overreactions are all I've seen.

I live in the UK, when Metro Exodus became an Epic exclusive the price went up over here. There is no option to buy it anywhere else and no price pressure, they didn't reduce the price like they did in the US it actually went up. There is one store with one premium price and that is not good for me at all.

I am happy to use multiple game fronts, I use Steam, GoG, Uplay, Epic, Origin and have no issues using any other.

The only issue I have is an upward pressure on price due to there being no competition and no price pressure. As a consumer that is the worst possible position for me. I mean they want to give more money to the developers and they want me to do that by paying a higher price. They don't want to do it themselves, they aren't taking a smaller piece of the pie to give to the developers they are rinsing me to do it instead.

I have no issue with the game not being on steam and being only on the Epic store as long as I can actually buy it from other online retailers like GMG, Voidu, Gamesplanet and so on then it's fine. But no we have no choice and this effects price in the wrong way and anyone that defends that position for whatever reason is a little naive

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:44 pm

Did you guys have these same issues when games were sold in stores in boxes? I mainly always bought from my two favorite stores and got it from the cheaper of the two. If they were the same I simply took turns.

If its the exclusives bothering you just wait and others will have it, it will be patched, and might be cheaper too.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:50 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:44 pm Did you guys have these same issues when games were sold in stores in boxes? I mainly always bought from my two favorite stores and got it from the cheaper of the two. If they were the same I simply took turns.

If its the exclusives bothering you just wait and others will have it, it will be patched, and might be cheaper too.

There was 4 or 5 Game shops in my town as well as market that sold second hand games, price was never issue at a competitive level. It is now as my town has 1 shop that sells games and prices are a premium, hence never buying from them.

You are assuming that all exclusives will make there way to Steam, who says they will. It's not steam that is the issue it's the fact if you want a specific game you only have one shop to get it from and that's a monopoly and that will keep prices artificially high. The minute you block competition it's bad for the consumer in many ways.

I don't understand why anyone supports the epic store set up which reduces consumer choice and price. No one has yet said what is exactly good about it, what it brings to the table now and how worthwhile it is to me.

Now if Epic had come out and said we have this new store front, we are giving developers a much higher cut, we are reducing price by 10% and all keys can also be bought through online game retailers well that would be great, I would have no issue supporting that. Instead we get one choice, one price and a higher one at that, additionally if you don't want to support that then you can get stuffed for a year..nice i'm all aglow with my special treatment as a customer.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:41 pm

We've been living with a monopoly for 15 years for the majority of titles.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:59 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:41 pm We've been living with a monopoly for 15 years for the majority of titles.

Really? I've bought many of my games from GMG and other sites that offer discounts on Steam keys. Steam is a monopoly platform but they are hardly a monopoly store for many, many titles.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:05 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:54 am I have my social gathering spots. None of them are Steam. The Steam reviews are so tainted they're useless. The forums tend to be toxic and full of trolling kids. When I want to talk games, I come here. When I have a question about a specific game, I come here or Reddit (or Google in general.) The only real social element I use Steam for are the friends list, which is pretty much just OOers and a half a dozen real-life acquaintances. I'm perfectly happy with just a store front.

Those broad paintbrushes you are painting with. I read Steam reviews and can easily filter out the trash - I've found them quite helpful on lesser known games that don't get reviewed by many sites. And saying that forums tend to be toxic and full of trolling kids is very inaccurate. I'd say it is only a handful of titles that have forums of such a nature - usually around supposed SJW issues -the vast majority of games don't have any such issues. Again, I use the forums all of the time when I want to solve technical issues, look for strategy/game guides and understand better less publicized games. Any "toxic"threads can easily be ignored - just don't read them - just look for the information you are seeking.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:06 pm

Grifman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:59 pm
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:41 pm We've been living with a monopoly for 15 years for the majority of titles.
Really? I've bought many of my games from GMG and other sites that offer discounts on Steam keys. Steam is a monopoly platform but they are hardly a monopoly store for many, many titles.

This.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:19 pm

Reemul wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:18 pm
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:11 pmAgain, I don't love Epic. I've never spent a penny on Epic. I won't until they have something I really want that I can't get anywhere else. I just dislike overreactions, and overreactions are all I've seen.
I live in the UK, when Metro Exodus became an Epic exclusive the price went up over here. There is no option to buy it anywhere else and no price pressure, they didn't reduce the price like they did in the US it actually went up. There is one store with one premium price and that is not good for me at all.

I am happy to use multiple game fronts, I use Steam, GoG, Uplay, Epic, Origin and have no issues using any other.

The only issue I have is an upward pressure on price due to there being no competition and no price pressure. As a consumer that is the worst possible position for me. I mean they want to give more money to the developers and they want me to do that by paying a higher price. They don't want to do it themselves, they aren't taking a smaller piece of the pie to give to the developers they are rinsing me to do it instead.

I have no issue with the game not being on steam and being only on the Epic store as long as I can actually buy it from other online retailers like GMG, Voidu, Gamesplanet and so on then it's fine. But no we have no choice and this effects price in the wrong way and anyone that defends that position for whatever reason is a little naive

Per their roadmap they have regional pricing so not sure what you mean by paying more.

Description
Added regional pricing for countries and territories that have previously used the US prices and refunded the difference to customers from those countries that have purchased games in the store prior to the change.

Also i mentioned in the other thread that the higher devolper cut might keep studios open and making more games. That would be a good thing. I have bought games in the past staright from devolpers to ensure they got the biggest cut and hopefully keep making games i enjoy. You used to see that option a lot in the early days of steam, not so much anymore.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:07 pm

What's confusing?

The advertised price was X, now that epic has an exclusive the advertised price is X+ for reemul.

Seems pretty straightforward.

Gaming is a hobby for me and a business for developers. I couldn't care less what businesses do on the backend. If it affects the frontend (either positively or negatively) I care.

I'm not making charitable donations here. The world isn't in danger of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry going under, and even if it did, I have a decade of backlog to keep me busy until a new one springs up. Epic is cutting them a better deal to woo them away from Steam. Seems like a smart business decision that is between developers and Epic. I'm neither.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:18 pm

I only use Steam and GOG. Anything else is extraneous, IMHO. If I can't buy it on either those, then I'll likely play it on console if available.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:48 am

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:07 pm What's confusing?

The advertised price was X, now that epic has an exclusive the advertised price is X+ for reemul.

Seems pretty straightforward.

Gaming is a hobby for me and a business for developers. I couldn't care less what businesses do on the backend. If it affects the frontend (either positively or negatively) I care.

I'm not making charitable donations here. The world isn't in danger of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry going under, and even if it did, I have a decade of backlog to keep me busy until a new one springs up. Epic is cutting them a better deal to woo them away from Steam. Seems like a smart business decision that is between developers and Epic. I'm neither.

I went back and reread it and it makes sense now. I thought he was saying it was higher due to regional pricing not due to exclusativity.

Im not worried about the gamimg industry going under, thats just silly. I am worried about developers that make games I enjoy going under because it happens all the time. Gaming is a hobby I enjoy so while I partake in a good sale I am also not above paying a premium for something I really enjoy. Though I expect Epic to have plenty of sales because thats just how the market works.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:01 am

warning: Long creed about personal view of the gaming industry/developers/viability. It's just a window into why Epic giving developers more money is not personally exciting/motivating/happy making. I might care in a general sense. I want companies to be profitable and keep making games, but I'm not paying extra to do it. In fact I already pay far too little for the games I do buy, and even then I often wish I had waited for an even better deal.

------------------------

I enjoy a wide enough variety of games that losing one developer, or a hundred, wouldn't be an issue for me. Any affinity I might have had for any specific developer disappeared years ago. I realize not everyone feels the same. The gaming industry is incestuous enough that the talent behind any studio usually shows up somewhere else in the future anyway, although admittedly not always making the games you wish they would make, but that's true of many developers anyway, as they branch out into new genres.

I'm certainly not critical that people enjoy games by specific developers. A hobby is something people do for personal reasons and enjoyment after all.

For me personally, my game purchasing decisions are not based whether I want a company to succeed or not. That's between them and their business model. If they can't remain solvent I'm not buying their stuff in an effort to prevent that. My goal as a consumer with more games than I will ever have time for is to get those games as cheaply as possible, so I give almost zero thought about their business relationship with their publisher.

People like giving money to people who make stuff they enjoy. I totally get that. It's just not high on my list of priorities as a gamer. I'm not friends with the developers. My purchases are business transactions, doubly so for any purchase not from a small independent studio.

There is simply too much variety and choice available to worry about the viability of any one studio. I might change my tune for an independent developer making niche games, but chances are anyone on Epic, and to a large extent Steam as well, aren't going to meet that criteria and even if they did, I would have to feel some attachment. There are hundreds of independent developers making hundreds of games that don't interest me in the least.

I love that the gaming industry is thriving. It's a buyer's market and has been for probably 2 decades. Worrying about whether developers are making *enough* is not something that crosses my mind very often, especially since I'm reluctant to pay 10 bucks for a game when I have 2 dozen in my backlog that I only paid 5 bucks for, and which are by all accounts fantastic games that I just haven't gotten to yet (and for many, never will).

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 12:21 pm

I don't get the controversy. It's a new platform, trying to shake things up. I'm okay with that concept.

I like that Epic will deliver more money to developers by taking a smaller cut than Steam. I don't know if that will ultimately choke out Steam or if they'll have to raise prices overall to keep profits solid but still deliver more to the developers. That's all business, and I'm sure there are a lot of people in board rooms discussing this at length so they can make completely business-centric but ultimately shitty decisions to piss off customers.

My purchase order for digital games is currently GOG > Steam > Anything Else. If I can get it on GOG, I'll do that. I'll wait for a sale on GOG if it's on both. Sometimes I don't wait, but it's more and more the case. Epic isn't "Exclusivising" anything I think I absolutely need, so they can piss in a hat with that decision. I have too much invested in Steam to drop it, but am not in love with it as a platform - it just is what it is.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:55 pm

I understand your viewpoint. What is difficult to understand about mine? People care about different shit every day. Some women spend hours on their appearance. Some women don't. Either side thinks the other side is stupid, and both sides are right and wrong at the same time.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:40 pm

I'll admit, I see some of the reactions to another new platform as reactionary rather than rational (and that's what started this thing.) For instance, I don't understand why the line is between 540 internet accounts and 541. It seems like the point of no return on that is long, long since crossed. I also don't buy the 'performance impact' of having an installed platform that isn't running at all. Unless it has an updater (which I would disable), I don't worry about having a .pdf reader installed and exited slowing down Fallout 76. I hear both of those as points against Epic, over and over.

Many of the other arguments I understand (unproven companies can go under and take libraries with them, having payment information spread around is bad, mmkay, not liking manipulative exclusivity contracts, which I guess I'm just used to from so many other businesses), whether I agree with them or not. Often I do. They're the 'cons' on my pros-and-cons list.

Arguing one point against another doesn't mean not understanding the other.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:47 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:40 pm I'll admit, I see some of the reactions to another new platform as reactionary rather than rational (and that's what started this thing.)

No shit.

I've been over this at least 5 times here on OO. Sometimes in detail, and sometimes in passing. I had no intention of joining this discuss (what's the point? Same opinions over and over again by both sides). It was a mistake to post in this thread, which I now regret. It's not that I think it's a waste of time for other people, and we often have the same discussions on OO year after year on many different topics, so it's not that unusual. I'm just not interested any longer.

Good luck with your discussion though. I have no doubt *this* time you'll be swayed.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 5:04 pm

September 19, 2010. NEVER FORGET.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:02 pm

The Meal wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 5:04 pm September 19, 2010. NEVER FORGET.

OK, I'll be the first to ask...

What did I already forget about that date?

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:54 pm

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:47 pm Good luck with your discussion though. I have no doubt *this* time you'll be swayed.

You'd be surprised how often these 'stubborn' argument threads sway my opinion. I respect the opinions of OOers enough that any time people seem to line up against me I take it as a warning to re-think my position and see if it is as solid as I think.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:34 pm

Sure. Like I said, good luck.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:35 pm

You know, I think the practice of selling a game on a platform such as Steam and still requiring another service on top of that I feel is just as bad as an exclusive. In fact, it's probably worse. I'm eyeing Ubisoft on that one. Some of their games are available on Steam (they might have been removing them though?), yet they still require Uplay and won't function without some sort of Uplay activation. That's some BS right there. And I don't think it's really fair to the customer to have to install another service/marketplace in order to be able to play it. I've chosen where to buy it, let me play it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:38 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:35 pm You know, I think the practice of selling a game on a platform such as Steam and still requiring another service on top of that I feel is just as bad as an exclusive. In fact, it's probably worse. I'm eyeing Ubisoft on that one. Some of their games are available on Steam (they might have been removing them though?), yet they still require Uplay and won't function without some sort of Uplay activation. That's some BS right there. And I don't think it's really fair to the customer to have to install another service/marketplace in order to be able to play it.

Nobody likes Ubisoft and Uplay. Well, mostly nobody. I'm sure someone here will be along to look around perplexed wondering what the big deal is. Anyway, it might be the worst of the lot. They have engaged in some business practices that have been actively hostile to their customers in the past. I own some Ubisoft games and have Uplay installed, but I'm not happy about it and mostly go out of my way to avoid them.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:24 pm

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:38 pm
Rumpy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:35 pm You know, I think the practice of selling a game on a platform such as Steam and still requiring another service on top of that I feel is just as bad as an exclusive. In fact, it's probably worse. I'm eyeing Ubisoft on that one. Some of their games are available on Steam (they might have been removing them though?), yet they still require Uplay and won't function without some sort of Uplay activation. That's some BS right there. And I don't think it's really fair to the customer to have to install another service/marketplace in order to be able to play it.
Nobody likes Ubisoft and Uplay. Well, mostly nobody. I'm sure someone here will be along to look around perplexed wondering what the big deal is. Anyway, it might be the worst of the lot. They have engaged in some business practices that have been actively hostile to their customers in the past. I own some Ubisoft games and have Uplay installed, but I'm not happy about it and mostly go out of my way to avoid them.

Ill bite....

I just hit play and the game loads. Sometimes it just opens the game directly. Sometimes it opens some other thingies and then the game opens. Either way...the game opens and I get the Happies. This is probably because I organize my games independent of where I bought them. Much like my Record/VHS/CD/DVD/Blueray/digital media collections before it. FFS I never organized it buy Tower Records, Turtles or Media play! This is asinine!