So completely irrelevant if you don't care about "social features" and/or don't use Steam.

It's especially irrelevant if you don't have a computer at all, and just read books ;)

Books are irrelevant. We were talking about computer games. What's your point?

It would also be irrelevant if Steam encrypted your personal data, as they really ought to if it's personal.

tbh the name itself sounds cringe as hell, epic games, please tell me what actual good games they have made cos none i can see. crap games and shady business practice handing out bags of fortnite cash to get devs to build up there store with exclusives.

good thing is rebellion who make my favorite game sniper elite are not even releasing it on epic store just steam and GOG for PC so fuck you epic store

Epic Pinball
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jill of the Jungle
One Must Fall: 2097
Unreal
Age of Wonders
Gears of War
Bulletstorm

and many more

Biomutant may be another Epic exclusive. It's apparently front and center at the Epic Games GDC booth. The devs have been answering a lot of questions but are avoiding ones about exclusivity. Then again the devs probably don't know as it's THQ Nordic's department.

The big push by Epic Games at GDC is worrying however...

I agree with this. I already said the following in another thread, but I'll just repeat it here; if companies can bring their titles to the Epic client, with fewer features compared to Steam or GOG's, they're not gonna be able to use the 'GOG doesn't have X feature' excuse, and 1 year after the game has been released and almost certainly pirated, there should be little reason to use GOG's lack of DRM as an excuse not to release here.

Well F*** it I'll buy from MS's Store then or a bricks and Mortar shop if I can IF and ONLY IF it doesn't install Epics DOGSH!T

This is my thought on the one year exclusive as well. When I had to wait for the Tomb Raider reboot it was the same thing. It launched bug free or as close as you can get on PC. There are plenty of other games to play. I can wait.

As for the Epic store, the only reason I care is I hate exclusives. Let people get games on the platform they want to. In my case when possible that is GOG.

I have nothing further to say aside from general contempt for the store, but thank you for making this thread to centrally organize the discussion.

Honestly, i feel the same way... Taking Oxenfree offer today, i was pleasantly surprised the space they give to present the game, as opposed to how it is presented on Steam or on GOG, it seems to me the game really has its own spotlight in the Epic page... It is unique and interesting, it has its own choice of page design and colors, game images are taking the whole page for great effect on my screen and the same can be said for every of their other titles on offer. Browsing it, i simply enjoy how games feel like GAMES there instead of justanotherproductintheformattedlist.

Another thing that is confusing is, sure DRM blows hard but Gaben has taken the monopoly for so long, and GOG forums host so many vocal Valve haters for a decade that it is kind of puzzling to not find them at least with half the smile in the prospect of the industry giant maybe, Satan himself maybe finally finding competition and having to work for earning their success.

Lastly, the money argument is HUGE for developers, the Steam store is flooded by shovelware for years now and still has client UI issues ongoing for years such as actual game videos on their own pages not properly entering full screen if not seen with a 100% only text and images scaling OS. I know if i was on board of this publishing my game i would hate being taken 30% shares for such an obvious and obnoxious problem never being fixed ruining potential sales.

Sooo yes, i like the Epic Games Store so far and more power to them against Valve, eventually more games DRM-Free down the road with healtier developers coming out on GOG borders sooner or later.

I was referring to the company that made Unepic which was made by... *looks it up* Francisco Téllez de Meneses apparently, and also put out ghost 1.0. I can tell it's the same engine and some recycled bits too.

Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2003 and or 2004 are great classic games that deserve some respect in my opinion.

And Thief: Deadly Shadows was built around a heavily modified unreal 2 engine dubbed the flesh engine for the dynamic lights that a new Thief game needed. I used this editor for a long time and it was buggy but still impressive.

My initial reaction was, "Fine. Another launcher I won't use." but then they started buying exclusives, often days before release on other platforms, and after said platforms had been hyping the games for months and taking preorders. My reaction to this was to completely shut down any excitement I had for these titles just the same as though they had been delayed. I was salty.

However it's been a bit now, and I've heard some other points of view, and had some time to consider things.

I've had Steam for 15 years, and GOG for 8 years. Steam has been my default go-to source for PC games since Half Life 2 came out, and I have completely taken it for granted, and I have taken access to my Steam library for granted as well. I have a considerable amount of sunk cost into the Steam platform, and that makes me dependent on it, if only psychologically.

GOG is everything PC games distribution should be, from keeping old games alive that would have otherwise faded into the miasma, to taking a hard-like DRM free stance. In a perfect world, everyone would see this and GOG would be the absolute dominant platform in PC gaming.

Maybe the 30% cut that Steam and GOG take is too much, but Steam was competing with physical sales, and that 30% cut is an amazing deal when compared to the costs of physical disks and packaging, shelf space, publisher's cut, and retailers cut. GOG was just following through with what the norm was. Steam takes 30%, so GOG takes 30%. It's expected.

Epic is now muscling in with their 12% cut, paid exclusives, and free games reminiscent of EA Origin's On-The-House program. EA ended on the house when it was no longer growing it's user base, and we can expect epic to likely do the same in regards to paid exclusives and free games. Besides, that Fortnite money won't last forever. Epic's hope is that the ball will be rolling long before that pile of Fortnite cash runs out, and the Epic Store will become a self sufficient machine.

What am I doing in reaction to all this? Well I'm re-evaluating my relationship with Steam, and PC gaming distributors in general. Before Steam I bought PC games as physical releases. Nothing is stopping me from pulling out my retail copy of No One Lives Forever 2 and playing it, even though the game isn't available for sale anywhere, and the Software Etc. I bought it from has long since closed. This is fundamentally a better way of "owning" pc games, and is closer to actual "ownership" rather than merely possessing a license reliant on an online login through a 3rd party service. With GOG, as long as I download the installer and save it away somewhere, I'll always be able to just install and play, just like a physical copy. No Internet? No problem.

I've scanned through my Steam wishlist and removed every game there that's available on GOG, and I've added the same games to my GOG wish list. I have decided that GOG is now my default, and primary PC games platform. Whenever a good deal on games I own on Steam crops up on GOG, I'll probably snag it to further reduce my reliance on Steam.

I've decided to be patient. I was looking forward to The Outer Worlds. Less so when it announced Epic exclusivity. But even now, one year later when it hits Steam, I'll just wait around even more for it to hit GOG... if it hits GOG. It may never make it to GOG, but that's okay. I have no shortage of games to play. I could probably stop buying games today, and still not run out of content to enjoy for the rest of my life.