The Outer Worlds won't launch on Steam

[Malcador]

Guess this is another company I can add to my list of "Never buy from again." Sad day for me but whatever. Hope the Fortnite bucks are worth all the goodwill you guys threw out.

So dramatic

[loudent2]

Guess this is another company I can add to my list of "Never buy from again." Sad day for me but whatever. Hope the Fortnite bucks are worth all the goodwill you guys threw out.

 

I don't think this is a "never buy from again" scenario. The publisher made this call and now that Obsidian is owned by Microsoft future launches will likely be different.

[Vitalis]

 

Guess this is another company I can add to my list of "Never buy from again." Sad day for me but whatever. Hope the Fortnite bucks are worth all the goodwill you guys threw out.

So dramatic

The over dramatic REEEE from the gaming commhbity about the proper ways to overcome a monopoly is real. Edited March 20, 2019 by Vitalis

[Vyrulisse]

 

 

Guess this is another company I can add to my list of "Never buy from again." Sad day for me but whatever. Hope the Fortnite bucks are worth all the goodwill you guys threw out.

So dramatic

The over dramatic REEEE from the gaming commhbity about the proper ways to overcome a monopoly is real.

 

I see this word monopoly thrown around quite often and I'm not sure a lot of the people using it know what that means. Please educate me as to how Steam is a monopoly when I can purchase Steam keys for any game I want from practically any digital storefront I choose which means finding the best deal FOR ME but can't seem to do the same with Epic Games Store exclusives.

 

Also as for being dramatic, maybe but I'm done with launchers. I'm at my limit and this move just cements that fact. Obsidian and their Publishers clearly do not care about consumer choice so why should I care about them? There are plenty of games out there. I'm not delusional to think my single stance to not buy from Epic will make any difference but I do it because I have beliefs and I stick with them.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Vyrulisse

[Malcador]

The over dramatic REEEE from the gaming commhbity about the proper ways to overcome a monopoly is real.

 

 

In their heads I am sure they all see it as

 

[slopesandsam]

"Our partners at @EpicGames have announced that #TheOuterWorlds will be coming to the Epic Games Store at launch, alongside the Windows Store. It will be released on other digital platforms 12 months later.

 

The Outer Worlds will still release on XBOX and PS4 on launch."

 

While I don't want to be putting any words into Obsidian's mouth, look at how boilerplate and emotionally neutral this tweet is.  No "We're excited to announce" or even "We have entered into..."  The tweet doesn't say it explicitly, but there's the underlying implication that the decision wasn't theirs: "Our partners...have announced".

 

I'm sure they're absolutely forbidden from doing so, but given how refreshing the transparency from the dev team has been, it would be nice if they actually said something about how disappointed they are that this happened.

 

(Although I'm not sure exactly how much this will hurt sales.  Apparently Metro Exodus sold like hotcakes on the EGS.)

 

On the...brighter side, it's probably that any future sequels to TOW will not be Epic exclusives, given that Microsoft will (almost certainly) be publishing them.  And Microsoft just announced that the Halo collection will be coming to Steam.

[Zoraptor]

 

It will always be the great irony that 95% of the people complaining about Epic Store exclusives would be completely fine with it being a Steam exclusive. Either exclusives suck, including steam exclusives, or they don't in which case ES exclusives are fine.

 

(And it's probably good news overall for GOG users, since we wouldn't have got TOW on release day in any realistic scenario. As it stands now we might even get it the same day steam does)

 

For me, the difference is that from Steam's perspective, there is no such thing as "Steam exclusives". Steam does not offer exclusivity deals: Valve is perfectly fine with publishers also selling their games on GOG, Humble Bundle, their own service, the Microsoft Store, etc.

 

 

Eh, kind of. Those steam features everyone cites as being so great are there so that there's lock in, that's their exclusivity deal equivalent. If you're using steamworks for MP, workshop for mods and similar that's the exclusivity driver; and because it's extra work to implement alternatives and said work costs money, it's an in kind incentive for exclusivity. Sure, they're 'optional', but in exactly the same way accepting a minimum sales deal from Epic is optional, if you think it's a net benefit to you you do it, if it isn't you don't.

 

It's dressed up as being extra features but they're steam exclusive extra features. That's the technique Gabe learned at Microsoft from their three Es (specifically, Extend) policy on monopolisation. Standover tactics using their market share as leverage to get a pub to drop their steam equivalent... well that isn't provable, but I'm about 90% sure it happened at least once, and was far worse than anything Epic is accused of doing.

 

 

Exclusives suck. They are anti-consumer. Steam doesn't do exclusives.

 

 

Sure they do, you just don't want to call them that because exclusives are anti consumer and you like Steam. Can I get HL2 without using Steam? No. Can I get Civ6 without using Steam? No. They're steam exclusives. QED.

 

Doesn't matter that I could buy a key for Civ6 from GMG or whatever, the sale is finalised when you get your product, and that is exclusively on steam. Ergo, it's an exclusive.

 

Funny thing is of course that the ES deal isn't exclusive, since Windows Store will sell it too.

[JadedWolf]

Too bad. I was really looking forward to this game.

 

Guess I will buy if for the PS4 instead. Gives me an excuse to actually use the thing.

Edited March 20, 2019 by JadedWolf

[Vitalis]

 

 

 

Guess this is another company I can add to my list of "Never buy from again." Sad day for me but whatever. Hope the Fortnite bucks are worth all the goodwill you guys threw out.

So dramatic

The over dramatic REEEE from the gaming commhbity about the proper ways to overcome a monopoly is real.

I see this word monopoly thrown around quite often and I'm not sure a lot of the people using it know what that means. Please educate me as to how Steam is a monopoly when I can purchase Steam keys for any game I want from practically any digital storefront I choose which means finding the best deal FOR ME but can't seem to do the same with Epic Games Store exclusives.

What is their direct competition? Origin, UPlay, and GoG arent even close to being competitive to Steam. If Steam wasn't so dominate in the market you wouldn't even have the CHOICE to buy games for Steam from other sellers. Steam is still making a profit from your purchase, which would not be possible unless they were a monopoly.

 

Steam doesn't have to do anything to take your money if you're a PC gamer.

[Leferd]

Lols. I didn't realize people can get so worked up about achievements and trading cards.

[Aldaron]

A shame. I won't buy it.

[AeonsLegend]

Lols. I didn't realize people can get so worked up about achievements and trading cards.

You misunderstand. People just don't want to be forced to use Epic platform. It should be available on all platforms so the gamer can choose.

[Gorth]

Majorly disappointed, but I'll add it to the list of things to do in 2020 (like Borderlands 3) when available elsewhere.

 

Found this interview snippet from Boyarsky from about a month ago:

"You have these robber barons at the turn of the 20th century. A couple of hundred years later, what if we still have that culture. The corporations have pretty much taken over everything."

 

Just seemed to fit the occasion somehow... losers in the end are the people who have no real choices but what corporations to support.

[Heijoushin]

Am I the only one who isn't frothing at the mouth about this announcement? I mean, I would have preferred Steam, but is it such an inconvenience to download one more stupid platform?

 

I mean, I'm going to have to buy a Nintendo Switch to play the new Pokemon when that comes out. And that will actually set me back 30,000 yen.

[Zoraptor]

People might just have to get over the belief that exclusives are inherently bad. They aren't, and if they make financial sense they'll continue to happen.

 

 

 

They own the IP so they did have some leverage. If Obsidian absolutely insisted that the game must launch on Steam, they possibly could have negotiated something.

 

 

Owning the IP is irrelevant here though. Obsidian is now owned by MS, so MS own the IP and will be the publisher of the sequels if there's no prior agreement with PD about sequels. If it's written into the contract that PD publishes the sequels instead then owning the IP is also irrelevant as PD already has the rights so you cannot threaten to go elsewhere. Either way there's no leverage from it.

 

That leaves their leverage as Feargus packing a sad about it to PD management and to be fair, that's not much leverage.

 

 

Of course not!

Capitalism is great, except everytime something tries to compete in gaming people absolutely hate it.

 

 

Yeah, that's kind of funny. Steam is the behemoth of the pc gaming world, not a plucky underdog being beaten up unfairly. Maybe if their terms were better fewer pubs would be willing to leave them, but so far their net response seems to be to... remove negative reviews about drm and eula.

 

 

That said, as far as I know, Steam never activaly paid 3rd party developers to release their games purely on steam. Their position and host of useful tools they offered made them no. 1 choice for a long time.

 

 

Closest to payment would probably be the BIS bail out. They don't need to offer money though, as the major player the leverage of declining access to their store is more than enough if they wanted to force exclusives.

 

 

I see this word monopoly thrown around quite often and I'm not sure a lot of the people using it know what that means. Please educate me as to how Steam is a monopoly when I can purchase Steam keys for any game I want from practically any digital storefront I choose which means finding the best deal FOR ME but can't seem to do the same with Epic Games Store exclusives.

 

Also as for being dramatic, maybe but I'm done with launchers. I'm at my limit and this move just cements that fact. Obsidian and their Publishers clearly do not care about consumer choice so why should I care about them? There are plenty of games out there. I'm not delusional to think my single stance to not buy from Epic will make any difference but I do it because I have beliefs and I stick with them.

 

 

OK, to deal with the points in order. Technically Steam is a monopsony, not a monopoly; but you don't have to have 100% market share to be a monopoly in the legal sense- you just need significant market distortion. Since for a monopoly control of the market is all that is required if GMG or whatever sell steam keys steam still controls the market since they can void the keys or deseller other stores, and if there's nowhere else to get the game but from steam's servers then it's steam exclusive because, well, it's only able to be got from steam and that's the definition of exclusive. You will probably be able to buy ES game keys at some point, if that's a positive.

 

If you don't want another launcher and are on win10 you can use the windows store, it's default installed and you can't get rid of it (nor mute it without difficulty, even on the corporate Win10 I'm on). I wouldn't personally, but it avoids the need for extra software.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Zoraptor

[Fish-E]

This was my most anticipated game of the year without doubt - New Vegas is (barring Dota 2) my most played game of all time.

 

Now however it's right at the bottom of my list - I'm wondering if I should even buy the game at all. I don't want to encourage Private Division to accept any more anti-consumer, anti-competition bribes.

[Fenris3heads]

Truly disappointing. I'm guessing this is a fairly certain indicator it won't come out on GOG at all, which is what I was hoping for. Definitely won't be supporting Epic's craptastic exclusivity practices. 

[Vitalis]

 

Lols. I didn't realize people can get so worked up about achievements and trading cards.

You misunderstand. People just don't want to be forced to use Epic platform. It should be available on all platforms so the gamer can choose.

People didn't want to install Steam 15 years ago to play *insert series here* either.

[jf8350143]

It will always be the great irony that 95% of the people complaining about Epic Store exclusives would be completely fine with it being a Steam exclusive. Either exclusives suck, including steam exclusives, or they don't in which case ES exclusives are fine.

 

(And it's probably good news overall for GOG users, since we wouldn't have got TOW on release day in any realistic scenario. As it stands now we might even get it the same day steam does)

There is no such thing as Steam exclusive unless it's a Valve's own game. What are you talking about?

 

Steam never stops publishers to go sell their games on other digital platforms, Epic games do. If the publishers don't want to sell on other platform other than Steam, does valve suppose to force them to sell on GoG or anything?

[jf8350143]

Am I the only one who isn't frothing at the mouth about this announcement? I mean, I would have preferred Steam, but is it such an inconvenience to download one more stupid platform?

 

I mean, I'm going to have to buy a Nintendo Switch to play the new Pokemon when that comes out. And that will actually set me back 30,000 yen.

Well if  I want to use EGS, I have to become a immigrant and live in another country. 

[Heijoushin]

Well if  I want to use EGS, I have to become a immigrant and live in another country. 

 

Really? Is EGS not available in your country? In that case, I would understand your rage.

[Vitalis]

 

Well if I want to use EGS, I have to become a immigrant and live in another country.

Really? Is EGS not available in your country? In that case, I would understand your rage.

It's banned in China.

 

To which I say, don't live in China.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Vitalis

[injurai]

I'm an adult now, Cyberpunk 2077 and Half-life 3 are the only two games I think I'd still crack and willing buy via having my hands tied behind my back while letting Epic fondle my back pocket to swipe my credit card for me.

 

Thankfully those are the two games that will never be exclusive to their store. Soon no game will make me crack as a consumer. I shall be moving onto new predatory markets like home ownership, vacation deals, and audiophile sound equipment.

[Heijoushin]

 It's banned in China.

To which I say, don't live in China.

 

That's pretty cold, man. But admittedly, it's not EGS's fault that the Chinese government bans everything.

[Vitalis]

 

It's banned in China.

To which I say, don't live in China.

That's pretty cold, man. But admittedly, it's not EGS's fault that the Chinese government bans everything.

But EGS' owned by the Chinese Government dontchaknow.