Total War Saga: TROY is now a 12 month Epic Games Store exclusive

Quoting: amataiSega/Creative Assembly is a studio that help make steam what it is now by making mandatory for people wanting to play Total War to install and launch steam. Their community is part of the steam community because people were not allowed to play their games outside of steam. That is what Epic is buying with their very generous offer (Epic is buying copies of Total War Troy to everyone who claim it on August 13, that far more money that this game would have made in its whole life. Total War Saga are considered far inferior as the main games and the period did not interest much people).

Don't think people will leave steam for that game through. I will still try to wineclaim the game because I prefer money in CA's coffer than Tecent's.

The big difference here is Steam never had exclusivity deals. The reason many devs went Steam exclusive is because either they didn't want to implement alternatives to tools Valve provided them or because they deemed the other stores too small a market. Creating a walled garden and then claiming you do it to foster competition is clearly contradictory(and a lie).

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: x_wingValve already do that. If the issue was the revenue, publisher only have to set their prices 20% higher (or around that value) on Steam compared to the same game in Epic. But nope, seems that if you want to publish on Epic you must go full epic for a year... which definitely points towards that Epic subsidies the publishers.

That's just an amalgamation of misinformation.
A) You can't just sell your game at 20% higher. Game price points are a very important and sensitive variable that you can't just alter like that if you want more money.

But they already do that. As you mentioned, many games are sold in both stores and their prices are different. Is the only excuse is that Steam revenue is not enough, you can sell at the price you fill "correct" in Epic and add the percent that Steam "steals" in the price of their store. Doing that you guarantee yourself that you reach 100% of your users in the market with the prices that are better for each platform.

Using you words a publisher can say: nobody force you to buy on Steam were it is more expensive, you can go a buy cheaper in EGS.

Quoting: TheSHEEEPB) Nobody forces you to go Epic exclusive, there are lots of games on EGS that aren't exclusive to it and never were. It is moderated, though, similar to GOG. Something as high profile as a Total War game certainly would've been accepted on EGS without exclusivity. But that exclusivity is highly profitable for developers/publishers, after all, they still get to release on Steam. Just later - it's like a free second release hype.

I recall very well of developers mentioning how Epic only wanted to make a deal for exclusivity (many indy devs said that). So, "nobody forces you" doesn't makes much sense when Epic behaves that way. Also: "Something as high profile as a Total War game certainly would've been accepted on EGS without exclusivity" doesn't make any sense with the phrase you started this point...

Quoting: TheSHEEEPFrom a developers perspective - and most devs don't care about Linux, that's the sad truth - the Epic deal is really damn good.

For whom? for users? I live in Argentina and I can tell you: Epic is far to be damn good even for Windows users. I fail to see where is better for users, which is what we are.


Last edited by x_wing on 2 June 2020 at 9:07 pm UTC

Quoting: TheSHEEEP10-20% is fair, with a higher cut as developers can opt in to additional services (forum, matchmaking, etc.) with 20-30% being the cut for all services used.

You're forgetting the biggest value. Steam presents the product to 100 million monthly active users. No other store comes close. Except for the Apple store and the Play store. And surprise, they use 30% as well.

Quoting: TheSHEEEPFrom a developers perspective - and most devs don't care about Linux, that's the sad truth - the Epic deal is really damn good.

It's clearly not a great deal unless Epic throws money at devs. Although for at least some it is that they prepay the devs for a number of sales in exchange for exclusivity. But after the period they all go back to Steam because that's still where the real money is made.

At the end of the day, Valve doesn't need to change anything because the majority of customers are still on Steam. When that changes, things will change.

Quoting: TheSHEEEP10-20% is fair, with a higher cut as developers can opt in to additional services (forum, matchmaking, etc.) with 20-30% being the cut for all services used.

I understand your point, but if you offer the community features as an option, you also alter user experience. Steam users want the whole package and that's why they use Steam. Struck in a game? Just open the overlay and browse through the community guides! Got a new game to play with your pad? You can browse through community configs and pick the most used and you're set.
Steam does make money, but they invest in features for their users. Epic makes money, and invests in, well, more money.

But hey, what can you expect from a company which cancelled Unreal Tournament 4 in favour of Fortnite?
They haven't been able to release a decent shooter since 2004, anyway.

But if Feral has the publishing rights for MAC and Linux, they can publish it anyway. Only the Windows version will be Epic Store exclusive.

They can keep it. I'm kinda bored of the Total War games being the only native ports from these companies the past few years.

Quoting: TheSHEEEPHard to tell for sure at this point, but the recent developments seem to point toward Epic succeeding.

Please note that this is something I'm genuinely looking for more information about, so I'm not being sarcastic when I ask, what developments would those be?

Quoting: x_wing

Quoting: TheSHEEEPFrom a developers perspective - and most devs don't care about Linux, that's the sad truth - the Epic deal is really damn good.

For whom? for users? I live in Argentina and I can tell you: Epic is far to be damn good even for Windows users. I fail to see where is better for users, which is what we are.

The text you quoted literally starts with "From a developers perspective".

Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoBut if Feral has the publishing rights for MAC and Linux, they can publish it anyway. Only the Windows version will be Epic Store exclusive.

As I recall, Feral does release their games on the Apple Store, and presumably they could also list the Mac version in the Epic Store (whether they do or not will be interesting to see). So it's just the Linux version getting shut out, unless Feral decides to sell it elsewhere. Wouldn't that be something if you could buy it on the Feral site and get a Steam key, even though the Windows version wasn't there? ;)

This is fun, It is like a baker has to give the bread for free because the bakery is awful, dirty and your assistants are rude guys.

It is obvious at this level since they have to take money from Epic is because they have ZERO confidence in their product. So whoever Linux user was interested on this, maybe you aren't missing that much.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: TheSHEEEPHard to tell for sure at this point, but the recent developments seem to point toward Epic succeeding.

Please note that this is something I'm genuinely looking for more information about, so I'm not being sarcastic when I ask, what developments would those be?

Tim Sweeney tweets, since everything else about EPIC, sales numbers, users, people online and other stuff is secret unless some developer tweets sales numbers, which the only source is the same dev.


Last edited by orochi_kyo on 3 June 2020 at 4:56 am UTC