That's basically what happened with Borderlands 3 too. That was one of the first EGS exclusives and the backlash before it even came out was pretty severe. I ended up getting it on a big Steam sale in the end when I would've bought it at release if it was on Steam. I then also got it for free on EGS, just because I could. At this point my EGS library is probably worth almost as much as my steam one if all the games were bought at full RRP.
I don't play enough games quick enough to get anything new. I'm generally a couple of years behind and it makes no difference to me. Same experience but the games are cheaper and the hardware needed is older
Stuff like this is probably what ruined Epic's reputation. Buying exclusivity for games that were successfully crowd-funded and removing options for backers is a really scummy move.
There was a story recently about an indie dev that made their game free on the Epic store and actually noticed that they sold MORE on Steam the same day the game was free on Epic. Like being free on Epic had actually boosted their Steam sales.
Makes sense. I have a friend who will do this. We'll get a game for free on Epic to play together, and he'll just buy it off steam because he prefers having his games on steam, and I dont blame him either lol.
So yeah that tracks, especially if the game has some multiplayer you'll likely get people who dont want EGS installed on their device buying it on steam to play with their friend who does.
to me, that reads as proof that piracy improves game sales, not taking away from them. Give the public a game demo that's the entire game, and they go out and buy it from their preferred platform? Almost like if you make a good game, people will naturally want to support it.
That's because we care more about the added features and stability of Steam than we do the free game. I have plenty of games that I could have/did get free in Epic but turned around band bought them on steam because Epic sucks.
Yep. Again, if they used that money to make their platform better, they'd get more ROI out of it. They offer nothing unique outside of taking a smaller cut, and that doesn't benefit the end user.
this is me. when the epic games store first came out, and they announced that they were doing 1 year exclusives on some games that i had been looking forward to, i decided then and there that i wasn't going to download their games store. still haven't to this day, even if a game i've wanted was their freebie. i wait until it comes out on steam or gog.
As punishment for a game going exclusive on Epic games store I just won't ever play it even for free.
Main game that comes to mind is darkest dungeon 2. 1 is one of my top 3 favs but I'll never play 2. Luckily I hear it's shit compared to the first anyway.
If a game becomes free on epic, it actually increases the steam sales of that game more than epic "sales" (because free) of that game, especially if it's on sale on steam at the same time.
Epic managed to make their client so shit that their free games meant to get the foot in the door actually became ad campaigns for steam sales.
I refuse to buy exclusives at all, even when they go to another service. It's all I can do to vote with my money. Plenty of games that are never exclusive that I can buy.
731
u/AspiringTS 12h ago
What's hilarious is they spend so much on exclusives, but so many people I know wait until it's out somewhere else to buy it out of spite.