Attention: This post contains the personal opinion of the author, which may not agree with yours. I will try to convey to you, as the reader, my thoughts as clearly and reasonably as possible. If you suddenly get bored reading, please read the post to the end, put a minus and explain to me my mistakes. If you like everything, then I will hope for a positive review.

So, based on the agenda for today, I had a great desire to write about how I see the current situation with the extremely negative attitude of the public of players towards EGS and why I believe that the store from the creators of Fortnite is not as evil as some media personalities and publications usually portray it in the public eye.

Here I will briefly analyze the situation of the current conflict, as well as how positive (or negative) these sites influence the PC games market as a whole.

Steam vs EGS

Since its inception, the store from Epic Games has been perceived as another Origin or Uplay, in which the company will present its games. However, ambitious guys took aim at the monopolistic niche of Steam, which no one could shake before (If there were competitors, they were too weak and were “strangled” in the bud. And the lack of finance did not provide the necessary opportunities). And then a dangerous competitor appears in the person of EGS, moving like a locomotive.

So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these two platforms??

A) “Development”.Over the years of work and infusion of money (18 years old, just a minute), Steam has grown into a big monopoly machine. Now the service is well developed and easy to use, but it is impossible to intuitively understand everything that is on the site the first time. Six months or a year of active use does not guarantee that you will understand everything.

b) “Not 60 dollars, but 60 rubles”.Regional prices and sales. Who isn’t happy to save a few shekels?? Of course, EGS also has this factor, but Steam now has a much better discount policy (when it comes to the scale and organization of seasonal sales). Still, they have vast experience in managing the site’s affairs.

V) Steam Community. It’s a rather controversial thing to put it on the plus side for comparison, because this service has been developing for a whole decade and it evokes different emotions in everyone, but for the sake of objectivity, let it be. Guides and everything in general that a player needs to dive into the depths of understanding of a particular game are included.

A) “Everything is fine”. Over the https://gamblingsitesnotongamstop.co.uk/review/golden-genie/ same years of work, in fact, stagnation (or as they call it in our fraternal countries – stability). It’s just that after 2015, the service updates the design and adds mostly useless features and gadgets that no one uses (in most cases) and which are cut out at the testing stage. Really interesting ideaslike mini games on sales) are cut down mercilessly for the sake of “imitation of activity”.

b) “You can’t escape us anyway”. The publisher ends up receiving the MOST disgusting support for his product on the platform. TESO – the most disgusting connections are through Steam. It’s better to buy on the Bethesda launcher if you don’t want to dance with tambourines when you connect. Rainbow Six: Siege – get it, choke. Crashes twice as often as via Uplay. MH: World – there are no alternatives on other platforms, and due to Steam “support”, crashes are a very common occurrence that everyone complains about.

V) User support.Bans and anti-cheat level “Rockstar”. So, I have had a CS:Go game ban for 4 years now. By patrol decision. Anti-cheat, of course, didn’t find anything on my device (T.To. I’m not a cheater and in principle I despise cheats even in games like “PAYDAY 2”), and the ban remained to spoil the reputation on my account. And yes, it’s not only the pro who gets banned. players, but also ordinary people, since the patrol is people and they can make mistakes. However, the consequences of their mistakes cannot be appealed, because “the boyar is right”. Buy a new copy of the game, slave. Naturally, after this, this already openly rotten Valve project with a dominance of cheaters went into the trash and I won’t launch it again, even for money. This brings to mind an analogy between Rockstar and GTA: Online, when they banned everyone indiscriminately with an offer to buy a new copy of the game. This policy is the policy of a fucking publisher a la EA, who sensed power in his hands. They didn’t care about both users and developers. At the moment, the company comes out with a suitable product once every five years, on which it then milks the money until it is squeezed dry. I won’t even mention the fact that Steam accounts are stolen with enviable regularity.

G) “We are generous altruists”. Do you really think that Steam is taking its money away from itself because Valve doesn’t mind the money?? A little about pricing policy. It is the money raised thanks to the brutal pricing policy for publishers (compared to EGS) go for discounts. This is the reason why they can afford to nip off a little profit. Simply put, it’s easier for Steam to rip off a developer than to share even a percentage of its profits. And now I’m not talking about large publishers, but about relatively small but ambitious developers who often do not have enough money for placement and end up being sold to EA. You know the result for such studios: Visceral Games, Pandemic Studios.

A) EGS boosts game development. Whatever you say, money in the gaming industry is much less susceptible to corruption. Less price for placement within the platform – more money for salaries and new projects. There are at least 3 examples where EGS released games that grew on their support: 1) Subnautica: Below Zero. At the moment it is developing three times faster than the first part. I hope it comes out of early access soon. Thanks to Epics (posting on their platform including) the developer can save money from sales on EGS (placement commission is significantly lower) and make such global changes during the development process as a complete reboot of the plot without stitching it together with white threads. The developer has enough money to hire a new screenwriter, and not all of the money is the sales volume of the first part. 2) The Outer Worlds. The project grew out of fan love, like the next project on the list, but EGS gave a sharp impetus to enter the market. Now the people who gave us the first two masterpieces, Fallout and Fallout: New Vegas, have major funding again. 3) Phoenix Point. I’m so tired of waiting for the new Xcom. And then the father of the original releases a game with similar mechanics and even (!) something more interesting than Xcom 2. Again, the start of the project is based on fan love. Support and improvement of the project due to exclusivity and a suitcase from EGS. 3.a) Metro Exodus. Made entirely with money from publishers, but thanks to the cheap price tag for placement and a suitcase for annual exclusivity, the studio will quickly move on to new projects. For me this is the main thing.

b) “EGS dilutes the monopoly”.She makes Steam nervous. If EGS were not a threat (as they sometimes try to convince us), then Steam would not have bothered with adjusting prices to the EGS price tag and abruptly starting distribution of some games for free. You can say that Steam had distributed games before, but it was mostly turkey meat, barely leaking from the greenlight. Firstly, Steam itself, in the new market conditions, must come out of stagnation in order to begin to comply, and secondly, other platforms, following the example of Epic, may begin to try to compete. And competition always promotes market development.

V)”Developers are people too”. EGS doesn’t act like a bitch towards the developer. The few multiplayer projects that they currently have work stably and without crashes when reconnecting to servers. Unlike Steam. Also, the fact that not even the largest studios receive funding gives impetus to the development of these same studios.

A) “Dampness”. Shop Very uncomfortable and damp, there’s no denying it. The only hope here is that EGS takes the initial overclocking (In its first years, Steam also looked and felt “like a chicken coded it with its paw”) The platform is very inconvenient to use, so far everything is bad. From navigation to library.

b) “Small game base”. In two years it would be possible to gain more, but do not forget that EG is also engaged in the development and support of its live projects (Valve and Gs:Go are stupid to take into account. The game was released in 2012 and in general, nothing changed in it, except for cosmetics and useless modes. And even now this project, in fact, “is alive, but, bitch, not alive.)

V) “If you can’t destroy, lead”. EGS’s reputation is deteriorating, in part, due to crazy Steam fanatics, but the other side of the coin is the fault of aggressive policies. In the eyes of the average gamer, they become monopolists themselves by buying up exclusives. You need to work more carefully. There are no other tactics against Steam, but you don’t need to go as head-on. Public opinion has not been canceled (even if it is as absurd as possible). As a result, the public’s opinion about EGS is: “There is one school kid there, greedy for freebies, but no one will buy games there“. Although this statement is partly true, it is only for the countries of the former CIS.

I don’t hate Steam and I don’t like EGS. I’m just tired of the monotony in the industry and for me a new loud platform is a breath of fresh air. In two years I’ve built up a library of 18k, and on Steam it’s 120k (Since 2005. Yes, I’ve been using Steam since I was 8 years old). That is, in terms of finances per year, I will give more preference to EGS. Because they are not brutes when dealing with developers. I want to support the developer with everything I can. For the same reason, I haven’t even used “pirates” for quite a long time. These people (developers) who make games for us have long been in the eyes of Steam – unskilled workers who will not escape them. Thanks to Epic’s policy, we may have young studios that will be able to surpass mastodons in terms of interest in the product (with due diligence). They need support and they find it. And such a policy, perhaps, in the future, will save us from games that simply try to please the current political and moral system to the detriment of the plot and perception. The younger the studio, the less it has to lose and it can afford a much greater chance to take risks and develop a game that will go against the “tolerant” opinion (not tolerant, but precisely that it is insanely tolerant, when blacks, gays and transgender people are made untouchable, and a white cisgender man is a great evil). Such studios just need comfortable conditions.

P.S.: About the whining that “There are so many launchers, they’re eating up RAM“I’ll answer the following: install GOG Galaxy and don’t worry. This launcher for launchers will open a conditional Steam for you and close it itself after exiting the game.

Best comments

It’s funny but almost everything is missed. =)
Let’s go point by point –
Cons of Steam
a) Sawing really interesting ideas – mini games on sales.
Considering these “games” this is a very dubious idea, but it’s better to remain silent about protection from review bombing and more flexible library configuration. =)
b) “You can’t escape us anyway”
The EGS has the same disadvantage. =)
c) “User support”
Seems to be the main reason for dissatisfaction and possibly the writing of this post. =)
d) “We are generous altruists”.
Nobody said that. Here we need to replace it with the fact that this is a private company and will not fulfill any obligations to investors.
Pros of EGS:
a) “EGS gives development to game development”.
Outbuying an already established fan base, showing newcomers the door and completely ignoring the community. Such good support. Personally, I’m a little offended by Hades, but I hope they at least got paid properly. =)
b) “EGS dilutes the monopoly”.
Just like itch.io and Twitch. T.e. practically nothing. =)
c) “Developers are people too”.
This is not a plus. Yes, they throw money at them, and then the developers are bound by a contract and why don’t EGS need it?. But their engine is another matter, there really is support there, but this is not what we’re talking about. =)
Cons of EGS:
b) “Small game database”.
Why does one of the small pros list as a minus?? It’s bad that the original idea of ​​quality selection has evaporated. And about supporting your projects – I smiled. Paragon, UT, Fortnite (not the one they licked from PUBG under unknown circumstances). =)
c) “If you can’t destroy, lead”.
This is not a minus, but a justification and consequence of all this worthless EGS policy.

Where, at least one, in 2 years?

Just recently the same competition between Mixer and Twitch ended. =)

This is my first post on SG, please judge with the utmost severity so that you have something to focus on in developing your skills.

First, communities on Steam, in terms of usefulness (value), in my opinion, easily outweigh all the advantages that the Unified State System currently has.
Secondly, as a player, I absolutely don’t care what bonuses/fines for developers each platform has. And I’m not interested in publishers’ problems either. To be fair, Steam allows large publishers to create their own special forms of selling their products, both in the form of a subscription and in the form of a merger of 2 games (Total war: Warhammer).

It’s shit, they’re going on an anal journey to buy exclusives like crazy, they promised to release Sabnautica White Zero a year ago and they’re still releasing it, and this is taking into account the fully finished engine..