Oh wow, this is absolutely huge (and completely unexpected). Rocket League has done so insanely well, why would they need to sell and lose control of their future? Here's the official blog post...
Oh wow, this is absolutely huge (and completely unexpected). Rocket League has done so insanely well, why would they need to sell and lose control of their future?
Probably the biggest concern of having it pulled from Steam in the future is that future DLC may no longer be available through Steam. I wonder if people will be able to transfer their ownership over to the Epic Store, or if they'll be stuck having to decide between re-buying it through Epic or not being able to get any more DLC/passes/etc.
After the transition, Epic said it will continue to support the Steam version for all existing purchasers. Epic clarified to Variety that means continued patches, DLC and all other content that hits the PC version of the game through the Epic Game Store will also appear on Steam for those who already own the game.
Rocket league also uses Steam Workshop for distributing custom maps (e.g. training packs) so I guess we can probably say goodbye to that too. As a long time RL player (3000+ hours in game) this...
Rocket league also uses Steam Workshop for distributing custom maps (e.g. training packs) so I guess we can probably say goodbye to that too. As a long time RL player (3000+ hours in game) this news really sucks!
Fucking Epic... as if I needed more reason to hate you and solidify my vow to never use your stupid store. Also, Psyonix I am disappoint.
Also, the Linux version will no longer be available. New users will be forced to run the Windows version and EGS through Wine. This is a huge kick in the teeth to a large number of existing fans....
Also, the Linux version will no longer be available. New users will be forced to run the Windows version and EGS through Wine. This is a huge kick in the teeth to a large number of existing fans.
I was on the fence about EGS before but now I'm pretty resolute on not using it, and I definitely won't be giving Psyonix any more money since they clearly don't value us Linux users.
Psyonix just announced that they will be de-listing the game on Steam, and with it the only native Linux version of the game. Can we finally agree that these exclusivity deals can fuck off? So far...
Psyonix just announced that they will be de-listing the game on Steam, and with it the only native Linux version of the game.
Can we finally agree that these exclusivity deals can fuck off? So far they are only hurting consumers, not creating a real competitive marketplace that benefits us. It's not just a circlejerk anymore.
Also, fuck Psyonix for agreeing to this sellout. They could have easily said no and looked for a buyer that wouldn't make them fuck over Linux users. I won't buy any more of their products on consoles, and certainly not on the Epic store.
This is really disappointing. I was really looking forward to playing Rocket League at some point in the distant future but. I haven't bought it by now and I don't want to send any messages to...
This is really disappointing. I was really looking forward to playing Rocket League at some point in the distant future but. I haven't bought it by now and I don't want to send any messages to Psyonix that this is acceptable behavior by rushing in and buying it before it poofs.
Disappointing, to say the least. I'm fine with titles that haven't come out yet being Epic only, but removing existing titles is really annoying. And seeing how Epic has no trouble being shady, I...
Disappointing, to say the least. I'm fine with titles that haven't come out yet being Epic only, but removing existing titles is really annoying. And seeing how Epic has no trouble being shady, I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped updating the Steam version entirely (remember Epic has no intention of supporting Linux, and RL has Linux support on Steam). Even EA didn't remove their existing titles from Steam when they started selling new stuff only on Origin.
Jesus. There is no way I can see players benefiting from this. Especially since this means Tencent now has its dirty hands on their business model and they're already at the brink of complete...
Jesus. There is no way I can see players benefiting from this. Especially since this means Tencent now has its dirty hands on their business model and they're already at the brink of complete lootbox bullshittery.
Epic is now probably my most hated game developer/publisher, and I don't even play rocket league. This is just crazy scummy, so much further than I thought they would go.
Epic is now probably my most hated game developer/publisher, and I don't even play rocket league. This is just crazy scummy, so much further than I thought they would go.
The crazy thing is they have crazy developer cred and had a great reputation for taking care of their fans. They even had modding available for UT3 on console, something nobody else did. Even...
The crazy thing is they have crazy developer cred and had a great reputation for taking care of their fans. They even had modding available for UT3 on console, something nobody else did. Even though it's not libre, it was also a really big deal that they offered Unreal Engine 4 as open source with a relatively permissive license.
Everything got ruined when they sold half their company to tencent.
Holy shit, this is even worse then Metro, it's insane. They started with free games, and ended with this? Well, it's time to start pirating again. Not the online game, but in general - see an epic...
Holy shit, this is even worse then Metro, it's insane. They started with free games, and ended with this? Well, it's time to start pirating again. Not the online game, but in general - see an epic exclusive? Just pirate it. At this point I will consider giving them money unethical for anyone who cares for the future of platform. What's even worse is that Steam keeps taking this lying down, right now they have the upper hand and can easily choke Epic to death by taking some anti-epic measures, yet they decided to let it play out, maybe fearing an antitrust investigation considering how big their share of PC users are, but I would argue right now Epic resembles an Oil trust more than Steam ever had.
I see a lot of hate towards epic, and this is the first time I also feel like what they do is bullshit. I didn't mind the release of exclusives as much, but I'm just not sure about one thing:...
I see a lot of hate towards epic, and this is the first time I also feel like what they do is bullshit. I didn't mind the release of exclusives as much, but I'm just not sure about one thing: competition is good, what reason is there to solely rely on steam? Monopolies always end up hurting the customer
As a linux user, proton buys a lot of loyalty. I messed around with wine before but these days, if it's not on steam it might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned. When linux support is that...
As a linux user, proton buys a lot of loyalty. I messed around with wine before but these days, if it's not on steam it might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned. When linux support is that easy, not putting it on steam is equivalent to giving me the finger.
there isn't a reason to solely rely on steam, but epic's "competition" is most likely just going to create a duopoly where consumers have even less leverage than they already do (because epic is...
what reason is there to solely rely on steam? Monopolies always end up hurting the customer
there isn't a reason to solely rely on steam, but epic's "competition" is most likely just going to create a duopoly where consumers have even less leverage than they already do (because epic is even less responsive and garbage as a service than steam is) and where everything is balkanized in the shittiest possible way, as opposed to an actually competitive marketplace that responds to consumer desires.
Steam is far away from a monopoly, and one important destinction is that Epic doesn't really compete with Steam. At least not on a consumer level - they merely force customers to use their store...
Steam is far away from a monopoly, and one important destinction is that Epic doesn't really compete with Steam. At least not on a consumer level - they merely force customers to use their store by specifically paying developers to be an exclusive. This doesn't empower the consumer, it gives power away from the consumer. This is a hostile market takeover.
There's not a reason to rely solely on steam, but there's already competing platforms that don't act in blatantly anti-consumer ways, like GOG and Humble. Though I'm not sure what the options are...
There's not a reason to rely solely on steam, but there's already competing platforms that don't act in blatantly anti-consumer ways, like GOG and Humble. Though I'm not sure what the options are for studios that want DRM attached to their titles.
UPlay, Origin, Windows Store - these are all DRM'd platforms. As a no-drm platform - itch.io is also a platform. There is a lot of legit competition for Steam indeed.
UPlay, Origin, Windows Store - these are all DRM'd platforms. As a no-drm platform - itch.io is also a platform. There is a lot of legit competition for Steam indeed.
This video goes into the problem, not just in terms of steam/gaming but also streaming of all kinds, and why those services are likely doomed in the long run.
This video goes into the problem, not just in terms of steam/gaming but also streaming of all kinds, and why those services are likely doomed in the long run.
Agreed. The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3 being Epic exclusives didn't really faze me, who cares about another launcher when I already have a half-dozen and am using Playnite to unify them...
I see a lot of hate towards epic, and this is the first time I also feel like what they do is bullshit.
Agreed. The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3 being Epic exclusives didn't really faze me, who cares about another launcher when I already have a half-dozen and am using Playnite to unify them anyway?
But pilfering an already launched and successful title from Steam which has several features the Epic Store doesn't support? That's a dick move.
Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus have an added sting for Linux users since they're both games with famously good Linux support that are being paid off to launch on a platform with 0 Linux support.
Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus have an added sting for Linux users since they're both games with famously good Linux support that are being paid off to launch on a platform with 0 Linux support.
Epic/Psyonix have been trying to walk back the "will stop selling the game on Steam" aspect a bit since this came out, but it's still really not clear. The Verge changed the title of their article...
Epic/Psyonix have been trying to walk back the "will stop selling the game on Steam" aspect a bit since this came out, but it's still really not clear.
The Verge changed the title of their article to "Epic buys Rocket League developer Psyonix, strongly hints it will stop selling the game on Steam"
We are continuing to sell Rocket League on Steam, and have not announced plans to stop selling the game there. Rocket League remains available for new purchasers on Steam, and long-term plans will be announced in the future.
To me it just seems like they're being evasive with very carefully-worded PR statements and aren't willing to outright say that they will (or won't) stop selling it on Steam.
Ride out the storm by continually making vague non-statements, wait for the backlash to finally die down and never address the issue again, then quietly pull the game from Steam in a year once the...
Ride out the storm by continually making vague non-statements, wait for the backlash to finally die down and never address the issue again, then quietly pull the game from Steam in a year once the acquisition goes through. That would be my guess on their game plan.
I can't help but notice that they never say "we won't stop selling it," just "we haven't announced that we're halting sales despite insinuating it every chance we got"
I can't help but notice that they never say "we won't stop selling it," just "we haven't announced that we're halting sales despite insinuating it every chance we got"
Wow, is there a reasonable chance this doesn't just end up with everyone hating Epic? I think they are starting to move into the territory where people will just basically boycott them because of...
Wow, is there a reasonable chance this doesn't just end up with everyone hating Epic?
I think they are starting to move into the territory where people will just basically boycott them because of moves like this.
boycotting games hasn't worked before, so i doubt it will now. sales might decrease for games that are on the epic store, but i really doubt we'll see or it'll be because of any sort of...
I think they are starting to move into the territory where people will just basically boycott them because of moves like this.
boycotting games hasn't worked before, so i doubt it will now. sales might decrease for games that are on the epic store, but i really doubt we'll see or it'll be because of any sort of meaningful, organized, successful action by consumers against this (because presumably if that was going to happen, it'd have started before this became a staple of epic's steam-challenging model)
Yeah, the relatively tiny portion of gamers that are aware of these issues and talking about them online might not buy from Epic now, but the 90% that just get their mom to buy whatever their...
Yeah, the relatively tiny portion of gamers that are aware of these issues and talking about them online might not buy from Epic now, but the 90% that just get their mom to buy whatever their friends have will ensure there's always a market of suckers.
I dunno... the tide definitely feels like it's turning against Epic and their shenanigans, IMO. E.g. The /r/rocketleague response to this news was not good, to put it mildly. 0 pts, 30% upvoted...
I dunno... the tide definitely feels like it's turning against Epic and their shenanigans, IMO. E.g. The /r/rocketleague response to this news was not good, to put it mildly. 0 pts, 30% upvoted and absolutely all the top comments are highly upvoted negative ones. And keep in mind that Psyonix devs are very active on that subreddit. It's basically their official forum at this point (hint: look at the moderator list).
The reactions to this have been very baffling. Why all the hate for Epic? It was Psyonix that accepted the buyout. They didn't have to sell to Epic, or anyone. Publishers bring popular developers...
The reactions to this have been very baffling. Why all the hate for Epic? It was Psyonix that accepted the buyout. They didn't have to sell to Epic, or anyone. Publishers bring popular developers inhouse through buyouts all the time, and all of the biggest publishers do it.
It's fine to be mad about this because it will almost certainly result in Psyonix's next game being EGS exclusive on PC (among other things that may impact their games on other storefronts), but direct that anger at the developer who sold out. That was their choice. Epic was smart to buy them and any other publisher would not have gotten so much hate if they made the same move.
Oh wow, this is absolutely huge (and completely unexpected). Rocket League has done so insanely well, why would they need to sell and lose control of their future?
Here's the official blog post from Psyonix: https://www.rocketleague.com/news/psyonix-is-joining-the-epic-family-/
Probably the biggest concern of having it pulled from Steam in the future is that future DLC may no longer be available through Steam. I wonder if people will be able to transfer their ownership over to the Epic Store, or if they'll be stuck having to decide between re-buying it through Epic or not being able to get any more DLC/passes/etc.
Edit: the article about this on Variety says:
Rocket league also uses Steam Workshop for distributing custom maps (e.g. training packs) so I guess we can probably say goodbye to that too. As a long time RL player (3000+ hours in game) this news really sucks!
Fucking Epic... as if I needed more reason to hate you and solidify my vow to never use your stupid store. Also, Psyonix I am disappoint.
Also, the Linux version will no longer be available. New users will be forced to run the Windows version and EGS through Wine. This is a huge kick in the teeth to a large number of existing fans.
I was on the fence about EGS before but now I'm pretty resolute on not using it, and I definitely won't be giving Psyonix any more money since they clearly don't value us Linux users.
This feels extremely anticompetitive.
Psyonix just announced that they will be de-listing the game on Steam, and with it the only native Linux version of the game.
Can we finally agree that these exclusivity deals can fuck off? So far they are only hurting consumers, not creating a real competitive marketplace that benefits us. It's not just a circlejerk anymore.
Also, fuck Psyonix for agreeing to this sellout. They could have easily said no and looked for a buyer that wouldn't make them fuck over Linux users. I won't buy any more of their products on consoles, and certainly not on the Epic store.
This is really disappointing. I was really looking forward to playing Rocket League at some point in the distant future but. I haven't bought it by now and I don't want to send any messages to Psyonix that this is acceptable behavior by rushing in and buying it before it poofs.
Disappointing, to say the least. I'm fine with titles that haven't come out yet being Epic only, but removing existing titles is really annoying. And seeing how Epic has no trouble being shady, I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped updating the Steam version entirely (remember Epic has no intention of supporting Linux, and RL has Linux support on Steam). Even EA didn't remove their existing titles from Steam when they started selling new stuff only on Origin.
Jesus. There is no way I can see players benefiting from this. Especially since this means Tencent now has its dirty hands on their business model and they're already at the brink of complete lootbox bullshittery.
Epic is now probably my most hated game developer/publisher, and I don't even play rocket league. This is just crazy scummy, so much further than I thought they would go.
The crazy thing is they have crazy developer cred and had a great reputation for taking care of their fans. They even had modding available for UT3 on console, something nobody else did. Even though it's not libre, it was also a really big deal that they offered Unreal Engine 4 as open source with a relatively permissive license.
Everything got ruined when they sold half their company to tencent.
Holy shit, this is even worse then Metro, it's insane. They started with free games, and ended with this? Well, it's time to start pirating again. Not the online game, but in general - see an epic exclusive? Just pirate it. At this point I will consider giving them money unethical for anyone who cares for the future of platform. What's even worse is that Steam keeps taking this lying down, right now they have the upper hand and can easily choke Epic to death by taking some anti-epic measures, yet they decided to let it play out, maybe fearing an antitrust investigation considering how big their share of PC users are, but I would argue right now Epic resembles an Oil trust more than Steam ever had.
In other news, Epic Games found to be 'okay' after competition urges Valve to make HL3.
You joke...
I'm enjoying the visual of some hulking pipe-golem choking out a Fortnite character.
I see a lot of hate towards epic, and this is the first time I also feel like what they do is bullshit. I didn't mind the release of exclusives as much, but I'm just not sure about one thing: competition is good, what reason is there to solely rely on steam? Monopolies always end up hurting the customer
As a linux user, proton buys a lot of loyalty. I messed around with wine before but these days, if it's not on steam it might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned. When linux support is that easy, not putting it on steam is equivalent to giving me the finger.
there isn't a reason to solely rely on steam, but epic's "competition" is most likely just going to create a duopoly where consumers have even less leverage than they already do (because epic is even less responsive and garbage as a service than steam is) and where everything is balkanized in the shittiest possible way, as opposed to an actually competitive marketplace that responds to consumer desires.
Steam is far away from a monopoly, and one important destinction is that Epic doesn't really compete with Steam. At least not on a consumer level - they merely force customers to use their store by specifically paying developers to be an exclusive. This doesn't empower the consumer, it gives power away from the consumer. This is a hostile market takeover.
There's not a reason to rely solely on steam, but there's already competing platforms that don't act in blatantly anti-consumer ways, like GOG and Humble. Though I'm not sure what the options are for studios that want DRM attached to their titles.
UPlay, Origin, Windows Store - these are all DRM'd platforms. As a no-drm platform - itch.io is also a platform. There is a lot of legit competition for Steam indeed.
This video goes into the problem, not just in terms of steam/gaming but also streaming of all kinds, and why those services are likely doomed in the long run.
Agreed. The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3 being Epic exclusives didn't really faze me, who cares about another launcher when I already have a half-dozen and am using Playnite to unify them anyway?
But pilfering an already launched and successful title from Steam which has several features the Epic Store doesn't support? That's a dick move.
Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus have an added sting for Linux users since they're both games with famously good Linux support that are being paid off to launch on a platform with 0 Linux support.
Epic/Psyonix have been trying to walk back the "will stop selling the game on Steam" aspect a bit since this came out, but it's still really not clear.
The Verge changed the title of their article to "Epic buys Rocket League developer Psyonix, strongly hints it will stop selling the game on Steam"
USgamer got a "clarification" of:
To me it just seems like they're being evasive with very carefully-worded PR statements and aren't willing to outright say that they will (or won't) stop selling it on Steam.
Ride out the storm by continually making vague non-statements, wait for the backlash to finally die down and never address the issue again, then quietly pull the game from Steam in a year once the acquisition goes through. That would be my guess on their game plan.
I can't help but notice that they never say "we won't stop selling it," just "we haven't announced that we're halting sales despite insinuating it every chance we got"
Wow, is there a reasonable chance this doesn't just end up with everyone hating Epic?
I think they are starting to move into the territory where people will just basically boycott them because of moves like this.
boycotting games hasn't worked before, so i doubt it will now. sales might decrease for games that are on the epic store, but i really doubt we'll see or it'll be because of any sort of meaningful, organized, successful action by consumers against this (because presumably if that was going to happen, it'd have started before this became a staple of epic's steam-challenging model)
Yeah, the relatively tiny portion of gamers that are aware of these issues and talking about them online might not buy from Epic now, but the 90% that just get their mom to buy whatever their friends have will ensure there's always a market of suckers.
I dunno... the tide definitely feels like it's turning against Epic and their shenanigans, IMO. E.g. The /r/rocketleague response to this news was not good, to put it mildly. 0 pts, 30% upvoted and absolutely all the top comments are highly upvoted negative ones. And keep in mind that Psyonix devs are very active on that subreddit. It's basically their official forum at this point (hint: look at the moderator list).
The reactions to this have been very baffling. Why all the hate for Epic? It was Psyonix that accepted the buyout. They didn't have to sell to Epic, or anyone. Publishers bring popular developers inhouse through buyouts all the time, and all of the biggest publishers do it.
It's fine to be mad about this because it will almost certainly result in Psyonix's next game being EGS exclusive on PC (among other things that may impact their games on other storefronts), but direct that anger at the developer who sold out. That was their choice. Epic was smart to buy them and any other publisher would not have gotten so much hate if they made the same move.
They're turning into EA very quickly, they seem to forget where they came from and see only money.