Epic Games Announces More Exclusives and Features

cageymaru

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At its "State of Unreal" session at GDC 2019, Epic Games announced multiple new games coming to the Epic Games store. Some of the new exclusives include The Outer Worlds, Control, Industries of Titan, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain and many more titles. Humble Bundle has been chosen as a distribution partner for the Epic Games store which will allow it to sell Epic Games keys which will be redeemable on the Epic Games store. Epic will receive no revenue share from the sale of those games purchased through the Humble Store. Customers can link their Humble Store accounts to the Epic Games store for direct purchasing.

Coming soon to early access in Unreal Engine 4.23 is Chaos; Unreal Engine's new high-performance physics and destruction system. Expect developers to create cinematic-quality visuals in real time with massive-scale levels of destruction. Epic Online Services provides a single SDK that works across any platform, game engine and store to help developers give their players a unified, cross-platform social experience. The library of tools include cloud storage, voice communications, matchmaking and more. Epic MegaGrants is a new $100,000,000 assistance fund for those people and companies doing outstanding work with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community. Ray tracing, Microsoft Hololens streaming support, Google Stadia support and more were discussed during the opening session.

"Our success is inextricably linked to developer success, and that ethos guides everything we do," said Sweeney. "From our free Online Services and Epic MegaGrants to new Unreal Engine features, our goal is to help developers, and to equip them to give players even better experiences."
 
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odditory

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Choosing between Epic or Windows 10 Store for The Outer Worlds, that's like getting a choice of colon or prostate cancer.

Can't believe I'm saying it but guess I gotta go W10 Store. MS are boneheads and the store is a mess, but at least they're not actively engaged in trying to keep every new game off of Steam through bribery and trickery.
 
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Ranulfo

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cageymaru said:
Detroit: Become Human
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< insert bender serious lol.gif here > From PS4 exclusive to Epic exclusive to Humble bundle in x months?

I'd say the humble deal is a good one but they are run by IGN these days, probably better security than Epic at the moment though. Certainly a better website UI.

Edit: This does make Ubisoft taking Division2 off of all 3rd party key seller sites last week including Humble rather odd though.
 
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Kardonxt

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Epic is pushing hard that's for damn sure.

I wanted to avoid them but also want to play The Outer Worlds. Hopefully it gets bad reviews so I don't have to have the cave or pirate debate with myself lol. If they capture cyberpunk I will really be screwed.
 
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tetris42 said:
I hope you don't own a console then, just to be consistent.
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I own plenty of them. There's a difference though, and that should be apparent.

I don't even mind Epic running a store front, or any studio selling games through it. However these exclusives are precisely counterproductive in the PC environment. I don't buy EA games anymore, I don't buy Ubisoft games anymore (not that either makes any decent games now anyway...) This is ARTIFICIAL exclusivity. I've discussed my reasoning to death in other threads, so I'll leave it here.
 
djoye

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Easy to wait a year, the best justification I've seen is that they'll have all of the bugs worked out of these games in a year. I've noticed that it seems game performance improves as video drivers evolve, so you end up with a pretty solid experience by the time the games hit Steam. :D

Litfod said:
Meanwhile, https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/20/18274359/metro-exodus-epic-games-store-steam-exclusive-gdc-2019
Yeah, I'm sure Deep Silver are really feeling the boycotts and negative sentiments, especially with that increased revenue share.
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Wow, didn't know Exodus ran on Unreal Engine; that might have been for the best. The 4A engine, or whatever it was called, looked good, but performance seemed rough, maybe it was just ahead of its time.
 
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odditory said:
Wow, so choice for The Outer Worlds is Epic or Windows 10 Store. That's like having to choose between colon and prostate cancer.

Can't believe I'm saying it but guess I gotta go with W10 Store. MS are boneheads and the store is awful but at least theyre not actively engaged in a desperate bribery campaign trying to keep every game off of Steam like Epic.
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If Tim Sweeney is keeping this up, then he'd soon have a worse reputation than EA among everyone who isn't obsessed with Fortnite.
 
cageymaru

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ryno9100 said:
"The Outer Worlds Delayed by one year!"

Fixed it.
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Yeah, I didn't want the article to get too long so I stopped trying to add in every detail. Some of the games are only 1 year exclusives. I hope they are $20 or less when they hit Steam. I might buy a few from the Epic Games store over the coming year though. Mr. Sweeney seems to have his stuff together and he has been supporting the PC gaming community for many years with Unreal Engine. Its not like he suddenly appeared on the scene and started throwing money around. I don't like the idea of "exclusives" for the sake of being exclusive. But if you look at Steam; how many SteamWorks games are other platforms? So these companies have been doing it for years where they tie store exclusive features to games so they only appear in one store.

I want to keep an open mind about the Epic Games store. Honestly I'm more interested in how they are going to handle discounted games and DLC. If older games stay near their launch pricing, then I probably won't buy many games from there. I'm cheap and happen to have a huge Steam, GOG, Origin, and Ubisoft backlog. I also have a subscription to Microsoft's Xbox on PC thing. Live? Game Pass? Whatever. :) So I'm in no rush to add more titles to my backlog unless its a deal.
 
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ryno9100

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cageymaru said:
Yeah, I didn't want the article to get too long so I stopped trying to add in every detail. Some of the games are only 1 year exclusives. I hope they are $20 or less when they hit Steam. I might buy a few from the Epic Games store over the coming year though. Mr. Sweeney seems to have his stuff together and he has been supporting the PC gaming community for many years with Unreal Engine. Its not like he suddenly appeared on the scene and started throwing money around. I don't like the idea of "exclusives" for the sake of being exclusive. But if you look at Steam; how many SteamWorks games are other platforms? So these companies have been doing it for years where they tie store exclusive features to games so they only appear in one store.

I want to keep an open mind about the Epic Games store. Honestly I'm more interested in how they are going to handle discounted games and DLC. If older games stay near their launch pricing, then I probably won't buy many games from there. I'm cheap and happen to have a huge Steam, GOG, Origin, and Ubisoft backlog. I also have a subscription to Microsoft's Xbox on PC thing. Live? Game Pass? Whatever. :) So I'm in no rush to add more titles to my backlog unless its a deal.
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I, too, want to stay open minded about their store. I'm not "anti-competition to Valve". I just want the competition to be based on features and pricing, not exclusivity. They have enough money to buy all of these exclusive deals, but not to better the platform they're sold on?

It's the same reason I hate console exclusivity. Granted, Epic's is significantly less costly to me personally, as I don't have to go buy a console to play on their platform, but the same principle applies. Not to mention, I have about 15 emails from Epic games for attempted account log ins that weren't me, regardless of having a good password and 2FA.
 
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M76

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Devastadus said:
At least the Microsoft store has user reviews.
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That doesn't stop me from avoiding it. Every store that does exclusivity as a practice goes on my ban-list. So far I managed to completely avoid the MS store. I doubt the epic store will fare better. Now they don't even allow 3rd party sellers to sell keys? Each time I think they can't get more scummy. they prove me wrong.
 
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Disco_Stu_04

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Krenum said:
Every time they announce more exclusives my wallet gets fatter. Thanks Epic!
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And just imagine how much more you'd save if it wasn't an exclusive. And both steam and epic directly compete for your dollar.

That's what the outrage is about.
 
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J3RK said:
This is ARTIFICIAL exclusivity. I've discussed my reasoning to death in other threads, so I'll leave it here.
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When has it not been artifical? Granted at the beginning with vastly different hardware between platforms, it was kind of just expected. But even since the PS3/Xbox 360 it has basically been artificial. Granted the PS3 architecture was a little on the niche side of things, but the fact there were multiplatform games at all just goes to show how it was purely a money perspective, buying rights and companies. With this generation it is even more egregious, since they are both basically just COTS components thrown together with some proprietary software. There is zero stopping Mario being on the other platforms, other than business decisions.

Honestly, I think the people kicking up such a fuss about this are over selling the issue. I'm not happy about it either, and I don't generally buy games until they are at £20 for a game I really want (even less, normally), so I actually can appreciate the sentiment from people that are saying it just saves them however much the game drops in price between now and when it is no longer exclusive. But the fact of the matter is, this is not new; it is just new to PCs. And while that doesn't make it alright, it was kind of a given it would get to this point once the digital distribution market got even half as heated as the console market (with it's all of three main platforms). Anyone that has a console can not really say anything since they are implicitly endorsing this behaviour already, just not in the PC space.

Again, I say this as someone who won't be buying these games until they are £20 or less anyway, and if I have the choice at that time I will be buying them on Steam, obviously. I've never been one to buy in to the "entitled gamer" label, since to me it sounds like "entitled consumer", which is a ridiculous concept, but I do think a lot of people are just throwing their toys out of the pram with these announcements. It's a game. Or games. If you want to play it now then you're just being spiteful not buying it now. It's not going to make Epic shut down the store or slow down their exclusive steamroller. You've likely already got Steam, Galaxy and Origin installed, just install that one more small bit of software, get the game you want, and make your voice heard about what is so shit about the Epic launcher (and there is a lot).

Vote with your wallet makes sense, and I firmly believe it, but if you actually want the game and refuse to buy it on principle, the only person realistically losing out is you.
 
Lateralus

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As someone who has put off buying a PS4 Pro, it's great to see these titles coming to PC. There are several games there that I'm interested in playing, but no issues waiting another year if that's what it takes. Really don't think I'll be buying them on the EGS.
 
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odditory

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skydriver said:
Waiting for the obligatory "EGS" only "Humble Bundles" to start popping up.
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Wouldn't hold my breath. The ugly underside of locking games to Epic is price fixing - no more cheap Steam key websites.

The short sighted people clamoring 'whats the big deal it's just another launcher I don't care who sells the game" are in for a rude awakening if Epic gains traction. Example, look around for a cheap Metro Exodus key - you won't find one.
 
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skydriver

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odditory said:
Wouldn't hold my breath. The ugly underside of locking games to Epic is price fixing - no more cheap Steam keys from third party sites.

All the short sighted people clamoring 'whats the big deal it's just another launcher I don't care who sells the game" are in for a rude awakening if they feed the demon and give Epic money. Example, look around for a cheap Metro Exodus key - you won't find one.
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I get what your saying but I don’t think Humbles 3rd party, thier licensed to sell the keys.

Edit:
I guess my point was “EGS” will use Humble Bundle to indoctrinate people into their eco system through their bundles, I have a year left on my sub with them and worry about keys I won’t use.
 
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cageymaru

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odditory said:
Wouldn't hold my breath. The ugly underside of locking games to Epic is price fixing - no more cheap Steam key websites.

The short sighted people clamoring 'whats the big deal it's just another launcher I don't care who sells the game" are in for a rude awakening if Epic gains traction. Example, look around for a cheap Metro Exodus key - you won't find one.
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Good point. I love buying keys from Greenmangaming or CDkeys.
 
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odditory

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skydriver said:
I get what your saying but I don’t think Humbles 3rd party, thier licensed to sell the keys.
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Yep, though my point wasn't the grey market nature of some sites, but that the overall ecosystem of cheaper steam key sellers - including legits like GMG - goes away with a game locked to one store. And people call Steam a monopoly, SMH.
 
Denpepe

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Kardonxt said:
Epic is pushing hard that's for damn sure.

I wanted to avoid them but also want to play The Outer Worlds. Hopefully it gets bad reviews so I don't have to have the cave or pirate debate with myself lol. If they capture cyberpunk I will really be screwed.
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Given that CD projekt RED owns GOG I would say that's highly unlikely unless GOG goes under.
 
Denpepe

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btw I read the announcement from Epic, the outer world and a couple others look like they are not exclusive.
 
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TheSmJ

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Denpepe said:
btw I read the announcement from Epic, the outer world and a couple others look like they are not exclusive.
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The Outer Worlds will also be released on Windows Store, so it isn't exclusive to EGS by any definition of the word.
 
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raz-0 said:
Hmm.. looking at that article. Epic may be buying themselves anti-competitive trouble by discounting their usual license fees for unreal engine if you avoid competitors.
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First thing I thought as well. They must have a legal team, not sure how they plan on dealing with it.
 
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odditory

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TheSmJ said:
The Outer Worlds will also be released on Windows Store, so it isn't exclusive to EGS by any definition of the word.
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And that's only because Microsoft now owns Obsidian, and likely put their foot down. But they're still shooting themselves in that same foot by leaving all those Steam sales on the table. They'll never make that up.
 
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Krenum

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Devastadus said:
At least the Microsoft store has user reviews.
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