Epic Exclusives coming to Steam!
I'm really not a fan of exclusive releases for games. I understand the rational behind it, the platform gets some "exclusive" game to brag about, the developers get sudden injection of cash from the deal... and the users get screwed if they aren't already on the platform. For the consoles, this means that some games will never appear on rival consoles, and you will be left out... unless you want so splash out on a new console, just for a single game! It is consumerism at it's worst...
Thankfully, most of the PC gaming sphere was not really involved in this idiotic behaviour. Mostly because the power differences between a PC and a console, along with the different audience base, meant that we were rarely the direct target of these shenanigans! That said, we would often get releases on the PC that were too complex for the control scheme of the console, and we would miss out on some of the big console releases.
However, I would have to say that the biggest contributor to this situation was the absolute dominance of the Steam platform as THE distributor of choice for PC games. Sure, GOG, Blizzard, Origin and others existed... but the numbers were just so different, and Steam was by and far away the effective monopoly.
Enter into the picture, Epic Games of Fortnite fame. They had the clout and the deep pockets to try and chip into the Steam dominance (in the same way that they have slapped Apple with a gauntlet in recent times...). To this fight, they brought two tools... free games and timed exclusives!
Now, I have a huge collection of games on Steam... and I rarely venture out of there to get other games. I pick up games on Humble Bundle and Kickstarter, but I always opt for a Steam key. I have a couple of games on other PC platforms like GOG, Blizzard and Microsoft... but they are generally a matter of circumstance (I had no choice in the platform due to a free key being offered) or exclusives like Starcraft 2.
Needless to say, I really wasn't keen to have a new store to split my game collection up... but who can resist the allure of free game every week... even if you only just claim them and never play them on that platform, just as a hedge in case things go really south on Steam. Or if my kids want to play something that I haven't bought yet.
However, I have to say that the 1 year timed exclusives were a bit of a unpleasant move from Epic. In the end, I have more than enough games in my backlog to not have to worry about missing out on the latest and greatest game. I have made a commitment to NEVER (ALMOST never....) buy games at launch, as I don't have the time to chew through my backlog and appreciate the games I have already. By the time I get around to the new game, it would be on a steep discount anyway (or I will have picked it up in a Humble drop).
So, no FOMO purchases on the cards for me anyway. The Epic timed exclusives only served to reinforce that behaviour for me.
However, we are starting to see some pretty awesome games starting to shed their year long Epic exclusivity. Which means that they have already been heavily Beta-tested by the Epic crowd, had a decent amount of DLC released AND are launching on Steam at a huge discount to the launch day pricing!
WIN WIN WIN!
So, when Outer Worlds dropped yesterday on the Steam store at a 50% discount.... I was there straight away! 30 euros for one of the most anticipated games of 2019... plus, I have a new laptop that is just waiting to stretch it's RTX 2070 legs out!
So far, I've only played about 30 minutes of the game... but it is pretty awesome! Stay tuned for a review in the near future... within the year!
Splinterlands (aka the best blockchain game out there!)
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Humble Bundle Subscriptions, it's a no brainer for the dedicated gamer!
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I have been waaaaaaiting so long for the Outer Worlds to finally get to Steam!! :D
I do have other game launchers and I do have games on a few of them... but I really dislike that there are so many, taking up needless space on my computer. I know this is bad of me but I'd really prefer the one central place for all of my games and so I stick with Steam and forget that I even have games on other platforms/launchers.
Nah... I also hate having my games spread out everywhere! Outer Worlds, it's pretty cool... got a Bioshock/Firefly vibe to it. The combat is a touch easy on the Standard difficulty setting (at the moment... maybe I'll get stomped soon...)
I used to be such a gamer and I hope to get back it oneday especially if I have kids, it would be awesome to play video games with my kids in a similar way that I enjoyed when I was growing up. :)
That The Outer Worlds game looks dope!
The only game I play these days is Clash Royale on my phone and a music making app called Groovepad Machine. But, hopefully in the not too distant future I'll have enough funds to get a better computer and play some of these cool new games that are coming out.
Hey bengy! It's been a while. I wanted to let you know that we finally finished judging at the IFC.
You scored at least one point during the season so you are eligible to play in the finals and compete for the grand prize of the crypto, artwork and crystal trophy if you want to.
I'm so sorry it took so long... A lot of crazy stuff has been happening in my life and the world in general.
Part of the delay has also been in relation to difficulty with finding judges on a budget and me improving the IFC in the future in other ways, so I'm definitely not giving up on this contest and I want to keep doing it in the future and I hope to address some of these issues and put more financial resources in regards to the prizes and such and more hopefully towards this idea/game if things work out well.
Right now I've set the date for the finals for November 28th, I'll probably make the post in the morning or afternoon mountain standard time if nothing changes and would be honored if you're still willing to play.
If that timeframe doesn't work for you, but you still want to play then let me know and maybe we can move things around a bit as I'd like to have more players if possible.
Once again I'm so sorry about the delay... I feel bad about it, though I do hope that we can still finish the season with at least two players?
Please let me know when you can if you think you'll be able to play on that date or not or if we should move things around a bit so I can figure things out more. Peace and much love! <3
No worries about the time on the IFC, it would be nice to get a post in for then! Tag me just in case I forget!
Awesome. :) I will indeed try to tag you and everyone else, probably a week before and then probably again when it starts. Cheers friend, btw... It looks like plush might play, would be fascinating if you two somehow ended up meeting each other in a match again. Cheers friend and hope all is going as good as is possible for you! <3
Hey again @bengy I just wanted to let you know we're around a week away from the IFC finals, this is just a quick reminder.
Each round will be a week in duration just like in the regular season so you don't have to be available on the 28th, you'll be able to show up and enter any time during that whole week that the round is in progress.
I plan on doing things the same as last season in the sense of a sweet sixteen formula where the highest ranked player will play against the lowest ranked player and then the second highest versus the second lowest and so on so forth until there's only two players left and we get to the championship.
It may end up happening that we end up with an odd number of players at first and if that happens one person might get a free win/pass to the next round, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to know in advance so I would suggest you just make your entry and play/plan as if you will have an opponent.
It looks like according to the responses I've got that we will have six confirmed players and five more maybes who might play and then two said they were too busy and I was unable to get contact the others.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I'm super busy right now, but I'll make a strong effort to check in and see if anyone has any questions.
I'm excited about all this and I have a feeling it's going to be fun! :) I hope to see you there! Though, I understand if you end up being too busy or whatever the case is.
All the best to you and take care. <3
Alright! I will keep an eye out for it! @ifc right?
Awesome. :) And yes, that is correct. I will tag you and everyone else one more time when it begins.
This will be a good step for this platform. A large number of players like this game. Despite this, I was wondering which is better and I read this entry x steam vs epic games store x. I recommend the article for those interested.
Oh, you found this from quite a while back! Since then, I have played it... and been a little bit underwhelmed!