• Customer reviews and support will be opt-in features on the Epic Games Store
    49 replies, posted
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/335885/Achievements_and_support_are_optin_features_on_the_Epic_Games_Store.php It’s the same approach company leadership has already said it’s taking toward game reviews on the Epic Games Store. According to tweets from Epic’s Sergey Galyonkin, developers will be able to opt into “almost all future sub-systems” on the Epic Games Store, such as achievements, unlocks, and even support tickets.
Hah, wait, so even getting support for your game may not be possible if the developers decide they don't want to provide it? Like this is beyond just ignoring your customers, this is refusing to let them even complain to you.
Apparently its not QUITE that bad. With customer support at least, if you don't opt into Epic's customer support features, you are required to provide your own. However, I can easily see this being abused. Because everything Epic is doing with their shittastic platform is in service of game companies and developers at the expense of customers.
Steam is general really fucked over a lot of gaming journalists by offering reviews, support forums, ratings, recommendations, and all of that easily in one platform. Hard to get people to come to your site for your single review of a game when 100 people have all reviewed it to various degrees right on the store they buy it from.
Nah this is good, it's competition for steam!!
They're opt in? So devs can just not opt into reviews to try and hide glaring issues of a game if they really want? People should be able to know problems with a game easily from different perspectives which is what Steam allows. Scummy devs are gonna take advantage of this hard. All they had to do was copy Steam 1:1
But how is this bad? I don't care about some biased, long-winded review from someone who was given the game, I want reviews from people who actually play and own it.
Imagine going to Best Buy or Walmart's website and being unable to find reviews for a product because the manufacturer refused to let it be reviewed publicly. Absolutely bonkers.
Ohh I didn't say its bad. They don't like it though because now they get a little less free clicks and people care about them a bit less.
At least in Australia this is not possible, all companies trading in Australia are subject to our consumer laws and that includes providing support for faulty products, etc. Steam has tried to worm their way out of this for years but in the end the consumer will generally always win here.
Personally I'd take no reviews as a statement from the devs about how confident they are that their game will sell well if they allow people to review it. If they're not confident their game is actually good then I'm not confident in purchasing it.
I'm a little confused, do you mean that a dev choosing to not allow reviews means they are confident in their game because the reviews don't matter or are you saying the opposite?
I'd take allowance of reviews as a sign of confidence. It shows that the developer is confident that what is being released is something they're proud of, that what was released is their best foot forward. Without this sign of confidence, I too would be wary and there for less confident. This entire store front is sounding more and more like an echo-chamber if you ask me. A place to hide from the growing dissent that's been happening in more recent years.
Competition is always good. Problem is Epic are focusing on incentives for developers and publishers but there's no consumer incentive there. Plus at this point people are getting real tired of having to install several different launchers just for a few games.
Remember guys steam is good and competition is bad.
I can totally see the opt in support ticket not mess up in any way... Why would I be considered a baby for not wanting to install a software thats vastly inferior to an existing program in almost every possible way?
Sometimes it is hard to appreciate all the things Steam does right, only to be reminded by a competitor how worse off we all could be. Imagine if Valve and/or Steam were a publicly traded company, money corrupts so much.
Early review copies suck because you end up with situations where people are afraid to write bad reviews of AAA games lest they get blacklisted by the publisher, or in the case at I think gamespot(?) the guy got fired because the publisher whose game he wrote an honest, scathing review of was furious. There are good reviewers on platforms like YT who I'm sure aren't affected by this, but it's much more convenient to just scan through the review section on Steam and find out the general theme of what people are saying about the game/common goods and bads instead of reading a singular review.
Is poaching a game from another storefront, and creating an exclusivity deal for a third party game competition?
Thing is getting devs on board is undoubtedly the hardest part of setting up your own storefront. They probably won't give much of a shit at first about consumers because lets be honest if they get the games then the people will eventually follow. Just look at Fortnite, that's basically guaranteed they already have their store on probably as many devices as Steam and that's just off the back of one game.
You know what? You ARE right. I DO want to use Epic's Epic Client and only get 2 refunds a year (seriously), I do want no user reviews., I do want to have no official Epic Support for games and have to rely on companies having any, let alone decent, support system, I do want no linux support in any shape or form and I do want Games to be bought out as exclusives for Epic. Man you really changed my outlook.
Yes. I can download the epic launcher when they have an "exclusive", I can't download an xbone when MS has an exclusive. If epic wants to use their money to fund a dev in exchange for exclusivity I actually see that as a good thing, it's not at all the same as a console exclusive where everyone who doesn't have the console is just screwed.
In all seriousness, how the fuck is this Competition? It's competition for the Devs, not for the consumers. They are forcing us to use an inferior product, that actively shafts the consumer and actively rewards Devs. Competition is fine, but this is not fine, this is not competition.
It's more competition than just steam owning everything by default. It might not be competition you like because you want the famously good steam support (lol) and reviews, but acting like it's somehow not competition to steam is ridiculous.
Steam doesn't own everything by default. There are many great clients out there that I use. GoG Galaxy, Desura, Uplay, fuckin Origin even. They are actual competition because not only do they not force exclusives, but their clients are actual good, their support is fantastic, and they aren't shafting over consumers. It's competition to steam sure, but it's the worst form of competition, and it should not be supported. Supporting Epic's Client, is you saying yes to 2 refunds a year, yes 2 worse Game support, yes to Games being bought out constantly, yes to no reviews.
I said the dev, not the game. If I'm a dev and I get offered $10 for an exclusive a day before I release a game, I might not use that $10 on that specific game (although post release maintenance IS a thing), but I still might use that $10 to make a different game, or its sequel.
No one is saying competition against Steam is bad, in fact I've seen a lot of people say yes, Steam does need competition. I've only seen people say that the way Epic is going about it, is the worst way and should not be supported. Good competition against Steam exist, this is not good in any way shape or form except for Devs.
I prefer the on-the-level player aggregate than some bullshit by someone who has every reason to advocate the game. A lot of games companies advertise on review sites like IGN at a high price so the clash of ethics there is pretty clear.
But they aren't funding the Dev. They are funding the publisher. Deep Silver.
Steam doesn't own games on Steam aside from Valves games, which makes sense since they've funded/made the game. Just like EA and Ubi can have their exclusives. But this isn't the same case, Epic literally poached the game from the store without paying any dollar during development or marketing. The devs themselves don't really know about this shit either, it's all publisher decision that benefits the publisher ONLY. Please stop calling these shit competition, these kills competition. Storefront like GoG, uPlay, GMG where they offer an alternative choice can encourage competition for better support/services, or new games being funded and made.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.