Epic Games unveils Launcher V2 in re-attempt to topple Steam, says redesigned storefront is up to 6.5x faster — promises player profiles, user reviews, universal controller support, and much more
3 days ago by inclementimmigrant to c/games
I'm sure it's about that for some people, but yeah if they ever actually get significant market share they will enshittify so fast it'll make your head spin. The only thing that has changed is they've decided they need to make a bare minimum experience instead of just throwing money around.
Replace 'buy' with 'download for free' and 'launcher' with 'unnecessary software after the download completes', and they might get my attention.
I wasn't swayed by their 'free' games that require their software. I wasn't swayed when they bought up exclusivity contracts (yarr!). I'm sure as fuck not going to be swayed by the software having the absolute bare-minimum feature set.
I have fully taken advantage of their free games. I just never buy anything on their store. I have hundreds of their free games and a lot of them are awesome games. Anything I want to buy I go through steam or gog.
They definitely lost sales because of how horrible the user experience was/is, too.
Remember how the store launched without a fucking shopping cart so you had to buy each game as a separate transaction? Pepperidge Farms remembers that Epic isn't even capable of the most basic of features required for an online store.
Of course, they'll never get a cent out of me after they pulled that scumbag move of putting games on sale without ever asking the devs - they put games that hadn't even released at like 50% off!
I love this XD
And we all know what the asshole at the top thinks of linux. So, pass.
Isn't legendary using the APIs directly? It could affected by minor changes I suppose but hopefully that can be updated. Not sure if Lutris uses legendary but heroic does.
Maybe support for Linux is part of the new redesign. I mean they want to or already have hired someone to champion Linux Anti-cheat support, directly by Epic. Maybe there is hope.
Steam: Good featureset, good Linux support, large library, probably going to be around in 10 years.
GOG: Offline installers, some explicitly DRM-free stuff, much easier to avoid unwanted updates of games, no need for a launcher.
Matrix: Specialized niche wargaming stuff, some physical media, can avoid unwanted updates, no need for a launcher.
What does Epic bring to the table?
Every additional store I deal with brings some hassle, and especially for online stuff, if it goes away, so do my games.
If it brought a big picture mode with controller navigation that wasn't irretrievably broken, that would be an improvement.
Steam's website design generally is so bad, and when you then add big-picture and controller it's "I can't believe it's not a teenager's first web project" bad.
Steam has a lot going for it, but don't pretend it's perfect.
Matrix Games. They're a publisher that specialize in wargames that I frequent to get some of my more-serious milsims from (though availability has improved on Steam). They also run an online store. The above three stores are the only places that I've bought video games for a long time. Well...tries to remember actually, I did get a few things on itch.io, and IIRC I bought Starsector directly from the company that makes that.
Epic often get games to go totally free. Sometimes, they even are worth the price.
They already lost me when they told me I couldn't play a downloaded game without an internet connection. DRM free is the only way.
You can, with some. The launcher has an offline mode and a lot of the binaries within the install location can be run without the -epicportal requirement, but I'm unsure if you can also play them without keeping the launcher installed. Depends on the game, I guess.
You can, you just have to know which games can be played without needing a launcher. I know I have some Epic Games back ups of games I redeemed from a deleted account that I can run that don't need the Epic Launcher.
Took 7 years to have reviews? I dont fucking get it, like at all.
Because they knew they'll get bombarded with people shitting on the epic version and recommending the steam version over and over.
But now they have AI to do all the hard implementation work! Choo choo, here comes the slop train!!
They didn't get people into their store by literally giving up free games.
They are not getting people in with q UI redesign.
- I lose access to the email I've had since 1997.
I try to reset my login credentials. The website is caught in a loop. I open a tech support issue explaining that I just need to change my email.
I get sent an automated reply being told email changes use the automated system......the one caught in the loop.
I post a reply to my ticket saying I can't use the automated system. It's stuck in a loop.
I get sent an automated reply being told to use the automated system.
I search google for an 800 number. I find there is no 800 number.
2026 I still haven't changed my email address. I also haven't bought a single game. I claim the free ones, snd I can still log in for now. But I just know eventually it'll say something like "For security purposes we've emailed you a code" snd that email will go to my lost email address. And I will have lost the whole account. So I'm not spending money on games I could lose next week.
So Epic, you want sales? Step 1, let me change my login email.
Step 2......well, you're still fucked. Steam is a juggernaut in their space.
But at least you gained 1 potential customer. Though lets be real.this 3 year wait has left a pretty bad taste im my mouth. I'm not sure if regaining my account would prompt me to buy from a company making me wait this long.
If it exists on GOG or Steam, I can't imagine wanting it on Epic.
I have never understood why Epic did not make a decent store. They can absolutely compete if they actually tried. They have close to zero things going for them in terms of user experience or price. Quite the opposite.
A lot if people, myself included mainly care about price and drm. So Steam is not something I care about, just price or GOG.
Epic has a negative UX in terms of their store. GreenManGaming, Fanatical etc, has vastly better stores. Why is Epic wasting enormous amounts of money on giveaways, when most people see no reason to buy from them?? I prefer not using their store, not because Steam is better, but because Epic truly sucks.
A lot if people, myself included mainly care about price and drm. So Steam is not something I care about, just price or GOG.
I'm with you. Although if the game is only on Windows, I'd rather be on Steam to make the Linux compatibility automagic.
I have this preference as well but it's not too important for me. I care mainly about the price and if I can actually own the game. So if I pay 50% more I don't buy on GOG but 10% 20 sure. Otherwise it's just wherever I can get the cheapest.
I've been rapidly barrelling toward a DRM-free-only self-hosted future, and part of that is DRM-free books. In an attempt to get out of Amazon's clutches, I looked for where I can buy DRM-free books, like Project Hail Mary. The answer I came up with was: nowhere. Everyone is following the same playbook. Why would I buy from your store if you're doing exactly what Amazon is doing? I'm already shopping on Amazon, and I want something better.
(The answer is that I can break the DRM on other stores, but I can't on Amazon. When it's this difficult to get DRM-free books, I wouldn't blame people for resorting to piracy.)
Why on earth would I buy from Epic if I have any other option? What are you doing better?
Yeah, GOG is at least offering DRM-free games. That gives them one big plus over Steam and is why I maintain a library on both.
On the other hand, I can't name a single thing Epic does better than Steam and GOG.
Free games
Many games are DRM free on Steam too. Cyberpunk 2077 for example. The Steam DRM is at the publisher/developer's discretion, not Steam's.
Steam DRM itself is also trivially bypassed which is surely intended.
FWIW a lot of games on Steam are also entirely DRM-free it's just not overly obvious without checking on PCGamingWiki.
I’ve only been getting comics from bundle sites since they give you epubs and PDFs. Kind of a necessity for a non-Amazon eReader.
I appreciate my Kobo eReader though, and it’s possible their online store will be DRM-free? Or, it could be per-book; when I put my own up, they had a checkbox to turn on DRM which I left off.
Kobo is where I ended up buying from, because I can break the DRM there, but it wasn't trivial to figure out. For comics, I use Global Comix; they seem to be universally DRM-free, at least what I've seen so far. Failing that, Google at least tells you on a per item basis what the DRM situation is for books and comics.
Two plugins for Calibre and a free Adobe account.
LOL After all this time, now they decide to finally compete?! Tom Sweeney is a creep and a weirdo, I'm never going to buy anything from the platform. As a Linux gamer, I don't have a strong interest in Epic at all. I deleted my Epic Games account about nearly two years ago because their service was garbage and I prefer to use Heroic Games Launcher to connect to GOG.
LOL I doubt that! Making a good and lovely storefront was never the priority until Sweeney realized that he couldn't beat Steam by exclusives, Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and offering a fuckton of free games. This absolute clown is finally facing reality, too late of course, but that's how these painfully stupid people operate. Valve literally wrote the blueprint for success and Sweeney ignored it all until he realized that he couldn't.
If what they claim is true then they're actually doing a good job. It's just that even with the significant advancements... I don't trust them. They should be working on their PR as well. More lawsuits in favor of consumers like the Apple lawsuit they had would help move people over.
Don't worry, they're just two weeks away!
how is that even something that needs to be on a roadmap? it's such a basic feature, the fact that it isn't already there is insane
Look, I don't know why you'd release a product that's severely lacking compared to your competition but I also don't know how you couldn't sort this out in 10 years. Epic is a special company.
I actually don't care in the slightest about play profiles, reviews, etc. Most of Steam is just useless bloat to me. The problem with Epic is how damn laggy it is.
All are expected to debut in the next 12 months.
Wouldn't want to rush these things. Absolute clowns lol.
Oh it probably will.
User reviews, huh? That only took, what, 7 years?
Don't forget, they only promised user reviews.
Cool but can they make it so when I buy the game, it's in my steam library? No? Not interested.
Honestly could not think of a single thing that they could do to get me to download the launcher. None of those features make it steam, and never will
I say let them try. If they actually innovate, we can only win. I'll believe it when I see it, but currently steam has a monopoly by virtue, and we know how that ended for Intel, noVideo, Microslop, goggle and pretty much every other monopoly. It's just GabeN holding the line before enshittification takes hold, and they're already very active against European ownership laws.
Yeah, I think the thing most of these giant companies forget is that they really gotta shine the users. They keep on just expecting everyone to just eat whatever they are given. The sad thing is most of them are right
Same.
Doesnt matter if it comes with a blowjob from Bea Arthur, Epic is a shitty company and I avoid them where ever I can.
Yeah but I bet Bea Arthur really knew how to make suck
I mean, lets be fair, you remove Epic from the situation, and I'm 100% down for a Golden Gurgle.
I downloaded it only so I could enjoy the Radiohead virtual exhibition experience "Kid Amnesiac".
But that is literally the only thing I would bother with.
Dear Tim. Give up already.
"Promise"?
Lol guess its nearly time to watch another epic dumpster fire.
I'm a little surprised they didn't wait until after all of the Valve monopoly suits to play out first, as if this is successful it will just undercut the argument against Valve.
If it's successful it might under cut the claims against Valve but they can just claim the press from the lawsuit helped break the monopoly -- and besides the lawsuit was just for PR and to try to get Valve to break financially. It was always a longshot that it'd do anything else. If it's unsuccessful, however, it can be blamed entirely on Valve and can be used to get the lawsuit to actually do something as "look we implemented everything Steam did and didn't get any more market share."
But Epic kinda doesn't have a choice. They're bleeding money, Fortnite is waning, they have no popular properties on the horizon, they're hard into AI for customer service and moderation which is only getting more expensive, and they keep doing the sweetheart deals to devs for their game giveaways which haven't really brought any paying users to the platform.
It's either attempt feature parity or start cutting the consumer facing part of the business, and for one of the industry's oldest and most prominent players that's really not a choice they want to make.
For as much as people like Steam, their storefront and app is a pile of simultaneously over and under engineered shit.
So I don’t think this will really accomplish much for Epic.
With Discord losing some popularity recently, I think the best thing they could do is create some sort of hybrid platform with connected apps (ie your profile also having a snapshot of Steam, PSN, Bnet, Microsoft etc)
Maybe even partner with more niche games/companies
Still shite
DRM platforms are DRM platforms. Epic, Steam, Uplay and what not - at least I don't care.
I wish Steam would remove all DRM. The big companies would not dare to oppose them with Steam's near 100 percent PC market share.
To be fair to Steam, the DRM is optional for developers. You can pressure those developers not to use it. That being said, Steam could have a DRM tag so you could filter out the DRM games.
What's the point? They don't offer the installers, you need the client to install the games.
They absolutely would oppose them and create (or exclusively use if they don't already have it) their own platforms. Normies will buy their ball&gun games where they are available. They probably don't know that Steam has anything other than FIFA or whatever it's called now.
Losing AAA games would destroy Steam. The revenue of only indie and AA games is only a small (albeit significant) portion of the total. Even the only remaining AAA games in this hypothetical scenario, Valve's own games, would not save them.
Besides, this isn't feasible. Either they ask publishers to remove the DRM or leave (they will leave), or they forcibly push updates with cracked executables, which is illegal and a violation of trust.
Yeah we already have GOG for this purpose. Valve imposing similar restrictions would be reckless.
I don't think they would leave. They would not risk loosing their sales on the biggest platform on PC. Was it EA or Ubisoft that tried to only release on their own platform? Their sales plummeted, and not long after they crawled back.
I just don't want to pay 60 bucks for something I could loose in an instant (account hack, company goes out of business etc).It's pure anti consumer.
They still don't have user reviews? What a joke of a store.
Anyway, time to get my weekly freebiea
Oh no, rival game stores realize that they need to be better than steam to compete against steam? Won't anyone think of the shareholders?!?
It's almost like their shitty games aren't enough to draw in sales. Almost like bringing down prices to where people are willing to pay them might actually convince people to spend money.
Weird.
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It was never about any of that. It's that Valve is a trustworthy company so far and epic is not. The only way at this point I would buy from epic store is if they offered DRM free copies.
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