Epic buys out Psyonix devs, set to bar game from Steam

[Bofferbrauer2]

Zoombael said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Storefront exclusives are not the same as platform exclusives.

Nobody bats an eye if the Witcher series would be locked to GOG for instance, as it's from the same developer and thus only fair they keep the spoils. Same if Ubisoft titles would only be sold on Uplay anymore or EA only on Origin. Or Nintendo asking you to buy their console to buy their games.

But what irritates people is the fact that Epic is buying exclusive publishing rights on games they don't own and didn't develop themselves.

It's also highly ironic, as Rocket league was on the forefront of Sony's crossplay debacle, and is, with Fortnite, the only game that Sony allows crossplay with other consoles. Now imagine if Epic now would lock out the Steam players...

Yet, nobody has a problem when third party games are exclusive to other distribution services. And they didnt pay anything, no consessions whatsoever.

Also curious, whenever this little titbid gets pointed out, it gets ignored.

If it's just the developer's choice to only release on one single platform or for one single platform (Like Game Freak and Next Level Games with Nintendo, for instance, despite being independent studios), then who are we to judge them? However, buying themselves the exclusivity, even just a timed one, is a shitty move and has nothing to do competition, apart from avoiding it.