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

[vivster]

fatslob-:O said:

vivster said:

RL isn't exclusive to a single platform and it's also a way better game, so i don't get that comparison. As I said, I'm a bit more lenient for different PC platforms because PC itself is not a closed platform and even if you're bound to a certain launcher you still have tons of choice of how you want to play the game. That isn't the case with console exclusives because they completely lock you in, not only on software but hardware as well. A game switching to a different store on PC doesn't automatically make it unplayable for me, like games that become exclusive to consoles.

Console exclusives are just way way worse than PC exclusives because they are just so much more restrictive. And I still don't condone exclusivity of any kind. It's a terrible practice. If RL switches over to Epic and I can take my progress with me literally nothing changes. RL has always been exclusive to a single platform on PC. There is literally nothing changing for me if the transition is done properly. Why would I be against it when nothing is changing for me? Again, I'm not saying I'm thrilled with the change and I'd rather have it if RL is on both platforms, but I will accept the change, firstly because nothing changes and secondly because Steam.

All things compared, making a game that's already on basically all platforms switch to a different launcher is absolutely nothing compared to games that are made exclusive to just a single platform. You must understand the completely different levels of scumbag we're talking about here.

There's no reason to believe that the same thing couldn't happen one day to PC as well just like we see on consoles ... 

One could very well contemplate the possibility of a conflict of interest arising if Tencent buys out the remaining shares of EPIC from Tim Sweeney or other big game publishers and soon after they enter the graphics hardware market by designing their own lines/series of graphics chips! What are you going to do in that case then if you're forced to buy Tencent designed hardware regardless to obtain a good experience for ANY games using future iterations of Unreal Engine ? 

The PC platform is not as open as you may think it is. Us gamers often don't get a choice on which OS or CPU architecture they can choose as we're going to be indefinitely tied to Windows and x86 for high-end gaming. Being "cross-platform" is a give and take thing. For low-end projects, it's more of a give since the barrier for entry to the lowest common denominator small. For high-end projects, it takes more often from the project rather than adds benefits to it since it's more of a nuisance to support lower common denominators. I don't know if many high-end PC gamers realize this but by promoting a walled garden of hardware elitism they are implicitly encouraging exclusivity when aren't aware of it ... 

In theory, there's nothing preventing a vertically integrated monopolistic scenario like I potentially outlined above with Tencent from providing a better experience exclusive with them from a purely technical perspective ... 

That just sounds like dooms day talk. Of course it's technologically possible to screw over consumers on PC, but until now they had to invent consoles to screw people that hard. Sure, any big player would love to have as much control over their platform and software as possible but so far it hasn't been feasible to do that. The fact that the desire is so great but that no company on PC has ever pushed and succeeded with that mindset is reassuring. Putting major restrictions on PC gaming is like trying to ban porn on the internet or trying to raise taxes in the US. I trust that for now it's too big to get hit by anything major anytime soon. Epic would have to become bigger than Steam first.

Also, I don't buy into all that negative hype about Tencent. Yes, they are Chinese, so what? Do I think they act less ethical than any major company in the west? Hell no! That wouldn't even be possible since they're all the same scumbags. I don't trust Tencent any more or less than i trust google. And google basically has all of my data.