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[vivster]

JEMC said:

kirby007 said:
so i got WWZ on the EGS, honestly i was forced by friends and was browsing the EGS it doesn't have many games does it?

I got it when they gave it away for free. Still haven't tried it yet... something that can be said for almost all the EGS games I've gotten.

And es, the catalog isn't big enough, but it's still growing.

vivster said:

First of all, the game is not gonna be removed from steam. It's gonna be there for everyone who bought it there and to play forever. So there is no loss of playerbase. You just won't be able to buy it there anymore. You'll still get all new updates. All DLC and micro transactions are ingame already anyway. So it is to assume that the switch to EGS will have no effect on Steam players. Though I do expect that there might be some delays on updates or missing features/promotions on Steam going forward.

Which is why it is especially important for them to implement a comprehensive and simple way to migrate your account between platforms. They have not revealed how or even if that will be possible. Though with their RocketID they have made the first step in creating a central server side account that's not bound to the platform. But as of yet it's not even possible to trade items between platforms.

There is no info about anything yet, so depending on how it's handled it might be either nothing or the greatest clusterfuck RL has ever seen.

There is also the real possibility that RL will become F2P once it switches over to EGS.

As for the benefit, it's basically exactly what console companies do. They buy developers to have their games exclusively on their store. That's a massive benefit to the store owner or else they wouldn't do it so much. It's not a very cool thing to do but I don't mind it because a) Launcher exclusivity isn't even close to as evil as hardware exclusivity and b) I'm a steam hater anyway.

Ok, it may be because I'm not really focused today and as a result I'm a bit slow (yes, as hard to believe as it is, I can be even slower than I usually am), but I've read that as a bunch of problems that can happen if they do the migration for almost no benefit as all the content is bought in game. The only reason is to do it just for the sake of it.

As for your console comparison, it's a flawled comparison. If a console maker buys a studio, it's the future games will be exclusive, but the ones that have already been launched will still be available on each platform. Even more, in some cases where the game was developed under contract for another publisher, they may still work to launch that game on other platforms even after being bought, like what happened with Obsidian and The Outer Worlds.

The reason to do it is very simple, to get people to sign up for EGS. This will be even more impactful when RL goes F2P. So it's not just to spite Steam. Every platform tries to get exclusives to grow their own marketplace. Steam is the only one who doesn't because they already have the monopoly, they don't need to fight for market share.

The console comparison is very apt. RL is an online game and a pretty old one at that, of course they aren't going to wait until RL 2 releases. Another good example is Bayonetta. Bayonetta 2 was a continuation of the story and basically a must buy for every Bayonetta fan. But it wasn't possible because it was bought by Nintendo, so it's not available to buy or play anywhere else. A real dick move. Nintendo paid for it, so it's their choice how much of a dick they want to be. Same with Epic and Psyonix. They literally pay for RL's existence, so of course they're gonna try to monetize it. And money = getting players on your store. It's the exact same dick move, though massively less impactful due to just being on a different launcher. To be even close to as bad as what Nintendo and other consoles are doing Psyonix would need to completely stop development on the Steam version and never provide any updates. And even then it wouldn't be quite as bad as selling useless plastic. Not to mention the game will still be available on every console.

Last edited by vivster - on 18 June 2020