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Original X-COM creator faces backlash after signing Epic Games store exclusivity

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Ceist:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-03-14-original-x-com-creator-faces-backlash-after-signing-epic-games-store-exclusive-deal-for-phoenix-point
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/phoenix-point

Another game bites the dust to exclusivity. Greedy shills.

EDIT: Update for The Outer Worlds
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-outer-worlds-and-control-will-launch-on-the-epic-store-not-steam/

PhantOS:
The deal for epic games exclusivity would grant the studio much more money to design and polish the game. Anyone who backed this game has to ask themselves the core question: would you rather play an underfunded game the day it releases or an overfunded game a year after its release date.

People are angry because they expect small studios to stuff out perfect games on a minimal budget like $500,000. This epic games deal probably afforded Snapshot games an extra million or two in funding and although it'll take a year for it to release on steam, it'll definitely be a lot better than if they didn't sign that deal.

In the end we're getting a better game
If I were to make a game that i expected to get more than 20,000 purchases on, i'd definitely upload it exclusively to Epic Games instead of Steam. I could easily make 30k more in sales with Epic, and i'm assuming that they'll evolve as a gaming platform and become more popular once people realize their standards for content hosting are significantly higher than Steam's. It's really akin to the Google Play Store vs Apple Store. Google Play gets like 200 games added every day and none of them are successful at all because there's a huge market of the same kind of low quality games. Apple filters their content more and are more exclusive and getting a deal with them is a lot more profitable in the long run

And this is just Epic Games' rate for game uploaders. They probably offer more lucrative deals for professional game studios. Not to mention that Epic Games will cover all Unreal royalties if you sign exclusively with them. If your unreal game makes a million on steam you would still lose $50,000 to unreal royalties. If you uploaded the same game to Epic Games you'd keep that extra 50k. Phoenix Point runs on Unity but with this new deal i'm guessing they'll move all their assets onto Unreal. If they do and make as much as Xcom 2 did they could save 300k

Conan:
would anyone bat an eye if they signed an exclusivity deal with steam? jfc people gotta chill out

Ayebee123:

--- Quote from: Conan on March 17, 2019, 12:15:23 AM ---would anyone bat an eye if they signed an exclusivity deal with steam? jfc people gotta chill out

--- End quote ---
this is from the perspective of me, an idiot

most people wouldn't really care due to steam being the most popular platform for pc gaming and steam doesn't do this for every popular game that's going to come out

Ceist:
hold on let me just reiterate that it's not entirely the exclusivity deal that's got people pissed. It's the fact this game was PROMISED to be released on GOG and Steam to the backers, and now the rug has been pulled out from under them.


--- Quote from: PhantOS on March 16, 2019, 09:12:12 PM ---The deal for epic games exclusivity would grant the studio much more money to design and polish the game. Anyone who backed this game has to ask themselves the core question: would you rather play an underfunded game the day it releases or an overfunded game a year after its release date.

People are angry because they expect small studios to stuff out perfect games on a minimal budget like $500,000. This epic games deal probably afforded Snapshot games an extra million or two in funding and although it'll take a year for it to release on steam, it'll definitely be a lot better than if they didn't sign that deal.

In the end we're getting a better game

--- End quote ---
You could argue that sure, but it's essentially throwing a ton of money at an Indie developer and expecting something good to come out of it. That's never been the case, it's always been hit or miss. Someone on reddit made a good point about how the backers were essentially used as investment expenditure, used to attract more wealthy investors like Epic Games, guaranteeing that no matter what Snapshot games would make a profit even if the game loving sucked and didn't sell. This is a classic tactic used by Pyramid schemes to draw in wealthier people to snag. Maybe this wasn't the case going in, but it's certainly looking like it changed that way. Like I said people are mostly angry because it was promised to be on steam and GOG, not entirely the exclusivity deal. If it went that way initially it wouldn't have been a big deal, but tricking your backers into this is loving wrong, and might be illegal but I doubt it.


--- Quote from: PhantOS on March 16, 2019, 09:12:12 PM ---If I were to make a game that i expected to get more than 20,000 purchases on, i'd definitely upload it exclusively to Epic Games instead of Steam. I could easily make 30k more in sales with Epic, and i'm assuming that they'll evolve as a gaming platform and become more popular once people realize their standards for content hosting are significantly higher than Steam's. It's really akin to the Google Play Store vs Apple Store. Google Play gets like 200 games added every day and none of them are successful at all because there's a huge market of the same kind of low quality games. Apple filters their content more and are more exclusive and getting a deal with them is a lot more profitable in the long run

And this is just Epic Games' rate for game uploaders. They probably offer more lucrative deals for professional game studios. Not to mention that Epic Games will cover all Unreal royalties if you sign exclusively with them. If your unreal game makes a million on steam you would still lose $50,000 to unreal royalties. If you uploaded the same game to Epic Games you'd keep that extra 50k. Phoenix Point runs on Unity but with this new deal i'm guessing they'll move all their assets onto Unreal. If they do and make as much as Xcom 2 did they could save 300k

--- End quote ---
Yes this is a possibility and honestly I hope you're right that this turns out the case with Phoenix Point, but these financial moves are not hopeful honestly. I wouldn't compare Google Play vs. Apple Store to Steam vs. Epic Games very much past the fact they're both game platforms. Steam is more akin to a social media outlet given its use of discussion boards and review system. While it also has a lot of unfiltered content, that's the free market, and it's loving easy to avoid stuff games. Epic Games doesn't have either of these and while you could argue they're more polished and filtered, that doesn't mean it's automatically better.

Ultimately I hope you're right and this funding guarantees us a good game, but I don't have high expectations for a developer that's pretty morally bankrupt and lies to its backers and broadsides them with this.


--- Quote from: Conan on March 17, 2019, 12:15:23 AM ---would anyone bat an eye if they signed an exclusivity deal with steam? jfc people gotta chill out

--- End quote ---
You could classify some games as being Steam exclusives just for the simple fact the developer hasn't released that game on any new platform to date.

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