« So let's just stop pretending. Store cuts are set by market power. When they have a lot of power they can charge a lot. When they have less they lower their cut to attract developers (or shell out cash directly). You don't need any other explanations. »

Et tout le narratif comme quoi ils aiment les développeurs, que c'est la bonne chose à faire pour eux, et blah et blah et blah, c'est du bullshit. Je pense évidemment à Tim Sweeney qui aime faire passer Epic pour un chevalier blanc alors que derrière les conditions de travail des dévs de Fornite sont déplorables.

Epic et Microsoft sont des capitalistes, ces baisses de commissions sont peut-être enrobées dans un discours de bon samaritain mais ils font pas ça par bonté d'âme, ils le font parce qu'ils n'ont pas le choix. Ils doivent être compétitifs pour attirer des éditeurs et prendre des parts de marché. Leurs buts c'est de faire du pognon, si ils pouvaient, soyez sûr que les 30% ils les garderaient. Je serais d'ailleurs même pas étonné si ces commissions finissaient un jour par remonter.

Et Steam fait la même chose hein, ils caressent aussi des éditeurs/dévs dans le sens du poil pour des raisons similaires (garder leurs parts de marché) https://links.nekoblog.org/?wZ3Xhw

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/06/total-war-saga-troy-epic-games-store-exclusive

C'est l'autre truc qui me dérange un peu avec l'EGS. Vouloir casser un monopole en aidant à en construire un autre (ou au moins à aider un conglomérat déjà bien imposant à s'étendre et à dominer encore plus le marché), je suis pas sûr que ce soit vraiment l'idée du siècle.

(Et d'ailleurs cette liste n'est assurément pas exhaustive)

Je suppose que la liste n'est pas exhaustive.
Dommage que Valve ne fournisse pas d'installeur pour ces jeux, ça aurait une plus-value intéressante pour l'utilisateur. Mais bon, je doute pas que c'est à dessein et qu'ils préfèrent largement que ton client Steam soit lancé avec le store et ta wishlist à portée de clic (cf aussi https://links.nekoblog.org/?Oh5U1A).

Tiens d'ailleurs je serais curieux de savoir si le launcher de l'Epic Game Store est obligatoire, ou si c'est le choix est aussi aux développeurs / éditeurs.

« The reality is that the vast majority of indies impacted by this new legalese are tiny indies with tiny budgets doing early access on itch to make sure their games are the best and most bug free they can be before they hit Steam, so think about that before you gloat about this

You're gloating about the 1% in indie game development getting screwed by this when it mainly just fucks up indie devs who are legitimately trying to launch their games on Steam and want to make sure they're not a buggy mess on launch for Steam users

Most indie devs don't have any budget to hire professional QA with, and a ton don't have large enough communities that they can rely on to do free QA for their games, so EA on itch is literally the only method for them to make sure their games are ready for "primetime" on Steam

But y'all have made up your mind already that indies are all greedy monsters angling for EGS deals so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ »

À propos de https://twitter.com/Enichan/status/1170777051965661190

Je suis loin d'être un fanboy Steam, mais entre l'absence de support Linux du EGS, les conditions de travail de merde des dévs de Fortnite et la posture de chevalier-blanc-sauveur-de-l'industrie-et-des-indés que se donne Tim Sweeney, ce sera sans moi du coup (malgré que j'ai pu être un fanboy de Shenmue à l'époque Dreamcast).

EDIT : https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/bz5k1g/shenmue_iii_is_now_epic_exclusive_and_no_refunds/
EDIT² : https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-06-11-clarification-amid-backlash-shenmue-3-will-come-to-steam

« Now, what normally happens during a sale event (like a Steam sale) is that the publishers or developers opt in, and they set the discounts. What Epic is doing however, is something very different.

Take special note of this: "...at no cost to the publisher or developer."

That additional $10 discount? That is money that Epic is paying out to the developers. They are effectively buying those discounts, so even though a game is significantly reduced for the customer, the developers still earn the same revenue they would have at full price.

So, why are developers pissed off about this, and are yanking their games from the Epic store, or altering the prices? Even though they still get paid for it out of Epic's pocket? Because they had no say in this, and it immediately devalues their games, especially indie titles. Epic are paying developers that $10 even if their games are only just up for pre-order, which means that for indie developers pricing their games around $15, it's now worth $5 in the eyes of customers before it's even out. It's been devalued for good, and they had no say in it.

With indie games, pricing and discounts are very serious subjects, because the perceived value is on shaky ground. Ever see snarky responses to indie devs at launch? It's sometimes downright cruel!

"Why would I pay 20 bucks for this, when it'll be in a bundle in 6 months time?"

So right now, you can buy a game that isn't even out yet for a third of the full asking price, because Epic is paying that $10 discount. So before this game is even out, it's perceived value is $5.19. That's why games are being pulled from the store, or controversially bumping their prices, see for example indie titles Hades and Oxygen Not Included suddenly bumping their prices. They didn't have a say in their games going so cheap, even if they still got paid for the discount.

And the reason that The Gamers™ are furious over this, and saying silly things like "Epic are BRIBING gamers!" is that it's another example of Epic throwing their money around. As reactionary, and over the top as they can be, it's not entire wrong...

They're buying customers.

There's an anxiety about Epic because what they're doing is aggressive. They don't want to be competition, they want to be the last man standing and be the defacto monopoly. That's the end goal, drive Valve out of business and reap the benefits.

And they have the money to that.

To a lot of gamers, competition would be someone coming along and building a better platform than Steam. They never imagined someone could just come along with more money than god and buy a load of exclusives to force them to use a garbage platform nobody wants or even likes. They're mad at Epic, but often enough they can't really articulate why. They know Epic aren't playing fair, and they know something is wrong here, but they can't quite put their fingers on it...

They're mad at capitalism and don't even know it.

To put this in perspective, see what Amazon did to diapers .com
Amazon aggressively discounted diapers on their own site, undercutting their competition. Diapers .com became unprofitable, was bought out by Amazon, then shut down. That's capitalism baby! https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-diapers-price-war-2010-11

Gamers™ are extremely concerned about what Epic is doing, but it's coming out in an inarticulate mess, they fear that Epic is trying to pull an Amazon and be the only game in town.

They certainly work their employees like Amazon! https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games

That's just how things work in capitalism, you don't make money because you make a better product, or innovate. You make money by pushing others out of business. Whoever has the most money already wins. It's a rigged game. »

(via https://twitter.com/flibitijibibo/status/1129942708448055302)

D'un côté Sweeney essaye de se donner la bonne image du challenger qui rétribue "plus équitablement" les dévs (ou plutôt les éditeurs et les studios), de l'autre les conditions de travail des dévs de Fortnite sont déplorables... 🙄