Skip Navigation

I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy... and then it's only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can't it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It's so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic... which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

595 comments
  • Know what happens when I find out a game is Epic exclusive? I don't buy it for a year... Sometimes ever. Enjoy the Epic money kings, hope it's worth it.

    • Considering how many games are released unbaked, its a great decision.

    • The one upside is if the game flops it gives lots of users a chance to not buy it. But any game with multiplayer it effectively kills the MP mode.

    • Epic did save me from wasting money on Borderlands 3, so I'll give them that.

  • I have a friend that uses epic games. I met him on steam. I've never played an epic game even though he keeps telling me about free games or whatever on epic games.

    • Most of the free games are crap but they have on occasion given away absolute bangers (double- or even triple-A titles, although of course usually older titles or ones that didn't sell well). I recently got The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice for free (a game I wouldn't otherwise have bought or even known about), and I ended up having a very solid ~55 hours of fun with it. I still do all my buying either on Steam or GOG because I don't trust Epic and I hate their godforsaken launcher so I refuse to pay for anything that'll be tethered to it, but getting a free game of that caliber certainly made up for the pain of installing it.

    • I got exactly one free epic game (subnautica) that I uninstalled and bought immediately the day I couldn't play the game because I lost Internet and there was no goddamned offline mode.

      Epic store is shovelware, and I can't believe the amount of people who defend a 4th rate store comparing itself to the gold standard that can't even offer basic functionality expected of a modern platform. But people always have liked trash, so meh.

    • I mean they're getting our data directly or buying it. I might as well be one of the folk who gets compensated for my data.

      • Nah, pretty sure this isn't about the data. They just want to encourage people to go through the effort of setting up an account and downloading their launcher in the hopes that they can then later entice you to buy something else while you're there. Every time you run one of those free games they get to show you another offer, and since you're already signed up, the hurdle to buying something is far lower than it otherwise would have been.

      • Yeah it's not like valve or any of the other companies that sell games on steam too. They'll all have your data and some what people think are so dastardly, (when in reality it's just grown-ups playing with numbers).

  • There's always one more option. In fact, this is the only instance I find myself using that other option now-a-days.

  • Valve kills physical ownership of games: I sleep

    Games exclusive to Origin: I sleep

    Games exclusive to whatever the fuck Blizzard made: I sleep

    Games exclusive to Microsoft Store: I sleep

    Games exclusive to Epic: REAL SHIT

    • Its because the other exclusives are the devs/publishers launcher. While epic was actively seeking those 1year exclusivity deals to get more users on the platform.

      • So it would be better if it was a permanent exclusivity deal, like traditional publishers have?

        They've been paying out in advance in some cases (Epic Mega Grants, I think) so the devs can finish the game. That's basically the definition of what publishers do, but when Epic do it it's somehow "not publishing"?

    • don't hide the full story, they pay devs millions to keep their games exclusive to epic for a year. that is an extremely scummy business practice that you are rewarding and encouraging if you buy from this shitfest of a platform

      • they pay devs millions

        I mean I see this as a good thing. I have to keep a separate launcher around but... at least that dev is getting a great deal and will probably be able to support that game for a while (or start their next one)

      • When Half Life 2 launched, you had to register your game with Steam before you could play it. You had to give up your physical ownership of the product, and lock it to yourself. You couldn't sell it to anyone else, or even let them play it.

        That's what you were encouraging by buying from that shitfest of a platform.

        I really don't see how bunging devs money for publishing rights is worse. The devs clearly don't see it that way.

      • They’re paying indie devs millions to remain exclusive for a year. What’s scummy is the Steam fanboys who see that and think it’s better for gamers if those games just aren’t financially successful.

    • -Valve didn't kill ownership it was already dead. DLC has been pulled, and games delisted, as well as games made unplayable by server shutdowns. They just happened to be the platform who told you to your face what you were getting into while everyone else lied and said the game was yours until it wasn't. They also say they'll provide downloads for a time if they ever shut down, but if you want that long term guarantee you're probably better off looking at GOG and some kind of data storage for the installers.

      -Origin is shit and I hate EA/Origin exclusives too, but it's basically a launcher for their own games which I understand, but still prefer steam to be included too, so much of the time I avoid EA games (i avoid them for a lot of reasons tbh)

      -Battle.net started as a unified launcher for blizzard games, which sort of made sense as they never worked with or were involved with steam, and many of their games were disc based or had its own installer. Subscriptions specifically I don't think existed with steam for a while so that was sort of a complicating factor. Still wish their games were on steam, but it sort of made sense at its inception.

      -I don't even use the microsoft store unless forced to, I find it annoying and bleh. They're forcing more games to it and it's shitty too.

      -Epic is annoying, but it's a special kind of annoying because for many games early on, they would announce steam as a supported platform, some even sold the game on steam, until they changed to Epic exclusives. I think Fall Guys was one example. The bait and switch really lost them trust with a lot of gamers and you'll find the attitude towards them can be pretty bad because of that history.

      Add in that many of the games aren't published by them, they just threw money at the publisher or devs to make their games epic exclusive. This can be good for developers, like an upfront investment, but sucks for gamers who like to keep things somewhat unified in terms of a game library. Especially when you already have to deal with 5 other launchers, another arbitrary one is pretty annoying.

      If you're wondering why people want their games on steam, look at the features. Free cloud save backups, a decent amount of free screenshot backups, in game recording is new and pretty neat, achievements, community marketplaces, frequent sales, family sharing, steam workshop for easy integrated modding, discussions and guides for all your games, early access games, built in friends, text chat, voice chat, remote play together, game streaming, etc.

      TLDR: It isn't an "oh epic stinky just because" situation. The Epic game store simply doesn't have feature parity, bait and switched gamers multiple times with exclusives after games were advertised as being on steam, and basically survived on throwing money at devs to put their games exclusively on EGS, at the expense of the people who want to play those games on their chosen platform. Doesn't shock me that they don't have a lot of positive PR in the community.

    • Valve kills physical ownership of games: I sleep

      kills? most of them work with a steam emu, even offline. that's not even cracking. most of those that don't have a different limitation.

      with a steam emu you can do whatever you want with the game files, often you can put it on your pendrive and play it as a portable game (the right goldberg emu settings allow game data to be stored near the game files instead of appdata)

    • So much this

    • I'm OK if you own the game you are making exclusive to your platform. Bribing devs is shitty practice. They also sit and wait for a game's early access to gain momentum on Steam first before offering them money to leave.

  • I just wait, not like I don't have a ton of games to play with. Plus I get to buy it for cheap later on.

  • If there's an epic games game you want but don't want to use the epic launcher or you're on Linux, Heroic Games launcher id a good choice

595 comments