Re: Epic Games app and their gd Store page

On Sat, 3 Aug 2024 09:26:35 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 02/08/2024 17:33, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

This is a problem that has been pointed out to Epic for YEARS, and yet
they don't do anything about it. User reviews? Nope. Forums? Nada.
Workshop? Missing. Streaming? Not here. Screenshots? Why bother? Being
able to launch directly into your library, bypassing the store-front?
Fuck no!
 
So it is obvious that Epic isn't unaware of these issues. They
certainly don't lack the skill or resources to build something better.
The only conclusion is that they just don't care. None of that is
important to them. Hell, why should they want you to PLAY the games?
Just BUY them; that's all that is important.

>
That's the part I really don't understand, if they want to rival Steam,
or at least take a large share of the market, then you'd think they'd do
at least some research into why Steam is so successful and come up with
the answer that it's because it's more than just a store front as it
also has lots of other useful features and Steam keep adding to them to
try and create a better experience.

Especially since so many others have tried the same and failed to
dethrone Valve. At best they competitors have found their own tiny
niche, but even then most of them also rely on Steam to actually drive
customers to their games. They're just annoying middleware that no
gamer really wants but we endure because we've no choice. But given
the option, we turn to Steam for our purchases and not UPlay or Origin
or BattleNet... or Epic.

It just comes across as if we throw enough money at it then everything
will be fine.

Epic's original spiel was that they'd offer games at a lower price,
and share more of that money with the developers. But while these are
both admirable goals, the former never really happened (games on EGS
aren't notably less expensive than anywhere else) and the second
ultimately wasn't enough to counter-balance the lackluster experience
of the client. That, followed up by Epic's tone-deaf missteps
(especially regarding third-party exclusives) turned off a lot of
people. And while people were happy to grab free games from Epic, it
does come across a lot like they're trying to buy people's loyalty,
which ironically worked against them.

The impression is that everything about EGS is self-serving Epic's own
interests over those of the customers. Their refusal to improve their
client in any significant way --despite this being one of the main
complaints people have about EGS since the start-- may not be entirely
self-interested... but it sure comes across that way. I think if Epic
were to start rapidly adding features to the client, they'd win back a
lot of good will (and active users). And yet they don't.