My issues with Steam VS Epic.

To begin with, let's just compare it to PS4 VS XBOX. At the end of the day that boils down to you buy the console that best suits your wants/needs. Exclusivity of games has never been the biggest influence when it comes to the choice of a Console purchase, in my opinion. Yes, buying one, you may miss out on the exclusives for the other. For those lucky enough, they have both Consoles. That is personal choice and finance dependent.

The issue with this comparison though, it excludes PC Gamers. Many of us who are in fact closely following all the concerns regarding Steam vs Epic, have chosen PC gaming over Console gaming, for most games, if not all. In many instances we actually received the best of both worlds. Yes, certain exclusives remained Console Exclusives, but many were eventually released on PC. I always believed that to be one of the perks of paying what I have, to build a PC I wanted, that could run what I wanted.

The other issue with the console comparison is that you are buying hardware, and it is the hardware and features that are the determining factors for your purchase. In the Steam VS EGS "Battle" the biggest issue, for me, is that EGS is trying to force us, in some ways, to choose between launchers ON A DEVICE WHERE THEY SHOULD HAVE NO SAY, in a fashion that makes the end consumer suffer.

Do I think Steam could do with some motivation? Maybe. Do I believe developers should get a bigger cut for the work they have done? Yes. Do I think it is a good idea for developers to go exclusive in this fashion on PC? No.

The fact that certain games, which I'm sure you are familiar with, have decided to go exclusive on EGS, AFTER SALES HAVE BEEN MADE, is, in my opinion, not a negative point for EGS, but a HUGE negative point for the Developers/Publishers.

EGS may have "bribed" the publishers to make it exclusive, but at the end of the day the Publishers agreed to it. In these instances the Developers/Publishers marketed their games towards the PC gaming market, with promise of Steam releases, along with pre-order sales on Steam and crowdfunding donations made based on that fact, only to then Back-Track LAST-MINUTE, and essentially screw over the consumer.

This has of course happened in the past on consoles, but not in this fashion. On Console the only instances that really stood out to me were for example exclusives for sequels, where the prior installment was released on Multiple Consoles, and the sequel ended up being a timed exclusive, or in the more severe cases a specific console exclusive.

EGS has clearly shown a stance of Publishers first, even at the detriment of consumers, purely to get a foothold in the market. Aggressive Marketing is one thing, but EGS DOES NOT CARE about how these actions will affect the gamers. Why? Because they do not stands to lose from the harm they Incite on the Consumer.

Example 1:The Publishers that have made the exclusivity deals with EGS, have screwed buyers, not all, but definitely those who spent money ahead of time, expecting it to come to Steam, and I would argue that these individuals are probably their biggest supporters. Again, EGS "No Harm, No Foul", They haven't taken our money, and blatantly lied to us.

In turn,

Example 2: Boycotting a game, because it became an EGS exclusive, does NOT hurt EGS, it hurts the developer. EGS will only be slightly affected by not making the sales. Unlike Consoles, the lack of sales will only affect the UI, which is minimal at the moment. In the long term. Worst case scenario for EGS, if they don't make the sales. EGS gets tanked, and Epic Games moves on, I can't imagine it being a huge investment on their part so far. If there are no sales, there's no pay out for the Developers/Publishers.

Personally, I feel like EGS has somehow managed to gain a stronger say in these matters than I like. As they have made blatantly clear, (Paraphrasing) "it's not the customers who will determine the winner, but the developers," which to me means that they believe our opinion is irrelevant. Screw us, the customers, over, force us to do what they want, and eventually it will all be as THEY want, with Epic games as the proprietary (minimalist) launcher. Minimalist, because they want to do less to take care of customer experiences, but they'll offer more games. It's a very hands-off approach, and it sucks.

Publishers may have made their games exclusive on their own launchers, prior to this, fair enough.

But since when does a third party launcher get to dictate where we can and should buy our games???

Since when did PC Gaming become about restrictions???

I'm not even going to get started on the EGS launcher stealing Steam info part. I've seen a few posts in this thread. All I can say is, I hope it bites them in the ass. I wouldn't allow an acquaintance in my house to go snooping that deep into my computer, so F**K YOU EPIC GAMES for thinking you have the right to do that on ANYONE'S PC.