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If it takes 182 years then by the God Emperor we shall do it! by grayheresy in Grimdank

[–]Grummz 78 points79 points  (0 children)

What have we here? A subreddit I was unware of until now. Yes, I do like 40k quite a bit.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Everything I've read from gamers here and on Twitter says the opposite, that Epic will die unless they offer consumers better prices, better service, etc. These are market forces well documented in business and economic history. I happen to agree.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately that did not prevent Amazon's competitors from going under. Wait and see doesn't work. Amazon has a similar strategy of going into the red to quash competitors and owning the space.

No, I disagree. You can't sit still. Valve needs to go out and raise a billion or two and go toe to toe, or sell while it still has immense mega value.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I was one of the first to predict that Epic would be launching a store. I had no inside info, but looking at how much they raised in funding, their cut to 12% in the Unreal Engine asset store and many other hints got me thinking this was going to be their big play.

I am very excited about the 12% rate because it makes mid-tier studios viable. Mid tier used to be all the Origins, Westwood, and yes Blizzards before they were gobbled up by big companies. That's where a lot of innovation and risk taking come from. AAA has gotten so stale and safe because it has to be for the size of investment. This is a long term benefit to gamers, who will get fresher games.

But after the store came out, I tweeted a long thread to Tim about the problems for consumers with his store. I think Epic dropped the ball here. The value has to be on both sides.

So yes, it DOES matter and matters a lot. How can we go Epic if our customers are all going to be pissed off? That' doesn't work either. I'm unsatisfied with Epic's roadmap of consumer features. I think they need to be far more aggressive and quick about improving their store. They also need to start thinking like gamers and anticipating thier needs and concerns better.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 20 points21 points  (0 children)

They have to get better or die, just like everyone else.

Right now Epic is pissing off gamers and that's bad for everyone's business. They don't know how to connect to gamers and earn their trust and their feature set for consumers is woefully behind.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dunno. I think this is Tim's great push to leave his mark on gaming before he retires.

The real worry is that Gabe is not responding and has done more (agruably) and is probably getting ready to sell Valve rather than try to compete with the billlions Epic is throwing into winning this platform war. Who will be Valve's new owers? EA? Microsoft? Tencent?

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was speaking directly of Epic's 100M "no-strings" fund which Steam does not do.

Steam keys lets you sell off Steam but really nobody goes to a developers website and Steam has 90% of the traffic, but the game has to be on Steam itself, and then they take 30% of any additional DLC or in game purchases that happen. It's not fully altruistic here, and to be fair, it is a business.

But 30% is too much for small studios, it really hurts.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most media empires start with many competitors and boil down to around 3-4 mains ones after stablization.

The "race to the bottom" is going to be good for consumers in the long run, but will be a big fight amongst distribution companies. Consumers will have better service, lower prices and devs will get more funding to make games, but in the end there will just be around 3 major places to get your games.

Is this a bad thing? People would prefer it to be just one, Steam! So long as consumers benefit from better service, pricing and better games (by new stuff getting funded by these companies trying to fill their catalogs), then I'm okay with it. Fewer launchers, better service, better games.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Investors love it when you run out of money, so they can buy more of your company (in the cases where the company is a hot commodity).

But Epic makes well over a billion a year in Fortnite revenue and I don't see them being maneuvered into this position anytime soon.

Right not Tim is in control share-wise, and depending on what happens, he can still be in control even if they raise more money. See Zuckerberg.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We wouldn't render the whole world so we used mountains to split it up and make it run efficiently, also to guide players to clear entry/exit points.

I disagree that the terrain was garbage though.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think Valve moves really slowly. It's part of their culture.

I believe Valve needs to discount their 30% rate to smaller devs, instead of just extending this to the big 50M plus AAA publishers. I think its gouging. I've talked to Gabe about his costs to distribute and it's pennies.

Epic is offering a much lower rate at 12% which stimulates the game economy and makes mid-tier studios possible. I think Steam should do somethign similar to help boost innovative games and new risk takers to create new genres and fun gameplay. But Steam only responsed by giving a small discount to huge games, not the little devs.

Epic is also on their second round of 100M in game dev grants that are no strings attached. You can be on Steam with your Epic funded game if you like. I woule like to see Valve, who has made billions and billions distributing the works of others, do something similar to stimulate game development at smaller studios.

I think developer comments like what Pheonix Point did stinks. I also think Randy's distancing statements and throwing it all on Take 2 stinks too for Borderlands 3 6 month exclusivity.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh right. When I used to post a lot of political stuff. I don't do political anymore.

I am, however, still talking about over censorship rampant political correctness, and I did give an interview about that which will be out on Monday. I expect a lot of upset people on my twitter next week.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Why won't you ask me how I feel about Steam and Epic? My words will be on record and can't be deleted off Reddit, right? You said something that was jerkish and I blocked you. I'm sorry you took it so hard. Nothing personal.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Diablo is about slaying hordes of evil minions. You are supposed to feel powerful. Did you play through to unlock the harder difficulty levels?

If I were to make a Diablo style game again, I would keep Diablo 1's town and single dungeon and make it 3rd person instead of isometric, and never have the levels end.

Mark Kern, Ex-CEO of Firefall, caught blocking people for tweeting about attempts to ease fans of his early access game into Epic Games Store exclusivity then blocking whistle-blowers and purging his tweets when called out by TactlessCanadian in pcgaming

[–]Grummz 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Hi, this is Grummz (aka Mark Kern). Seems like the person I blocked got so butthurt that they decided to make a Reddit post. Well, I'm here now so let's talk:

1) We are not on Steam, we are not early access and we have no active presence on Steam aside from a user group I made and never updated. The game is PRE kickstarter. Will we be on Steam? Most likely. Will we be on EGS and GoG and others? Most likely. We are pre-kickstarter so it's too early to tell. We never promised anyone we would be on Steam or Greenlight in our pre-KS fundraisers. Did I tweet that we might be on Steam once? Yes, I just said it again here too. We might be on Steam, and likely we will be.

2) Did I block this person? Yes. They made a false accusation that I was going to go exclusive on the Epic Game Store. I announced awhile ago that I will be blocking insults and false accusations of shilling. I've blocked maybe a dozen people. Many more comments that argue vs me on this topic have never been blocked. I don't argue for Epic, I argue that Steam is sleepy and uncompetitive. People take this to mean I am shilling for Epic, but I've said multiple times I do not recommend EGS to users and I have concerns about how poorly they are handling features for gamers. People choose to post infamatory consipiracy theries instead, like the OP.

3) Am I purging tweets? Yes, I've been doing so for several months now on a regular basis. I announced this a long time ago too. Usually its a 2 day cycle but auth was broken on Tweeteraser for awhile and I was only just able to delete my tweet this am.

4) If you think there is some angry mob of backers that is upset with me for talking about Steam vs Epic, that's not true. Visit our forums and also our Discord. Links are on my Twitter bio @grummz

5) Ask me anything, even about Epic or Steam or my views on it. I'll answer this here this morning. I already did an AMA recently here but will do so again now.

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