PCs and Steam: Thread 01

[MartyG]

PC Mini Classic: https://unitetechno.com/dt_catalog/pc-classic/

Yeah, not sure I'll be backing that project, can't imagine is going to be anything other than DOSBox.

[MartyG]

The Autumn Steam sale is on. Ends on the 27th November.

Quite a few things well discounted on my wishlist, I might pick up Jurassic World and maybe a couple of the 2D fighters which are under £3.

[Cepp]

I grabbed Elimage Gothic for 69p. Still kind of gutted I never got the limited PSP physical release when it came out but for less than a quid I can't grumble

[MartyG]

I bought a few things, but CDKeys had some better deals, so got Hitman 2 for £23, Battletech, Bards Tale 4 and Tekken 7 for £10 each from them.

I didn't bother with Jurassic World in the end, instead I picked up Ash of Gods: Redemption and Lost Sphear from Steam. Quite tempted by Tavern Tycoon, Smoke & Sacrifice and Masquerada: Songs & Shadows, so I might grab those before the end of the sale.

The latest Tomb Raider game is on sale at 50% making it £22.49 currently. Guessing that hasn't sold very well.

[eastyy]

X4 is out on steam today https://store.steampowered.com/app/3...4_Foundations/

X3 and the variations are some of my fav Space sim games ever (still have a big fleet in X3 Albion) however the developers dropped the ball quite a lot on X- Rebirth so i am a bit wary and will wait for early impressions (egosoft do release buggy games at launch )

[Cepp]

This may be old news to some but AMD finally fixed the aspect ratio correction with their drivers. It's been about, I don't know, a year since it worked for me? It's really nice to not have to use my monitor's fiddly osd again for old 4:3 games.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.polygon.com/battle-royale/2018/12/6/18129571/csgo-battle-royale-mode-danger-zone-free

Counter-Strike: GO has added a Battle Royale mode and is now a Free-to-Play game

[MartyG]

Blimey, that's going to be toxic group chat.

[Cepp]

I might try that just for the hell of it.

[Digfox]

PC' Era going mental atm.

Satisfactory, Ashen, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw ALL Epic Store Exclusives, for launch at least.

The Pathless announced at The Game Awards last night as PS4 and Epic Store (exclusive).

• Epic Games Reveals Epic Games Store Wave 1 Games Lineup
• Ashen, Announced as Coming to Steam and the Windows 10 Store (Play Anywhere), Now Exclusive to the Epic Store on PC

Claims that Epic 'money hatted' PC storefront exclusivity but I can't see any evidence. Sounds like 12% versus 35% (including UE4 royalties) convinced developers to switch. But happy to be corrected.

That being said Ashen suddenly being pulled from Steam on the day of release, and no official confirmation doesn't sound great.

[MartyG]

I'm not going to be installing any other launchers on my PC, I begrudge having UPlay on there already and it's only because it's required for some games I've purchased on Steam.

Steam probably need to reconsider their massive cut (and I'd think it's likely that they will because of this), but I don't want to manage multiple accounts - I buy my 99.9% games through Steam.

I bought Witcher III through GoG and managing updates with that was a royal pain in the ass, having to individually download setup parts, extract them, run them in order - the bad old days of gaming.

[Brad]

I'm not going to be installing any other launchers on my PC, I begrudge having UPlay on there already and it's only because it's required for some games I've purchased on Steam.

Steam probably need to reconsider their massive cut (and I'd think it's likely that they will because of this), but I don't want to manage multiple accounts - I buy my 99.9% games through Steam.

I bought Witcher III through GoG and managing updates with that was a royal pain in the ass, having to individually download setup parts, extract them, run them in order - the bad old days of gaming.

They already have. Soon as your game makes $10m the cut moves to 75/25, then 80/20. Only helps the real big games though. Epic do an 88/12 split and stated that that is easily profitable and anyone charging more is being greedy basically.

[fuse]

Paying folks to keep their games off other platforms is definitely not a good practice, but offering better rates to developers and generally providing a legitimate competitor to Steam is a good thing. Here's a tip for 'em: you can't make developers provide Mac support, but you as a platform can easily be much better than Steam at providing support for non-Windows folks - we'd appreciate it!

[Neon Ignition]

My guess based on nothing - Epic's effort will falter into footnote territory. It's easy to see how a game that may struggle to stand out on Steam may find its publisher/developer tempted by more prominence and better rates on Epic's store but Epic are going to have to do a phenomenal job of balancing the comparatively tiny customer base and curation to maintain that. When the volume of content increases they'll end up needing to dedicate more and more resources to managing the store and those profit lines may not look so hot anymore. There are so many big company store front attempts now and none have managed to dent Steam, I'm reluctant to trust that more profit for game makers is all it takes to change that. Maybe they'll muscle some room from the others though to at least make a profitable effort over time. Like others though, I don't want a dozen launchers just as I don't want a dozen subscription TV services.

[Digfox]

Paying folks to keep their games off other platforms is definitely not a good practice, but offering better rates to developers and generally providing a legitimate competitor to Steam is a good thing.

Source?

People are saying Epic have bought exclusivity but I can't see this confirmed. Different Storefronts will have T&C's that might prevent pricing differences etc. but it's quite believable some developers are buying into Epic's new service just on the percentages only.

They already have. Soon as your game makes $10m the cut moves to 75/25, then 80/20. Only helps the real big games though. Epic do an 88/12 split and stated that that is easily profitable and anyone charging more is being greedy basically.

Absolutely, we now now know why Valve announced their revenue spit changes.

I do admire that Tim Sweeney has previously criticised the digital stores and their cut and has now done something about it. There's no doubt that average cost for each transaction on any of these storefronts are probably only a few percent - if that. So Valve could easily reduce the cut to a similar level, if they wanted to.

Like others though, I don't want a dozen launchers just as I don't want a dozen subscription TV services.

Unfortunately that horse has already bolted, like different Film/TV content subscriptions. We've already had different launchers for years on PC. With the openness of the platform that unfortunately is unlikely to change.