Epic Store Fiasco

Yeah, it's fine. I was just trying to stir up some discussions over what could be a pretty big issue down the line, especially given how sour most are in regards to the Linux/Mac situation already. This would be, possibly, more disastrous than the dreaded MN9 curse that's been discussed off and on. And given the recent Switch demo issues at PAX, methinks emotions are running rampant.

Yeah, I've had personal experience with them back when they were trying to make Paragon a thing. To this day, I still get emails telling me that someone's tried to access my account and tried to reach customer service for 4 effing months. This was back in 2017-early 2018, before they canned the game. So due to that, my opinion on them may be a little biased, but I'd urge others to definitely research into the company before any decision making. Not gonna defend Steam, either. They may be pretty bad in a lot of ways, as well, but they haven't really pulled anything near the scale Epic has afaik.

I completely agree with that feeling. I mean, sure, I can just deal with it and play this and BL3 on my consoles, but that still doesn't excuse verifiable shady practices that will affect more consumers as a whole. Just can't sit idle on the topic of this disturbing trend with Epic. Everyone wants to be hyped because awesome games are out and they're opting for a service that treats devs/publishers better, but they get blinders on too fast and that tunnel vision won't allow them to see that the matter can be a tad more serious than just 'it only takes 5min to download' or 'the launcher has only been out 5mo' and my favorite I've seen on other forums that are discussing the matter, 'stop being a fake fan.'

That last one makes my sides hurt from laughing.

This is a great deal of worry to me as well. Epic has been completely shameless about this, poaching games that were announced for Steam for months and making them pull at the last second, claiming they will not do another "Metro situation" but then three days do the exact same thing again, and even making croudfunded projects such as that Phoenix Point game mentioned flat out go back on their promise on a Steam and GOG version.

Which is why I am asking if there is any confirmation yet that this game WILL still come out on Steam/GoG as promised. I have seem some of the other games I have backed on Kickstarter come out and confirm that they have no plans to go back on their promise and pull the Steam release, but the fact that Bloodstained is a fairly higher profile game and used the Unreal engine is worrying. Has there been any confirmation yet?

Yeah, I was trying to spread to word of all that Epic really has wrong and provided plenty of verifiable links to sources on the BL3 official Youtube and was repeatedly told I was unintelligent, didn't know wth I was talking about and that I should point the finger at Steam, since 'Steam gets hacked monthly (last I checked, that was Epic, but ok)' or 'You can't talk about protecting people's information without blaming Steam. Steam Steam Steam. (Brady Bunch moment, sorry)'

Guess no one likes the truth glaring them in the face and they think deflection helps. Pretty sure they are all up on Epic's 'Disco Stick', amirite?

Yeah, but free games shouldn't be incentive to risk your personal information and security.

As long as they feel they are strong-arming people into using their store even when they don't want to I doubt they will learn anything.

This silence is really worrying me. Borderlands 3 had the same silence because they wanted to wait before announcing it, since they knew it would be an unpopular decision.

Metro is a major AAA title, it was going to be on Steam and even had pre-orders, but was pulled a mere three weeks before release. The announcement was so last-minute that the physical PC boxes had to put an Epic Store sticker over the Steam logo.

Phoenix Point is a relatively unknown and croundfunded title, promised backers it was coming to Steam and GoG, went well past it's goal....... and just recently, years later, announced it was going Epic exclusive.

Anno, a series that has been on Steam and was announced for Steam, just recently announced they will pull out of Steam and release on Epic.

So far, the past history of games going Epic-exclusive show that:

It doesn't matter how soon it was coming out, as Metro confirms some publishers have had no qualms about pulling it at the last minute.

It doesn't matter if it's a major studio/game that doesn't need the money, as Gearbox/2K proved with Borderlands 3.

It doesn't matter if it's an indie/fairly "unknown" title or a crowdfunded title as Phoenix Point proved. They didn't even care about refunding all of their backers due to how much Epic gave them, essentially having used their backers as an interest-free loan to get the game off the ground long enough to get someone else snatch it up.

And it doesn't matter if it was promised for Steam, has had preorders or resources open on steam, or how long ago it was announced for Steam as Metro, Anno, and Phoenix Point proved.

And Bloodstained is no mere minor or unkown indie game, it's the SECOND most-funded game on all of Kickstarter (second only to Shemnue III) and 18th most funded project in all of Kickstarter history so far (the majority of which were projects for a physical product), so this isn't something that would slip under their radar. To say nothing of how much coverage this game has been getting, even Nintendo showed off (at the time) never-seen before footage at their last direct.

And on top of that, there is this worrying bit I saw on the Bloodstained reddit:
www.reddit.com/r/Bloodstained/comments/babska/incoming_epic_game_store_exclusive/ekb0ww2/

I didn't link just the article because that would be intentionally omitting details since Angel did respond to this saying now, but will check back to make sure. The article says every game from 505 moving forward will be Epic Exclusive, but Angel says the article was incorrect and it wasn't a deal for every game, and that Bloodstained was not part of the deal.... but is still worried and will get back with more clarification.

This is precisely why I am so worried that there has been no official word yet. Publishers know now this is a very unpopular decision, but many do it anyway. And those who have been reluctant to confirm that the game will not be Epic exclusive were reluctant because that is exactly what they were planning and wanted to wait before announcing it (2K waited until Pax was over to avoid there being any footage of negative reactions to it).

A few other games I Kickstarted had the devs confirm when they were asked almost immediately that the game is not going to be Epic exclusive, and those were much smaller and fairly unknown projects.