• verysoft@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    True, Epic could have provided good competition, but instead of gaining the trust of potential users and building a feature rich store - they immediately went down the most anti-consumer route they could with exclusive deals and free game bait, all while pretending they are the good buys and Valve are an evil-mega corp. The pot calling the kettle black. So yeah, fuck Epic Games.

    • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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      11 months ago

      The free games system isnt anti consumer. And the exclusives are an industry standard, that steam also is involved in.

      You have a laundry list of actual hostile practices, why did you pick the two that arent?

      • verysoft@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Steam doesn’t pay anyone for exclusives, no game on Steam is an exclusive title, they can be released anywhere else at the discretion of the publishers. Spending millions for free games to bait consumers to the platform is pretty anticonsumer yeah and buying out exclusivity deals is about as anticonsumer as it gets. Why all the delulu?

        • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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          11 months ago

          If you think me giving you things you want that cost you money elsewhere for free is anti-you, you shouldnt be having this conversation. Full stop. Video games arent meth.

      • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        No, steam isn’t “also involved” in paying publishers to take their games off of other platforms.

        Steam “exclusives” exist because every other platform is too dogshit to bother making a business relationship with.

        • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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          11 months ago

          Exclusives are not paying publishers to remove games from platforms. Those are two completely different things.

          If you do not understand that simple fact, you probably shouldnt be wading into this discussion.

          • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Yes, they are. That’s what exclusive means.

            Only being on one platform because no other platform makes business sense is not an exclusive. An exclusive means an exclusivity contract.

            But even if you lie and pretend your version is an “exclusive”, it absolutely is not “steam playing the exclusive game”, because that unconditionally would require steam actively incentivizing staying off of other platforms.