This conversation that friends and the rest of my circles are having doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, so I figured why not weigh in. I know I normally come across as having little opinion on stuff going on in the gaming world, and I stick to mainly positive topics that revolve around my little world of gaming, but why not.
To start things off – yes, it is annoying having a billion launchers. It’s probably one of my most disliked features of gaming these days, but it is what it is. I have multiple launchers, I have steam, I have bnet, I have origin, and I have stand alone games that have no launcher at all. I can lose track of what games I have where, so I get that aspect of the frustration of games being Epic Launcher Exclusives.
What I can’t get behind is the anger and frustration pointed at Epic for attempting to lure developers over to their side with exclusives by offering them sweeter deals and putting more money into the pockets of said developers (or the companies they work for). That is what a game company is. It’s a business, and going to the platform that is going to give them more money makes sense. Now the one instance where this does bug me is where the game has already promised to come out on a specific platform, and then changes their mind, leaving those users in the dust. In that instance, yes, I feel the buyers have every right to be upset.
I do not fault developers (or companies) for wanting more money in their pockets. I do not think Epic is coercing those companies, and I do not think Epic is forcing them. There are options and choices, you pick the best one for xyz internal reason that most of us armchair developers can only guess at. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with competition. There is nothing wrong with Valve having to work a bit harder to keep the developers they have who want to launch on their platform no questions asked. The anger and vitriol against Epic or against people who are OK using their launcher or playing those exclusive games, frustrates me. There are better things to be focusing that energy on.
Plus, it’s not as though those games are exclusives for life. It’s a limited deal. If you feel that strongly about using the launcher then as a customer do what is right for you and vote with your wallet. Wait for the game to release on the platform that you’re OK with.
Now lets all move on to some happier gaming commentary.
We’ve discussed this before over Twitter, but it’s worth saying again I suppose that I would agree with you insofar as this shouldn’t be something people get vitriolic about, in particular to one another.
Expressing a dislike of the business practice of third party exclusives on PC (whoever you want to blame or not blame), or heck, even those who are simply against it for the reasons of game library splitting should be allowed to express their opinion as well without being jumped on though.
Borderlands 3 is going to be my real trial by fire on values vs. practicality here. Getting a lot of pressure from friends to cave and just buy it, which is a harder thing to deny than when it was just me / the solo games impacted by the exclusivity period so far.
I expect I still will not purchase it, at least until the exclusivity period is over. But man. ;)
There is a huge difference between sharing an opinion and expressing an opinion and the comments I’m seeing from people. No one is saying don’t have an opinion, that’s for sure.
I hear you. There are certainly elements on both side of this argument which are not exactly showering the world with good grace. Such is the internet, I suppose.
I find this a difficult argument to engage with though in many locations as a result. But I think more than the vitriol, the comment that makes me grit my teeth the most at the moment are those to the effect of, ‘lol, I don’t get wai so mad. It’s just another free launcher!1!’