I’m really glad for all Valve has done for Linux, but Microsoft is not the monopoly it once was. Chromebooks are the new frontier and Epic is the one taking on the Play Store monopoly.
Add in GOG to the mix with their anti-DRM advocacy and I’m left with a tough choice for who I would rather my 30% store tax to go to.
Chromebooks are what everyone’s using in school. Windows is in a state, and if businesses are going to replace it they sure as hell aren’t going to use Linux (too informal) or MacOS (too locked down).
For individual users, something like 90% of internet browsing is on mobile devices so Android and iOS have already won over Windows bigtime.
Simple, look at what they invest the money in. Valve pays Proton developers and Linux support, GoG makes some ads about no DRM and invests something on preservation of games, Epic invests money on suing other companies and getting exclusives. Decide which of those is more important to you and spend money there.
Epic charges less than 30%. I think it was 10-15%. That’s their whole selling point. And when I say it is their whole selling point, I do genuinely mean it, because the platform and software itself are pretty bad compared to Steam.
And their business practices as well. Bringing store exclusivity to the PC games market and paying publishers to delay launches on other stores is not something I want to support.
And they do everything they can to avoid any upgrades to their store. It took them 2 fucking years to add a cart to make multiple purchases at the same time. Before, if you wanted to buy a game and all its DLC, you had to purchase each of them separately.
I never understood why console players always get so worked up about exclusives. People say the stupidest most absolutely nonsensical things like “the PS5 has no games”. What the hell do you mean?? The PS5 has lots of games, you’re just salty that other people can play those games too. Why can’t people just be happy that more people can enjoy the games? They have to have that feeling of superiority I suppose
IMO, the PS5 doesn’t have any games that make it special in contrast to PC. Every game I have on my PS5 is also available on PC. The only console maker which really has exclusives is Nintendo, and personally I hate the concept of exclusives. It would be best if every platform would have the same games. I guess nobody would buy consoles than because of their Online services BS like PS Plus which is expensive or Nintendo Switch Online which uses P2P in 2026…
I don’t really care about timed exclusivity, especially when it’s just downloading a different launcher. Permanent exclusivity, or worse eventual unavailability I do care about though.
Try GOG first, see if a game is available there. Then Epic (once it gets Linux support). Then Steam 3rd party stores like Fanatical. Then Steam
Seems pretty simple to me, personally.
I’d rather pay for DRM-free and an offline archive, always. The installers are trivially easy to use with Proton.
If not, then I’d rather pay the devs more than the store if I have a choice (though no Linux muddies this).
If not, I’ll take the slight discount over Steam if there is one.
Failing all that, just buy on Steam.
And in reality, the vast majority of my purchases are on Steam anyway, because that’s generally the only place the games I’m interested in are available to buy.
I’m really glad for all Valve has done for Linux, but Microsoft is not the monopoly it once was. Chromebooks are the new frontier and Epic is the one taking on the Play Store monopoly.
Add in GOG to the mix with their anti-DRM advocacy and I’m left with a tough choice for who I would rather my 30% store tax to go to.
Chromebooks are what everyone’s using in school. Windows is in a state, and if businesses are going to replace it they sure as hell aren’t going to use Linux (too informal) or MacOS (too locked down).
For individual users, something like 90% of internet browsing is on mobile devices so Android and iOS have already won over Windows bigtime.
Hi European person here. We’re not dumbfuckistan (US) so cut your US defaultism. Our school PC usually run Windows 7 or later.
Oh and we also don’t use school equipment for gaming with Epic Games…
Simple, look at what they invest the money in. Valve pays Proton developers and Linux support, GoG makes some ads about no DRM and invests something on preservation of games, Epic invests money on suing other companies and getting exclusives. Decide which of those is more important to you and spend money there.
Epic charges less than 30%. I think it was 10-15%. That’s their whole selling point. And when I say it is their whole selling point, I do genuinely mean it, because the platform and software itself are pretty bad compared to Steam.
And their business practices as well. Bringing store exclusivity to the PC games market and paying publishers to delay launches on other stores is not something I want to support.
And they do everything they can to avoid any upgrades to their store. It took them 2 fucking years to add a cart to make multiple purchases at the same time. Before, if you wanted to buy a game and all its DLC, you had to purchase each of them separately.
I never understood why console players always get so worked up about exclusives. People say the stupidest most absolutely nonsensical things like “the PS5 has no games”. What the hell do you mean?? The PS5 has lots of games, you’re just salty that other people can play those games too. Why can’t people just be happy that more people can enjoy the games? They have to have that feeling of superiority I suppose
IMO, the PS5 doesn’t have any games that make it special in contrast to PC. Every game I have on my PS5 is also available on PC. The only console maker which really has exclusives is Nintendo, and personally I hate the concept of exclusives. It would be best if every platform would have the same games. I guess nobody would buy consoles than because of their Online services BS like PS Plus which is expensive or Nintendo Switch Online which uses P2P in 2026…
I don’t really care about timed exclusivity, especially when it’s just downloading a different launcher. Permanent exclusivity, or worse eventual unavailability I do care about though.
Satisfactory would have never existed otherwise. They got paid a lot for exclusivity, which allowed them to become so polished.
I don’t buy that. They were making money hand over fist with Deep Rock Galactic well before then
Steam did the same shit when it launched.
To Valve’s games only. Meanwhile EGS was signing exclusivity deals with everyone they could
Really? Never heard of that, which games did Valve did that?
It’s 0% for the first million, then 12%. Genuinely life changing for small devs.
I mean… for me:
Try GOG first, see if a game is available there. Then Epic (once it gets Linux support). Then Steam 3rd party stores like Fanatical. Then Steam
Seems pretty simple to me, personally.
I’d rather pay for DRM-free and an offline archive, always. The installers are trivially easy to use with Proton.
If not, then I’d rather pay the devs more than the store if I have a choice (though no Linux muddies this).
If not, I’ll take the slight discount over Steam if there is one.
Failing all that, just buy on Steam.
And in reality, the vast majority of my purchases are on Steam anyway, because that’s generally the only place the games I’m interested in are available to buy.