News Epic snags Borderlands 3 timed exclusive

The only game so far that actually interests me... though chances are, i'll be buying a 2nd hand Xbox One X (XOX as I like to call it) and hoping the rumours of M&KB and cross-platform play are true.

 

With all the Epic Store games thus far (AFAIK) there has been no DRM added (beyond that in the game itself, if any), so you can do the exact same as Steam: use the store for long enough to buy and download the game, then close the store and just launch the desktop shortcut directly. No need to keep a pointless 'launcher' resident in memory.

 

It says "cross-platform co-op" on the Xbox store when you look at the pre-order page, so it's a bit more than a rumour As there's nothing like that listed for PS4 though, we'll have to wait and see if it's all platform cross-play or limited to Xbox - PC.

 

n/m

 

I really don't understand the strength of feeling on this issue - it's as if people think that Valve's hegemony is a *good* thing for them?

 

No idea. What is clear that this is clear cut for publishers, more so if they use Unreal Engine.

Let's take a $60 game:

• Steam
  • Valve - 30% = $18
  • Unreal - 5% = $3
  • Publisher - rest = $39
• Epic Store
  • Epic - 12% = $7.2
  • Unreal - 0% (Epic eats the licensing fee if an game with Unreal Engine is published on Epic Store)
  • Publisher - rest = $52.8

$13.8 difference on each and every copy of a $60 game. In 3 years, Borderlands 2 sold 13 million copies. Sure, huge part of them were discounted, but even if just let's say 3M copies were bought for full price at Epic Store, that is 3M * $13.8 = $41.4M difference. Considering the budget of Borderlands 2 was in range of $30-$35M, that difference alone is capable to cover the next Borderlands 2 game.

 

I normally buy games much later and therefore much cheaper so the Epic and Valve camps is irrelevant to me.

 

Same.

I don't give a monkey's if one place has it before another, I seldom by a game in its release year.

 

I normally buy games way later in some sale, BUT, Borderlands 3 is the only game I've been looking forward to and no doubt I would have got it on release, like I did with Borderlands 2. I remember I paid £75 for 4 keys of Borderlands 2 but how are they going to do anything similar on EpicGS when they cant even get a shopping cart sorted.

I don't care that it's on EpicGS, but I do care about it ONLY being on EpicGS. Charge £10 more on Steam and release it at the same time, much like GTA V.

I don't get why they were so proud they didn't jump on the BattleRoyale bandwagon in a wink to fans implying they have been listening to what we want, then have a timed exclusive on EpicGS which almost all the internet agrees is a really bad anti-consumer move.

 

You're talking about two different entities there. Whilst Gearbox is a publisher for some games, they are the developers of Borderlands and 2k are the publishers. 2k made the deal with Epic, not Gearbox, as stated on social media. Also "almost all the internet" is just not true. There's a small portion of extremely vocal people and a sea of others who just don't care. I think all the franchises so far that recently had EGS exclusive launches have stated they've sold better than previous iterations did on Steam. So there are not as many people boycotting EGS as claim to.

It's kind of relevant, you'll be waiting 6 months longer for the sales to start on Steam!

As for cross-platform not including PC. Seems unlikely, one of the appeals of EGS over Steam is Epic's commitment to cross-platform play (EGS - XB1 - Switch - PS4 - Mobile). Admittedly they don't have anywhere near all the systems they should have set up yet, but most are due by the end of 2019. So, we shall see. Steam's idea of cross-platform play unfortunately seems to mean PC & Mac (with a handful of Steam - PS4 titles).

 

Steam's ToS prevents that: base sale price on Steam is required to match base sale price elsewhere or you don't get listed on Steam. There is wiggle-room for temporary sales, but "permanent x% discount" is explicitly ruled out so no easy dodge that way. In other words: if you want to release on Steam, you are prohibited from offering cheaper elsewhere on a permanent basis.

 

The beauty of owning a four digit number of games:
It makes literally no difference to just wait for the inevitable "patched and complete" Edition (aka GOTY) as well as to wait for it to get a discount.

Sure, sometimes I make an exception... but somehow all that money just goes to Capcom (MH W, Re7, Re2, DMC 5).

 

I'm with you for single player games. I often wait until they're free with a subscription service (XBL, PS+, etc.) but for co-op/multiplayer if I really want to play them with other humans, I have to get them before everyone's played them to death and moved on!

 

Luckily less of a problem on PC where plenty of good games manage to retain an active community for years, so barring crap like EA Battlefront 1 (which launched with no content and a skill ceiling so low even a politician would hit it) or obscure indie stuff (that usually only costs like a fiver to start with) waiting even works for multiplayer titles.

 

Actually it's often the opposite with multiplayers these days. PS4 seems to have the highest player base and keeps games alive longer. I typically play stuff on PC unless my PC can't run it.

My friends won't wait. They almost all stream for a living, so they have to play games when they launch and then move on to the next. I already end up soloing most things, so waiting on those just means I'm solo forever on everything!

 

Were I at a computer I'd post a screenshot of the CoD MW2 boycott group almost all playing the game they were meant to be boycotting. Shortly after launch.

 

I might one day have an Epic Game Store account but right now I don't trust it with my details; too many horror stories. I will be waiting for BL3 to come out on Steam, and may even wait for the GOTY version with all the inevitable DLC, simply because I already have the others on Steam and I just want to keep them together.

I'm tired of having to download a new launcher for a new game. I already have Steam, uPlay (okay), Origin (rubbish), Bethesda (which is utter crap, even puts Origin to shame), GOG Galaxy, Twitch, Battle.net ... yeesh I just don't want another launcher that has to update itself on top of the game that needs updates too. Which reminds me, I need to remove Bethesda and NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.

 

I loved B1. I got thoroughly bored with B2.

AFAIK the majority of people said B2 was better than B1 ... I must have missed something. (I own B2 plus all DLC)

Thanks to my dislike of B2, I will wait for the bargain bin on B3.

— and that bargain bin will be on a steam if it ever arrives.