Red Dead Redemption 2 PC sales were lacklustre for Epic Games

[Spud1]

Really, people are stll trying to defend Epic?? I guess marketing and misinformation works..

The problem with epic for everyone is not having to use another launcher, its their massive anti consumer, anti competitive practices...and I find it incredible that people can't see where this is going.

Epic offer zero competition. What they are doing is buying up exclusives, forcing customers to purchase big AAA games from *their* store only and pay *their* price, or you can't have the game. This is bad for everyone - you have LESS choice, you pay MORE for your games, the sales opporturiny for publishers is LOWER.

It's a very worrying trend and may lead to other stores trying the same practice, which would be even worse.....if you want to look at a market where this has happened already - look at console exclusives and the prices of those exclusives on digital stores. You only have one outlet to purchase from (aside from grrey markets)and the prices have only ever gone one way....up.

Epic had a chance to do something different here - they take a lower commission - so why not use that extra money to lower prices, or to invest in a platform that users want to use..i.e. try and actively compete with steam in the free market? Instead they went for the underhand, anti consumer anti free market approach of buying exclusives. It's completely untrue to state that "exclusives are the only way to compete" - that' just a lazy aegument, price influences consumers more than anything. I and my friends buy games where they are cheapest - I don't have some silly loyalty to steam if a game is cheaper on uplay, i'll buy it there. Same for GOG/Origin/Microsoft et al....this issue is not about launchers, it's about Epic reducing competition and purchasing options, keeping prices artifically high.

It's utterly deplorable and they deserve to fail - if everyone starts doing this, its us, the gamers who will pay the price.

[spacein_vader]

I'm not defending Epic, but nor am I defending steams market dominance.

I'll buy it where it's cheapest. If all are the same price I'll try to buy it DRM free if possible. Beyond that I don't care.

[Jonj1611]

Cheapest place I could find Anno 1800 was Epic. So I bought it there and paid less than anywhere else

[UncleMoose]

Nobody remembers fannying around with CDs and DVDs - the only form of DRM back in the day?
And the hate directed at steam when it launched and for a good while after?

Personally, I don't care which store it comes from, as long as it works.
Like most, I suspect, cheapest place = best place.

[Otherhand]

They're lacklustre on Steam too, where The Witcher 3 is currently beating RDR2 on the current players list.

RDR2 is doing badly because it's an infamously boring and frustrating experience which vast numbers of console players never bothered to finish, which then launched on PC with a massive amount of bugs. It's also not worth buying on PC at all unless you have a fairly high-powered machine, which further restricts the customer base.

[Yoyoyo69]

Really, people are stll trying to defend Epic?? I guess marketing and misinformation works..

The problem with epic for everyone is not having to use another launcher, its their massive anti consumer, anti competitive practices...and I find it incredible that people can't see where this is going.

Epic offer zero competition. What they are doing is buying up exclusives, forcing customers to purchase big AAA games from *their* store only and pay *their* price, or you can't have the game. This is bad for everyone - you have LESS choice, you pay MORE for your games, the sales opporturiny for publishers is LOWER.

It's a very worrying trend and may lead to other stores trying the same practice, which would be even worse.....if you want to look at a market where this has happened already - look at console exclusives and the prices of those exclusives on digital stores. You only have one outlet to purchase from (aside from grrey markets)and the prices have only ever gone one way....up.

Epic had a chance to do something different here - they take a lower commission - so why not use that extra money to lower prices, or to invest in a platform that users want to use..i.e. try and actively compete with steam in the free market? Instead they went for the underhand, anti consumer anti free market approach of buying exclusives. It's completely untrue to state that "exclusives are the only way to compete" - that' just a lazy aegument, price influences consumers more than anything. I and my friends buy games where they are cheapest - I don't have some silly loyalty to steam if a game is cheaper on uplay, i'll buy it there. Same for GOG/Origin/Microsoft et al....this issue is not about launchers, it's about Epic reducing competition and purchasing options, keeping prices artifically high.

It's utterly deplorable and they deserve to fail - if everyone starts doing this, its us, the gamers who will pay the price.

Not sure who your post is aimed at. I agree with a few of your points.

I've defended Steam a lot in the past, whilst I hate the exclusives business model (always have)

I'd still much rather have competition with exclusives, than a monopoly.

Before Epics store you may aswell have said Steam had exclusives (I'm aware of the difference) they were the only real choice.

Epic are still way behind, hopefully they attract enough devs that they no longer require exclusive deals, but who knows what they'll do.

Who's to say they won't both just lock prices high.

It's a huge market and 2 main stores cab still make enormous profits. Obviously Steam would have to forfeit a large chunk for this to be a reality, which they will fight tooth and nail to avoid (but rather poorly so far).

[fail_quail]

trying to break a monopoly so there is more competition in the market place.

So, by artificially creating a monopoly via paid exclusivity, they are somehow breaking a monopoly and creating competition???

Epic are literally forcing a monopoly and taking away competition from PC gaming...

The annoying thing is, had they simply undercut steam on pricing and kept up their game givaways, they'd have generated vast amounts of consumer goodwill and personally i'd have overlooked their sub-par launcher and brought from them (My PC is already littered with launchers, another wouldn't be an issue).

Instead they're created consumers like me, who refuse to give them a penny and will not buy any game on Epic full stop out of principle now.

[Percy1983]

So, by artificially creating a monopoly via paid exclusivity, they are somehow breaking a monopoly and creating competition???

Epic are literally forcing a monopoly and taking away competition from PC gaming...

The annoying thing is, had they simply undercut steam on pricing and kept up their game givaways, they'd have generated vast amounts of consumer goodwill and personally i'd have overlooked their sub-par launcher and brought from them (My PC is already littered with launchers, another wouldn't be an issue).

Instead they're created consumers like me, who refuse to give them a penny and will not buy any game on Epic full stop out of principle now.

A handful of exclusives makes a monopoly? at best its a micro monopoly on said games. The reality is epic want to make a competing store and to do this you need users, what is a quick way of getting users... exclusive games. Worked for valve with Half Life 2.

Remember this is business and epic are using every tool possible and I don't blame them. As for the wider issues, if you don't like a price epic has a game at just wait until its a price you are happy with, overall its short term pain for a longer term gain of genuine competition in digital game distribution.

[fail_quail]

A handful of exclusives makes a monopoly?

Yes, exclusives are a monopoly. Owned studio exclusives are one thing, buying out third parties onto said monopoly is a whole greater level, something not seen on PC until now...

The reality is epic want to make a competing store and to do this you need users

I mentioned this in my post, keeping the giveaways and slightly undercutting prices would have achieved this, instead they specifically chose not to compete and instead go full bribed monopoly.

Remember this is business and epic are using every tool possible and I don't blame them. As for the wider issues, if you don't like a price epic has a game at just wait until its a price you are happy with, overall its short term pain for a longer term gain of genuine competition in digital game distribution.

The price is not the issue, the enforced monopoly Epic is trying to damage PC gaming with is...

That said, there is little i can do but not buy anything from Epic. A small gesture, but i will not reward their anti-consumer **** with my money.

[EZLEE]

Looking forward to playing this, when I get the time. I'm so glad it's been ported to the PC.

[Mpt]

I don't like having to use launchers for my games. If there was one universal games library manager it'd be okay, but having to have Steam, GoG Galaxy, Origin, Uplay, Epic, etc. just gets annoying. Add to that that I think launcher-exclusives are anti-consumer, and that IMO Epic don't want to *compete* with Steam, they want to *replace* Steam with their own little monopoly, I'm not willing to support them.

Whenever possible I prefer to buy my games from GoG because it's DRM-free so I actually *own* them, and Galaxy v2 looks like it might be a decent "all in one place" launcher so I'll give it a try after Christmas.

I’m using galaxy and it works pretty well. Makes steam look quite antiquated.

[Percy1983]

Yes, exclusives are a monopoly. Owned studio exclusives are one thing, buying out third parties onto said monopoly is a whole greater level, something not seen on PC until now...

I mentioned this in my post, keeping the giveaways and slightly undercutting prices would have achieved this, instead they specifically chose not to compete and instead go full bribed monopoly.

The price is not the issue, the enforced monopoly Epic is trying to damage PC gaming with is...

That said, there is little i can do but not buy anything from Epic. A small gesture, but i will not reward their anti-consumer **** with my money.

So Epic has a monopoly on digital distribution as they have a handful of paid exclusives.

I am wondering still why you can't just accept them as a way of competing, Valve/EA/Ubi could all pay for exclusives if they wanted to pull more people to there stores there is nothing unfair happening here.

You miss the point of before epic Valves monopoly basically meant they had exclusivity on every title more or less as it is the default/largest game selling platform.

Maybe I have just got use to seeing the exclusives model play out on consoles much more than on PC, where in that case you need to buy another console. In comparison installing a different launcher is basically a non issue. ie. if you want to play a game which is an epic exclusive it adds say 3 minutes to your purchase/install time when you first install the launcher.

What you seem to be emotionally invested in with right and wrong I just see as business, one has a monopoly and one is using aggressive tactics to break said monopoly, the overall outcome of epic actually breaking valves monopoly would be a great thing for the pc games industry.

[Ttaskmaster]

Epic had a chance to do something different here - they take a lower commission - so why not use that extra money to lower prices, or to invest in a platform that users want to use.

Or giving it to the developers who actually make the game?
People will pay whatever the market will bear, as evidenced by the increasing prices of graphics cards and smartphones. They'll complain about it, sure, but they will still pay it if they want it.
At least this way the companies making games will get more money, and be able to both make more games, and carry on supporting their existing ones.