demagogue on 18/8/2020 at 06:40
Haha, kettle and pot fight to the death. What a treat.
If we're lucky they'll rip each other apart and then nobody gets a monopoly.
Nameless Voice on 18/8/2020 at 12:34
Why are Epic a "kettle" again?
There's a huge difference between "you can only buy this product from our shop" and "we have the only shop on this platform and you can only buy the products we allow; also we'll take a massive cut of everything done on our platform."
PigLick on 18/8/2020 at 12:53
yeh i would hardly say Epic has a monopoly at all, and I am pretty sure all of us here have availed themselves of at least a few of the free games.
demagogue on 18/8/2020 at 13:03
Not monopoly, just exclusivity. It's a throwaway joke. Remember those?
Briareos H on 18/8/2020 at 15:26
I'm really interested in how this will play out. I understand that iOS is a closed ecosystem that doesn't allow delivery of content outside of its store, which does make sense for security reasons, but at the same time this is placing them as a mandatory controlling party for any sale on an extremely popular platform. Antitrust laws don't seem that clear cut to me and I definitely see a possibility to rule in favor of Epic, in which case Apple could be forced to allow third-party stores. Or maybe the time where governments could force major tech actors to change (e.g. Windows N editions) has passed and we are now too far into cyberpunk.
Nameless Voice on 18/8/2020 at 15:39
Quote Posted by demagogue
It's a throwaway joke. Remember those?
Probably lost my sense of humour after the amount of baseless vitriol that I've seen directed at Epic by a combination of Steam fanboys, anti-China racists, conspiracy theorists, and now Apple fanboys.
People almost never attack them for their actual faults, instead they always attack them for made-up stuff.
Briareos H on 18/8/2020 at 15:54
You don't need to be a Steam fanboy to find them exceedingly aggressive. While I am the first to agree that competition to Steam was sorely needed to help developers negotiate a bigger cut, introducing timed exclusives has been an ugly result for any consumer that doesn't want to install yet another web-facing, metadata-gathering, community-fragmenting, gaping security hole on their PC.
Nameless Voice on 18/8/2020 at 16:27
And yet there was never a fraction of as much outcry for games launched on uPlay, on Origin, on GOG, etc. Or games that come with and install their own launchers, like Rockstar games, League of Legends, etc.
I don't particularly like their launcher, but it's perfectly fine for occasionally installing a game, and you don't even need to launch the games through it, or even have it running while playing them. You can simply add them to GOG Galaxy, or PlayNite, or even to Steam as non-Steam games.
The whole thing is a made-up non-issue.
Complain about real problems, like their lack of user reviews, their missing features at launch (many of which they do now have), their disregard for Linux, their terrible customer support, or the fact that they are mostly interested in large developers while pretty much ignoring anyone who isn't on UDN. You can even complain that Tim Sweeney is arrogant and has stupid opinions.
Don't complain about nonsense because a lot of angry people on Reddit kicked up a huge fuss about it, often with flawed or faulty information.
Briareos H on 18/8/2020 at 19:50
What is most important to me is data privacy and security. Call me a fool if you want but it is not a non-issue. Fuck launchers and increasing attack surface. I will never use Origin, uPlay, Galaxy, the Rockstar Launcher or the Epic Store for that matter. If I could get rid of Steam (now I have far too many games on it) and the Xbox live stuff that is integrated into Windows I would in a heartbeat. If I could get rid of game installers, I would in a heartbeat.
Anyway if you like and because I'm a clear outlier/madman you can forget about the second half of my previous post. My only major complaint about Epic is normalizing store exclusives (along with other third party launchers) and their obviously fake benevolent approach that actually doesn't give a shit about anyone, but that's true for all stores. And yes, Sweeney is an asshole.
In any case, back to the topic, I see more and more articles mentioning Apple only, but I thought Fortnite had been pulled from the Play store too. Isn't there a lawsuite with Google as well?
WingedKagouti on 18/8/2020 at 20:02
Quote Posted by Briareos H
In any case, back to the topic, I see more and more articles mentioning Apple only, but I thought Fortnite had been pulled from the Play store too. Isn't there a lawsuite with Google as well?
There is a lawsuit against Google, but the initial major blitz from Epic's side was against Apple.
