I’ve made it clear I like what Epic Games are doing with their free games every few weeks. I’ve also gone to bat and said that Epic’s Tim Sweeney has said something encouraging for those that hate Epic at this moment. Clearly, I have fallen into the loop of saying only good things about Epic Games. At least I’ve been saying good things publicly while keeping other thoughts private. Nonetheless, I’ve been vocal of my otherwise cynical view on games, publishers, and developers. I don’t hold EA or 2K in high regard for quite simple reasons. So while others are being pessimistic, I’ve been trusting of a company I was already leaning towards disinterest and disgust

Unlike many in the modern games market, I’ve been a happy resident of the town we call “singleplayer,” partially as a result of disdain towards people and a lack of excitement about micro-transactions. To me, for the last two years, Epic Games have been just that; another company banking off of a free-to-play game and their billion dollar revenue. If Grand Theft Auto 5‘s Online mode was free-to-play, I’d have them up aside 2K of my level of contempt. Both games feature their ninety-nine dollar “micro-” transactions; both aim at people I detest with absolute abhorrence: People with more money than sense.

The common argument for these micro-transactions is, “you don’t have to buy them: You can just avoid them.” Tell me this once you meet the 500th aggressive person playing in Grand Theft Auto Online as I scrape your corpse off the sidewalk with my stolen bike. You don’t have to buy them, but you are encouraged to; as you are for cosmetics in Fortnite, so you and all your friends can look like multicolored specs on the horizon as you yell racial slurs at each other. Why yes, my view of the multiplayer crowd is probably a little dated to some, but even the streamers of Fortnite are dropping racial slurs for no discernible reason. They do it because they are too big to fail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A822hOyJPFA

This brings me back to Epic: A company who is too large to fail; and therefore is the only one who can take on the Goliath of Valve and Steam. However, often the narrative is an example of David taking on the Goliath, and this is the impasse we’ve arrived at. Two titans are fighting it out atop the mountain as rocks and boulders crush those below. Though I stand by the statements I’ve made before that only is Epic offering something other than Steam, but is doing nothing more against Steam than Ubisoft (U-Play), CD Projekt Red (GOG), or Blizzard (Battle.net) are with either own launchers. The largest difference is the exclusives Epic or indeed Tencent are buying up.

What many, myself included, would like to bring up is how dreadful Steam is for developers. Not your Triple-A knock-outs such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Devil May Cry 5, Hitman 2, or Resident Evil 2, but smaller studios with fresh games such as The Wild Age, NITE Team 4, and Party Hard 2 are often left in the dust. Steam isn’t filtered, and often as I creep through the soon to be released games I find pornographic card games. You will also find deeply political drivel sloshing out into the infected cesspit that is Steam, and hate groups on the storefront. Neither is more advantageous to you or I than the other, both have their flaws.

However, that’s the issue with Steam: As Epic takes a smaller cut of the profits indie developers will run to their warm comfort. With Tiny Build claiming $450,000 worth of stolen assets (Steam Keys) were sold on G2A, you can’t blame indie developers looking for their best opinion. Triple-A publishers and developers will always follow the money, hence why they run their own launchers and follow Epic’s money. Though as Sweeney said himself, once Steam bend to Epic’s will they stop offering exclusives, ignoring what they will do further to be competitive.

You see, what Epic is doing right now signifies they are trying to push Valve’s hand towards what is better for developers, not directly for the user but those that create for us, the player. Do I agree with Epic’s tactics? No, and I don’t think Steam is the beacon of hope either. To which the question should be framed, what would be better for all players? Neither system.

Steam is filled with several problematic features, which is mostly hampered by the endless drivel that is uploaded to Steam and never curated. In 2018 alone Steam saw 9,300 games released onto its store, several of which you may have played, and hundreds that were asset flips, purely pornographic, or yet another pro-Donald Trump or Anti-Donald Trump piece of crap. Meanwhile, the worst thing anyone can say about the Epic Store is how unfinished it is, the road-map is severely misunderstanding how one should develop a storefront, and is relying on a bubble that will burst.

The overall point is Epic isn’t the savior as some seem to hate it for being in their mind, because I’m saying the free games are a good thing doesn’t mean the storefront is perfect. I still use Steam as the main front for games, there are issues with that storefront, thus it is always good to have opinions and competition to improve that comfort zone you are used to.

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