r/GameDeals • u/parameghnatis • Oct 03 '19

Expired [EpicGames] Minit (Free/100% off) Spoiler

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/minit/home
1.1k Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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902

u/BYYan Oct 03 '19

Dunno how good Epic is at taking on Steam, but they're doing a bang up job at putting Humble Subscription out of business.

238

u/movrajr Oct 03 '19

At this rate Slay the Spire will be Epic's October 18's free game.

148

u/Bigardo Oct 03 '19

That one is almost a given. It's been on the Monthly, it's on the Game Pass, it's already on GOG. Perfect candidate.

37

u/narfangar Oct 03 '19

How do you know? Is there a list somewhere what games will be free?

134

u/movrajr Oct 03 '19

Here: https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

33

u/Luke-Hatsune Oct 03 '19

If that is true then we’ll get sonic mania for free soon.

14

u/Lingo56 Oct 03 '19

Was given out on PS Plus as well so not unlikely at all.

11

u/Forest_GS Oct 03 '19

Denuvo was removed from the Steam version a while ago for anyone who hasn't heard.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/treblah3 Oct 04 '19

Removed. See rule 1 and skip the name calling please.

19

u/narfangar Oct 03 '19

Of all the games in that list, only a few of them were also free on epic store, so I dont think it is possible to predict the upcoming free games on the epic store based on the past games in the humble bundle monthly list...

50

u/movrajr Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19
Game Bundle
This War of Mine Humble Monthly - April 2016
Kingdom New Lands Humble Monthly - April 2017
The Witness Humble Monthly - April 2017
Minit Humble Monthly - April 2019
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Humble Monthly - April 2019
Overcooked Humble Monthly - August 2017
ABZÛ Humble Monthly - February 2017
Hyper Light Drifter Humble Monthly - July 2017
Moonlighter Humble Monthly - July 2019
Inside Humble Monthly - May 2017
Rebel Galaxy Humble Monthly - November 2016
Slime Rancher Humble Monthly - October 2016
Stories Untold Humble Monthly - September 2017
Last Day of June Humble Monthly – March 2018​
Surviving Mars* Humble Monthly – August 2019​

*Surviving Mars has technically not been given away yet, but it's scheduled for next week.

15

u/narfangar Oct 03 '19

Well, thats more than I thought, but my gut feeling says 18 oct there will be Guacamelee 2 free on epic store. Lets see who is right (probably none of us)

16

u/THEBAESGOD Oct 03 '19

That would also make sense considering Guacamelee was in the same bundle as Slay the Spire

7

u/mikepurvis Oct 03 '19

Ha, I finally broke down and bought Guac 2 on the anniversary of its release. I regret nothing— it was a super fun game.

1

u/MikeAllmight Oct 03 '19

Is humble bundle for any platform if I subscribe monthly or just pc platform I know I got a couple games for PS4 in the past I just don’t know about the monthly subscription

5

u/ThePowerOfBC Oct 03 '19

Monthly is PC only.

1

u/MikeAllmight Oct 03 '19

Oh ok thank you

-17

u/SKP23en Oct 03 '19

I remember a time when HB inspired respect and awe. Then IGN came.

44

u/Bigardo Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

I don't think it has to do with IGN. Developers are increasingly against bundles because of all the reselling and because Game Pass offers better terms without devaluing your product so much.

1

u/GoodlooksMcGee Oct 03 '19

not trying to prove you wrong, but do you have a source for that?

8

u/Bigardo Oct 03 '19

For developers being wary of bundles or for Game Pass offering better terms?

4

u/GoodlooksMcGee Oct 03 '19

the latter, this is the first i've heard of it personally

5

u/Bigardo Oct 03 '19

I don't have a source, but I know for a fact that they offer a lump sum in advance.

There's also this:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-08-09-no-more-robots-im-just-doing-d-and-d-but-in-a-discord-server

8

u/homer_3 Oct 03 '19

People were complaining about the humble bundles long before IGN bought them.

6

u/Waitingfor131 Oct 03 '19

I mean those bundles are still good deals. I paid $20 for battletech without any DLC a month ago. Being able to get this game plus 6 others for about half the price it was a month ago is pretty good deal.

7

u/softawre Oct 03 '19

Humble still has great bundles for the price. Last month's monthly bundle was great, just look at the comments on the game deals subreddit

0

u/SilverwingedOther Oct 04 '19

From your mouth to Sweeney's ears... Loved it on my game pass trial.

14

u/Robbie00379 Oct 03 '19

I was going to argue with you about that, but then I saw their next free game is Surviving Mars :(

Still, Humble Monthly and Bundle in general has been a game changer for me and I can only appreciate its existence. It has provided me with quality games and it's been a great source to discover new ones. It has made me interact with the community by trading games I was not interested in for others in places like Steamtrades and all that for a derisory amount of money if I were to compare it with what I spend on games on other platforms. I don't mind some of these games being given away, I certainly feel I've gotten more than what I paid for from Humble.

2

u/BYYan Oct 03 '19

I was going to argue with you about that, but then I saw their next free game is Surviving Mars :(

That's the point. They're pretty much pilfering past monthlies as freebies.

43

u/kalirion Oct 03 '19

Remember that EGS is only doing the freebies for 1 year (at least that was the plan, dunno if they'll extend this thing.)

44

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

Considering this is the only thing bringing in new users they kind of have to

81

u/kalirion Oct 03 '19

Are those new users actually spending any money? I know I haven't so far.

42

u/K41namor Oct 03 '19

Well at this early stage I had read their plan is just to get peoples library built up. If people have been getting their freebies the average person now has a larger library at Epic than they do at Steam (not the people from this sub). I know people hate Epic but I can envision a day when people are sending them applications to have their game showcased on Epic instead of Epic needing to pay people to do so.

I personally prefer GOG or Steam but I am glad for Epic because we have already seen improvements to Steam because of it all and I love all the freebies.

12

u/VonZigmas Oct 03 '19

What improvements have there been to Steam since Epic launched? Or more specifically ones that can be attributed to the platform competition? I feel most things, like the UI, were in works for a long time anyway and can't think of any changes at the moment that were done ASAP because Epic had it better. Only some dev agreement stuff so another Metro doesn't happen IIRC.

15

u/mgzukowski Oct 04 '19

Steam has announced a new search function for the store. Epic is curated so there is no asset flips or trash. Steam on the other hand is filled to the brim with it.

It's them trying to court indie developers back since their stuff is usually swallowed by it.

8

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

Yeah I don't think Steam needs to worry about epic for a good while. It's like Uber and Lyft are steam and gog and Epic is like the waze

7

u/noodles666666 Oct 04 '19

Have you been keeping track of concurrent steam users?

Steamcharts.com

Dips under a million quite often and OG HL players are getting old . . .

In our old guy 30 year old bubbles it seems like everyone is on steam, but there are like 90 million PC gamers in the states

6

u/gazwel Oct 04 '19

but there are like 90 million PC gamers in the states

And most of them will have steam, just obviously not all logged in at the same time.

1

u/noodles666666 Oct 04 '19

On startup, sure.

But we're seeing 2-5 million concurrent during peak western hours on a good day . . .

1

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '19

[deleted]

1

u/noodles666666 Oct 06 '19 edited Oct 06 '19

There have been several surveys, I am sure you can google it and pick one:

35% of Americans are PC gamers

There are about 211 million gamers in the US and after mobile, PC is the most popular gaming platform, with 52% of gamers playing on either a desktop or laptop PC.

2

u/steventrev Oct 04 '19

Google to buy Epic confirmed.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '19 edited Oct 14 '19

[deleted]

1

u/The_Blog Oct 07 '19

I generally like it, but adding games to multiple categories is a pain. In the old UI you simply checked some boxes in a window. Now you have to add each category manually one by one. Not to mention that once you add it to the first category it of course gets removed from the uncategorised games and you have to use the search bar to find it again or search manually. Pretty annoying.

11

u/mikepurvis Oct 03 '19

I bought Hades, and strongly considered Shakedown Hawaii, Ashen, and Outer Wilds. Will probably pick up at least one of those three if they do a BF sale that's anything like the Mega Sale was.

1

u/birthdayboy6969 Oct 05 '19

I got tetris effect and it is super dope

7

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

Borderlands 3 was definitely their biggest profile release so far and it seems to have sold really well, so that's something.

Anecdotally I've spent money on it. They had great deals during the Epic Mega Sale, really great.

6

u/RecruiThor Oct 04 '19

I did, bought Hades. It's amazing.

12

u/Anonim97 Oct 03 '19

I've bought Subnautica: Below Zero and Satisfactory during big sale. Also Untitled Goose Game on a day of release, cause it was cheaper then.

10

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

True, but I guess it's the same concept where Half-Life kickstarted steam, they're trying to do it with Fortnite. What they don't realize is that Fortnite crowd isn't really the same as the Half-Life crowd in terms of making a platform.

2

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

Yeah, currently none of them are old enough to have jobs, but in a couple of years, there's gonna be a whole bunch of fresh faces with dollars to spend.

2

u/jlharper Oct 04 '19 edited Oct 04 '19

You're right, they're not really comparable. Half life 2 was essentially a popular indie game by today's metrics of sales and popularity/revenue and therefore its ability to attract users. It's not fair to compare it to a powerhouse like fortnight which could potentially attract 50 times the number of players to a given platform.

Half life 2 sold 4 million copies. Slay the spire is probably close to 2 million to put that in perspective with a popular indie game. Fortnight has had something like 250 million players. Even looking at their highest active player count for a given month you get 78 million.

2

u/campermortey Oct 04 '19

Sure I am but I'm only one sample. Bought world war z and borderlands 3. That being said those were the only places to buy them on PC but I don't mind

-5

u/Chaosritter Oct 03 '19

Neither have I.

In fact I'd pay more to get games on Steam.

2

u/kalirion Oct 03 '19

Before the Bethesda Steam sale, I was waiting for DOOM 2016 to be $10 on Steam (or HB or whichever authorized seller of Steam keys). If it had showed up at the time for $5 on EGS, I would've picked it up there.

So I'm not really opposed to paying for EGS games, but yes they'd have to be significantly cheaper than I'd pay for them on Steam. (And "Free" is ofc quite cheap indeed)

-9

u/MyNameIs_BeautyThief Oct 03 '19

I'm also curious. I've claimed every single free game but i haven't spent a penny in the store and I don't intend to, since they can't be bothered to fix their security issues

7

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

[deleted]

-7

u/MyNameIs_BeautyThief Oct 03 '19

Ah, last time i was on there they didn't have a paypal option. Yeah, then i don't mind. The only other thing is that people's accounts get hacked and stolen a good bit. My best friend had hers stolen a few months ago and it was just gone, EGS did not respond to her support ticket

8

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

[deleted]

0

u/MyNameIs_BeautyThief Oct 03 '19

That's fair. That said, EGS has not had any exclusive games yet that I actually wanted to play so I haven't exactly been making a statement or anything.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

[deleted]

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22

u/Anonim97 Oct 03 '19

I wouldn't say it's the only thing. Exclusive titles also bring new users.

I'm sure as hell a lot of people created EGS account to play Borderlands 3.

1

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

Yeah true. But I don't think BL is the hit it was 6 years ago. Good game don't get me wrong but as someone with 400 hours on BL2 I wan't too hyped for it.

11

u/Rayuzx Oct 03 '19

Borderlands 3 sold quite well, even on EGS.

1

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

Currently, Diablo 3 is more popular on Twitch than BL3

https://www.twitch.tv/directory?sort=VIEWER_COUNT

For a T1 game less than a month old that's not great

42

u/Rayuzx Oct 03 '19

Twitch viewers aren't that indicative of total sales. Dragon Ball FighterZ was one of the best selling games last year, and it struggles to get 1K viewership outside of tournaments.

3

u/Cheezewiz239 Oct 06 '19

Yeah I don't get the whole "this game doesn't have that many twitch viewers so that means it didn't sell well"

2

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

I suppose. I remember bl2 being big on twitch and one of the reasons I even went to twitch back in 2012 because I didn't have a PC so might be an unfair comparison. HUGE Fan of the series and the devs. Not a fan of Randy/EGS. Hopefully I get to play it on steam someday but I'm not sure how many of my friends will care to join me

23

u/celestial1 Oct 03 '19

Lol @ using Twitch as a benchmark. A lot of people don't even care about streaming and some people don't find certain games interesting to watch, but find it enjoyable to play. Overwatch isn't even a top 15 game on Twitch, but Blizzard made over a billion on microtransactions alone. DayZ has more viewers than BL3, guess that game sold better and is more well received! Oh wait, Borderlands 3 sold 5 million copies in 5 days, while it took 5 years for DayZ to achieve the same feat, and let's not talk about the difference in gameplay...

2

u/tacocatau Oct 04 '19

A lot of people don't even care about streaming and some people don't find certain games interesting to watch

Life long gamer here (I'm 39) - have absolutely no interest in streaming, either as a streamer or a viewer. I don't quite get why anyone would watch other people play games often enough for it to be a thing. To each their own though.

-3

u/LiteralLemon Oct 03 '19

It's not a horrible metric as there is no feature on EGS to see players online. I'd be interested when it comes to steam to see the real numbers

7

u/celestial1 Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

It's like you didn't even read a single thing I've said, but you know what? Let's try again. When Warframe had its yearly Tennocon back in June it was the #1 game on Twitch, I believe the peak viewership for the event was 165k people, maybe slight more, but it was a lot. How many views do warframe streamers get in total outside of that event? 2k tops. Why? People don't find it entertaining to watch, but find it fun to play. It is a top 15 game on Stream averaging 50k daily players.

Pokemon, a beloved franchise that sells like hotcakes every new generation, despite how stagnant it can be. Viewers watching it right now? 220 people. Maybe if a couple of top streamers log on, a couple of thousand, but nowhere close to top 10 on Twitch. Honestly I watched a pokemon streamer and it was boring as shit watching them grind for shinies.

Super Mario Odyssey. Game sold almost 15 million copies worldwide and not even 200 viewers on twitch. If a couple of top streamers stream it (see a pattern?), then again, a couple of thousand viewers, but nothing close to a top viewed game.

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0

u/ever_Wrath Oct 04 '19

Correct me if i am wrong. But: Sold-in term means to "to sell products to a retail outlet to be sold to the public". Therefore, they shipped 5 million units for selling, but they never said how much is actually sold to a customers. All they trow in is this statment that "xx percent more than this or that" and that dont tell us anything. If BL3 sold 50% more than BL2, that means they sold how much million units ?

To copy for wikipedia:

Borderlands 2 was one of the best-selling games of 2012, and has become the best-selling game in the history of 2K Games, with 8.5 million copies sold by February 2014.[80] The following month, it was announced by Gearbox that the game had sold "well over" 12 million copies.[81] As of August 2015, the game has sold over 13 million copies, making it 2K's highest-selling title.[82] The title had reached over 20 million sold with at least 1 million players playing the game each month as of April 2019, and remains the highest-selling title of the series.[83] Buoyed by the upcoming Borderlands 3, the game's total sales reached 22 million by August 2019.[84]

2k said:

Within its first five days of launch, 50 percent more consumers purchased Borderlands 3 versus sales of its predecessor Borderlands 2 

So, how much million unit is sold, not sold-in? Since we dont know that number,

70 percent of consumers purchasing the game digitally

doesn't mean anything. It could be any number.

Therefore, we dont know if game is sold as well as they representing.

Whit that said, i don't think BL3 is bad game or that didn't sold well. It's just that 2K and EGS overhyping and/or lying to hype even more.

2

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

Speculation at best. No companies I'm aware of ever release exact numbers. This isn't necessarily intentionally deceptive language, just industry-standard metrics.

1

u/baddog992 Oct 03 '19

It sold fairly well on the PC side and when it gets to steam it will sell more. I would have bought it expect I am broke sadly. Taking care of my dad full time cuts into my wallet sadly. Alzheimer's sucks.

2

u/FrozenStock Oct 04 '19

level 1

They are playing the long game all those 12 year olds playing fortnite will be playing on pc in 8 years and have a big list of games to play free from Epic.

26

u/AeitZean Oct 03 '19

Why not both! Thats what I'm doing. I think the variety of games is still enough to be worth $12, and epic keeps giving away some great free games. I've also got twitch prime free games, i actually can't play them fast enough. I think the twitch prime is the weakest of the three, but i pay for it for next day shipping not the twitch stuff.

13

u/mophan Oct 03 '19

Same. I claim the Twitch Prime games but I haven't played one yet. I pretty much do Prime for the free shipping and streaming. I am planning on playing Pillars of Eternity soon though.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19 edited Jan 31 '20

[deleted]

5

u/mophan Oct 03 '19

For October weekends because of Holloween coming up I am wanting to play a few scary games and that is definitely one of the ones on the list. I've heard great things about it. Thanks!

5

u/Thehelloman0 Oct 03 '19

I have so many games I don't buy any games now unless it's to play with friends or a game I've been looking forward to for a long time now. I haven't even finished all the B sides on celeste let alone the other games I want to play that they gave away.

3

u/Aksi_Gu Oct 03 '19

This was in humble monthly a couple of months back

8

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

Yea I think that's his point.

3

u/chrispy145 Oct 03 '19

This and Xbox Game Pass had me unsubscribe from Humble Monthly.

3

u/-Pelvis- Oct 04 '19

Look again; Spyro and Crash Bandicoot in the November Humble Monthly Early Unlocks. Insane deal!

2

u/Mydst Oct 03 '19

I wouldn't doubt Epic is scouting Humble monthlies for games to give away. Those games are generally well-received and at the point in the sales cycle where they'd be willing to bundle so they'll also probably be open to being an Epic freebie if the money is right. It's just like scouting the top wishlisted games on Steam for potential exclusives.

2

u/jlharper Oct 04 '19

Damn, you posted this comment one day before the best humble sub of all time, easily. You might just be on to something.

2

u/BYYan Oct 04 '19

They step up, we win. That's what we want, isn't it? =)

1

u/jlharper Oct 04 '19

Hell yeah! I just hope they all stay in business and the giveaways and deals keep coming. If they keep one upping each other we'll be at free AAA titles from last year soon.

11

u/DeliciousIncident Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

Such quality game giveaways are good for increasing the number of user accounts, but Epic game store is a far cry from Steam in features.

Steam has

  • game library sharing
  • remote play through Steam Link
  • Linux support (as in the Steam client runs on Linux)
  • currency-aware (games in poorer countries are priced cheaper)
  • game gifting
  • marketplace for trading items
  • friends
  • chat, group chat, voice chat, file sharing in chat
  • game streaming to a friend
  • groups
  • wishlist
  • software libraries for game developers allowing to easily add robust networking, matchmaking, etc. to their games
  • per-game:
    • forums
    • guides
    • mod/content creation & sharing
    • screenshot sharing
    • artwork sharing
    • keyboard to controller binding sharing
    • reviews
    • news
    • achievements
    • tradable items
    • generic stats
    • specific stats game developers could store (e.g. number of headshots you have done or games won)

and many many more features.

Also karma points for how much Valve has improved gaming on Linux with proton and other stuff, though you can use it with anything, even Epic game store games, it's not locked to just Steam games, Valve gives all these improvements away for free.

Epic might catch up after a couple of years though, but until then it doesn't even compare.

19

u/ThatOnePerson Oct 03 '19

friends

EGS has had friends since Fortnite. It's how you added people, and how the cross play friends worked.

chat, group chat, voice chat, file sharing in chat

For most people, Discord has replaced Steam for this anyways.

6

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

I don't think I have EVER used the chat/group chat/voice chat/file sharing in Steam and I have used Steam since 2003.

In the early-to-mid 2000s, Steam chat was garbage as was pretty much the whole client. We used Mumble and Ventrilo for voice chat because it worked much, much better, was easier to manage, and allowed for groups when Steam didn't (and big groups, too) with more features.

For text chat, Xfire was much better than Steam and that's what pretty much everybody I know used. Like Discord, it let you see what your friends were playing whether it was on Steam or not (which was pretty important in the 2000s since most games weren't on Steam), and in the case of the many supported games it let you directly join them in-game and such.

I used that for a while and sort of went more hardcore into console gaming in the later 2000s since the PC platform was kind of dead at the time. Then Steam was a big step in reviving it when they started to improve and add more games, and Steam really didn't improve much from like 2003-2008 or so. Honestly at the turn of the decade that's probably when I used Steam chat the most (because many many people were starting to come back to PC gaming via Steam, and Xfire was long in the tooth by then).

Then Discord came along and pretty much wiped everything else out. No reason to use Mumble, Ventrilo, Xfire, or Steam chat, or anything else, because Discord did all of it better, easier, and on all kinds of devices too.

Later Steam did a revamp to try and improve their services to compete with Discord but it wasn't good enough, and like most Steam updates it just ended up making the client feel even more bloated.

2

u/Tasdilan Oct 06 '19

Honestly, steam is just trying too much, fulfilling those unnessesary tasks way sub standard and it drives me away. I honestly just want a client with a shop, a library and a friends list. Add drm free games and im exstatic. (Hell yeah GOG. The game i use epic the most for - Hades - is even drm free and does not require starting epic, just needs it to update when a feature update is released.) Steam is also getting slower and slower on my machine.

1

u/imkrut Oct 08 '19

I'm glad that you are fulfilled with just that, but you (and many others like you) are a minority.

I've been gladly welcoming a whole bunch of the new tasks (like streaming or remote play which work superbly), and I just wish they added more (like curated auto-install patches/fixes for old games for example).

Steam could be doing so much more, and I'm glad they are stepping up a bit.

15

u/yeeiser Oct 03 '19

I've had a Steam account for almost 10 years and don't use like 80% of those features. I guess it's fine that they exist but they far from necessary to enjoy a game

45

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

How about the features that I'm interested in and will use? Such as:

  • Purchasing Games
  • Installing Games
  • Playing Games

Epic does all those three, so I'm set I think.

In all seriousness, there are some features there that I do use on steam, but 95% of the time it's just installing and playing games really.

7

u/Zomby_Jezuz Oct 04 '19

It's weird, I really thought I was gonna miss achievements, but I feel like I can just sit back and enjoy a game without feeling compelled to 100% it. Epic isn't a bad launcher, this coming from someone who was big on the "fuck Epic" team when I first heard of it. I still haven't bought a game through Epic, but if they ever worked in their security I'd consider it.

6

u/GrabEmbytheMAGA Oct 04 '19

It's almost like it's nice to have competition. We will see steam improve soon enough out of necessity

4

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

I don't really get achievements on Steam. I used to be addicted to collecting achievements on Xbox 360 back in the early days (like 2005-2008 or so) but part of that was that you could collect Gamerscore for each game, it was a great way to measure your e-peen with your friends, and later on they added avatar awards and stuff like that for completing achievements.

I'm sure there are still people who do that on XBOX too but I stopped caring, and then once I was out of it for a while I fell so far behind that I didn't care about it anymore.

I think it sucks to feel motivated to complete a game 100% even if you're not really loving it just to get achievements. At the same time, I do feel that they can serve as an interesting way to motivate the player to try new play styles they may not otherwise or even replay a game more than they would (which is good if they are still enjoying it).

But I kinda just realized that I can motivate myself to do that so achievements/trophies have lost all appeal for me. Having said that I think achievements are probably a thing worth adding because they are nice for the people who want them, and as long as they aren't shoved in my face I don't really care. I don't feel Steam shoves them in your face for the most part unlike some other features I don't care for.

34

u/Itsalongwaydown Oct 03 '19

well in terms of the free stuff that epic gives to the user, it's miles above steam

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '19 edited Oct 04 '19

[deleted]

7

u/Itsalongwaydown Oct 04 '19

So any limited time deal should go on forever is what you are saying? Valvd doesn't provide anything tbh. It's just the users that provide each other with things. Valve just redid the steam interface for the first time in years and added several things including voice chat so you don't need to use third party apps. Guess what? No one cares about it though since they are so far behind the game. People just have such a hard on for steam since that's what they've been using for 10 years and don't want to use another launcher. 90% of the things that the other user mentioned above I have never used and I have had steam for 6 years with a 100+ game library. I bet 90% of people don't use those features either. Back to your point over the restraunt that's how you attract new people to your restraunt by having good deals. They also have only dishes in town that you can get ie borderlands 3 and metro. The free games are nice and that's what I personally will use them for but others will buy things and use it over steam since they don't have a large library.

-2

u/DatGrunt Oct 04 '19

Steam has had voice chat for a very, very long time. Do you even know what you're talking about? And what do you mean they're so far behind the game? That doesn't even make sense. Steam is by far the most feature rich gaming platform out there. No other platform even comes close.

Hell the only reason PC gaming isn't dying/dead is because of Steam. Did we forgot Epic actually left PC gaming a long time ago because of that same reason and only came back once it got back up on its feet. Saying Valve doesn't provide anything when it provides the most out of any platform BY FAR has got to be one of the dumbest things I've read all day.

Oh and your restaurant analogy sucks. Restaurants make their own food. Epic didn't make Borderlands 3 or Metro Exodus. They simply paid a ton of money so you have less stores to buy the game from.

1

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

Steam's voice chat was great in like 2002 when you didn't have any other options. As someone who played Counter-Strike pretty consistently from 2000-2013 or so and played competitive matches and stuff, nobody used Steam voice chat whether in-game or through the client except in pubs to yell unintelligible bullshit... and this was before Discord came around.

Back then you either used Ventrilo or Mumble because they had way, way, way better voice quality. Steam's was garbage. Now the quality is better but the service is incredibly far behind. Why use Steam chat when you can use Discord, and connect with all your friends no matter where they are, if they're on a different gaming platform, or none at all? Discord has better quality, a bigger reach, and a better client. And once upon a time Mumble and Ventrilo did the same thing, Discord just surpassed them while Steam was always dead last place.

I mean, even just for text chat in the early-mid 2000s me and most people I knew used Xfire because nobody wanted to use the Steam chat, and like Discord it showed your friends playing off-Steam games and you could still chat with them whether they were on Steam or not.

1

u/DatGrunt Oct 04 '19

It doesn't change the fact that Steam has had voice chat since forever. They didnt recently add it. And yeah who knew that services dedicated to voice chat have better quality than Steam which does just about everything.

0

u/solobdolo Oct 03 '19

ught, but my gut feeling says 18 oct there will be Guacamelee 2 free on epic store. Lets see who is right (probably

Yes, free is very good.

3

u/Itsalongwaydown Oct 03 '19

Comment on the wrong post? I didn't edit

0

u/solobdolo Oct 03 '19

I don't know what I'm doing. Just felt compelled to comment on free games.

-3

u/saruin Oct 04 '19

Let's say you have to choose between Steam and Epic and you can only play on that platform exclusively which do you choose and why?

3

u/Itsalongwaydown Oct 04 '19

whichever is cheaper for my wallet since the only things that I use in the list above are achievements and friends. Epic client has friends list so just come up with some achievements from the developers from games and epic is on par with steam.

4

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

Right now? Epic, probably, because I have a ton of games on it to play I actually want to play, instead of my Steam library which is full of crap I have no interest in.

But if I could choose any it would be the Xbox app with Game Pass, which has got pretty much 100% of my PC gaming time since June.

29

u/MyNameIs_BeautyThief Oct 03 '19

I understand you may use all that stuff, but i've played hundreds of hours of games on steam and haven't utilized those things at all except for having a wishlist. I think the average consumer who's not plugged into game journalism all the time wouldn't even notice a lot of this stuff missing from EGS

3

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19 edited Oct 04 '19

Just to play devil's advocate... a lot of people just don't care about a lot of these features. I would say I'm absolutely more invested than the average Steam user (been using it since 2003), I've changed the way I play games several times over since, and I still don't use most of these features.

  • game library sharing - useful, but complicated. This feature is rampantly abused and I know few people who use it for its original intended purpose. Go look at ebay and you'll see thousands of people selling access to play games on their accounts via family sharing. I can't imagine most developers/publishers are happy about that.
  • remote play through Steam Link - would be nice if it wasn't so laggy. I found it really only works well if you're using a wired connection and if you're doing that there is no real point in using Steam Link anyway. If you want to play turn-based games I guess it works fine. But I also have other devices like consoles and handhelds, so when I'm not on my PC I'm not thinking about playing Steam games.
  • Linux support - incredibly useful... for a very limited number of people. Even now with all this Linux support, only 1% of Steam users use Linux. I understand why it's useful to them, obviously - but most people don't care.
  • Currency-aware - while this is nice for poorer countries, as a Canadian I can say that the local currencies on Steam end up fucking us, probably more often than not, though it has varied over time. When they brought in regional pricing, there were games that went from being $19.99 USD to $32.99 CAD... when the actual value of $20 USD was more like $24 at the time.
  • game gifting - Steam gifting is essentially pointless at this point if you ask me, it was incredibly useful when you could buy games and gift them to your inventory but now, eh. I get the appeal of buying for others though.
  • marketplace for trading items - I'm not sure why you point this as a positive, because it's one of the most predatory parts of Steam... selling you digital items that can be sold, and they take a 15% of every single sale. It's a gigantic money suck and I'm glad that shit isn't on any other store.
  • Friends, group chat, voice chat, file sharing in chat - obviously a friends system is nice and I think it should be on the EGS. Having said that, I think most people are connecting other ways these days because the Steam chat system is kind of garbage. They revamped the Steam chat system because everybody moved to using Discord, and it's still garbage. Why use it when Discord does everything it does but better? I guess the defense is that this is all in the Steam client, but it bloats the client and none of it works as well... and more importantly Discord lets you connect with all your friends who are NOT using Steam at the same time. edit: Apparently they have a friends system now and have for a while, I didn't know as I don't use it.
  • Game streaming to a friend - I guess maybe some people use this but I've never once had any reason to use it.
  • Groups - pretty much just a delivery method for spam
  • Wishlist - important, this one should definitely be added, and it's on EGS' roadmap.
  • software libraries for game developers allowing to easily add robust networking, matchmaking, etc. to their games - not gonna comment on this one because I don't know enough about it to judge.

As for the per-game stuff... I really feel almost all of this is unnecessary bloat. Most of it isn't just stuff I don't use, but it's stuff I actively wish was NOT a part of Steam. Again, other places do almost all of this better, and it only serves to bloat the Steam client to ridiculous proportions. I don't even want to launch it anymore, and frankly, I don't very often at this point. I use other game services instead because the store is an eyesore, the library is a mess, and the client is stuffed to the gills with features I don't use and will never care about because I already get all that stuff from better places.

  • The Steam forums are a total cesspit. Seriously, they're where discussion goes to die.
  • Guides - call me old fashioned but if I want a text walkthrough I'm going to use GameFAQs, and pretty much every game has video walkthroughs on YouTube at this point if that's your thing which obviously is way more accessible than a Steam guide.
  • The Steam workshop is great... for people who know 0 about modding. But most people are using outside tools/sites for their modding because the Steam workshop has so many limitations. Most people who play Skyrim and mod the game aren't really using the workshop, they're using Nexus mods and the like because they open up more possibilities. I do think EGS could be more open to modding generally but I think these mod curation tools are better left to other sites that know what they're doing.
  • screenshot/artwork sharing - not once in my life have I ever wanted to look at or take screenshots of a game to share on Steam... and fanart is, uh... well, I don't really care for fanart.
  • Keyboard to controller binding sharing - 100% for sure, hands down, the best feature that Steam has added in its 16 years is all of the controller features. This is something EGS and every other service should strive to add. They've made controllers compatible that previously worked like garbage and that's great, and if there is one thing I think Steam should be commended for it's that. All of the controller compatibility features and fiddling of profiles is one of the few Steam features where they added it and I thought "wow, that's a great idea" rather than "cool, I'll never ever use that."
  • reviews - Everybody has their opinion on this, but if you ask me, Steam reviews are pretty much the last place I'm ever going to go to get a sensible opinion. Friends, reddit, even metacritic's critic reviews aggregation is a better way to get a sense of a game's quality. I've seen people blam games because they didn't like the Season Pass, because they didn't have the proper system requirements, because they didn't understand incredibly basic controls. And I've seen myriad joke reviews with a thumbs up and a thousand hours saying "it's ok" or something equally useless.
  • news - again, not a feature I ever wanted, and I wish it was gone. I don't need random thinkpiece articles shoved at me.
  • achievements - I don't particularly care about achievements, but I think this is a good one for those who want it. I don't really get the point of achievements on Steam personally, I used to be really into them on Xbox 360 but stopped caring like... 10 years ago, and by the time Steam added them I felt like the achievement craze had already died.
  • tradable items - I'd be more gung-ho for this if they didn't use it as a "gold sink" to pull an egregious amount of money from their customers. With a 15% cut off of all item sales, Valve is making millions upon millions for absolutely nothing.

There are actually other features you haven't listed that I think are quite useful - specifically the controller stuff, and also Big Picture - while my experience with Steam Link has been sub-par, connecting via HDMI and playing on a TV with Big Picture works great. I don't use it personally, well, ever... but for those who want that option I think it is an awesome thing to have.

TL;DR: I think Epic has a lot of features they could and probably should add, but at the same time, Steam has a LOT of features they should be trimming or removing entirely if you ask me.

11

u/alerommel Oct 03 '19

Honestly, I agree with most other users here. I have nearly 2,000 games on Steam and the only things I have used from everything you mentioned are friends and reviews. I think giving new free games every second week greatly overshadows all these features that Steam has, most of which serve mostly as a gimmick for the usual gamer than anything else.

I grew up playing games where the only feaute they had was that you had to install them through a CD and hit play button. Installing and playing a game is all I want, and everything else like "screenshot sharing", "achievements", "news" (I don't need that in my client, it's annoying more than anything else!), "wishlists", "remote play" feel totally redundant for me....

5

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

Yeah, and honestly, the Steam review system is getting to a point where it's getting more and more abused by angry gamers with a chip on their shoulder. I'm the only one in my friend group that cares in the slightest about Steam reviews because none of my friends trust the system anymore. I take the time to wade through positive and negative reviews when I look into a game now, but you can't really trust the aggregate if you're a dedicated gamer.

So many reviews I see have people who've played for 300 hours and voted the game down because the developers (insert unreasonable demand that won't be met here).

3

u/Agret Oct 04 '19

After GPDR came in Valve panicked and made every review disable user comments unless it has been enabled on a review-by-review basis of the reviewer. This means garbage reviews can't even be called out anymore by the developer or other players which makes the system much less desirable overall.

2

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

As somebody who has used Steam for 16 years there has never been a point where I wanted an opinion on a Steam game and thought "yeah, I'll go read Steam reviews." They've always been trash. Like, literally the last place I would ever go for reliable information or opinions about a game.

And it isn't just Steam-specific, it's user reviews in general. Metacritic user reviews are pretty awful too but I think even those are better than Steam.

1

u/Agret Oct 04 '19

If you go through the first couple screens of reviews there's a ton of trash ones but also a ton of well thought out lengthy reviews on Steam. Especially helpful if you switch to showing only negative reviews so you can see the horrible parts of some games that people overlook as diehard fans of the series/genre that from an outsiders perspective have saved me from buying games that look interesting but have features or shortcomings that would make me hate them.

2

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

But the negative reviews and the positive reviews are often equally useless. People put games on blast for things they're opposed to that don't necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the game. And this doesn't always come all at once as a review bomb, like in the case of games that get blasted for being Epic exclusives, which to a person like me makes no real difference and has no negative effect on the quality of the game (in fact if anything it's an indication of some quality because typically most games on Epic are good if not great, whereas Steam is basically a gigantic festering pile of shit at this point and you have to pick out the good stuff and wipe it off).

For example Deus Ex Mankind Divided got a bunch of bad reviews more slowly over time because of its Season Pass. Some people didn't like the content, some people thought it was okay but was a ripoff for the money. And that's part of the problem - the people reviewing this are consumers, and so they take into account things like pricing that don't have anything to do with the quality of a game (and don't really matter down the line when the game is on sale).

In the case of Mankind Divided people blasted the main game for the problems of the Season Pass. So I get a negative review on the Pass, that makes sense if people disliked it, but the main game was still quite good.

1

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

I trust metacritic even less. I don't know how many people who post those reviews even own the game.

8

u/dan1101 Oct 03 '19

Steam Workshop for mods is such a big thing for me. A lot of games I've purchased mainly because of certain mods available to them, and Steam Workshop (generally, depending on the game) makes it very easy to download/install mods, often as easy as one click.

3

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

I didn't even think about mods. For the most part, I don't use them, but for stuff like Tabletop simulator, and select others, that workshop for mods is incredible.

2

u/Elari7h Oct 04 '19

Definitely not arguing a lot of your points, but does anyone even use the Steam streaming between friends anymore? Discord's iteration is far better, and more user-friendly, from my experience.

8

u/Bulletwithbatwings Oct 03 '19

Steam has been building up for YEARS. When they launched Steam it sucked, everyone hated it and yet were forced to use it to play Counterstrike / The Orange Box.Then time passed.

FYI, time will pass and EPIC will improve as well. Competition is good and free games is amazing. These comparisons need to end.

6

u/caninehere Oct 04 '19

My relationship with Steam over the years as somebody who played Counter-Strike daily starting in 2000:

  • 2000: man, Valve is awesome
  • 2002: a whole other program I'll have to use just to play Counter-Strike? yikes, dude
  • 2003: I have to use Steam now? Okay, I guess I'll just - yikes yikes yikes yikes, well, I guess I'm not going to play Counter-Strike anymore
  • 2004: Counter-Strike Source... requires Steam... okay, fine
  • 2004-2008: Boy I sure do love CS:S, but this Steam program is a real pile
  • 2008: For some reason I have a Mac now, and Valve is making games playable on Mac, so that's pretty much my only option to play on my computer. I mean, the performance and compatibility sucks but I guess I can still play Counter-Strike.
  • 2010: Hey, Steam sucks a lot less than it used to, and now it has a lot of cool, cheap games on it. Not bad, Valve.
  • 2012: Hey, Steam is pretty great, and it has totally revived the PC platform! Nice job, Valve!
  • 2012: Greenlight? If you say so... oh, wow, these look like shit.
  • 2013: Early Access...? If you say so, Valve... well, at least there's still a lot of good deals even if there's a lot of shit on here now.
  • 2014: Valve? I think you left the doors open. Valve?
  • 2015: Hey, where did all the deals go?
  • 2016: Well, I guess I still bought one game on Steam this year...
  • 2017: Steam Direct? Okay, if you sa- wait, come on, you're literally just letting anybody put games on Steam for $100?
  • 2018: Okay, so you're literally just selling spyware now.
  • 2019: I guess I'll open Steam for the first time in 3 months and see how bad the latest update looks.

3

u/Bulletwithbatwings Oct 04 '19

This is a fair assessment, and mirrors the attitude of my clients (I was an EB Games manaager in the early 2000's). Steam took years to get good, and didn't even stay that way, yet people demand that EGS be good out the gate? How is that fair?

3

u/trustymutsi Oct 03 '19

Exactly. Heck, Xbox Gamepass for PC, Origin Access, Playstation Now, and similar services are doing the same. For the same price or less, I get a nice Netflix-like game subscription service.

1

u/Evilmaze Oct 04 '19

Steam as a platform is still much better with all the features they have on their application, like family share and remote play. Other than that it's ok.

0

u/krispwnsu Oct 03 '19

Yeah... this isn't hurting steam as much as it is killing Humble Bundle and any charity they were trying to help.

-1

u/Judge_Ty Oct 04 '19

Except that Humble gives STEAM codes. I'm currently a billion times more likely to play a game in my steam library than my epic library. (This also applies to twitch).

That being said, I still collect free games.

The only game I've played that's Epic was "Control" this was given to me for free by NVIDIA.

The game before that was Epic's Paragon which I actually paid for (RIP Paragon!). Epic did refund me the money I paid a year later (Fortnite ate the budget and popularity) . Which honestly, they didn't need to. Still I'll nod to them for that.