Gearbox Randy Pitchford: Epic did not press it's advantage.

Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
This is hilarious.

Borderlands 3 released exclusively on EGS, and Randy Pitchford defended his decision by saying that Steam was a dying platform.

Fast forward to 2024, Borderlands 4 isn't announced as EGS launch exclusive. And according to Randy, Epic didn't press on their "advantage" they had. He also claimed that EGS would become a completely different store within a year. Yeah, they now have achievements in some games and a shopping cart.

 
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I like the guy fighting the fight but damn he says stupid stuff.

edit - dammit I was thinking of Tim Sweeney.
 
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I'm guessing he thought Epic would have dumped way more effort into EGS to compete with Steam, and by kissing Tim Epic's ass, it would pay dividends for him in the long run. Unfortunately, Tim seems to be insane and wants to sue companies with way deeper pockets than his own.
 
winjer said:
He sure bet on the wrong horse.
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I don't know if he was just being controversial, but I'm genuinely baffled by the kind of stuff people in high positions say. They're supposed to be smarter than the rest of us, yet the gross incompetence they often display is nothing short of mind-boggling. For instance, saying Steam is a dying platform, fucking what? Or Don Mattrick telling people to go buy the Xbox 360 if they don't have an internet connection. The whole decision of attempting to make the Xbox One a media center and online only device was aggressively stupid.

Powerful and ostensibly intelligent people had to vet those decisions, but even Gaffers saw from 10 miles away that they were foolish. How are dudes paid in the millions incapable of seeing what's right there?
 
Steam has clear monopoly in the market and there should be some competition. I am all for more stores if they offer good discounts and features.
 
Gaiff said:
Powerful and ostensibly intelligent people had to vet those decisions, but even Gaffers saw from 10 miles away that they were foolish. How are dudes paid in the millions incapable of seeing what's right there?
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It all seems to be about who you know, not what you know. Some of the biggest CEOs are absolutely thick as planks of wood.
 
I think this is more a publisher decision. Take-Two tried out EGS exclusivity with Borderlands 3 and Outer Worlds. Both games sales suffered as a result and they nipped that in the bud.

Edit: Tiny Tina's Wonderland too.
 
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Gaiff said:
I don't know if he was just being controversial, but I'm genuinely baffled by the kind of stuff people in high positions say. They're supposed to be smarter than the rest of us, yet the gross incompetence they often display is nothing short of mind-boggling. For instance, saying Steam is a dying platform, fucking what? Or Don Mattrick telling people to go buy the Xbox 360 if they don't have an internet connection. The whole decision of attempting to make the Xbox One a media center and online only device was aggressively stupid.

Powerful and ostensibly intelligent people had to vet those decisions, but even Gaffers saw from 10 miles away that they were foolish. How are dudes paid in the millions incapable of seeing what's right there?
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Overconfidence does stupid things to one's mind.
 
I remember all of the memes when BL3 launched. They were some good times.
f7032i0cvtv21.png


I'm sure there will be more for 4.

Also whew boy at Epic ever even having an advantage to "press".
 
Randy is a grifter. However, if anyone could have challenged Steam, Epic is on the shortlist. He's right in that they didn't push as hard as they could have, and they chose shitty fights to pursue.

Valve still needs a viable competition on PC for Steam. Epic still has the opportunity to be that. They need someone other than Sweeney calling the shots for the storefront.
 
tusharngf said:
Steam has clear monopoly in the market and there should be some competition. I am all for more stores if they offer good discounts and features.
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I am all for competition. What I don't stand for is the exclusivity deals that Epic uses to try to be "competitive". What they need to do is improve their platform, not try to force people to use their platform by holding content they enjoy hostage.

Additionally, if you are going to compete with Steam, you should have a solid roadmap that shows you are getting the features Steam already has before you try to take them on. For example, it took years for Epic to have a shopping cart feature. That is absolutely insane. There is no other storefront out there that has better features than Steam (someone correct me if I am wrong), and no other storefront out there has the same features as Steam.

If you rush into a battle armed only with an Airsoft gun, the odds of you surviving aren't great.
 
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"They didn't press their advantage!"

Translation: "they didn't give me a shit ton of cash to sacrifice 99% of my games sales this time."
 
Lol. Same song and dance as usual.

Valve will never have a competitor because none of these dog shit companies actually want be a competitor.

Which is fine at the moment as valve continues to actually put effort into Steam while the rest continue to show their ass.
 
Extremely hypocritical that EGS gives more of their sales money to game developers than any other store front and yet people bitch and hate on it constantly.

If people ACTUALLY cared about the success of studios they would be purchasing all their games there.
 
I bought B3 on the Series X because it was on Epic Gamestore, Now I don't have B3 because I sold the Series X.
It's all your fault Randy.

Edit-I think they might have given B3 away for free on the Epic store. I can't remember.
 
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tusharngf said:
Steam has clear monopoly in the market and there should be some competition. I am all for more stores if they offer good discounts and features.
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Other stores and launchers are so far behind. Whenever they start offering a third of what steam does, ill check them out.
 
What advantage does the EGS have to press? The better revenue cut for publishers? The exclusivity deals for the publishers? Wow... uh... Randy is really telling on himself about the only thing he cared about. We all knew this but glad he spelt it out. Fuck the barebones features for the customers.
 
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tusharngf said:
Steam has clear monopoly in the market and there should be some competition. I am all for more stores if they offer good discounts and features.
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Dude, there are so many alternative launchers. People just don't care about them.

It's like saying Tesla has a monopoly in Norway, just because everyone drives them where I live. I guess people are just happy with their car.
 
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One thing idiots all seem to have in common is that they screech about "muh competition" without even understanding what competition really means.

The mere existence of an alternative is not competition.
 
The more gaming CEOs get exposed for being idiot business men, the more it starts to make sense why Bobby Kotick was paid so well. Bobby really was the best man for the job. It's like these people are trying to go bankrupt.
 
Let's not jump to conclusions here. Epic is just being very methodical about this. Sure, it took them another two years after Randy's tweet to implement a shopping cart, but maybe that's just because they wanted to ensure it was the right shopping cart for their brand. All the other features and improvements they've added in the years since really showcase their ability to compete and innovate in this space. Just don't ask me what they are.
 
GHG said:
One thing idiots all seem to have in common is that they screech about "muh competition" without even understanding what competition really means.

The mere existence of an alternative is not competition.
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If Epic Store became more popular, all PC games would be cheaper.
 
Loomy said:
Steam doesn't qualify as a monopoly.
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Technically neither did Internet Explorer in the late 1990s when Microsoft got their weiner smacked. They got hit for "monopolistic practices" which are still a violation of antitrust.

To use a paraphrase of Gamezone's argument, there were plenty of browsers other than Internet Explorer, people just chose to use IE. But was it really a choice or were they subtly pushed into it at the expense of others?

I imagine a competent lawyer with a large enough warchest could make a similar case against Valve/Steam. The existence of other launchers and storefronts doesn't mitigate potential antitrust behavior. How many people "choose" Steam because there's simply no other choice?
 
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Generic said:
If Epic Store became more popular, all PC games would be cheaper.
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The fuck are you talking about?

Go here:

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Where are all the deals for cheaper games on the Epic Store? In most cases you can't even shop around if you want to own something on the Epic Store.

What a moronic take.
 
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What does he mean by "....real....competition"? To make games cheaper for the consumer? Fucking release the game at a lower price then. You're the man in charge.
 
Tiny tina's shitshow was such a fucking shitgame i am not surprised at all epic said fuck you to his offer
 
Nydius said:
Technically neither did Internet Explorer in the late 1990s when Microsoft got their weiner smacked. They got hit for "monopolistic practices" which are still a violation of antitrust.

To use a paraphrase of Gamezone's argument, there were plenty of browsers other than Internet Explorer, people just chose to use IE. But was it really a choice or were they subtly pushed into it at the expense of others?

I imagine a competent lawyer with a large enough warchest could make a similar case against Valve/Steam. The existence of other launchers and storefronts doesn't mitigate potential antitrust behavior. How many people "choose" Steam because there's simply no other choice?
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What monopolistic practices is Valve engaged in? Epic charges developers/publishers a lower fee to put games on their platform, so Valve isn't using their market share to undermine their prices in an effort to keep Epic from succeeding (although the reverse is certainly true). Valve does not engage in exclusivity behavior, so they aren't using their market share to keep games off of Epic (although the reverse is certainly true).

There is always going to be a biggest person in the room. Valve is the biggest person in the PC storefront room. There is nothing wrong with being the biggest person in the room, but there is something wrong with actively trying to prevent others from becoming as big or bigger than you. I don't know of a single instance in which Valve is using their market share to strongarm the competition. There are no monopolistic practices that Valve is engaging in that I am aware of.

The biggest difference between Epic and Valve is ownership:
  • Valve is run by an actual gamer who loves video games.
    • Gabe wants the industry to succeed, but he doesn't want that to come at the cost of gamers (insofar as he refuses to engage in exclusivity practices because that limits choice.
    • Gabe has grown the Steam storefront massively, and provided a haven for people to keep gaming guides and discussion.
      • The Steam community can upload Guides to help with issues.
      • The Steam community can discuss every game on the Steam platform.
      • Non-Steam gamers use Steam forums for discussion and troubleshooting.
  • Epic is run by a rat-faced cuck who doesn't give a shit if gamers are disenfranchised as long as he makes money.
    • Tim Sweeny engaged in exclusivity practices, artificially limiting gamers' choice on where to buy content.
    • Tim Sweeny blocks people on social media for calling him out for his behavior.
    • The Epic Games Store took forever to get achievements and a shopping cart despite Epic making money hand-over-foot from Unreal Engine and Fortnite.
    • Epic does not have a community the way that Steam does, nor have they invested into improving their storefront beyond adding features that should have existed since launch (achievements and a shopping cart).
Epic games sucks, and it is because their owner has no vision for the industry, but rather a simple, narrow vision for his own profit.
 
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Gaiff said:
I don't know if he was just being controversial, but I'm genuinely baffled by the kind of stuff people in high positions say. They're supposed to be smarter than the rest of us, yet the gross incompetence they often display is nothing short of mind-boggling. For instance, saying Steam is a dying platform, fucking what? Or Don Mattrick telling people to go buy the Xbox 360 if they don't have an internet connection. The whole decision of attempting to make the Xbox One a media center and online only device was aggressively stupid.

Powerful and ostensibly intelligent people had to vet those decisions, but even Gaffers saw from 10 miles away that they were foolish. How are dudes paid in the millions incapable of seeing what's right there?
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Is this a joke? Steve Jobs famously said: "You will realize very fast that people above you are not smarter than you".

Because they are not.

They had more opportunities and more luck than you but by vast majority they are not smarter. Look at Phil Spencer or Phil Hamilton.
 
Smiggs said:
I'm guessing he thought Epic would have dumped way more effort into EGS to compete with Steam, and by kissing Tim Epic's ass, it would pay dividends for him in the long run. Unfortunately, Tim seems to be insane and wants to sue companies with way deeper pockets than his own.
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I said this in another thread


Puscifer said:
I want competition in this space but Epic has to come with the big guns, when you don't even have features of steams early years wtf are you guys doing as a company? After all these years I bought Alan Wake 2 only with the coupon that let me get the complete edition for 35 bucks with the DLC.

Said it before and I'll say it again, if they put even a 1/3 of that money they put into whining about Apple in federal court into a User Experience team they'd be a lot better off.
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LazyParrot said:
Let's not jump to conclusions here. Epic is just being very methodical about this. Sure, it took them another two years after Randy's tweet to implement a shopping cart, but maybe that's just because they wanted to ensure it was the right shopping cart for their brand. All the other features and improvements they've added in the years since really showcase their ability to compete and innovate in this space. Just don't ask me what they are.
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That's right, Epic is playing the long game here. I mean, it's only been, eh, five or six years since EGS came out, that's barely a blip in the grand scheme of things. Sweeney doesn't want to show his hand too early, see?
 
Nydius said:
Technically neither did Internet Explorer in the late 1990s when Microsoft got their weiner smacked. They got hit for "monopolistic practices" which are still a violation of antitrust.

To use a paraphrase of Gamezone's argument, there were plenty of browsers other than Internet Explorer, people just chose to use IE. But was it really a choice or were they subtly pushed into it at the expense of others?

I imagine a competent lawyer with a large enough warchest could make a similar case against Valve/Steam. The existence of other launchers and storefronts doesn't mitigate potential antitrust behavior. How many people "choose" Steam because there's simply no other choice?
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The reason IE got hit with antitrust suit was because there were concerns Microsoft was making it hard/impossible for other companies to compete on Windows. A platform Microsoft owned.

Antitrust cases have been brought against Valve. They've also been mostly dismissed. There were also accusations of Valve stopping developers from having full control over how they price their games across multiple platforms, but those have apparently not risen to the level that the DOJ/FTC or has felt the need to step in yet.
 
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