Thread by @dsmart

That we're still having this discussion almost three months later, shows how polarized gamers are. But most of us are just being repetitive now I think.

"Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, comments on current and future Epic Store exclusive games"

dsogaming.com/news/tim-sween…

Threads like this one on Reddit - not the disjointed rage-tweets - bring a lot of clarity to the issue, and illustrates how most gamers (a legendary tribal bunch) feel about it.

reddit.com/r/pcgaming/com…

I think that each time @TimSweeneyEpic says anything, it just mostly falls on deaf ears; while serving to fan the flames even more because some gamers have literally dug in, and there's no budging.

They think they're mad now? Wait for the upcoming AAA exclusive announcements

It's amid this dissent, that issues such as the recent Steam user data access, as well as the belief that Epic is totally giving (it's rubbish ofc) data to Tencent, take center stage in the opposition of store exclusives (which really is a non-issue).

Back in Jan when the furor first erupted into a frenzy, I had a rather extensive thread outlying the general position shared by myself and lots of gamers.

It's 52 tweets deep. Go grab a sandwich.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1090613972607356928

I took it one step further (46 tweet thread) when I explored the industry side of the coin.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1091020…

This latest furor on Reddit over a new statement by Tim, hilariously outlines precisely the comment that I made about the review system about how gamers aren't going to suddenly abandon their communities to go an rage on a unified platform.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1092044744174247937

Amid the noise over Steam user data access (which I opined on below), the dissent and outcry over EGS has not only now gone beyond the store's premise, but directly into baseless accusations which have all but derailed (via bad PR) meaningful discourse

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1106516489178398720

Suddenly we went from discussing one of the industry's most respected and valuable developers entering the competitive field, to baseless and unfounded accusations of everything from misconduct, to illegal activity - and everything in between. With ZERO merit or basis in fact.

As a decades long industry vet & gamer, having to straddle the line that divides loyalty & success, it's more of a "how do I say this?" than "what do I say - if anything?" issue that most don't even want to deal with because of how our industry stifles meaningful discourse

Amid the furor over financial incentives for exclusives - a very valid concern for gamers everywhere, yet another game launcher, most of completely lost sight of the big picture and what it means in the long-term. Let me explain.

Pull up a chair.

It is a fact that had Valve not seeded Steam so many years ago with it's own blockbuster games - which were exclusives (even the retails boxes btw) - it wouldn't have gained the momentum that it did. I wrote about this back in 2009. Who knew?

gamasutra.com/blogs/DerekSma…

What's happening right now with EGS, is precisely what was happening back then. Except, back then, the publishers (who got righteously trounced while sleeping at the digital distro wheel) where busy treating Steam as a competitor instead of a partner and collaborator.

And they had ever reason to do so because Valve went from being a developer to a full-blown publisher. Then they started inviting everyone to the party. How? By reaching out to exclusive developers & publishers whose content they felt would help build Steam.

Before you knew it, other stores came (e.g. Stardock, IGN, GameTap, GameStop, Metaboli etc), and then died along the way due to lack of content - which is what yields exposure.

In Q4/2018, even as large publishers decided to stop giving Valve a large portion of their digital revenue, instead opting to build their own stores (and delivery apps), yet another developer, Epic, decided to enter the fray.

With the runaway success of Fortnite, not to mention the truck full of Dollars that Tencent parked at their front door, it really shouldn't have come as a surprise.

But that was in 2013!

polygon.com/2013/3/21/4131…

Valve had Half Life, and EA's massive and robust marketing machine.

While not much is known about Valve's investors (besides its owners) - if any - investors don't give away free money. They expect LOTS of money in return.

So Valve grew Steam, while treating game dev as an afterthought. I mean, you'd think Half-Life 3 would be a thing by now. But no, the Artifact travesty aside, those slackers haven't released a game since Obama was barely 2 yrs into an 8 yr term.

store.steampowered.com/bundle/232/Val…

And they've - literally - blown money on much-hyped and failed ventures like SteamVR, SteamBox, SteamLink and God only knows what else.

But the one thing they never let up on, was relentlessly building Steam into a gaming community and distribution powerhouse for devs.

They did that with astonishing financial investment that - to this day - is completely unmatched. To the extent that it has become so massive, that they can't even handle the trials and tribulations that come with such growth. From the community toxicity to product discovery

FF to 2018 when we got word that Epic went out and raised $1.25b in new funding. In this biz, that's a LOT of money. Take a look at the players in that round.

investopedia.com/news/how-tence…

Epic was already financially secure before they even went and got $330M from Tencent in 2013.

Then, 5 yrs later, they did it again.

What on Earth do you think they're going to do with the money?

What do you think they told these investors they were going to do with it?

Do you think they needed external funding to build games? Or to even build a digital store?

I mean, the answer to the latter should be obvious seeing as they released EGS as if it was a weekend science experiment - with major (search, sorting etc) features missing.

When a competing company goes out and builds a massive financial war chest, it's for one thing - and one thing only. Going to war in a highly competitive battleground.

In this case, the war is with Steam.

A war in which, by all accounts, they stand ZERO chance of EVER winning

You could take one look at Netflix vs Amazon Video, and draw comparisons to Steam vs EGS.

It's more about disruption, than it is about winning.

But how does disruption yield financial rewards if you can't aspire to beat the competition?

"If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near" - Sun Tzu

Using a massive war chest in a bid to enter a highly competitive field can be achieved in many ways. Most commonly used? By the competitor, or it's closest competitor. Problem solved.

Obviously Epic can't buy Valve - even if Gabe was looking for a buyer. And Steam's competitors might as well be the comparison between Whole Foods and your local bodega in terms of relevance.

This is where that war chest comes in. The industry is highly competitive to the extent that the difference between making .70c and .88c on the Dollar is actually what we're now debating - with a straight face.

Math is hard - but no dev in their right mind is going to do an exclusive deal on EGS @ .88c on the Dollar, while ignoring the fact that even at .70c on the Dollar, even a mediocre game is likely to make more money on Steam than on EGS.

But when you're a publisher like Ubisoft, you can afford to do an exclusive on EGS for The Division 2 - without batting an eyelid - because the numbers don't lie if it's a popular game.

That Epic is using their war chest to seed EGS with exclusive (and highly anticipated) content, while offering more royalties to devs and publishers, should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. It's what the money was raised to do.

This was never about beating Steam. It's about disrupting it enough to carve out a portion of a multi-billion Dollar industry. Starving Steam of content isn't going to kill it. In fact, it's akin to Disney pulling Marvel content off Netflix. They'll survive it.

But even as you ponder paying Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, DCU, CBS et al monthly subs to watch exclusive content, so too gamers are busy raging about having to install another f*cking game launcher. Because, you know, priorities and all that.

There is absolutely NOTHING unique about the Steam v EGS fiasco because that's how competition works. And no matter how many times Tim Sweeney has to go on the record outlining *precisely* what their goal is, very few give a sh*t because of tribalism.

I mean it's like you running into a guy on the street who tells you he's going to punch you in face and steal your wallet. He said he's going to do it, and how. But you're more concerned about not having money for lunch.

That's basically where we are. All this other stuff about data going to Tencent, another app launcher, exclusives are bad for gaming etc - are all just noise; because sitting down and considering how good competition is for gaming, is too much work.

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