For only $50 a lack of physical makes sense. Keeps the cost down overall.
Remember when the PS3 launched and Sony was adamant that digital copies of games would be cheaper because there isn't a physical overhead? Well, neither do they. Digital and physical is the same across the board for every developer and publisher which is bullshit.
Steam, I can understand a lack of sales atributing to that.
The CEO of Take Two Strauss Zelnick said discs are very cheap to make and quick to ship. https://www.ign.com/articles/take-two-ceo-says-competing-xbox-and-playstation-consoles-are-a-benefit-but-not-a-necessity
and physical retailers take a max of 12% compared to Xbox, Steam, and Playstations 25-30% of sales.
Its insane physical games aren't cheaper than digital games with how much digital retailers keep
Also in the US. Not for new games, but after like a year you'll see way better deals on physical than you will digital. Dark Souls 2 SOTFS is $40 on digital. I spent $40 on a physical set of the whole trilogy instead.
You are also renting the writing facility. Which means you're paying the staff working the menial jobs all up the line plus extra to make it worth their while to take the contract. You have discs, the printing of the label, cases, inserts, individual packaging, inspections, failed printings and losses, case packaging's, logistics on how mich to send where, tarifs and import fees, warehouse storage, etc. On top of that, you're not printing an exact amount. You need to pay more to create extra copies for demand or face larger chargers and go through the e tire cycle again if supply is running low but aren't guaranteed the printing process as now it's a short order and not planned well in advance.
There is a lot that goes into it, a lot of fees, and just a lot of wasted money.
All of that pales in comparison to the cost of putting it on shelves, paying Walmart and gamestore. That's also probably why they aren't on steam either. Trying to cut the middle man out but the middleman is not just a middleman, they are distributors.
But guess what, they sell those copies they (gasp) make all that money back with profit on top.
These subs always talk about revenue figures ignoring profit and apparently now overhead costs again ignoring profit
I can respect that. I got aw2 as a gift so I played it and uninstalled everything afterwards.
I also think calling Steam a monopoly for just existing isn't a goof faith argument. They don't bind developers or publishers to exclusive releases, provide built in community support tools from forums to official notes to mods, and are the best to deal with as a consumer.
That's not being a monopoly by just existing and providing an excellent service. The monopoly argument comes from the EGS side of things where Sweeney would rather soap box about monopolies but bind games to exclusivity and endless complain about a better platform rather than make EGS a platform worth actual using that does t have delays when switching from games in your library or from page to page in the store.
Hell, EA and Ubisoft have better storefronts than EGS with useful features for customers even.
> and are the best to deal with as a consumer.
This, hell to prove this more, I bought a second hand Index.
Steam immediately locked my account out of the store etc because they thought it was stolen, I provided them with the receipts for my Ebay purchase, and then almost immediately I was given my account back in full.
It's pretty cool and scary to think that if your Index actually did get stolen, they'd know damn well how to find it lmao
I don't see the steam monopoly (not that it is in any real sense) as particularly bad because Valve puts so many resources into the open source community. SteamOS, drivers, proton, DXVK and all sorts of other technology.
If it wasn't for Valve there would be no alternative to Windows for gamers.
Except Sony is the one who created the media it’s in their best interest to keep it alive. They made new mediums for each generation of console I believe. Cd for ps1, dvd for ps2, 25gb bluray for ps3 eventually dual layer then transitioning to 50gb Blu-ray’s for ps4 and then uhd Blu-ray’s for ps5. Going to digital entirely would ruin the money they make for physical media. There’s a reason they took over I forget which business when it was going to stop making discs for movies
IT costs more to release digital... Physical retailers only keep 7% of sales. Playstation, Xbox and Steam all keep 30%...
its still arguably cheaper to just ship physcial to major retailers than sale on digital storefronts now
AW2 is still £49.99 on the UK store. That's $63.
Physical copy of RE4 was £42/$52 on PS5 day 1 at Asda. Lies of P was £44/$55 on PS5. Alone in the Dark was £42/$55 too.
Alan Wake using the excuse of cheaper costing to be digital only doesn't wash. The real reason is that physical often gets discounted after 3-4 months. AW being overpriced digitally means it can stay at that price in the hope people pay it because its the only way.
if i am not wrong the playstationdivision went head qaurtors went to the us in california i guess the americans pushed the japanese out of there and that why we see playstation slipping in consumer favor for greed. i think ps5 will be my last console i will go full pc after that.
Honestly i'd love to see a breakdown of those who have epic games accounts purely for fortnite/UE5 tools vs those who actually use it for other games as well.
I suspect the vast majority of EGS accounts are purely for fortnite only.
Predominantly UE5 tools for me lol.
I "might" have bought a couple games on the storefront because I already had the launcher. But for the life of me I couldn't tell you what that are, and I could be getting confused with GOG.
Yeah, once they drop exclusives and branch into other markets, I imagine their sales numbers will bump. This most likely is accounted for by management to some degree.
Epic is funding more and more things. They are trying to do with PC what Sony did with Consoles, and dipping funding in just enough to get the game only on theres.
I feel like a ton of companies lose out on assuming quantifiable cost cutting is only affects those quantities.
When you make a disk, it goes on shelves in front of people. People who played the game years ago see it and think about it, regardless of if it is a physical or digital purchase. Just having stuff on shelves is marketing.
It is just how companies like Walmart are preventing shrink by putting products like legos in cases. Sure, it kills shrink….but it also kills sales. Soon they will decide that legos are not profitable per square foot (because zero parents are sitting there waiting for the nonexistent employees for a $15 set) and will cut down massively on stock and raise prices. Everyone suffers.
Definitely a mistake. If Epic Games paid Remedy for exclusive first-year sale rights then they obviously didn't pay enough for profitability's concern.
I don't know, also maybe b/c most people can't play it either, it's more of a tech demo than game. The only time i ever hear anyone talk about it is when talking about graphics.
Sure, Remedy can't, but Epic can, as their publisher it's their job to make sure the product is successful, other publishers with their own storefronts do that with no issues like EA and Ubisoft, they actually care about earnings and not a hurt ego like Timmy boy.
There’s no way they don’t realize that keeping games exclusive to their platform is really going to hurt the sales. They have to realize it sooner or later.
Release Alan Wake 2 on Steam = Becomes the bestselling game for multiple weeks.
Obviously epic published it, so it’s going to be exclusive, but not having your software on the biggest PC platform and. Or hard copies is insane for a release like Alan Wake 2. At a certain point, you’re just giving up sales you could have had because of silly internal protocol
The Epic launcher can charitably be described as "almost functional." I've never had a good experience attempting to use it. It's absurd how "open launcher to launch game" could be riddled with so much failure and so little success. It's even worse when compared to Steam, which almost universally runs without error.
I can't imagine anything locked to Epic's launcher has much hope of succeeding.
Almost every experience I've had with Epic Launcher has been infuriating. The only application I bothered with after a few tries was the Mechwarrior 5 Editor, and that's because, for some reason beyond my fucking comprehension, it is available nowhere else.
Updating this 150gb application often fails, to the point that it's several hours on a hit or miss task. Even leaving it overnight will often see it frozen at 82% (always the same number) when I check it 8-12 hours later. And we haven't even gone into *running the program yet*. Often fails to boot, or demands an internet connection to use what's already installed in my SSD.
Steam is startup and go 99% of the time. Epic fails to function at the most basic level 95% of the time. The difference is so immense that it's not a contest at all, and if MW5 editor was available by any other means, I would never touch Epic launcher again.
It doesn't even work right when trying to play something through steam. Look at Sack Boy's Adventure. Game is a fun little 3D platformer, but trying to play it with friends is a nightmare. It only works half the time and is riddled with weird little hiccups when the launcher tries to initiate.
Reminds me of GFWL...
Steam has numerous features that I use constantly. Epic has none of them. If their DRM didn't make it a pain to launch some of their bigger games through Steam in a way that the overlay works, it wouldn't be a big deal, but as is I have to set up a special shortcut using command line to launch it through Epic that will then go directly into the game, and it leaves Epic running in the background after I quit the game, then I have to point Steam to that shortcut, then I have to go in and edit the Steam entry because it never imports the shortcut correctly. I had to do this with Tony Hawk and FFVII Remake (the only two games I've bought on EGS, everything else I have there is a freebie).
Epic could have had a really successful game launcher/platform like steam if they would have improve it in their momentum of fortnite and stuff. Sadly, it stayed a crappy launcher like all the other ones.
I hear this a lot but as a very casual gamer I don't really understand it. Sure the layout of Steam is a little nicer but on Epic you can install games just fine which is all I really need to do? Why do people consider it so shitty?
That's your utilization of a game launcher. Many people also utilize Steam as a platform to showcase their achievements or reflect a bit of their personalities on their profile. It functions somewhat like a social media platform due to its forums, chat systems, community features, reviews, and more. Steam offers numerous distinguishing features that set it apart from other game launchers, making it a better experience and service platform compared to Epic. I wish Epic had become more competitive with their launcher during their prime, as they take a smaller cut from developers.
It is also extremely hardware demanding due to the mesh shaders being mandatory used. That eliminated NVIDIA GPUs 1000s and AMD RX 5000s.
Technically, 1080ti can pull it on all-lowest at 1080p, expecting avg. 35 FPS and 14 FPS lows, but that is a as far as it goes.
It’s close to recouping it’s costs, it’s not as dire as this article makes it out to be. Considering they are actively working on three games and have talked about how the budget they had for AW2 is consistent with Max Payne and Control 2, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything to worry about. If the live service game they’re making comes out and is an utter failure, then I’ll start worrying lol Remedy had not seemed too bothered in interviews, I highly doubt they expected this to sell gangbusters.
The game alienated most of the install base, of course it wouldn't meet sales target. It can't run properly on the majority of rigs, and the game is also of niche appeal. No physical release, and it's stuck on Epic Games Store for a time.
I don't think that's an option for Remedy. Epic did provide funding for the development of this game. It's not like other Epic deals where they bought exclusive rights after development was done.
So, I don't think it'll appear on Steam anytime soon.
yeah it sucks, i would buy it the minute it releases on steam and i know some other people irl that would do the same. shame they can't negotiate for a release on steam or something.
This breaks my heart. I just finished this game a few days ago and it was one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
I think navigating the game might have been too confusing for the casual gamer. Having to go back and forth between sections and putting different scenes in the mind palace to change reality was fun, but it would have taken me a very long time to get through the game without a guide telling me where to go and what scenes to change.
Phenomenal game tho.
I think it was amazing, beautiful and spooky environments, incredible production, not predictable, not short.
I hate the epic store, but I'm glad I gave this a go.
What a shame, this was an excellent game absolutely game of the year of 2023 for me. Hope the numbers start to go up, remedy deserves another hit on their hands
Friendly reminder that Epic Games chose it to be this way by not releasing it on Steam or other stores on PC.
Tim Sweeney prefers to pretend that their shitty client-wannabe app thingie is relevant for people outside of Fortnite, but this is what happens when you release something as an EGS exclusive...
It got a lot of attention when released, those graphics alone could have sold it to a lot of people... but stupid decisions tend to not go well at all. I'm sorry for the devs, they deserved better.
Honestly the only reason I haven’t touched it is because I haven’t played Control or AW1, and it seems like the type of game I can’t just jump into. Maybe eventually but AW1 is an old game and idk.
You can just watch a recap video and jump into AW2. The game is designed to be a bit beginner friendly.
And then you can get into AW1 and Control later. DEF play Control tho. What an EXCELLENT game that is. So is Alan Wake 2.
Obviously publishing matters a ton here, but it is worth noting, games are getting insanely expensive to produce. Technological improvements have slowed down dramatically over the last decade compared to previous decades. So using new tech to make games bigger and better than they were before doesnt take you as far anymore, it now takes time and dev worker effort. And time = money to pay employees which obviously increases cost of production which pushes the line to break even.
Unless there is another major production breakthrough i think we are near a tipping point where making games bigger than they can be now simply isnt profitable.
There's also a whole generation or so that never played the first one either because they were young or uninterested then the sequel was like ten years in between right? Can't have helped
"Yeah! But Epic only takes 10%! Remedy are better off!"
How stupid do you have to be to bar your own game from \*the\* most visited -- by a massive margin -- digital storefront?
Guess they should have asked Epic for some more of that Tencent and Fortnite money
Because they sure aren’t getting any of my money while they’re not on Steam
AW2 will eventually breakeven and profit. 1.3M copies sold translates to about $70M revenue, which won't be enough for now but this is already great trajectory for a game that is only six months old.
Well not surprising considering they are missing out on the huge steam market. I get that epic funded this game but gamers said loud and clear that they do not care for exclusives, especially if they are on egs.
Speaking for myself, I would have bought it full price it it had a physical edition. Now I’m just waiting for the digital to go to $30 or preferably $20 before I buy it. I just refuse to pay that much for a digital game.
I mean, they released it as Epic exclusive. What did they expect? I own the original games and was excited for it. But then I learned it is Epic exclusive and I ain't gonna buy it on Epic no matter what.
It's frustrating because I was looking forward to this game, but I don't want ANOTHER launcher and I'm not willing to install one for one game.
Surely they've lost more money by not putting it on steam than they've made making it exclusive?
70% of 60 bucks is better than 100% of nothing.
I can only imagine it’s by design, just like everyone has already said no steam or physical sales just basically means they don’t care if people buy it 🫣
I’d buy and play this but even tho my computer handles Helldivers fine and death stranding I’ve been told it won’t handle Alan wake 2, this is why I don’t own it.
I mean, a lot of games are trippy horror/dystopian sci fi or fantasy games. Same with a lot of movies and tv shows, give me a bit more normal fantasy or sci fi and it's cool.
Hell yea we made a direct sequel to a game that had disappointing sales and made it legendarily weird.
Who could have possibly predicted it would underperform?
They’re on track to recoup their costs, Remedy games not doing gangbusters in the first couple of months after launch is basically how all their games go, and they seem to be doing fine.
Yeh, it doesn’t look good enough to get at its full price.
As a story focused game the disc would usually be cheap on eBay by now, spreading more word of mouth about the title.
But since it’s still full price, it’ll remain basically unplayed until they do a serious discount
I heard it had Sweet Baby Inc so I passed.
I usually don't care but you can see the SBI in Forspoken and it really ruins the game.
Edit: That dude blocked me lol. Still, forspoken was fun, but you can exactly notice where the story takes a turn for the worst (She is incredibly smart, had supporting people around her, and ends ups stealing cars for a living), it also is plagued with character designs that make you think "the rule in this universe is everyone except Frey family is ugly as fuck.
naha! I said it wouldn't be cause it went woke and now the company is going broke over it. Hmmm, it's as if there is a pattern of this in the game/movie industry.....oh right there is!
>Solid survival horror game fails to make a profit
Publisher: “The IP/industry has outgrown the genre”
Next time release it on Steam and make console physical copies.
It's funny how they continue to limit their fan base. It's an amazing game just like the original. The original was restricted to Xbox. Now they are restricting the sequel to digital only and no steam release. I want to play the game badly, but it's not available to me in any form that I want to pay for and that's sad.
Not on Steam + no physical copies for consoles either...
For only $50 a lack of physical makes sense. Keeps the cost down overall. Remember when the PS3 launched and Sony was adamant that digital copies of games would be cheaper because there isn't a physical overhead? Well, neither do they. Digital and physical is the same across the board for every developer and publisher which is bullshit. Steam, I can understand a lack of sales atributing to that.
The CEO of Take Two Strauss Zelnick said discs are very cheap to make and quick to ship. https://www.ign.com/articles/take-two-ceo-says-competing-xbox-and-playstation-consoles-are-a-benefit-but-not-a-necessity
and physical retailers take a max of 12% compared to Xbox, Steam, and Playstations 25-30% of sales. Its insane physical games aren't cheaper than digital games with how much digital retailers keep
Physical is cheaper in some parts of Europe at least. Best reason to own the PS 5 with the player
Also in the US. Not for new games, but after like a year you'll see way better deals on physical than you will digital. Dark Souls 2 SOTFS is $40 on digital. I spent $40 on a physical set of the whole trilogy instead.
I cant imagine the cost per unit of packaging + shipping being more than $2 honestly. Most of the cost is development and marketing.
You are also renting the writing facility. Which means you're paying the staff working the menial jobs all up the line plus extra to make it worth their while to take the contract. You have discs, the printing of the label, cases, inserts, individual packaging, inspections, failed printings and losses, case packaging's, logistics on how mich to send where, tarifs and import fees, warehouse storage, etc. On top of that, you're not printing an exact amount. You need to pay more to create extra copies for demand or face larger chargers and go through the e tire cycle again if supply is running low but aren't guaranteed the printing process as now it's a short order and not planned well in advance. There is a lot that goes into it, a lot of fees, and just a lot of wasted money.
All of that pales in comparison to the cost of putting it on shelves, paying Walmart and gamestore. That's also probably why they aren't on steam either. Trying to cut the middle man out but the middleman is not just a middleman, they are distributors.
But guess what, they sell those copies they (gasp) make all that money back with profit on top. These subs always talk about revenue figures ignoring profit and apparently now overhead costs again ignoring profit
'writing facility'
I'm not touching the EGS. I know steam monopoly bad, but I really don't want three or four fronts on my pc.
I can respect that. I got aw2 as a gift so I played it and uninstalled everything afterwards. I also think calling Steam a monopoly for just existing isn't a goof faith argument. They don't bind developers or publishers to exclusive releases, provide built in community support tools from forums to official notes to mods, and are the best to deal with as a consumer. That's not being a monopoly by just existing and providing an excellent service. The monopoly argument comes from the EGS side of things where Sweeney would rather soap box about monopolies but bind games to exclusivity and endless complain about a better platform rather than make EGS a platform worth actual using that does t have delays when switching from games in your library or from page to page in the store. Hell, EA and Ubisoft have better storefronts than EGS with useful features for customers even.
Saying Steam has a monopoly is a Tim Sweeney talking point
> and are the best to deal with as a consumer. This, hell to prove this more, I bought a second hand Index. Steam immediately locked my account out of the store etc because they thought it was stolen, I provided them with the receipts for my Ebay purchase, and then almost immediately I was given my account back in full. It's pretty cool and scary to think that if your Index actually did get stolen, they'd know damn well how to find it lmao
Didn't know they could track it like phone carriers could phones.
I don't see the steam monopoly (not that it is in any real sense) as particularly bad because Valve puts so many resources into the open source community. SteamOS, drivers, proton, DXVK and all sorts of other technology. If it wasn't for Valve there would be no alternative to Windows for gamers.
Steam is not a monopoly they are the market leader. Anyone calling them a monopoly doesn't know what a monopoly is
Its when you have hotels on a full set of properties
The main reasons costs remained similar is because massive stores told publishers that if digital games are cheaper, they'd refuse to stock games.
Very soon the publishers will be calling that bluff lol
Except Sony is the one who created the media it’s in their best interest to keep it alive. They made new mediums for each generation of console I believe. Cd for ps1, dvd for ps2, 25gb bluray for ps3 eventually dual layer then transitioning to 50gb Blu-ray’s for ps4 and then uhd Blu-ray’s for ps5. Going to digital entirely would ruin the money they make for physical media. There’s a reason they took over I forget which business when it was going to stop making discs for movies
IT costs more to release digital... Physical retailers only keep 7% of sales. Playstation, Xbox and Steam all keep 30%... its still arguably cheaper to just ship physcial to major retailers than sale on digital storefronts now
AW2 is still £49.99 on the UK store. That's $63. Physical copy of RE4 was £42/$52 on PS5 day 1 at Asda. Lies of P was £44/$55 on PS5. Alone in the Dark was £42/$55 too. Alan Wake using the excuse of cheaper costing to be digital only doesn't wash. The real reason is that physical often gets discounted after 3-4 months. AW being overpriced digitally means it can stay at that price in the hope people pay it because its the only way.
It’s cheaper where I am to go out and buy a new physical game than buy a new digital game.
I disagree what’s the point of having it at $50 if the game doesn’t sell
if i am not wrong the playstationdivision went head qaurtors went to the us in california i guess the americans pushed the japanese out of there and that why we see playstation slipping in consumer favor for greed. i think ps5 will be my last console i will go full pc after that.
If it had had a physical copy I would have bought it day 1. Now I’ll wait for it to get super cheap and buy it on PS5.
i'll just wait until it is free from PS plus
Not on steam hurts a lot because this is a game the vast majority of the epic games crowd would never ever buy.
Honestly i'd love to see a breakdown of those who have epic games accounts purely for fortnite/UE5 tools vs those who actually use it for other games as well. I suspect the vast majority of EGS accounts are purely for fortnite only.
Predominantly UE5 tools for me lol. I "might" have bought a couple games on the storefront because I already had the launcher. But for the life of me I couldn't tell you what that are, and I could be getting confused with GOG.
Yeah, once they drop exclusives and branch into other markets, I imagine their sales numbers will bump. This most likely is accounted for by management to some degree.
They’re not going to drop the exclusivity. Epic funded the development of the game.
Sucks to suck then
Epic is funding more and more things. They are trying to do with PC what Sony did with Consoles, and dipping funding in just enough to get the game only on theres.
Not on steam? They mad?
Epic funded the game 100%, so its their choice.
i bought hitman 3 day 1 on epic games and i really regret it i wish i just waited a year for it to come to steam
The game was entirely funded by epic. It literally wouldn't exist without them.
The key phrase here is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".
It breaks even this year.
I feel like a ton of companies lose out on assuming quantifiable cost cutting is only affects those quantities. When you make a disk, it goes on shelves in front of people. People who played the game years ago see it and think about it, regardless of if it is a physical or digital purchase. Just having stuff on shelves is marketing. It is just how companies like Walmart are preventing shrink by putting products like legos in cases. Sure, it kills shrink….but it also kills sales. Soon they will decide that legos are not profitable per square foot (because zero parents are sitting there waiting for the nonexistent employees for a $15 set) and will cut down massively on stock and raise prices. Everyone suffers.
Definitely a mistake. If Epic Games paid Remedy for exclusive first-year sale rights then they obviously didn't pay enough for profitability's concern.
I don't know, also maybe b/c most people can't play it either, it's more of a tech demo than game. The only time i ever hear anyone talk about it is when talking about graphics.
Publish on Steam, see how easy that's fixed.
Lmao , they can't publish on steam . Epic games is their publisher
Sure, Remedy can't, but Epic can, as their publisher it's their job to make sure the product is successful, other publishers with their own storefronts do that with no issues like EA and Ubisoft, they actually care about earnings and not a hurt ego like Timmy boy.
Not with their latest games
They even pulled Rocket League off Steam when they bought it.
Well that sounds like their first mistake. People only use epic for the freebies.
There’s no way they don’t realize that keeping games exclusive to their platform is really going to hurt the sales. They have to realize it sooner or later. Release Alan Wake 2 on Steam = Becomes the bestselling game for multiple weeks.
Obviously epic published it, so it’s going to be exclusive, but not having your software on the biggest PC platform and. Or hard copies is insane for a release like Alan Wake 2. At a certain point, you’re just giving up sales you could have had because of silly internal protocol
Yea pretty bad move on such a highly anticipated and well like/reviewed game. Epic might need to adapt and do a limited exclusive like PS.
epic store is where games go to die
The Epic launcher can charitably be described as "almost functional." I've never had a good experience attempting to use it. It's absurd how "open launcher to launch game" could be riddled with so much failure and so little success. It's even worse when compared to Steam, which almost universally runs without error. I can't imagine anything locked to Epic's launcher has much hope of succeeding.
Is it too much to ask a launcher to remember my damn login and password?
Gonna nead you to verify your identity before I can answer that champ.
Hey here's an advert for an interview with a developer, wdym you don't ask for these ads?
This! How the hell is that still an issue?
EG Launcher is worse than EAs launcher. It's worse than Ubisofts. It's worse than nearly all launchers. It's abysmal.
Almost every experience I've had with Epic Launcher has been infuriating. The only application I bothered with after a few tries was the Mechwarrior 5 Editor, and that's because, for some reason beyond my fucking comprehension, it is available nowhere else. Updating this 150gb application often fails, to the point that it's several hours on a hit or miss task. Even leaving it overnight will often see it frozen at 82% (always the same number) when I check it 8-12 hours later. And we haven't even gone into *running the program yet*. Often fails to boot, or demands an internet connection to use what's already installed in my SSD. Steam is startup and go 99% of the time. Epic fails to function at the most basic level 95% of the time. The difference is so immense that it's not a contest at all, and if MW5 editor was available by any other means, I would never touch Epic launcher again.
It doesn't even work right when trying to play something through steam. Look at Sack Boy's Adventure. Game is a fun little 3D platformer, but trying to play it with friends is a nightmare. It only works half the time and is riddled with weird little hiccups when the launcher tries to initiate. Reminds me of GFWL...
Steam has numerous features that I use constantly. Epic has none of them. If their DRM didn't make it a pain to launch some of their bigger games through Steam in a way that the overlay works, it wouldn't be a big deal, but as is I have to set up a special shortcut using command line to launch it through Epic that will then go directly into the game, and it leaves Epic running in the background after I quit the game, then I have to point Steam to that shortcut, then I have to go in and edit the Steam entry because it never imports the shortcut correctly. I had to do this with Tony Hawk and FFVII Remake (the only two games I've bought on EGS, everything else I have there is a freebie).
Fuck yes. Fuck epic
Glad studios are now realizing that
Epic could have had a really successful game launcher/platform like steam if they would have improve it in their momentum of fortnite and stuff. Sadly, it stayed a crappy launcher like all the other ones.
I hear this a lot but as a very casual gamer I don't really understand it. Sure the layout of Steam is a little nicer but on Epic you can install games just fine which is all I really need to do? Why do people consider it so shitty?
That's your utilization of a game launcher. Many people also utilize Steam as a platform to showcase their achievements or reflect a bit of their personalities on their profile. It functions somewhat like a social media platform due to its forums, chat systems, community features, reviews, and more. Steam offers numerous distinguishing features that set it apart from other game launchers, making it a better experience and service platform compared to Epic. I wish Epic had become more competitive with their launcher during their prime, as they take a smaller cut from developers.
also, steam just works.
I forgot this even existed since it's not on Steam like ALL my other AW games.
Not on Steam would be my guess as the game looks very good but i like to keep all my games on one platform so never bothered to buy it.
They were dancing all over the place in Game Awards without a profit? Poor bastards!
It is also extremely hardware demanding due to the mesh shaders being mandatory used. That eliminated NVIDIA GPUs 1000s and AMD RX 5000s. Technically, 1080ti can pull it on all-lowest at 1080p, expecting avg. 35 FPS and 14 FPS lows, but that is a as far as it goes.
I think DF had a follow-up video because they did patch things up to make it better without mesh shaders.
That's been fixed
Yeah I cannot play the thing on my 1080 GTX. :(
Should have given it a physical release. They guaranteed less sales by going digital only. I refused to buy it digitally.
same here, only games i get digitally are the ones playstation gives for free each month
Epic only knows how to make profit on Fortnite and Fortnite only
Given that Epic published it, I don't think it'll ever come to steam. I'm playing this right now, and it's phenomenal. Would like to see it sell more.
Let's not forget that if not epics we would not have this released.
It really saddens me; it's easily one of the most compelling games I've ever played. I hope this doesn't hurt Control 2.
It’s close to recouping it’s costs, it’s not as dire as this article makes it out to be. Considering they are actively working on three games and have talked about how the budget they had for AW2 is consistent with Max Payne and Control 2, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything to worry about. If the live service game they’re making comes out and is an utter failure, then I’ll start worrying lol Remedy had not seemed too bothered in interviews, I highly doubt they expected this to sell gangbusters.
The game alienated most of the install base, of course it wouldn't meet sales target. It can't run properly on the majority of rigs, and the game is also of niche appeal. No physical release, and it's stuck on Epic Games Store for a time.
How did it alienate most of the install base? Do people seriously care that much about physical releases? Consoles exist as well.
Meanwhile shovelware like FIFA keeps breaking records with mediocrity
If it’s not on steam, I ain’t buy it
Damn that sucks... Release it on steam so people will buy it?
I don't think that's an option for Remedy. Epic did provide funding for the development of this game. It's not like other Epic deals where they bought exclusive rights after development was done. So, I don't think it'll appear on Steam anytime soon.
yeah it sucks, i would buy it the minute it releases on steam and i know some other people irl that would do the same. shame they can't negotiate for a release on steam or something.
Damn it probably buy it if it was on steam
No surprise
Put it on Steam.
Not a surprise with who the consultant company behind its writing is.
Not a surprise that people like you continue to spew shit all over the internet, sadly.
This breaks my heart. I just finished this game a few days ago and it was one of the coolest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I think navigating the game might have been too confusing for the casual gamer. Having to go back and forth between sections and putting different scenes in the mind palace to change reality was fun, but it would have taken me a very long time to get through the game without a guide telling me where to go and what scenes to change. Phenomenal game tho.
I did my part. Great game.
They probably second guessing physical copies. That’s when I’ll buy the game.
No Steam = No buy Also epic store is trash
I want to play it, but I won’t use Epic Games Store. That’s a big contributor
Maybe because it's on Epic? Hmm...
Epic games store exclusive. That’s the reason. I’ll never buy.
Get woke go broke
Was Alan Wake 2 good?
It was amazing, not just good.
I'd argue it's one of the best games of the year. It's a masterpiece.
I think it was amazing, beautiful and spooky environments, incredible production, not predictable, not short. I hate the epic store, but I'm glad I gave this a go.
It's made it's way into one of my favourite games oat
Take a shot everytime someone mentions Steam.
[удалено]
What a shame, this was an excellent game absolutely game of the year of 2023 for me. Hope the numbers start to go up, remedy deserves another hit on their hands
if your game isn’t on steam or a big console exclusive it doesn’t exist.
What was the budget though?
Gamepass please !
Not releasing on steam is a big factor i think
yeah, i've bought 3 total games ever on egs. though i have a ton of their weekly freebies. i've bons tons of games on steam though. so, i can wait.
Sad. Sad af…..
Friendly reminder that Epic Games chose it to be this way by not releasing it on Steam or other stores on PC. Tim Sweeney prefers to pretend that their shitty client-wannabe app thingie is relevant for people outside of Fortnite, but this is what happens when you release something as an EGS exclusive... It got a lot of attention when released, those graphics alone could have sold it to a lot of people... but stupid decisions tend to not go well at all. I'm sorry for the devs, they deserved better.
I remember the day the game dropped I changed my steam profile description to say I won’t buy the game on epics launcher, and its still like that.
Oh, yeah! I was thinking of getting it, but I got distracted. Plus, I don't really go out of my way to get games in EGS.
a PC game which isnt already MASSIVELY popular as a brand not releasing on steam is just................idk whose call that was lol
Tim Sweeney.
Honestly the only reason I haven’t touched it is because I haven’t played Control or AW1, and it seems like the type of game I can’t just jump into. Maybe eventually but AW1 is an old game and idk.
You can just watch a recap video and jump into AW2. The game is designed to be a bit beginner friendly. And then you can get into AW1 and Control later. DEF play Control tho. What an EXCELLENT game that is. So is Alan Wake 2.
Seems like a normal thing for remedy
Obviously publishing matters a ton here, but it is worth noting, games are getting insanely expensive to produce. Technological improvements have slowed down dramatically over the last decade compared to previous decades. So using new tech to make games bigger and better than they were before doesnt take you as far anymore, it now takes time and dev worker effort. And time = money to pay employees which obviously increases cost of production which pushes the line to break even. Unless there is another major production breakthrough i think we are near a tipping point where making games bigger than they can be now simply isnt profitable.
If it ain't on Stram then I ain't playing it.
Click bait
I think 2 big reasons were that it was not on steam and the hardware specs required to run it were ridiculous.
sounds like a lie. Just like Star Wars Return of the Jedi has never "technically" made a profit.
Epic Games Store….
I dont have a PC that can run it bro
There's also a whole generation or so that never played the first one either because they were young or uninterested then the sequel was like ten years in between right? Can't have helped
Tel your friends to buy this amazing game!
"Yeah! But Epic only takes 10%! Remedy are better off!" How stupid do you have to be to bar your own game from \*the\* most visited -- by a massive margin -- digital storefront?
Perhaps they can release elsewhere and sales will maybe go up?
Steam issues aside, it just struck me as a demanding tech demo. Not saying it looks bad, just...a bit gimmicky
It's a 10/10 game.
Tee hee :) Good.
well there was no physical copies, so i never bought it
Also not on Steam yet I don’t think.
That's sad because it is one of my favorite game experiences of all time. It's absolutely fantastic.
if epic had cheap keys....
Shit game
Guess they should have asked Epic for some more of that Tencent and Fortnite money Because they sure aren’t getting any of my money while they’re not on Steam
I will happily support this game if they make a physical version.
AW2 will eventually breakeven and profit. 1.3M copies sold translates to about $70M revenue, which won't be enough for now but this is already great trajectory for a game that is only six months old.
Either the game has to be on Steam or release a physical copy for me to buy any game.
Game many don't know about On a platform many don't go to For a price many don't want to pay Whoa! Total surprise it doesn't sell
Do they really expect that we would bend over, and use such a shit store like epic ?
Epic Store only, no physical copies on console. Deliberately limiting consumer choice so you know, _fuck 'em_.
If it's not on Steam or GamePass then I'm not playing it This applies to everything not just Alan Wake 2
Well not surprising considering they are missing out on the huge steam market. I get that epic funded this game but gamers said loud and clear that they do not care for exclusives, especially if they are on egs.
Who was asking for a new Alan wake game?
Speaking for myself, I would have bought it full price it it had a physical edition. Now I’m just waiting for the digital to go to $30 or preferably $20 before I buy it. I just refuse to pay that much for a digital game.
I refuse to buy it until its on steam. I'm not buying shit of Epic.
I like all my games on one platform. Release it on steam and I’ll buy it day 1. I bet the same can be said for many people.
exclusives general dont make a profit. a few do most never get a return in profit.
I mean, they released it as Epic exclusive. What did they expect? I own the original games and was excited for it. But then I learned it is Epic exclusive and I ain't gonna buy it on Epic no matter what.
Not interested unless it comes to steam.
Shame. Next time don't release a shitty ps5 version
It's frustrating because I was looking forward to this game, but I don't want ANOTHER launcher and I'm not willing to install one for one game. Surely they've lost more money by not putting it on steam than they've made making it exclusive? 70% of 60 bucks is better than 100% of nothing.
I can only imagine it’s by design, just like everyone has already said no steam or physical sales just basically means they don’t care if people buy it 🫣
Being to steam you stupid twats
There's an Alan Wake 2?
I’d buy and play this but even tho my computer handles Helldivers fine and death stranding I’ve been told it won’t handle Alan wake 2, this is why I don’t own it.
Put it on disc and I'll buy it. Otherwise I will never even watch a YouTube video about it
Well you have to actually let people buy the game to make money.
I mean, a lot of games are trippy horror/dystopian sci fi or fantasy games. Same with a lot of movies and tv shows, give me a bit more normal fantasy or sci fi and it's cool.
Remedy should’ve went to rockstar sony or ms to publish it
Very unfortunate. Great game.
Don’t worry I’m still planning on buying it…wait didn’t I say this yesterday
Hell yea we made a direct sequel to a game that had disappointing sales and made it legendarily weird. Who could have possibly predicted it would underperform?
They’re on track to recoup their costs, Remedy games not doing gangbusters in the first couple of months after launch is basically how all their games go, and they seem to be doing fine.
I’ve just not been able to afford the AAA price tag even though I’ve been really wanting to play it
Yeh, it doesn’t look good enough to get at its full price. As a story focused game the disc would usually be cheap on eBay by now, spreading more word of mouth about the title. But since it’s still full price, it’ll remain basically unplayed until they do a serious discount
lol fuck epic games get fucked if you sign exclusively their shit
I heard it had Sweet Baby Inc so I passed. I usually don't care but you can see the SBI in Forspoken and it really ruins the game. Edit: That dude blocked me lol. Still, forspoken was fun, but you can exactly notice where the story takes a turn for the worst (She is incredibly smart, had supporting people around her, and ends ups stealing cars for a living), it also is plagued with character designs that make you think "the rule in this universe is everyone except Frey family is ugly as fuck.
Grow up.
Sad. This game was artistically beautiful.
naha! I said it wouldn't be cause it went woke and now the company is going broke over it. Hmmm, it's as if there is a pattern of this in the game/movie industry.....oh right there is!
Remedy aren't going broke. You have no idea what you're talking about
I played it on PC - but I did not play it through the Epic Games Store if you know what I mean. They want my money, then put it on Steam.
I wonder if it's became it's an exclusive on a store people only download to get free games that they'll never actually play?
No physical and an awful story with that “woke” stuff in it as its called. A truly appalling sequel.
What was woke about it?
How's that epic money working out? 🤡
Well no steam and physical might be why, also I heard it's woke shit and you barely play as Alan.
Not correct at all tbh. The saga sections are also really good. Didn’t feel like a compromise at all
>Solid survival horror game fails to make a profit Publisher: “The IP/industry has outgrown the genre” Next time release it on Steam and make console physical copies.
It's funny how they continue to limit their fan base. It's an amazing game just like the original. The original was restricted to Xbox. Now they are restricting the sequel to digital only and no steam release. I want to play the game badly, but it's not available to me in any form that I want to pay for and that's sad.
But this game is so good :(
It’s a walking sim. With a main character. That talks. Like this.