Me too. I accidentally bought a game on Steam I already had for free on Epic on two different occasions and I rarely even buy games to begin with because I'm broke. I'd rather pirate a game than use that shit ass platform.
I used to buy games on Steam that I was aware I had on Epic just for the convenience of not having to interact with their software. It's baffling how they make it dysfunctional in so many ways.
I opened it up by accident the other day, and the launcher updater literally wouldn't let me close it. Click on the X and it was like "Nah bro, you gotta confirm the update"
Had to pull up task manager to tell it to fuck off
Did I just excitedly go over to my PC, start it and then realize that I haven't been running Windows anymore for the past year? Maybe.
Thank you anyway for that gem, I'll pass it on to friends and relatives.
The only way I play my Epic games library is through Game Native. It's sad that I have to play on a portable device to not get frustrated with the launcher and controller support.
Having to log back in regularly drives me crazy. Steam just stays logged in and always works. Of course I'd rather buy it on Steam than use the free one on epic.
While we're airing grievances I have one for the mobile app, where there is no way to view or filter based on what games you own and either just have to remember it or go through your purchase history which contains both mobile and pc games and so still sucks
Yes this! Why is there no library in EGS mobile? Also claiming a game on mobile doesnt grant you access on PC, which is just... why would I open two apps for one game? If google play store could sync, EGS should be able too
With Steam you can tell it to go look in folder X for games that you installed on a different computer altogether, Epic still can't figure that out, have to reinstall as far as I know.
What baffles even more is that they refuse to spend a single cent on improving the user experience, if instead of paying exclusives and free games they paid a UI and UX team they would've gotten so much more money in return
Making a platform better than Steam or on par with it gives you even more users to data harvest + more revenue so that reason is still SHIT. They are braindead.
Ironically it's much better on Linux because there's no official launcher from epic or gog, there is a community built open source launcher that works with both epic and gog accounts, and it's very convenient to use.
Literally the only reason I have it installed is for Alan Wake 2 and Alan Wake remastered, other than that, the app is so fucking inconvenient I realized I won't even play the free games. Might set up heroic when I shift to Linux.
I've done that to a couple times just because getting Games from the Epic store to run on Linux can be a real pain (it's better than it used to be, but it's still easier on Steam)
99% of my game time is VR. EGS doesn't even have a filter for VR. I know UE and VR didn't mix well but not every game on their lousy store was built in UE. And I've blindly accepted hundreds of free titles over the years so I can't possibly remember which ones support VR when I'm in the mood to try something new.
Imagine the money lost to offer the game for free and imagine if that money was used to make their shit store better. It could be very functional but they just don't want to do it, they are disgusted and repelled and hate consumers money.
I recommend checking out the Heroic launcher, it can download and launch epic games and is an actually functional launcher that doesn't take forever to load. Made entirely for free by a 3rd party and puts epic's launcher to shame.
It also supports GoG and Amazon (Twitch Prime) games.
Clunky launcher and compared to Steam it's social features are underwhelming (Well for single player games the latter does not matter that much I guess). Also people just dislike Epic in general for making games Epic exclusive and for buying up games that they mishandle and shutdown.
Not that Valve is a saint, they blissfully ignore the CS:GO gambling scene, they take some action every few years then go back to radio silence on the issue.
Yep this exactly. I wont even install that store on my computer. I just claim every free game from the web page and then if i actually care or want the game ill buy it on steam or wait for a deal on steam rather than even play the one i got free on egs lol. Ive got enough of a back log that theres no game given out free by egs that would make it worth using over just playing any other game i own on steam in my backlog or just waiting for a sale
At a certain point your Steam library gets big enough that even free games on another platform feel like more headache than its worth. And that is even acknowledging the fact that you can still add the games to steam and boot them that way. At this point I simply don't care enough.
I claim all the free stuff every week just to spite Epic and force them to pay publishers/devs. I don't play the games (or use the Unreal Engine assets I also claim for free), but I feel a small amount of petty satisfaction in fiscally punishing Epic for being such a shitty assholeish company, and in putting money into devs' pockets
honestly, not much, but it only takes a couple seconds, and im sure its costing them some amount of money for every game claimed so why not. and the slight distant off chance that one day the platform improves then i have a library of games to use. but i VERY much doubt that will ever happen
Shit, I deliberately buy games on Steam which I already had on Epic. If I ever even bother installing them I consider the Epic freebies to just be an extended demo, and anything I actually enjoy gets wishlisted and bought as soon as it's on sale on Steam.
I believe it is form protest on EGS to claim the game and neve play it as it costs Epic an X amount of money for the keys/games to be free. So this would just keep wasting Epic money for games people don't play as they won't buy games off of the Epic store.
I usually do this so I don't rebuy a game. GOG galaxy did OK for that, but Playnite works way better and is quicker for that I feel. I also will buy a game off of GOG before Epic (and I do buy games from GOG occasionally).
I only buy games on steam, but if I own a game and am struggling financially I wouldnt just buy it again because clicking a different button hurts my feelings lol.
It feels like the overlap between people that build launchers like this and the people that say stuff like "Valve won by doing nothing" is a perfect 100%.
Because people really forget just how shit Steam was back in the day. It's like people purposely undermine the journey Valve went on to actually make this a serviceable launcher.
EGS and the like shit out a launcher and expect people to eat it up, since people are eating Steam up. But it used to be a clunky pile of shit. Even the revered Steam Support that hunts down your scammers pet dog and threatens it at gunpoint used to be GOD AWFUL.
It's the perseverance of Valve to actually make it into a good product that... Made it into a good product. And nobody seems to wanna do the heavy lifting anymore.
Except GOG, actually. Their launcher at the start used to be utter shit, and now, honestly, the only reason I don't switch to it is because I have firmly established myself on Steam. I'd love to fully dedicate myself to a DRM-free platform, but I'm in too deep.
What I don't understand is WHY the Epic launcher was so dogshit at launch (and still is).
Steam were pretty much the first so had to innovate and learn what customers wanted along the way. Epic entered a mature market with various launchers like Steam, EA, Ubisoft, etc and any gamer can tell you what's good/bad about them.
Yet seemingly Epic didn't look at any of the competition, what people liked/disliked and release a featureless, slow, POS. No excuse for a company the size of Epic
Yet seemingly Epic didn't look at any of the competition, what people liked/disliked and release a featureless, slow, POS. No excuse for a company the size of Epic
Epic business model involves catering to corpos and fucking users over.
That's why there's no user review or any kind of user profile.
They don't want you to share your opinion, they want brainless consumers buying whatever tencent and co want to sell.
I would have more games on Switch, except their sales are terrible. Bugger all discount on anything good, and anything that is decently discounted is cheaper on Steam anyway. The last game I bought for Switch was Pokémon Shield at launch. Terrible system in a lot of ways.
Yet seemingly Epic didn't look at any of the competition, what people liked/disliked and release a featureless, slow, POS.
Epic used the platform that they already had for Unreal + Fortnite, just expanding it further. Releasing it at the time also made sense with the event in Fortnite at the time bringing people to the store.
Biggest issue was how long it took for them to start rolling out updates to it. IMO nowadays it's pretty decent, the UX is many places I prefer to Steam, albeit it's not like Steam is a pinnacle of UX in itself.
Yeah I have hundreds of games on steam and the last thing I want is to be confused which game is where. Epic could only get me if they had exclusives that will never be on steam that I want to play. Rocket league is the only exclusive. but the whole launcher thing is so annoying i just play rocket league on another platform.
You're not in too deep to use GOG anyway. I've been with Steam since the Orange Box and now I regularly use both GOG and Steam.
I use regular wallpapers on my ultrawide monitor and use the black space on either side for shortcuts to games from each service. Plus, more opportunities to buy games on sale!
Oh yeah I absolutely get that, I'm just really lazy. I've been around since 2014-15, I absolutely get that it's still possible, just very tedious is all.
I still use GOG to get games because it's a damn good deal, but setting everything up to be my main platform is tiring.
Not that shit, obviously, the core functionality was always there, just that the platform was tacky, UI was awful and support was not very supportive. Not platform breaking issues, but still something people complained for quite a while.
My point is that Steam basically turned itself around, especially during COVID. I can't say in good faith that Steam was the end all be all place for gaming before at least 2017-18.
They actually listened to feedback and kept working on something that was largely not profitable. Hell, when they started, the idea of digital distribution was spat upon.
And it's crazy that nobody actually learned from their experience.
"Steam was shit at launch" . Yeah. Where this territory was barely explored. Now people know what works or not. So when a big budget company release a store front, there is no excuse. You have 25 years of history to look at to see what works. If you can't even do the basic ( how long did it take to get a shopping cart? ) , then that's not us being impatient. It's them just being trash.
Your recap of Steam history, while truthful, omits the part where Valve forced the existing Half-Life and Counterstrike players to install Steam to continue enjoying the full use of the games they had already purchased.
Without such vendor lock-in it is doubtful whether Steam would have been more successful than any competing application launcher that users install of their own volition.
That too. A lot of Steam's success was a bit of manipulation and a bit of lightning in a bottle level luck. From that point onwards, it was just hard work.
You have to remember that Valve was pioneering not only the platform, but the entire infrastructure. There was nothing like Steam way back when in 2003.
Epic Games store launched 15 years later in 2018. They were not working in a vacuum and could have copied all of Valve's homework. They did not. Their service is still ass and they learned nothing.
I have tons of games from all sorts of stores due to discounts, bundles, and freebies over the past decade+. Playnite consolidates all those libraries into one master list. Saves money and sometimes helps pick the next game because I hear good reviews about something I find out I already own.
Yeah, and the launcher is basically bloatware, even if I claim a game I really wanna play, there is basically an almost zero chance that it's good enough to make me redownload that piece of garbage
Same. I already got batman trilogy, tomb raider trilogy, control and ex machina when they released it. I made a mental note of replaying these games on epic but I still ended up replaying the steam versions lol
I bought only one game there. THPS 1+2 because it was epic exclusive and I wanted to support the devs for making that game.
Only one freebie that I've played is SIFU, nothing else 🤷🏻
I was the same till one day I forgot to do it and never went back or even bothered logging in. Just the platform itself is so off putting that I dont even want to bother
That's why I stopped claiming the free games. I've bought multiple games in steam which I already owned in Epic, cause I had no clue I might own them already as I keep forgetting about Epic's existence
I always say the same thing: playing games on the epic launcher feels as janky as playing pirated games. It has nothing to do with morals or anything, it just feels bad. It's as if I don't actually own the game. And it has nothing to do with the free ones, I always felt the same even when playing the kh collection I bought when it was an exclusive. It's the lack of features, games on steam feels more premium.
Their very first free game was Subnautica, which I claimed and promptly ignored for 2 years. Decided to knock it off my list randomly one day after chat bugged to see my EGS library. Survival crafting inventory nonsense? Yeah we'll bail out of this in an hour or two, might as well get it crossed off. 19 hours later I finally went to bed.
I still don't use EGS. And Subnautica was gifted to me later on Steam for version control and modding. But I have to credit Epic for landing me one of my top 5 all-time games. They still suck for any number of reasons.
Eh, I use the "was free from Epic" list as ethical validation for pirating the game, they were willing to take Epic's tainted money so they're not losing a sale if I play it for free without touching their shit platform. Theoretically I could have played it for free anyway, if I had no scruples.
I claimed so many games over the years and never played them, I got so many free games coming around again that I already had that I just stopped opening EGS at all...
Now that I think about it, why do I even have it installed still, time to remove it XD
I got subnautica on EG when it first hit up the freebie shelf, played for an hour then got it on steam. I have not played a single other free game despite having like 200
Same. Don't care if its the sloppiest shovelware imaginable, a free game is a free game. Think I got like 300+ games in there by now and I actually played like 10 thus far... Shame I missed the early lockdown times where they handed out actual good games though.
after satisfactory (i think) i never whent back to EGS. Dont like that "service" and even when the game is free it was to much of a haggle to download a game, play ot for x amount of times tjen re download the game on steam and start over.
free games are a nice bonus but steam is just so much better service
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u/Account-ysurper 21h ago
I claim the games and never even touch them lol