One was a jury trial and the other wasn’t. Google had plenty of records of their internal communications but Apple had a different practice. This article by The Verge does a decent job at highlighting the differences.

Thinking of starting Tchia, given its recent addition to Game Pass.

The store came to be as an “f you” to Apple, as evident from the email exchanges at the time. The 1984 trailer from Fortnite seemed to be in the same vein. I don’t think that particular trailer was for the purpose of promoting the EGS, as there’s not a single hint to the store in the video or its standard placement.

If it were purely self-serving, they’d agree to settle with Google on special terms similar to those offered to a number of other publishers. Court proceedings last for years, as would be obvious to Sweeney, so sacrificing years of revenue for the distant prospect of having to pay 0 to the platforms is easier explained as being ideological than a business decision.

I haven’t played it yet. I prioritize Game Pass, since those games come and go, but on Steam the library is semi-permanent. Sometimes I really feel like playing a particular game from my library, so I prioritize that over the ones I like on Game Pass.

I bought Dreamfall Chapters. It’s the only one of its series that doesn’t feel too dated to be playable to me.

I bought Dreamfall Chapters, which is back to its historical low on Steam. I’ve heard good things about it, and Dustborn from the same dev looks super promising.

Ravenlok. It’s only a year old but it runs perfectly fine on my 2016 PC. I’ve not played Zelda but I feel like it’s similar. Lots of retro game vibes.

Steam is largely driven by Valve’s own games and freebies as well. 1.5M currently playing Dota 2 and CS 2, with the next best being F2P games: PUBG with 370K online, Apex Legends, and Naraka.

System Shock doesn’t really share anything with Deus Ex except that it’s also cyberpunk.

Definitely this. It was one of my most favorite games at the time I played Deus Ex HR, and it’s exactly the game it reminded me of.

Often the cheapest to me, so I buy there primarily for this reason. Even if the prices are on par, Epic offering 33% off each game with their coupon and then 10% as cashback is a sure sell. Knowing that the game creators get a significantly bigger cut is a pleasant bonus as well.

Absolutely! She never ceases to surprise if you do launch it every now and then.

If Epic had required developers to, say, sell games 15% cheaper

Epic cannot do that because

In response to one inquiry from a game publisher, in another example, Valve explained: “We basically see any selling of the game on PC, Steam key or not, as a part of the same shared PC market- so even if you weren’t using Steam keys, we’d just choose to stop selling a game if it was always running discounts of 75% off on one store but 50% off on ours. . . .”

(source)

However, Epic regularly offers coupons out of pocket. Right now you can get 33% off any game above $14.99 or the regional equivalent, as many times as you want, even if the game is already discounted by the publisher. You also get 10% as cashback.

Valve’s actions do not have to copy those of Google for it to engage in anti-competitive behavior. Focus on the Steam-specific arguments deemed reasonable enough for the judge to allow the trial to go through, like those on the MFN, high profit margin related to the 30% fee, user reviews manipulation, and so forth.

Heck I’m sure that they very quickly came up with a functional shopping cart at the very least.

Steam has been offering third-party titles since 2005 but still had no shopping cart as of 2008.

In the Epic trial, Google made some of the same arguments as those used to defend Steam, like the presence of competing stores or the claim that it wins people over by the quality of the product.

Epic’s expert made these relevant points:

Google impairs competition without preventing it entirely

Google’s conduct targets competition as it emerges

Google is dominant

And we know who won in the antitrust case. Let’s see what happens in Wolfire et al v. Valve.

Not to mention that open source software can and sometimes does contain spyware.

It’s DRM-free on Epic.

Debunked time and time again.

Many of the articles do have references on the DRM status. Here’s an example indicating verification by a staff member. I personally tested a bunch of the games for DRM and noted it back when I contributed. Until recently, most of the games released on Epic were DRM-free. Even the Sony games were notably DRM-free on Epic before they were released on GOG. Nowadays, it’s more common for the new ones to use EOS and have it function as DRM.

Those stores don’t challenge the monopoly, so they don’t trigger anyone. They get praised but you’ll have a hard time finding anyone who regularly uses them, let alone as their main gaming platform.

Epic’s current approach to reviews is arguably better anyway. There’s no toxicity, incentive to troll to farm points, and it’s randomized, so it doesn’t enable review bombing.

It’s all in the realm of “what if”. Sure, it could attempt this or that, but it hasn’t, nor is there any guarantee that it would fly. That just brings me back to the original point of when a company that is not partially owned by the Chinese actively works to please the Chinese government to further their business interest but I don’t see much of that with Epic. If you look at some of the other companies in which Tencent has a large stake, like Dontnod, there’s absolutely no sign of the Chinese agenda in the games either.

Since this is a gaming community, it would be more relevant to say that Tencent likely has a stake in something that you already play or use, like Discord.

Epic not being underfunded is stating the obvious. Just look at the scope of their Fortnite collaborations.

Most investments aren’t to gain influence but to profit. At this time, there is no sign of Epic doing anything that could be explained by the alleged influence of the Chinese government, and as the majority owner, Tim Sweeney has the final say anyway.

The multi-billionaire owner with the backing of the Chinese government

Who cares about the backing if it has no effect on anything? I’m more concerned about Valve having a separate Steam client for China, censoring their games specifically for China and even reportedly banning for bringing up Winnie the Pooh.

They own Easy Anti-Cheat, which has kernel level access and collects data as part of its user agreement but these people keep regurgitating the debunked claim of the launcher being spyware. Occam’s razor, anyone?

Gamers and developers benefit from the developers being paid rather than not being paid for the same thing.

Rocket League is fully playable on Steam.

The story of most of Valve’s games is finding a mod, hiring the modder, then making the game exclusive to Steam.

Epic has a significantly higher percentage of games confirmed to be DRM-free.

Dev: I’m not interested in exclusivity

Epic: then we have no interest in having you on our service

If anything, the example you brought up proves the opposite. Darq is on Epic and its developer even took money from Epic to make it free, so there is no grudge even past the dev’s publicity stunt.

Steam was literally forced on those who owned a physical copy of Half-Life and wanted to play it. The dominant position has nothing to do with the service offered by Steam. It was dominant when it barely had any features. GOG competing with it on features and in fact offering the bonus of DRM-free games hasn’t improved its market share of about 0.5%.

What’s your point though? Every one of Epic’s exclusivity deals is done with the consent of the game publisher. Does it matter who makes the offer? Do we even know that there aren’t cases of publishers reaching out to Epic?

You risk losing the audience when the other outlets’ reviews are up days before the game release while yours will be published a week after the game release unless really cutting corners or reviewing a short game.

Games reach Game Pass via deals similar to those offered by Epic. Microsoft pay the publisher a fixed amount, so if it is believed that it beats the proceeds from the projected sales for the given period, there’s no reason not to agree to it. In other words, it’s all about how much they would offer and how long it would have been since the game release.

That’s just untrue. Games like Immortality, Citizen Sleeper, Unpacking, and Planet of Lana are complete, highly-rated, and on Game Pass.

Patting on the back for fixing a broken game is almost enabling game developers to release unfinished games only to finish them years later.

The Game Awards also treated it like a game. I think it’s giving it special treatment. Some DLCs like Freedom Cry were available without owning the base game, but that’s not even the case here.