r/gaming • u/doublah • 10h ago

Epic Games' new store is fully vibe-coded, and they're so proud of it they're taking shots at Steam

https://www.destructoid.com/epic-games-store-ai-vibe-coded/
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u/Sabetha1183 9h ago edited 9h ago

I'd understand the frustration more if Epic had actually built a good product. It's not like they couldn't have looked at Steam to see what people like and what people complain about and how they could try to fix it.

Instead they pushed out the minimum viable product and threw a ton of money into trying to pay people into using their launcher but as much as I'll take the free games I wouldn't leave Steam for another platform that's equally as good, much less one that's outright inferior.

When given the choice the only other storefront I'll consider is GoG because games being DRM-free is a worthwhile thing to me, and for older games the GoG version tends to run the best.

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u/PermanentMantaray 9h ago

Epic never believed they needed to provide good service to the customer, they believed they needed to provide good service to publishers, and that the customers would simply fall in line when those publishers stopped putting their games on Steam.

With that context it makes perfect sense why they never invested in their application, only in things publishers liked or things like free games and coupons that they could stop at any time.

A great example of that is why they were so against user reviews. It allowed customers to have a voice to the potential detriment of publishers.

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u/ShutUpAboutCanon 9h ago

Yup, but the reality is that people just don't buy Epic exclusives because they don't browse that storefront... Alan Wake 2 was critically acclaimed and still barely sold anything

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u/nsfwthrowaway5969 8h ago

Making a game epic exclusive is a good way to kill the hype around it. When they eventually show up on steam down the line people generally don't seem to even notice them.

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u/ImSabbo 7h ago

This happened to me for Outer Wilds, which I had been looking forward to. I only got reminded about it years later.

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u/Shrapnail 3h ago

satisfactory started out epic exclusive, took off when it came to steam

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u/TrainDestroyer 37m ago

I was gonna mention Satisfactory. I remember when it got announced I was SO hyped because it seemed like it was gonna be a good 3d factory builder that had deep construction/supply chains.

Then it got moved to Epic Exclusive and I legitimately just forgot about it for YEARS

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u/Bad_Wes 6h ago

Borderlands 3 was an Epic exclusive got 6 months. I waited 6 months for it to be in Steam.

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u/Watt-Tambor 2h ago

I saw borderlands 3 the same way. it might have been out. but as far as I was concerned it wasnt on steam so it just wasnt out yet. I bought anno 1800 on Ubisoft's launcher rather then give a single nickel to epic games. (then they went and released it on steam in spite of saying and I quote "anno 1800 will never be released on steam")

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u/randomaccount178 5h ago

For me at least, I will actively not buy a game on steam that was an epic exclusive. If they rather get Epic's money that is perfectly fine, but I have no interest in a product that puts the consumer second.

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u/Mephzice 4h ago

often the hype is just gone as well, it's old news at the time and something else more hype is launching when it finally comes to steam, games don't get two launch dates, well unless you are GTA maybe

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u/BacRedr 7h ago

I purposefully waited on getting Untitled Goose Game and Borderlands 3 until they were on Steam. If it weren't for the free games, I wouldn't touch Epic at all.

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u/TrainDestroyer 36m ago

Ironically I got an Epic Account for free games, and just eventually abandoned the account cause even with the free games I just never bothered using it

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u/NiNdo4589 8h ago

Yeah if a game is on epic I won't bother, I don't need two game libraries.

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u/CaptainJudaism 7h ago

I got both GoG and Steam as they both have things to offer, less GoG nowadays though ever since I bought my childhood from there, but EGS has never offered me anything and no free games that I'll never touch was never a selling point.

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u/NiNdo4589 6h ago

Yeah my bad, three, I dont need three libraries. GoG is great at covering steams shortcomings for old titles.

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u/Repulsive-Durian4800 6h ago

I have 4. Steam because obviously, Epic for the sole purpose of their free games, GoG because of the old stuff Steam doesn't have, and Itch.io for the weird niche shit that can't make it onto other stores.

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u/NiNdo4589 5h ago

This made me give itch.io a look, any suggestions? This reminds me of growing up on newgrounds.

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u/BlueChronos88 6h ago

I’ve purchased exactly one game on Epic, and that was Alan Wake 2, and that’s because I had no other alternative if I wanted to play the game. It sucks, but I’d rather purchase it there than not play it at all.

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u/-PotatoMan- 6h ago

Ahoy, Matey. There always be the other option if ye be wanting to play yer games.

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u/BlueChronos88 6h ago

Remedy is a company I will always want to support, so I didn’t mind making the sacrifice of purchasing the game.

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u/-PotatoMan- 5h ago

Counterpoint: Remedy screwed over their players for an instant payday by signing an exclusivity deal with Epic.

Also, you could always have pirated it and then purchased the game later down the line when it inevitably dropped out of its exclusivity period.

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u/BlueChronos88 5h ago

There’s no guarantee the game will ever be released on other platforms, and then there’s the fact that the game wouldn’t even have been made were it not for Epic’s funding. So it is what it is.

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u/Melbuf 8h ago

ive never installed it or loaded it at all on any platform, i never will

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u/thedavecan 7h ago

Borderlands 3 is my example of that. Epic paid a huge chunk of cash to get BL3 EGS exclusive for the first 6 months or so. But all that did was tell me that the game is just delayed for 6 months. Then when it did launch on Steam I had lost interest. And this is coming from someone who put 1000 hrs into BL2 and still plays it occasionally today and was super hyped about 3. I eventually bought it on steep discount years later and still haven't finished it. Genuinely makes me sad.

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u/LightHawKnigh 9h ago

Its crazy how it took them years to get a shopping cart. Wonder how much fortnite money sweeney wasted.

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u/stonhinge 8h ago

I'll be honest, I haven't even bothered with the free games on Epic for years now. Because why grab the free games when the whole Epic experience is just clunky? The handful of games I bought on Epic many years ago are mostly all available on Steam as well now, if I desire to play them again I'll probably grab them during a sale.

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u/NovusNiveus 1h ago

Considering Steam was built quite specifically on the principle that you can compete with free, they should have known that free isn't good enough.

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u/Numinak 9h ago

GOG is great, but their launcher annoys me. Constantly forgets my sign in and is slow to respond when first starting up. I had to finally uninstall it to get rid of the annoyances.

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u/Sabetha1183 9h ago

My biggest complaint with Galaxy is that being able to sync your other platforms to see your whole library in one place has ended up a kind of pointless feature for me because the Steam integration constantly stops working so I just sort of gave up on it.

Under other circumstances I wouldn't use GoG either since Steam still has the better UX but especially in today's world, the DRM-free thing becomes more and more important to me cause it means no matter what those games can't be taken away.

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u/fueelin 9h ago

Yeah, I like GOG's ethics (historically, at least), but the user experience is just noticeably worse.

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u/mowinski PC 8h ago

You know what makes the Epic Store decidely not epic? It is just a glorified browser that forgets your login credentials pretty much on every second launch.