Recently, Total War:Troy was announced that it's going to be an Epic store exclusive for 1 year, while previously not mentioning any of this and even having a Steam store page that had the 2020 release date. https://www.totalwar.com/blog/a-total-war-saga-troy-on-epic-games-store/

We know that SEGA is the publisher for both of Amplitude studios and CA, so there is a possiblity for Humankind to be going the same route. If the devs are able to, can they clarify if this is going to be an Epic exclusive?

We'Ve said it before, and we'll say it again: We'll be available on Steam at launch, and we are not pursuing plans for Epic Exclusivity.

I was worried at first too, but if you've read their blog, that you yourself linked, then you should know, that:

a) their decision wasn't forced on them by SEGA, it was decision of CA studio;

b) they weren't going for excusivity deal initially;

c) they were approached by EPIC first and wasn't disposed to take the deal immidiately;

d) after careful consideration inside the studio, they took the deal for TROY specifically and have no intent to continue the practice with any other future games, as they want to gain as much wide audience as possible.

To my knowledge, Total War Saga is a spin-off series to the main TW, and previous installments weren't greatly succefull or well received. I guess this deal is both an insurance and opportunity to market the game, as free give away upon the launch day is clearly part of the deal here.

With that in mind, I can't see how this would affect Amplitude in any meaningful way.

P.S. With all that said, If Amplitude would carry on any EGS exclusive deal, I will consider it an act of treason and terminate any future relationship with their studio and their games :P

I agree. Nobody will feel bad that the game is distributed on any platforms, but to make your project exclusive on a new platform is a real disrespect for fans. + Amplitude to karma for continuing to release their products in one place.

The Epic hate is completely unreasonable. You could get it on PC either way and the publisher gets more money. I can't believe people threw this much of a fit over being forced to have a second launcher.

Don't get me started

Give me a separate Amplitude game launcher with built-in Horatio lingerie advertisements and quintuple login authentication or it's a no go for me.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:

We'Ve said it before, and we'll say it again: We'll be available on Steam at launch, and we are not pursuing plans for Epic Exclusivity.

Thank for the reconfirmation. Will definitely pre order it! Hope can play it soon.

There is another parameter to consider here as well. I've had the most unpleasant experience with Epic Games when I decided to give their "OLD WORLD" exclusive title a go. It so happened that their release of that game coincided with the GTA V free giveaway. The end result; unable to play the game at launch for hours as well as being unable to use their launcher app or their webpage. During the COVID lockdown STEAM didn't crash or slow down once and in general, even when they launch their most popular titles their servers are always up to the task. I've tried GOG, EA's Origin and EPIC and no one comes close to the smooth service that STEAM provides. Another thing is customer service. With STEAM it's smooth; if you play the game less than two hours you apply for refund and you get your money back in 24 hours. I tried the same with EPIC and it took an EPIC ammount of time to get refunded. What I'm getting at is that developers and studios should keep these aspects in consideration. What you pay for is the level of service that you get. If someone is undercutting the market, if someone is offering too good to be true packages then they're probably just that; too good to be true.  

"We'Ve said it before, and we'll say it again: We'll be available on Steam at launch, and we are not pursuing plans for Epic Exclusivity."

Good having the conformation, really glad you guys are going for an non-exclusive approach. I've had an idea that Epic Games instead of exclusives give discounts on launch relative to Steam, that way you WANT to buy on that platform and it's more healthy for the gaming community. Along with giving Steam more competition which should help with the economy and reducing monopolies.

I agree that giving some of the 30% cut they were reducing to the consumer instead of just the publisher probably would have been better received by the public. People are short-sighted and selfish and only want what is in their immediate short term benefit, rather than seeing the value of supporting the devs that make the games they love.

Eulogos wrote:

I agree that giving some of the 30% cut they were reducing to the consumer instead of just the publisher probably would have been better received by the public. People are short-sighted and selfish and only want what is in their immediate short term benefit, rather than seeing the value of supporting the devs that make the games they love.

And even if you happen to want to support competition and developers, Epic games using exclusives makes it so you feel like supporting them is saying yes to future exclusives which is anti-consumer, not to mention the general aversion pc players feel to being cheated. Which i believe is the general sentiment. Of course there are other option for support developers and encouraging competition such as GoG which I always buy from given the opportunity.

In short the community WANTS to support you epic games but we don't want to support exclusives.

If we are going to that stupid "30%" argument again, any dev can get 100% of the sale value by setting up its own store and selling Steam keys they generate for free.

Taokr wrote:

I've had an idea that Epic Games instead of exclusives give discounts on launch relative to Steam, that way you WANT to buy on that platform and it's more healthy for the gaming community. 

Not only that creates unfair offer to Steam users, it also devalues game itself right at launch.

Sublustris wrote:

Not only that creates unfair offer to Steam users, it also devalues game itself right at launch.

Any less unfair than not having the product at all? I'm fine with a competitor having better deals on products. As for the second point about devaluation, that is a genuine concern. Epic Games would have to do a study or model of some sort to find out if 30% or whatever off is better than just exclusive.