First impressions of MW5

[Beagá]

Well one story that I´ve heard was about Shenmue III becoming exclusive after fans were expecting it and buying in Steam, and people who kickstarted it losing access. Check Jim Sterling, he made some videos about it.

Other than that I honestly dunno. I would be happy if there was less monopoly.

 

[stjobe]

Question regarding Epic gamestore.

Now i read that this news was negatively received.

Can someone enlighten me on the why?

Well, for one thing they sold pre-orders to Steam before (and a few days after) revealing they would be Epic Store exclusive. Pre-orders for Steam could be exchanged for Epic Store pre-orders, but I know a lot of people dropped their pre-order over that.

On a more general note, exclusive deals like the Epic Store tends to do has up until recently been rare in the PC-gaming world; it's always been like that in the console-gaming world (PSN, X-Box Live etc), but us PC gamers have more often than not had the luxury of choosing where to get our games from. Some of us (well, at least me) reject Epic because of this; I don't want exclusive deals to be the way forward. Microsoft's Game Pass is also a move in that direction, which is why I don't like that either.

And yes, it does suck not being able to play Borderlands 3 or MW5 until they come to Steam, but it's not always easy having principles.

 

[William Pryde]

Question regarding Epic gamestore.

Now i read that this news was negatively received.

Can someone enlighten me on the why?

To add to what @stjobe has said, I really like being able to access all of my games with only one account. Having to log into multiple services to access different games is inconvenient. As most of my games are in my Steam library, this is my preferred method of accessing my games.

I have heard an argument that Steam has a monopoly and competition is good, and while I agree (I studied economics in college and am generally opposed to monopolies), there is already competition to Steam. GoG, the Epic Game Store, and Origin, to name a few.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

To add to what @stjobe has said, I really like being able to access all of my games with only one account. Having to log into multiple services to access different games is inconvenient. As most of my games are in my Steam library, this is my preferred method of accessing my games.

I have heard an argument that Steam has a monopoly and competition is good, and while I agree (I studied economics in college and am generally opposed to monopolies), there is already competition to Steam. GoG, the Epic Game Store, and Origin, to name a few.

You raise a good point and it’s helped call into question some of my long-held beliefs about Steam.

Does Steam have a Monopoly? (Is this better judged on a Macro-scale like by Global Market Share of Sales, or on a Micro-scale like the number of Steam competitors I have loaded on my computer?)

When does Convenience extend into Monopoly?

At what point does one recognize and take action to counter a Monopoly?

Should all Monopolies incite one to take action to counter them?

If a Monopoly is convenient enough should it be ignored?


Questions to ponder while I reconsider pre-purchasing MW5... again. :shrug:

 

[stjobe]

I have heard an argument that Steam has a monopoly and competition is good, and while I agree (I studied economics in college and am generally opposed to monopolies), there is already competition to Steam. GoG, the Epic Game Store, and Origin, to name a few.

Steam generally does not do exclusive deals; that's my major point of contention with EGS. Steam are big, yes, but they don't actively work to hinder other actors as EGS does.

 

[smurfopax]

Steam only doesn't do it because they don't need it. Steam's Market share is huge, and if you you weren't one of the big players who just could build their own Steam (uplay, Origin etc.) for a long time there were not really any options beside Steam. At some point there came GoG for Game distribution if you didn't want to work with the Big Players or Steam. GOG was missing most of the Stuff people didn't like about Steam (mainly DRM) but it was and still is a niche Marketplace compared to Steam.

So now you have this environment and you want to kickstart a Steam alternative, + you have huge mountains of money because your last game lucked out. Sure you could try the same GOG tried and hope that you will have sucess were they didn't. Or you could just use some of your money pile and get exclusives, at least more people have heard of the Epic Store then people know there is a GOG. I call this a sucess in this fast living world, someone once said something like that: "Bad publicity is better then no publicity." I think he is right.

And exclusive on a PC isn't really exclusive. It isn't that you couldn't play it on the same machine if you wanted to, try this with console exclusives. Sure it's not the best practice but it's quite normal in this outside world thingy. Apple Stores, Dolce Gabana Stores whatever stores are nothing else then the real life Epic equivalent. No one bats an eye about a Whisky Bottle you can only get in UK Duty Free shops. But in the PC world this exact same behavior is like a pact with the Arch Devil. Sorry i just don't get it.

On top of this:
Steam's success is also a big problem if you are a small Indie Studio, there are so many Games released per month on Steam that it is really hard to be noticed in this flood of games if you have no Marketing Budget at all. A little bit of fragmentation isn't the worst for the gaming market in my opinion.

 

[stjobe]

And exclusive on a PC isn't really exclusive.

It most certainly is. If I don't want to buy a specific game off EGS, I can't play it at all. It's not like Apple store (because there are other places selling Macs, Iphones etc), or Dolce Gabana (because, guess what, they're not exclusive either - I can buy their brand in any number of stores).

Now if I want to play MW5 before December 2020, I have exactly one choice: To give money to EGS and therefore reinforce the habit of exclusive deals. I won't do that.

A little bit of fragmentation isn't the worst for the gaming market in my opinion.

Absolutely. But EGS (and Microsoft, with their Game Pass) are actively working against this. They don't want to be a competitor to Steam, they want to own the whole market. Not compete on equal terms, but be the only game(store) in town by means of exclusive deals. They actively seek monopoly, not a healthy competitive market.

 

[wundergoat]

Everyone wants to own the whole market...

With Steam having dominant market share and customers being adverse to even minute (and non-monetary) switching costs, having different/better products (I.E. exclusive deals) is one of the best competitive options. It is only surprising it took this long to get serious about competing with Steam.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

Respectfully, FPS fans can be in, and enjoy this game franchise if they want. We as fans should not be gatekeepers to who can enjoy the game. Does that mean MW5 needs to be a twitch/cover shooter FPS? No. But it can still appeal to those that play those games. As for toxicity, that's everywhere unfortunately. Including the BT franchise.

You're basically right about pretty much everywhere. I played my share of MW3 and MW4, with considerable time in PvP mode alongside the campaigns. Some of the old forums such as Mektek's were at least as toxic as in game. The level of hubris was almost amazing, given that it was over a moving pile of pixels.

In classic EverQuest you have the ability to join common channels on other servers, and I'd heard the war stories of yore from old guildies regarding Zek, the original (and 20 years later still operating) PvP server.

A while back I joined Zek's genchat channel out of curiosity. EQ's a great game with a great community...couldn't be that bad. Right?

Holy frak...

Yeah...

Mind you, not an EVE Online level of toxic trash talk by any means, but still...



I'm not saying I'll never PvP again, but the co-op mode in MW5M is definitely one of the features I'm looking forward to.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

After careful consideration I’ve chosen to reverse course and support PGI, Epic and MW5.

Here is my rationale which I posted to our earlier “MechWarrior 5 - Epic Game Store Exclusivity” Thread:

For a variety of reasons (none the least of which is that I have been a fan and stalwart supporter of PGI since the very earliest days of MWO), I have reconsidered my decision to boycott MechWarrior 5 on account of PGI’s decision to take advantage of Epic Exclusivity.

I made known my protest of MW5’s move to Epic both on our forum here and by cancelling my Steam Pre-Order with PGI.

But here on the eve of MechWarrior 5’s Release, I have chosen to move forward and support this latest BattleTech game.


With HBS’s silence on further BATTLETECH game development, MW5 may be the only BattleTech PC game development we see from here through to the end of 2020.

In my final analysis, support of BattleTech PC gaming proved more important to me that my protest of PGI’s Epic decision.

Put another way, Epic Exclusive is a small price to pay for continuing BattleTech PC Game Development.


PGI is doubling down on the BattleTech franchise, and I’ll stand by them as they do. :bow:

 

[smurfopax]

I will buy it and i wanna play it, i love Battletech.

But one thing is sure. PGI won't see 1 Cent in advance from me. After my personal Legendary Founder MWO debacel (bought in when they still promised no Clans) i have some trust problems. But for sure in a few hours they will get their money. This game just looks like little 9 year old me imagined Mechwarrior 1 actually looks, whoever thinks about buying is less fanatic about Battletech then me . This decision was done as soon as someone named it Mechwarrior.

@stjobe
I don't like Epic at all please don't get me wrong, but i can understand what Epic tries and personally think it's about time that Steam got some serious competition. The way is questionable but as i said nothing out of the ordinary. Sure exclusive deals are a pain in the ass, i suffer from them for years. I never owned a console, so i missed out on a lot of franchise i learned to love while playing with friends or watching them. But i always found enough other games i liked to play.
That was not my point with the exclusive stores. It's more that from time to time you get a item you want first from a certain place before you can get it anywhere else or you only get it from a certain place at all. I should know i suffer under Games Workshop and their "Event exclusive Badass never to own because wrong continent minis" for more then 20 years .

 

[stjobe]

Everyone wants to own the whole market...

As a company, sure. But who among us are companies?

As a consumer you should be staunchly against monopolies as they only serve to give you worse products for more money. Competition forces lowering of prices and/or improvement in products, while monopolies do just the opposite. That's at least one of the reasons there are actual laws against monopolies in most markets.

Either way, Steam does not have a monopoly, and at least it doesn't seem to me that they are trying to get one. EGS on the other hand, seem to be doing just that (at the very least a temporary monopoly with their exclusive deals - and what kind of "deal" is it? Buy at full price from us or wait and buy for full price from someone else later, maybe).

With Steam having dominant market share and customers being adverse to even minute (and non-monetary) switching costs, having different/better products (I.E. exclusive deals) is one of the best competitive options. It is only surprising it took this long to get serious about competing with Steam.

Exclusive isn't "different/better", it's just exclusive, and it is definitely not "competing" - how can you compete when you're not allowing competitors on to the field?

What an exclusive deal is, is a temporary monopoly on something. Which, as I hope you understand, I am firmly against. It is an anti-consumer practice.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Soooo... who’s up for some Co-op tomorrow? : )

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Less than 8-hours till Launch!

Prior commitments leave me very little time to download and play MW5 in the morning.

Though if I am successful in getting in a A.M. Mission or two, I’ll be sure to come back here and provide some feedback on my First Impressions of MW5. :bow:

 

[Sharazad]

Litterally Clock-watching.

Soon..... Soon...

 

[Razzlie]

Here we go lads.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

40% here! : )


EDIT:

SECOND EDIT: 100% and... LAUNCHING!

 

[Mordegar]

Dafuq?
I want your Internet!

I'm at 26 percent.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

80% and going

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Ugh. I have a dentist appointment after work today. By the time I get home and start downloading it, I won't be playing till tomorrow afternoon.