Tim Sweeney is the founder and CEO of Epic Games, a company most famous and known for Unreal Engine, the biggest and most popular game engine, and the developer of games like Fortnite and the Gears of War series.
Recently Epic Games has also become famous, or should I say infamous, for the Epic Store, which is their attempt at competing in the PC video game digital market.
Why has it become infamous? Because they are attempting a hostile takeover of said market. They aren't just competing with Valve's Steam. They are trying to hurt Steam and forcefully cram themselves into the market and take the throne away from Valve. This is not just me saying it. This is Epic Games saying it (Tim Sweeney in particular).
Direct competition isn't bad all in itself. In general competition is good for the consumers. Healthy and fair competition. However, that's not what Epic is doing. Instead, they are engaging in anti-consumer tactics to do so. Epic is throwing incredible amounts of money at developers in order to guarantee exclusivity deals. In other words, Epic is paying developers to not publish their games on Steam, and instead publish them on Epic Store exclusively. They are essentially trying to steal developers away from Steam, in order to boost their own store and hurt Valve, in order to forcefully get into the market (again, not my words, but theirs).
Tim Sweeney in particular has been quite openly talking about this, especially in his Twitter feed. He isn't even being very diplomatic about it.
Recently his assholery reached an entirely new level when the developers of the upcoming indie game Ooblets accepted an exclusivity deal with Epic Games, and not only announced it to their customers in a very condescending and dismissive manner, but moreover doubled down ten-fold in their Discord server by responding in a very condescending and impolite manner to users asking them about it and complaining that they were expecting to get the game on Steam. People complained to Epic Games about this condescending tone of the Ooblets developers, and how it put Epic Games in a rather bad light.
Tim Sweeney made a Twitter post in response to these complaints, addressing specifically the tone of the announcement by the Ooblets developers. His response? "It's AWESOME!" He then proceeded to bicker with people who objected to this in his Twitter feed, defending the Ooblets developers, their tone, and Epic's exclusivity deal scheme, in a rather non-diplomatic manner.
(By the way, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. After that debacle I terminated my Epic Store account. I don't really need it, nor do I want to support these anti-consumer tactics and hostile takeover attempts.)
It only makes this whole thing worse that the Epic Store software and user interface is quite literally just a mess, a half-assed attempt at a digital store with only a fraction of the features that Steam (and other digital stores) has, and, apparently, Epic has pretty much given up on even trying to make it a full-featured digital store of a modern caliber and has little interest in developing it much further. The Epic Store is without exaggeration a pain to use for anything, as it lacks most features that would be useful to customers and gamers. (This, coincidentally, in contrast with Valve, who are apparently once again bringing major new features to their platform in the next months.)
It doesn't end there. Tim Sweeney is not only an asshole, but a hypocrite.
In 2016 he wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian, named Microsoft wants to monopolise games development on PC. We must fight it.
I wish I were kidding, but no. Tim Sweeney himself is writing in that article against Microsoft's back then attempt at a hostile takeover of the PC video game digital market, trying to get exclusive control of it, and how this is against the interests of consumers, and how "we must fight it". He is writing against exactly what Epic Games is trying to do currently.
How has his tone changed in a mere 3 years...
Recently Epic Games has also become famous, or should I say infamous, for the Epic Store, which is their attempt at competing in the PC video game digital market.
Why has it become infamous? Because they are attempting a hostile takeover of said market. They aren't just competing with Valve's Steam. They are trying to hurt Steam and forcefully cram themselves into the market and take the throne away from Valve. This is not just me saying it. This is Epic Games saying it (Tim Sweeney in particular).
Direct competition isn't bad all in itself. In general competition is good for the consumers. Healthy and fair competition. However, that's not what Epic is doing. Instead, they are engaging in anti-consumer tactics to do so. Epic is throwing incredible amounts of money at developers in order to guarantee exclusivity deals. In other words, Epic is paying developers to not publish their games on Steam, and instead publish them on Epic Store exclusively. They are essentially trying to steal developers away from Steam, in order to boost their own store and hurt Valve, in order to forcefully get into the market (again, not my words, but theirs).
Tim Sweeney in particular has been quite openly talking about this, especially in his Twitter feed. He isn't even being very diplomatic about it.
Recently his assholery reached an entirely new level when the developers of the upcoming indie game Ooblets accepted an exclusivity deal with Epic Games, and not only announced it to their customers in a very condescending and dismissive manner, but moreover doubled down ten-fold in their Discord server by responding in a very condescending and impolite manner to users asking them about it and complaining that they were expecting to get the game on Steam. People complained to Epic Games about this condescending tone of the Ooblets developers, and how it put Epic Games in a rather bad light.
Tim Sweeney made a Twitter post in response to these complaints, addressing specifically the tone of the announcement by the Ooblets developers. His response? "It's AWESOME!" He then proceeded to bicker with people who objected to this in his Twitter feed, defending the Ooblets developers, their tone, and Epic's exclusivity deal scheme, in a rather non-diplomatic manner.
(By the way, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. After that debacle I terminated my Epic Store account. I don't really need it, nor do I want to support these anti-consumer tactics and hostile takeover attempts.)
It only makes this whole thing worse that the Epic Store software and user interface is quite literally just a mess, a half-assed attempt at a digital store with only a fraction of the features that Steam (and other digital stores) has, and, apparently, Epic has pretty much given up on even trying to make it a full-featured digital store of a modern caliber and has little interest in developing it much further. The Epic Store is without exaggeration a pain to use for anything, as it lacks most features that would be useful to customers and gamers. (This, coincidentally, in contrast with Valve, who are apparently once again bringing major new features to their platform in the next months.)
It doesn't end there. Tim Sweeney is not only an asshole, but a hypocrite.
In 2016 he wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian, named Microsoft wants to monopolise games development on PC. We must fight it.
I wish I were kidding, but no. Tim Sweeney himself is writing in that article against Microsoft's back then attempt at a hostile takeover of the PC video game digital market, trying to get exclusive control of it, and how this is against the interests of consumers, and how "we must fight it". He is writing against exactly what Epic Games is trying to do currently.
How has his tone changed in a mere 3 years...
Tim Sweeney is an awful guy. I worked at epic back when UT was the big game (vs quake 3) and I had so many awful experiences with him. I'm not sure why anyone at Epic tolerates him.
ReplyDeleteNow he's suing Apple to fight their monopoly status... while at the same time trying to get a monopoly status on PC gaming via exclusivity deals.
DeleteJust know that VALVE aka MSN GAMING ZONE is just as fail as it was years ago..that people fell for it is even worse. Wish MSN GAMING zone (microsoft) would have brought game engines like UE but they didnt allt hey wanted was your money and to be the KINGPIN of the games. What you say is the COUNTER ATTACK of others vs MSN GAMING ZONE, if theres any greedy companies who started this it was EA buying up all brands and MICROSOFT trying to get all people linked to them with msn gaming zone and now valve (same company). So you story is pretty one sided sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhat underhanded tactics has Valve used to gain a majority marketplace?
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