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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 22:38:25 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: I bet Remedy regrets that deal now...
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:38:25 -0400
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On Mon, 10 Jun 2024 08:13:40 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 08/06/2024 19:10, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> But Remedy is, sadly, stuck with their current publisher and that
>> publisher has said, "No Steam release for this game", even if it costs
>> the developer its much-needed success. At the time, the deal probably
>> looked pretty good, but I bet Remedy is regretting that partnership
>> now.
>
>I've heard that sentiment from a few sources that an exclusive deal with 
>Epic looks good on paper but the reality is the game just gets 'lost' on 
>their store=front.

I've read similar. To the point that (at least some) Indie developers
don't really consider the Epic games exclusive a 'real' release for
the game, but an extended 'early access' for which Epic is paying
them; a way to keep the lights on while they bring the game up to
their hoped-for standards and actually release it on Steam. Epic is
purportedly very poor on promoting games, and the audience just isn't
there. The release on Epic isn't something they really expect to make
money on; it's not where the profit comes from. 

But that's not really the case with "Alan Wake II". It is, after all,
not just released on Epic Games Store, but actually /published/ by
Epic Games themselves. As such, the exclusive makes sense -for Epic,
at least- in the same way that "Portal" or "Left4Dead" being exclusive
to Steam makes sense. It's a big-name game designed to push Epic's
storefront.

It makes less sense for Remedy, though. Given the cost of the game's
development, it was probably a necessary sacrifice, the same way that
they had to make a deal with Microsoft to get the original "Alan Wake"
out the door. That game was locked to the XBox 360 for years before a
PC release was authorized. Without the influx of cash from Epic, it's
quite possible that "Alan Wake 2" might never have been finished. So I
get the allure of the exclusive. But it was based on the idea that PC
gamers would rush to buy the game /despite/ it being on EGS, and the
evidence is that just isn't happening. 

And with the game being almost 9 months old, it seems unlikely it ever
will. What excitement there was around the game's release has been
diluted by almost a year's worth of new releases. The video games
industry is fast-moving, and yesterday's games are quickly forgotten.
I mean, until I brought it up, how many people here even remembered
that "Alan Wake 2" had been released at all? 

Which is a tragedy, because I /like/ Remedy's games. But they're a
mid-tier studio, and extremely vulnerable to the twists of fortune.
They release maybe one game every two or three years; the profits from
the last game are all that keep the company alive to make the next
product. Big-name publishers can weather a flop because they have the
resources. Even Indie studios can survive a failure more easily,
because their overhead is so much less. But the mid-tier studios are
often one bad game from closing. And "Alan Wake 2" might be that bad
game.



>I don't really follow games news so for me if it's not on Steam I 
>probably won't hear about it. Of course it doesn't help that I have an 
>aversion to giving any money to Epic!

Same. Again, it doesn't help that Epic doesn't really do much to
broadcast its exclusives. And many people, they hear a game is on
Epic, they go, "Oh, well, I'll just wait until its on Steam", and then
forget the game exists until it arrives on Valve's platform.