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Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

reuters.com

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Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#481

Post by georgeecollins »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #457
tharkun__ wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big "test" there for Steam will be when "Gabe goes away". It's gonna happen sooner or later.

I'm normally firmly against piracy, because I believe it to be morally equivalent to theft and I want to fund the artists making stuff I enjoy. But if Valve shreds my purchases when Gabe dies or retires, I will hoist the black flag on those games and not feel an ounce of guilt. As the saying says: if buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing. But we'll see. I hope it doesn't come to that. That said, I'm trying…

They have shown its a wildly successful model. They would be very crazy if they changed it, and it would make them vulnerable to Epic and the Windows store. It's more likely that your OS/ hardware will change in a way that isn't supported by an old game.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#482

Post by ganelonhb »

bad_haircut72 wrote: post #395
ganelonhb wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will be an unpopular take but I agree with it mostly. Always remember that you are not entitled to a job just because you need it to live. Always make sure you stay sharp and prepared for the worst case

If you're not entitled to a job, neither is anyone in the capital class entitled to own shit, they own the best houses, all the means of production - they're not entitled to any of that either.

I agree, you’re only entitled to what you have the power to protect. Unfortunately they have a lot of power up there

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#483

Post by chupasaurus »

mikkupikku wrote: post #417
johnnyanmac wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're being realistic from a business standpoint: Linux is at best, 3% market share. A very passionate 3%, but 3%. Using resources to support such a niche sector is a hard sell.

It's a glorified wrapper around curl, wine and a webview, a few interns could knock this out in a few months. For "3% market share" (growing every day, thanks to Valve) its a no brainer, but Sweeney has no brain.

That glorified wrapper is made on Unreal Engine.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#484

Post by georgeecollins »

glenstein wrote: post #174
Ethee wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still funny to me that they would rather burn 9 figures in cash on these silly deals to try and 'trap' gamers on their platform instead of just... I don't know... making a better platform? The reason nobody competes with Steam is simply the sheer number of integration and platform features that make it easy to buy, play and share games with my friends. It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your pl…

One of the more fascinating parts of the Xbox plan of attack for its new console is its apparent marriage of Xbox, Steam, and Epic among possibly others in a unified console experience. Having a true console like experience with a variety of PC game stores plugged in I think is a rare lane available for Xbox to try and do something other than reproduce Steam but worse, and I'm curious how it's going to go.

I think if it were a good plan Phil Spencer would still have a job.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#485

Post by georgeecollins »

pram wrote: post #6

I’ve wondered how much money was burned on Tim Sweeneys quixotic quest to re-create the Steam store. I know a lot of people who would religiously download the “free games” but never spent a cent.

I wouldn't say it was quixotic. Think about it this way: If fortnite made at it's peak $5.5b, and 2/3rd of that was PC (I have no idea of the ratio, just guessing), Epic would have been paying $1b to Valve in just that one year (3.66* 0.30).

You could spend a lot on developing a store to avoid paying $1b in fees!

Plus, your chance to launch a store is when you have a big product. Valve launched Steam with Half Life 2. It didn't really work that well at first but everyone wanted to play HL2.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#486

Post by autoexec »

bergheim wrote: post #215
applfanboysbgon wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't losing money on Fortnite, they're losing money on vanity projects like the Epic Game Store where they spend tens of millions of dollars for exclusivity deals with developers, and give away free games to try to poach Steam users with an otherwise inferior product. Unfortunately it is their employees that are paying the price of leadership making it rain with their overflowing coffers they couldn't help but…

Everybody says this. It's so weird. How on earth will epic win without exclusives? It's like launching some Facebook competitor "but you get two profile pictures". Noone would switch. All these geeks singing steam and lamenting competition. Competition bad for me mkay, steam good. /me shakes head

I'd love steam to have some competition. epic isn't it though. Epic sucks up your personal data to sell to advertisers and "marketing partners", the client itself is trash, it's just one more middle man to get in your way (https://old.reddit.com/r/EpicGamesPC/comments/zc5ri3/playing...) at inconvenient times.

A good competitor would not come from a game publisher. It wouldn't collect any more data than it needs and wouldn't use your data for marketing or sell it to anyone else. It also wouldn't be able to remove your ability to access and play the games you've already purchased for any reason.

Bad products/services that are more trouble than they are worth do not magically become good because they might compete in some ways with something else.

GoG is the closest thing to a steam competitor right now and even in that case I have zero incentive to install their client.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#487

Post by chupasaurus »

Narishma wrote: post #340
danpalmer wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wanted to play UT2004 for some nostalgia recently. Turns out even though I own it on the Epic game store, I can't play it because Epic removed it from the Epic game store.

Didn't they make the game free? Or was that just UT99?

They removed all UT games from online stores and added UT 3X which is a free version of UT3 with Epic Online Services baked instead of original ones.

The only way one could legally get UT99 is to buy physical. And it's been like that for many years prior to an event above, which also disabled the server browser after 22 years of running intact.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#488

Post by iknowstuff »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #446
iknowstuff wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is this such a talking point about roblox? couldnt this be said about literally any online platform ever?

Because Roblox has had many high profile issues with it and their response is much more tepid than other platforms.

The response from other platforms is placating regulators by verifying IDs. Is that what we want?

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#489

Post by endominus »

georgeecollins wrote: post #481
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm normally firmly against piracy, because I believe it to be morally equivalent to theft and I want to fund the artists making stuff I enjoy. But if Valve shreds my purchases when Gabe dies or retires, I will hoist the black flag on those games and not feel an ounce of guilt. As the saying says: if buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing. But we'll see. I hope it doesn't come to that. That said, I'm trying…

They have shown its a wildly successful model. They would be very crazy if they changed it, and it would make them vulnerable to Epic and the Windows store. It's more likely that your OS/ hardware will change in a way that isn't supported by an old game.

Unfortunately, "this is a wildly successful model that prints money for us with almost no upkeep required" has historically not been a bulletproof argument when new management comes in and wants to prove themselves. Human beings are not necessarily rational and the kinds of people that tend to rise to the top of large corporations don't necessarily have the best interests of customers or the business itself in mind.

That being said, I believe that Gabe is taking his "succession planning" seriously, so I'd be fairly optimistic for the next decade at least.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#490

Post by com2kid »

ryandrake wrote: post #463
jrozner wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People hated steam when it launched but you needed it to play CS 1.6. It made installing mods easier. Then HL2 released, orange box, and they were able to get a critical mass as they provided platforms support for other games. Steam got better. It’s still not great but they have so much market share that basically any PC gamer already has it. Epic wants some of that money. The problem is nobody wants to install anoth…

I still don't like Steam. I resent that I have to have this "Store" middle man on my computer just to have access to games. I want to pay a company for their product on their web site, download the installer, and install it on my operating system directly. I don't want this other layer that I'm dependent on, who could switch off my access to the things I "bought" whenever they want.

With gaming on Linux, steam fixes so many middle issues. I can download a game and it just works through some combination of WINE and voodoo magic.

And all game controller even works!

Steam is a serious value add on Linux.

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