Totally not thought through, but it seems like it could be good if once a company hits a certain size they have to increase their difficulty level and only grown from the inside, no acquisitions.
Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
131–140 of 485 posts
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#132This feels like a major blow, as someone who just semi recently (probably around pandemic start) started getting into purchasing flac music from indie artists, Bandcamp was a great source of music. I understand nothing will change in the short term, but long term I am very concerned. Especially as streaming becomes more dominant and companies are less willing to provide flac based music and physical discs (where I ca…
Are you willing to fund Bandcamp?
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#133And now I'm using an automatic downloader to fetch all the FLAC encodings of the several hundred albums that I purchased from Bandcamp.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also made the game free to play. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438194/rocket-league-fr...
Which is a big middle finger to those who had purchased the game. And I can't think of a game that didn't have the quality of its player base (and so, gameplay) decline after going F2P (looking at you, TF2).
The costs and benefits around a game going F2P are too numerous to list in a HN comment, but I think it is extremely reductive to call it a “middle finger” just because you spent $20 four years and 500 hours of game time ago.
More people playing the game you like is very good for that game receiving more investment/developer time. Shorter queue times, more revenue for the game in the form of mtx, and gameplay in a competitive multiplayer game should never (this is a big should, but in the ideal) get worse for an existing player because of skill-based matchmaking (something TF2 lacks).
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#135Well, crap. Bandcamp was the perfect place for hosting my music. Hopefully Itch starts hosting music if they haven't already. I'd switch immediately. Are there any other good places to host low-budget indie music? Soundcloud doesn't count because I get at least one spammer interacting with my tracks every single time I upload something. It's got to the point that I've started only uploading things secretly and sharin…
https://mixtape.ai
big new release coming this month with artist-side album drafting and merch features
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#136Too bad. It was one of the few good independent websites left. As always, the CEO said they'll remain independent and blah blah blah in the email, but we know how that goes. Good tip for people on the music side, and something to suggest to them: 1. Set up but do not publish your Bandcamp Subscriptions 2. Add all your music to it 3. Now it's all downloadable in your own user-side Bandcamp library. Check the format: F…
I look forward to not being able to download my purchases :(
That already happens with Bandcamp. If the artist removes a song/album, you have no way of downloading it again even if you've purchased it. You only get a license to download the music while it's still available on the website. I've lost a few tracks/albums this way, thankfully I had local copies already.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also made the game free to play. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438194/rocket-league-fr...
Which is a big middle finger to those who had purchased the game. And I can't think of a game that didn't have the quality of its player base (and so, gameplay) decline after going F2P (looking at you, TF2).
As someone who bought the Rocket League and plays on Linux... :(
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#138Lots of disappointed comments here. Would you guys really prefer seeing bandcamp beeing bought by Apple?
I'd rather it remained independent, but if it was a choice between Apple and Epic I'd pick Apple. Of course, Apple would never buy them because they have iTunes. Since you raised the comparison, what do you think Epic is going to do? How do you think being dragged into Epic's war against Apple is going to impact Bandcamp as a service? It clearly isn't being bought so that it just continues as is (despite the promises…
I think the plan is to turn bandcamp into a streaming service.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#139https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games#Acquisitions This appears to be the first company they are acquiring that is outside of the video game industry. This may start a new era for Epic Games. I wonder what direction they are going to take? I'd guess a new player in the multi-media field, but I really dont know.
Epic Games acquired and recently discontinued Houseparty, a video chat app. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseparty_(app)
Why would they shut it down? Discontinuing a successful social app during Covid times doesn't make sense at all. Bandcamp seems to be too big to be closed like that though.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
While that would be worse, being acquired doesn't have to be the only choice. The main reason everyone liked Bandcamp is its independence. That independence translated into an excellent marketplace which was great for users and artists. The preference is that Bandcamp continues to be Bandcamp, not part of an umbrella. Hope that explains it a bit. I'm quite sad and pessimistic about this. We'll see how well our reacti…
Give them a chance- epic doesnt have a reputation of blowing their aquisitions. It could be far worse!
>epic doesnt have a reputation of blowing their aquisitions.
They ditched the Linux version of Rocket League. That counts as a blown acquisition to me.