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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

variety.com

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#171

Post by acomjean »

jerrybender wrote: post #146
paxys wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motivation for founders is a lot easier to understand than that of the acquiring company. What on earth is Epic going to do with Bandcamp?

Metaverse concerts and fighting against Apple

I can never tell if comments are sarcastic are not...

but "fortnite" by epic already had concert/online experiences. They've been pretty fun. Maybe getting band camp allows them access to artists they didn't have before?

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/fort-nite-concert-seri...

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#172

Post by hunterb123 »

throwaway889900 wrote: post #4

Is it just me, or does this seem like a rather lateral move to get into more of the "marketplace" like Epic has been doing recently? Is there some grand goal that I'm not seeing here?

Maybe they want a music catalog to play/merge into their games/social platforms like Fortnite.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#173

Post by micromacrofoot »

pier25 wrote: post #150
prepend wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it’s because Epic presented a ton of cash and a small but profitable company found it attractive. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work for or be part of Epic, so that’s my assumption of gobs of cash.

But what's in it for Epic?

The Metaverse (Epic has hosted music events in Fortnite that have had millions of attendees), diversifying their game store. They've also bought art and 3D asset companies recently.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#174

Post by dundarious »

Apocryphon wrote: post #164
andai wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't exiting necessarily imply a change in leadership?

IPOs are the alternative form of exit and they certainly don't.

Where does the drive for an "exit" come from? It's a jargon term not used in the entrepreneurial side of most other industries.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#175

Post by superkuh »

ffpip wrote: post #98
superkuh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Epic bought the game "Rocket League" they promised not to change anything. At that time it had Windows, Linux, Mac, xbox, and playstation clients. 6 months after they aquisition they killed off the linux client (even for people who bought in-game purchases). Epic lies. It is what they do. They are the epitome of a dangerous megacorp.

They also made the game free to play. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438194/rocket-league-fr...

That is because Epic was buying up popular games, removing non-$exploitable$ platforms from them, and securing them behind it's software walled garden. The point of buying Rocket League and then giving away "free" versions of it away was to get people stuck in their walled garden with the hope they'll use it and buy other things. They also ramped up the microtransactions.

I don't like not being able to play the game on my OS anymore, but that's just a tree in the forest of behavior. Epic anti-competitive monopolist behavior is completely transparent if you've been watching from the start. They also attacked companies that created popular games using their engine by copying the games and releasing them for free to undercut their own engine customers (see: Fortnite vs PUBG).

Epic uses their "free" software as a weapon, just like Microsoft did in the 90s.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#176

Post by arwhatever »

siver_john wrote: post #22

This 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…

Would Bandcamp the business model + Bandcamp the website necessarily be difficult to reproduce, particularly in an environment in which the Bandcamp niche just became no longer fulfilled due to changing practices on the part of Original Bandcamp?

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#177

Post by posterboy »

bduerst wrote: post #42
gowld wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This seems like an odd move for a gaming company. Amazon is a bookstore. Epic sees Steam and Apple (and Amazon) and knows that the platform is the chokepoint where all the money is.

Yeah, this is just Epic blurring the lines between video games and music content as it moves to become more of a media company. It's also an easy way to to procure licensing to sell music content in games. I'd be interested to know why they passed up others like SoundCloud.

How would it make licensing easier?

As for SoundCloud, either they didn't come to terms for whatever reason, or they didn't try to begin with if marketing considerations favor BP.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#178

Post by antihero »

Apocryphon wrote: post #160
zippergz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nothing will change in the short term" is the story of every acquisition, almost all of which end up with major changes for the worse at some point. (So yes, I agree with you.)

And yet so many modern day startups have no viable exit strategy beyond acquisition- what does that say about the state of the industry, and of founders' commitments towards building a sustainable product?

Why do things need an exit strategy, why can they not simply exist and do good work and pay people fairly? Does everything have to exist purely to maximise profit?

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#179

Post by marrone12 »

minusf wrote: post #123
noyesno wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qobuz offers both streamed music and flac purchases from their store.

is it known how they are compensating the artists? the main reason why i am boycotting spotify.

They pay literally an order of magnitude more per stream than spotify. .04 cents vs .003 cents https://www.soundguys.com/tidal-hifi-review-25846/

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#180

Post by dymk »

shaggyfrog wrote: post #147
dymk wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

"Because I paid for the game, and despite the fact I was happy to pay for it and I enjoy playing it, I think everyone else should need to pay for it, too. Otherwise all that enjoyment I had will be undone." c.f.: sunk cost fallacy

I'm happy to pay for a game I enjoy playing, the game is made F2P, it becomes inundated with Eternal September players, it is no longer fun to play, I am annoyed.
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