• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Division 2 Is Ditching Steam For The Epic Games Store On PC

DS4 support? Isn’t that Steam only.

Never been able to get it to work in uplay

That I don't know. Only time I've used DS4 on PC was for Forza to see if it would work. :p

Can't you just use DS4Windows? But I'm out of my element here because I only use XB1 controller on PC.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Help me out guys. I still don't understand the uproar about Epic jumping into Steam's market. Is it the exclusivity? I mean it's another launcher that you use on the same device. It much different if you consider exclusivity on Xbox or Playstation. I mean, doesn't competition breed better deals for gamers? Are people upset because they are loyal to Steam? I mean there are people on this thread saying they won't buy TD2 simply because it's on Epic's Launcher.

I've read that Epic is paying developers/publishers to release games exclusively on Epic. That much I can be a little annoyed with. I mean I suppose you won't get the badges and what not...however that's not enough to make me outright not buy a game that I absolutely planned on buying prior to this news. Somebody please explain the logic behind this. I'm relatively new to PC. My rig is about 4 months old. So I apologize if the obvious isn't so obvious to me.
 

MayauMiao

Member
This is dumb. So what is the point of Uplay? Gives me nightmare when Steam had GFWL games. What a mess.
 
Last edited:
Help me out guys. I still don't understand the uproar about Epic jumping into Steam's market. Is it the exclusivity? I mean it's another launcher that you use on the same device. It much different if you consider exclusivity on Xbox or Playstation. I mean, doesn't competition breed better deals for gamers? Are people upset because they are loyal to Steam? I mean there are people on this thread saying they won't buy TD2 simply because it's on Epic's Launcher.

I've read that Epic is paying developers/publishers to release games exclusively on Epic. That much I can be a little annoyed with. I mean I suppose you won't get the badges and what not...however that's not enough to make me outright not buy a game that I absolutely planned on buying prior to this news. Somebody please explain the logic behind this. I'm relatively new to PC. My rig is about 4 months old. So I apologize if the obvious isn't so obvious to me.
My issue is that this is just the beginning. Steam and the other platforms are going to answer back by purchasing their own 3rd party exclusives and it's going to become less about the features offered to the consumers and more about the exclusives so they can force you to use them. This is a race to the bottom where the only loser is going to be us the consumers.
 

demigod

Member
Help me out guys. I still don't understand the uproar about Epic jumping into Steam's market. Is it the exclusivity? I mean it's another launcher that you use on the same device. It much different if you consider exclusivity on Xbox or Playstation. I mean, doesn't competition breed better deals for gamers? Are people upset because they are loyal to Steam? I mean there are people on this thread saying they won't buy TD2 simply because it's on Epic's Launcher.

I've read that Epic is paying developers/publishers to release games exclusively on Epic. That much I can be a little annoyed with. I mean I suppose you won't get the badges and what not...however that's not enough to make me outright not buy a game that I absolutely planned on buying prior to this news. Somebody please explain the logic behind this. I'm relatively new to PC. My rig is about 4 months old. So I apologize if the obvious isn't so obvious to me.

How are places like GMG, Humble bundle able to have deals when all they have to work with IF all they get is 12%? Goodluck getting deals from publishers.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
My issue is that this is just the beginning. Steam and the other platforms are going to answer back by purchasing their own 3rd party exclusives and it's going to become less about the features offered to the consumers and more about the exclusives so they can force you to use them. This is a race to the bottom where the only loser is going to be us the consumers.


Thanks that does sound kinda shitty. So the reason why other launchers haven't received a bad wrap like Epic is because those launchers release exlusives that a owned by the publisher. Bethesda, Battle.net, Blizzard, Origin...all do the exclusive thing but it's their own IPS not overreaching into IPs they don't own. So why would Ubisoft launch TD2 on Epic? Don't they lose money that way? Is this a stab at Steam? Kindal ike making a statement to make Steam sweeten their deals with publishers to get closer to 12%?
 
I have zero loyalty to any company, so I don’t care where I buy the game from (if I ever do, didn’t really like the first). A launcher is just that, a launcher. I have about 3 installed on my system already, I just boot the games own shortcut from my start menu and it runs the required launcher for me. I give this revelation a Meh/10
 

Xiaoki

Member
I didn't use any launcher for The Division 1 other than a direct link for the game. Quick and easy.

It would also load a page for the Uplay launcher saying what my were and friend requests and crap like that but I ignored it.

I don't care about friends lists or achievements or any of that other useless nonsense. I only want to play the game.
 
Thanks that does sound kinda shitty. So the reason why other launchers haven't received a bad wrap like Epic is because those launchers release exlusives that a owned by the publisher. Bethesda, Battle.net, Blizzard, Origin...all do the exclusive thing but it's their own IPS not overreaching into IPs they don't own. So why would Ubisoft launch TD2 on Epic? Don't they lose money that way? Is this a stab at Steam? Kindal ike making a statement to make Steam sweeten their deals with publishers to get closer to 12%?
I would assume that just like the other dev's that have signed the exclusives contract that Epic offered them monetary compensation upfront as well as guarantees for sales. Personally speaking this will probably drive a few like me to just purchase these games on console instead of handing our info and money over to support these shitty practices.
 
I didn't use any launcher for The Division 1 other than a direct link for the game. Quick and easy.

It would also load a page for the Uplay launcher saying what my were and friend requests and crap like that but I ignored it.

I don't care about friends lists or achievements or any of that other useless nonsense. I only want to play the game.

giphy.gif


I feel ya
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
Steam should just lower their cut and be done with it. They have enough users to go way bellow Epic and Discord.

They recently lost Activision and Bethesda. This is another blow for them.
 
Last edited:

HoodWinked

Member
I think this is actually less of a big deal than people think. and some people don't seem to understand how ubisoft games even work on pc.

Ubisoft games on steam launch uplay then the games launch from there. The Division 1 is even available on origin https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/tom-clancy/tom-clancys-the-division which also would launch uplay and launch from there. steam barely even interacts with the division after the game is launched.

division 2 store front for the epic version even says you need a uplay account and mentions in the faq if you want to play with friends it links to an external ubi.com link meaning youre still using uplay client to invite friends to play so the game is probably entirely in uplay.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/the-division-2/home

also division 2 is still being sold through sites like gmg / humble bundle/probably bundled with future graphics cards. honestly it was always pointless to buy ubisoft games through steam since it never bypassed uplay and usually just cost more than third party sellers.

the exclusivity on epic store is probably extremely favorable for ubisoft, either like 0% cut or even epic paying ubisoft to have a big third party game on their platform.
 
Last edited:
I love these people who are like I'll access Uplay through Stream but not directly.

I know most of them are F.o.S. but funny nonetheless.

And if you played Division 1 on PC, you were using the Uplay launcher whether you want to admit it or not.
 
Last edited:
Steam should just lower their cut and be done with it. They have enough users to go way bellow Epic and Discord.

They recently lost Activision and Bethesda. This is another blow for them.

Seems like they should have done this long ago.

I wonder if we ever get to the point where there’s launcher specific pre-order bonuses
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
I love these people who are like I'll access Uplay through Stream but not directly.

I know most of them are F.o.S. but funny nonetheless.

And if you played Division 1 on PC, you were using the Uplay launcher whether you want to admit it or not.

I get none of the features Steam has to offer by buying something directly from Uplay.
 

NickFire

Member
Steam should just lower their cut and be done with it. They have enough users to go way bellow Epic and Discord.

They recently lost Activision and Bethesda. This is another blow for them.
Unless Fortnite goes away before things snowball any further for them, at some point I think they will have to if they want to survive in their current form. The initial loss will be steep, but doing nothing will just see more and more companies shift away from their fees. Nothing against Steam at all - it's just the simple reality that they don't have the luxury that MS and Sony do within their console specific ecosystem. If Fortnite dries up they might be able to stay the course as Epic will lose a lot of attention that they pass along as free advertising with their lower fees. But even then, the amount of money going back to the pubs because of lower fees is huge.
 

Stuart360

Member
Things like this dont worry me because i have been a Steam user long enough to know that there are a ton of users that simply wont by a game if its not on Steam, and its not a false threat, they really wont buy games unless they are on Steam. I can imagine when all these big and expensive AAA games start underperforming, they will crawl back to Steam, just like Ubisoft did when they launched Uplay.
 

Bolivar687

Banned
I'm going to echo that, while this is an odd and somewhat inexplicable move, it's by no means the big deal some are making it out to be. Steam has largely outlived its usefulness as a proxy for large publishers, as there just isn't much of a reason for them to not offer their games through their own storefront. It was useful when console publishers didn't have much of a commitment to PC but that's just not the world we live in anymore. There is some of a user benefit to having your games, save states, and screenshots all in one place, but a lot of that is obviated by needing to run the game through UPlay anyway.

I was always going to pre-order this game discounted on GMG and play it directly through the UPlay client. The Division 1 ran and played like a dream on PC and configuring its features were just a delight for performance users. I expect the same from Division 2 and would encourage anyone dismayed by this shift to recalibrate their reaction.
 

Helios

Member
Competition should be a good thing?
Competition is indeed a good thing. But this type of competition doesnt help the PC market. As a consumer I don't get to choose which platform I want to spend my money on. If I want to play the Division (which I thankfully don't) I am forced to use the Epic launcher.
I said this many times but GOG is a great example of competition done right. They came in with features that were distinct and helpful to the consumer. DRM-free, support for older games, rollback patches.
As it stands right now EPIC is just "Steam, but worse".

Do I get controller input, family sharing, big picture mode, achivements, refunds, chat and community forums on the Epic launcher?
Worskshop support too
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
Makes perfect sense to me. Give your customers choice by offering your game on another platform besides the company store. Picking the alternate platform that takes the smallest cut and is least likely to pull significant sales away from your own store at the same time? Bonus points.
 
Last edited:

dirthead

Banned
I think it's great that digital storefronts are turning into a complete clusterfuck. People will finally realize that these shitty locked down walled gardens are NOT in their best interest and maybe they'll die in a fire like they should. Steam should have never become a thing in the first place. It was a horrible, horrible idea.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
I think it's great that digital storefronts are turning into a complete clusterfuck. People will finally realize that these shitty locked down walled gardens are NOT in their best interest and maybe they'll die in a fire like they should. Steam should have never become a thing in the first place. It was a horrible, horrible idea.

If Steam didn't become a thing, something else would. Storefronts should just unite into a single, decent store, but I guess that's out of the question.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
This seems like a good move for this game because it has a niche following that will follow it and they likely want to grab some fortnite users. But it is a terrible decision for some of their other games. I hope this doesn’t kill off tropico when no one buys it. Games like that need the steam exposure a lot more.

Having someone on my friends list playing a game that I have never heard of or barely heard of is the single most effective marketing technique by a large margin. And since I don’t have the epic store even installed, I will have zero exposure to the mid tier games that have no other marketing.
 

AndrewRyan

Member
Good riddance. Just makes it that much easier to avoid uPlay launcher after launching a game. I hope they never come back.
 

Barakov

Member
Seems like they should have done this long ago.

I wonder if we ever get to the point where there’s launcher specific pre-order bonuses
Probably going to......NO. It's guaranteed to happen. I think the upside to this is that it might get Valve to be stop being so lazy. Then again the downside would be is that we'd get more TF2 items.
 

TimFL

Member
The day Microsoft announce Game Pass for Windows will probably be another blow for Valve.
They won't release Game Pass in Windows Store's current state. They'll fix it before releasing it, including the UI.
Uh... Game Pass has been a thing on Windows since... game pass reveal. I know, I played a few games (Sea of Thieves and a few third party games) on PC using GP.
It‘s just they have no proper UI for it so it is not discoverable at all. They recently mentioned they‘re working on that + trying to get more 3rd parties to also sign up for it on PC, but this has certainly existed for a long while on PC also.

And there goes my preorder, been holding out on this game because they didn‘t push pre-orders live on Steam. I despise the UPlay launcher and I am not really interested in using the Epic one with the barebones UI (does it even have a chat? I wouldn‘t know cause none of my friends have an account on there).
 

CuNi

Member
Whether people want to admit it or now but a large part of active steam users is quit loyal. Be it because they don't want another launch, don't want to segment their library, prefer the better tools they have on Steam or any other reason.. But for example all of my friends simply won't get games on anything else but steam, with a few exceptions like for 1 or 2 games a year. We all even got rainbow si. Siege on Steam, not because we want to avoid uplay but because we want our games on steam. It's that simply. Yes this game still will sell its part but let's be honest here. Games that don't release on steam see a good amount of less sales and attention overall. People still think they will sell good because of the fortnite population.. But that's their mistake. I said it already, if anything epic introduces kids into gaming and then they flock over to steam because that's where the games are at. I mean just look what happend with Subnautica. People went from the epic store to the steam forums to ask for help.. So epic even helps to promote steam.
 

Kadayi

Banned
I think it's great that digital storefronts are turning into a complete clusterfuck. People will finally realize that these shitty locked down walled gardens are NOT in their best interest and maybe they'll die in a fire like they should. Steam should have never become a thing in the first place. It was a horrible, horrible idea.

Because....?

Honestly Dirthead, we laugh hard about your shitty driveby troll posts on the Discord. You're a running joke at this point in time. I think it's important you know that and that maybe you might re-evaluate your approach going forward (though I somehow doubt it).

For all its flaws Steam pretty much-saved PC as a platform from shrivelling up and dying when both Sony and Microsoft were largely crushing it in terms of Highstreet retail presence with more and more shelf space given over to console titles and less and less to PC games. Creating a digital storefront was a genius move. Valve even had the jump on the likes of tech giants like Apple in making it account based, meaning that you weren't locked to a specific machine unlike the early iterations of Itunes. PCgamer did an interesting breakdown of Steam over the years last year here: -

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-versions/

The fact of the matter is, without Steam a great many titles and companies (especially indie ones) would never have garnered the exposure and sales that they have. This idea that somehow Steam is the worst is just plain retarded logic. I mean seriously lets hear your reasons why Steam was such a horrible horrible idea.

Good riddance. Just makes it that much easier to avoid uPlay launcher after launching a game. I hope they never come back.

It's still got Uplay attached. Its just Ubisoft are going to sell it there rather than through Steam.
 

Sentenza

Member
In the last few years i bought ONE Ubisoft game, because friends pressured me into it, and I ended up regretting my purchase anyway.
I don't think I'll miss The Division 2, especially after what I experienced of the first during the free trial.

And yes, I do have a Uplay account and client already installed, with several games (mostly freebies) already on it.
It doesn't change that this choice they just made displeases me and it makes extremely easy for me to ignore their future output completely.
 

sol_bad

Member
Makes perfect sense to me. Give your customers choice by offering your game on another platform besides the company store. Picking the alternate platform that takes the smallest cut and is least likely to pull significant sales away from your own store at the same time? Bonus points.

Makes no sense.
Between Epic and Steam, the Steam user base is much bigger. Yes, they'd make more money per sale on the Epic store but I think they'd make more actual sales on Steam.
 
Is this just The Division 2 or all Ubisoft games from here on out?

Because if so Steam is fucked if Ubisoft is abandoning them, I mean Ubi is a huge third party publisher and if they'll abandoned Steam, anyone will.

I hate this bullshit so much, it's already a huge pain in the ass to have Uplay, now this? At least I can just buy directly from Uplay, but this does not bode well for the future of Steam at all.

If there's any silver lining then I guess we really will see the return of Half-Life because Valve can't rest on their laurels anymore.
 
Last edited:

Kadayi

Banned
Best time in PC gaming coming back confirmed.

Fuck that we need to go back to the days of patches on Gaming mag CDs and Jumbo sized CRTs with curved screens, the way nature intended (convex fuckers) then we'll be living the dream.
 
Last edited:

Mattyp

Gold Member
Fuck that we need to go back to the days of patches on Gaming mag CDs and Jumbo sized CRTs with curved screens, the way nature intended (convex fuckers) then we'll be living the dream.

I remember the month a copy of Tribes came on PC Powerplay, perfection.
 
The launcher-clusterfuck-situation will not become better, I fear.
Got Playnite through a thread here on GAF and over the last year it evolved in an ok frontend for everything that needs its own launcher. (Yes, they still need to start/run in the background)
 

JCK75

Member
I don't get why people don't understand why this is a problem, I'm all for competition but you have to give me a choice not tell me I'm going to use a platform.
I'm glad developers like the Epic stores terms but they should consider if the consumer likes using it... I personally do not
Imagine you're an Xbox gamer, you've spent years building up a friends list and Microsoft one day says OK for these 4 games over here you need a whole new friends list, and then 5 more games over hear another friends list.. etc etc.. it's getting old.

Steam for whatever issues you may have with it is an ecosystem far beyond just buying games, I can stream them to my TV devices via the steam link android apps (both my shield and my firetv), the controller support and profiles go far beyond what other platforms do and EA, Ubisoft and others have given me zero reason to want to use their platforms.... Epic only having Fortnite under their belt absolutely gives me no reason to want to use their platform, and Epic's platform on a user level is the worst of the bunch.

I don't care what games go exclusive to it, no matter how much I want the game I'm going to refuse to buy it because fragmenting my options just pisses me off.
 

klosos

Member
To be fair i wasn't interested in the Division 2 anyway , so this particular game going to Epic store instead of steam , is not going to make me get a Epic account that's for sure.

I already have 400+ games on steam , about 200+ games on GOG and about 5 on origin , for me that's more then enough launchers. if you don't sell your game on one of them well guess i am going to miss out then , just like with Bethesda Launcher , if Bethesda don't put Doom Eternal on one of the 3 launchers i do have , well i will miss on that as well.

Look i am a consumer first , My Wallet and my money = My terms and that's that.

Me like the rest of you on this forum , i have a massive backlog , technically i could not buy a game for 3 years and still have games waiting in my library to be played after that. it's no big deal in missing out on some games now and again , it wont kill you trust me.
 
I don't get why people don't understand why this is a problem, I'm all for competition but you have to give me a choice not tell me I'm going to use a platform.
I'm glad developers like the Epic stores terms but they should consider if the consumer likes using it... I personally do not
Imagine you're an Xbox gamer, you've spent years building up a friends list and Microsoft one day says OK for these 4 games over here you need a whole new friends list, and then 5 more games over hear another friends list.. etc etc.. it's getting old.

Steam for whatever issues you may have with it is an ecosystem far beyond just buying games, I can stream them to my TV devices via the steam link android apps (both my shield and my firetv), the controller support and profiles go far beyond what other platforms do and EA, Ubisoft and others have given me zero reason to want to use their platforms.... Epic only having Fortnite under their belt absolutely gives me no reason to want to use their platform, and Epic's platform on a user level is the worst of the bunch.

I don't care what games go exclusive to it, no matter how much I want the game I'm going to refuse to buy it because fragmenting my options just pisses me off.

The thing with this, though, is that you were going to use Uplay regardless if you were going to play Division 2 or whatever other Ubi game.

Even if you bought Division 2 through Steam, you were going to have the friends issue. Although Ubi does have an import feature.

Also, you can stream your non-Steam games through Steam Link... Yeah, I probably sound like broken record at this point.

But buying Division 2 through Steam and buying Division 2 through Uplay and linking it through Steam is really not that much different imo.
 
Last edited:

JCK75

Member
The thing with this, though, is that you were going to use Uplay regardless if you were going to play Division 2 or whatever other Ubi game.

Even if you bought Division 2 through Steam, you were going to have the friends issue. Although Ubi does have an import feature.

Also, you can stream your non-Steam games through Steam Link... Yeah, I probably sound like broken record at this point.

But buying Division 2 through Steam and buying Division 2 through Uplay and linking it through Steam is really not that much different imo.

I won't buy Ubi games for this very reason, Uplay is pointless and bad, however I could at least keep my library in one place.. and No you can't do all non steam games on steam link..
I challenge you to get Overwatch running on it without having to dig up a keyboard to log into Battle.Net manually every time you want to play that way. And guess what other launcher gives you the same problems? Epic Game Launcher.

Since Division is technically exclusive to Uplay how stupid is it to then make a third party release exclusive to another platform that is just passing back to your own?
I'm done with using 20 different launchers, Blizzard/Activision has given me enough reason to stop using theirs and no longer buy their games, Ubi really no longer has many franchises I care about and the ones I did are so stale now it's insane and EA is pretty much dead to me.. While people shit on the windows store at least MS gives me a seamless experience across two platforms and lets me buy a game once for both, GOG has plenty of good will and deserves to be an alternative store.. Uplay, Origin, Battle.net and Epic store are just useless and pretty much nobody owns more than 20 games on any of those platforms.
 
Last edited:
I won't buy Ubi games for this very reason, Uplay is pointless and bad, however I could at least keep my library in one place.. and No you can't do all non steam games on steam link..
I challenge you to get Overwatch running on it without having to dig up a keyboard to log into Battle.Net manually every time you want to play that way. And guess what other launcher gives you the same problems? Epic Game Launcher.

Since Division is technically exclusive to Uplay how stupid is it to then make a third party release exclusive to another platform that is just passing back to your own?
I'm done with using 20 different launchers, Blizzard/Activision has given me enough reason to stop using theirs and no longer buy their games, Ubi really no longer has many franchises I care about and the ones I did are so stale now it's insane and EA is pretty much dead to me.. While people shit on the windows store at least MS gives me a seamless experience across two platforms and lets me buy a game once for both, GOG has plenty of good will and deserves to be an alternative store.. Uplay, Origin, Battle.net and Epic store are just useless and pretty much nobody owns more than 20 games on any of those platforms.

I've never tried OW and don't play it enough to try, so I'll take your word for it on that front.

As for the bolded, idk, I guess just as stupid as making it "exclusive" to Steam? I mean, I'm not championing Uplay.

Just my point is that this move has little effect on people who we're gonna buy the Division through Steam. And if you don't buy Uplay games, wth? :messenger_tongue:
 

JCK75

Member
I've never tried OW and don't play it enough to try, so I'll take your word for it on that front.

As for the bolded, idk, I guess just as stupid as making it "exclusive" to Steam? I mean, I'm not championing Uplay.

Just my point is that this move has little effect on people who we're gonna buy the Division through Steam. And if you don't buy Uplay games, wth? :messenger_tongue:

I mean I played the Division, therefore the chances of me buying a sequel were already slim because it was dreadful.
I do buy maybe a Farcry game here and there, not big on Assassins Creed, Tom Clancy Games were my favorite before they turned into Michael Bays wet dream, and I'd consider buying a Splinter Cell title.
I do prefer games be available on all services, I just only care to personally buy them on GOG or Steam, being exclusive to one stinks.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
Makes no sense.
Between Epic and Steam, the Steam user base is much bigger. Yes, they'd make more money per sale on the Epic store but I think they'd make more actual sales on Steam.

What makes no sense is your assumption that users are limited to one launcher.
What makes no sense is your assumption that anybody using one launcher will not even consider another one.
What makes no sense is your belief that a flagship title from Ubisoft needs Steam word of mouth to reach customers who would otherwise never know about it.
What makes no sense is your ability to ignore the pros for Ubisoft while touting the cons for you.

Oh wait, that last one makes perfect sense for an internet forum. There always no shortage of people who have very little data willing to question the decisions of those who have all the data.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom