My conspiracy theory is that Ubisoft wanted to make people buy Valhalla on Uplay, and it being on Steam was a significantly bigger problem to that than Epic (which still has a small market share). There are tons of people who “need” to play it day 1, and with Epic as still a rather infamous company, the loss of sales will be rather small, and the earnings much bigger (100% instead of 70%). Making it an “Epic exclusive” helps in the way that people are angry at Epic, not at Ubi.
At the same time… another Ubi open world action adventure? Wow. Color me excited. We had so little of them in the past 10 years
All Dogs have inherited the world, building the kingdom of Pugmire untold centuries after the Ages of Man are over. These dogs have been uplifted to use tools and language, and they seek to rediscover the ruins of the Old Ones. Some have learned to use the leftover technology of humanity, but they believe it to be magic handed to them by their lost gods. Others seek to create an ideal civilization, using a Code of Man compiled from ancient, fragmentary lore left behind by humanity. The world is dangerous and mysterious, but good dogs will persevere.
*Pugmire is a tabletop role-playing game using the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Open Game License rules set.
EDIT: If a lil’ puddy is more your style, may I present… Monarchies of Mau
Cats have inherited the world, unifying their six fractious monarchies after untold centuries. These cats have been uplifted to use tools and language, and they seek to rediscover the ruins of the Old Ones. Some have learned to use the leftover technology of humanity, but they believe it to be magic given to them by their lost worshippers. Others seek to create a cohesive nation, using Precepts of Mau agreed to after years of political conflict. The world is dangerous and mysterious, but the instincts of a good cat will always be true.
of course, digital sales must be higher than ever on console as well, so no idea what that means for EGS sales figure until they release those themselves
what i like even less using that moniker is that overall, and digital, game sales have had an upwards trend through the years, and gee surprise, an established franchise, AAA game, “selling well” - omg i’m shocked beyond belief who could ever have predicted that
discourse need more emojis so i can emphasize silly things further
now, if it was a general “application” throughout the industry to where ex it was felt across the “indie spectrum” or non-marketing machine titles, then i’d be impressed/call it (good) “news”
but if anything it/“that” just seems like a low effort “advertisement”
pls keep going; I’ll happily keep claiming (and sometimes playing) free games (and rarely even buy something too cuz of the rly cheap regional pricing i have going on on some games)
I read earlier about something they earned in total of 2020. I think it said something about getting $730m in 2020 but owing $700m itself. I do not know where I read it, I thought it was IGN or Gamespot, but apparently it was brought up in the Apple vs Epic lawsuit by Apple, to prove that they were unprofitable and lacked security details that the iOS store itself had.
Maybe I do not understand it all that well, but by these figures it doesn’t seem like Epic is making a big profit like they claimed. The death grip they have on their exclusives, most of which they “stole” from Steam, seems to actually be causing them to run a large loss.
