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World of Goo 2 released [buy from website, devs get 100% of the earnings]

Why is it on Epic and not on Steam?

World of Goo 2 would not exist if Epic had not helped us fund the game! We were able to hire artists and engineers for multiple years to help us build the biggest game we’ve ever made. We’re grateful for this! You’ve likely seen similar arrangements with other games, and I imagine ours is comparable.

If you don’t use Epic, that’s ok. You can always get World of Goo 2 right here on this page, DRM-free, for Win / Mac / Linux. Just scroll up there. And if you have a Nintendo Switch, you can get it on the eShop directly on your device.

But I want to play it on my heavy computer that’s strapped to my face and sprays pixels into my eyeballs.

Someone in Chapter 4 wants to have a conversation with you.

How did you fit so much goo into this game?

Computers have come a long way in the last 16 years!

I used to play the original World of Goo when I was a kid. Will this make me feel like a kid again?

You might be able to visit for a while.

I missed you, World of Goo!

We hope you will love it as much as we’ve loved building and discovering this new world! You can read our first interview about the game here.

kata1yst ,

The Epic exclusive bullshit always stinks. Glad they are at least offering an option to get it from their website, even though the best solution is to release it everywhere.

can ,

Better than the android version of the original being a Netflix exclusive.

neidu2 ,

World of Goo - A Netflix Live Action adaptation

jaxiiruff ,

When will PC gaming heal and move on from Epic exclusives god damn it, didnt enough of us boycott this practice? Fuck Epic.

LiveLM ,

World of Goo 2 would not exist if Epic had not helped us fund the game!

I feel people are overlooking this.
I understand disliking Epic, but directly funding a game that needs it is much different than grabbing an already finished game and giving them money to turn it into a exclusive like they done before.
Two different practices.

GoodEye8 ,

I think it sucks but I don’t have an issue with it. If Epic is the publisher and they choose to publish only on their own store then that’s their decision. It’s what every publisher, including Valve, does. To me this usually means it’s a game I won’t play and that’s not a problem because I have so many games to play, I won’t miss a handful of games.

However I will buy World of Goo 2 if for no other reason than the fact that I pirated the first game when I was poor.

chiliedogg ,

Why do people around here so insistent on locking down Steam’s monopoly status? More stores is a good thing, and if Epic wants to fund a game in return for an exclusive period the devs have every right to take the deal.

I don’t see people shitting on Valve for not letting Epic and Ubisoft sell Half-life and Portal.

CybranM ,

Ah nice, missed that it released. Shame about the epic store limitation but nice of them to allow you to buy it from them directly. Would prefer to buy it on Steam so i can play it on my deck though

PonyOfWar ,

Should be very easy to install it on the Steam Deck from the website, especially as it even has a native Linux version.

CybranM ,

That’d be neat, I’ll Google to see if someone has tried it. Otherwise I’ll just wait till it comes to steam, which I hope it will eventually

null ,

Just install it and add it as a non-Steam game. It’s not Deck-specific, that’s just how Steam works.

WormFood ,

people in this thread have lost their damn minds. you can buy the game without DRM. that’s better than epic or steam

trevor ,

Buying the game without DRM is great. But the fact that people don’t have the option to buy it in any store they want is annoying, and we can thank Epic for that. Epic is poison and they earned the hate they get.

PlzGivHugs , (edited )

The problem isn’t even that we can’t buy in any store we want. Thats normal. The problem is that they’re paying to prevent it from being added to other stores, because they know other stores would out-compete them. Imagine how absurd and anti-consumer it would be if Pizza Pizza could pay a peperoni producer to not sell to other pizza chains, for example.

That said, Epic did effectively fund the game from scratch, which makes this more grey area in terms of overall results, but considering Epic’s history, I can see easily why people are viewing this pessimistically.

kieron115 ,

I can’t think of any time in history that the public has had that ability for anything. Imagine being upset because a Ford dealership won’t sell you a Toyota, or that Kohl’s won’t sell you some designer brand.

shinratdr ,
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

Not if you own a Steam Deck, or want cloud saving, or have hundreds of games and don’t want to hope you remember your login and password for this one game 10 years from now and that the website still exists, or worry about keeping a local backup of the game if you want to play it in the future.

DRM-free direct downloads are a great option, but better than Steam? That’s subjective. For me, I want all of those things I listed so a non-Steam PC game for me is a last resort, pretty much only reserved for games that I really want to play.

I don’t know why people find this so difficult to understand, I have to assume they’re being wilfully obtuse. Would you download a separate app and create an account for every song you wanted to listen to or every movie you wanted to watch? Of course not. So why would games be any different?

WormFood ,

it’s not really subjective, having a drm free download is like owning the thing, having it on steam is like borrowing it from someone fairly trustworthy, and having it on epic is like borrowing it from an asshole

you’re on a decentralised, federated social media website. why are you arguing that more centralisation is a good thing? the comparison you’re making is nonsense. you don’t need to download an app or sign up for an account to listen to music drm free or to play drm free copies of games. you download the thing at the point of purchase and then you own it and you can do whatever you want with it. and that includes launching it from steam, which I do with a lot of my drm free games

shinratdr ,
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

It’s subjective or we wouldn’t be arguing about it would we? Maintaining my own backup of downloaded DRM free games not offered through a service is not a benefit to me, it’s an inconvenience. I already explained why, and what the benefits are.

You don’t need an account to listen to DRM free music or movies, true. But if you delete them either on purpose or because of data loss, you have to go get them again should you want them. Which means digging through emails or accounts or backup drives to get your copies again. That’s not worth it to me, I prefer being able to set up Steam and just go, delete games and redownload them as needed in a click.

People are on Lemmy for lots of different reasons, you shouldn’t assume that the primary reason anyone is here is because they deeply care about free software or decentralization. I’m here because Reddit banned 3rd party clients and I hate their app, same reason I’m on Mastodon.

xavier666 ,

you’re on a decentralised, federated social media website. why are you arguing that more centralisation is a good thing?

The same reason people gave up piracy for Netflix a decade back; it offered a better service.

Note: I know what Netflix is like now. But my point still stands.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Can you not add non-Steam games to a steam deck? It’s DRM free so the idea for most of concerns you have is to back it up yourself since you can.

shinratdr ,
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

You can, but it requires going through the desktop interface to install them, if they use another launcher you have to set up that, frequently some trial and error, and then adding them into the Steam interface so they can launch easily with proper input support.

Do all that and set them up correctly, and they’ll run, but without one of the primary Steam Deck benefits which is that Valve does pre-compilation of shaders. That only works for native Steam titles, and it can be the difference between a game being playable and a stuttery mess, especially for more graphically intense titles.

For some games, there are also hardcoded patches in Proton that look for the SteamID of the game to apply them. Those also won’t have those fixes applied when adding them as non-Steam games.

2ncs ,

requires going through the desktop interface to install them, if they use another launcher you have to set up that, frequently some trial and error

Valve does pre-compilation of shaders. That only works for native Steam titles, and it can be the difference between a game being playable and a stuttery mess, especially for more graphically intense titles

there are also hardcoded patches in Proton that look for the SteamID of the game to apply them. Those also won’t have those fixes applied when adding them as non-Steam games.

How is any of this the fault of the World of Goo devs? How come Valve shouldn’t be expected to implement features to make these things simpler/work?

shinratdr , (edited )
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

Because they have a very simple solution: offer their game through their storefront. Why is it Valve’s problem that the World of Goo developers want to forgo their popular storefront because they partnered with a company that forbids it as a requirement of funding?

The real answer of course is that nobody is obligated to help the other with their product. The issue comes down to consumers and what they want to support. I think Valve is being perfectly fair here and Epic is not. The Steam Deck is an open system, if Epic wanted to build a storefront for it, they could. They choose not to, because they don’t want to promote Steam Deck sales.

Isn’t it funny that the “run your own marketplace and keep all revenue” option that Epic took Apple to court over is already available on the Steam Deck from Day 1 and Epic chooses not to take advantage of it. It’s almost like company using a pile of cash to artificially tip the scales in their favour is perfectly fine as long as its them.

Everyone made their business choices here, and they have to live with the consequences.

SendMePhotos ,

You can. I have some emulators of various origins on mine. They all launch from the steam application also.

Paddzr ,

So say the game dev shuts down and my install is lost or I never kept it. That “DRM free” is now lost. What is more likely, steam shuttin g down or studio who was unable to fund themselves?

DRM free offers no tangible benefit to 99% of people.

ramjambamalam ,

Is there a Plex like service for hosting my own DRM free software repo?

PlzGivHugs ,

Its still stupid and anticompetitive that Epic is allowed to dictate where the game is sold, but at least they’re letting the developer sell it on their own page now, without all of Epic’s shit.

kieron115 ,

The epic hate is tiresome. It sounds like they functioned as a publisher here, providing long term funding of development prior to release. The game isn’t exclusive and has no DRM, I see no downside to this. Stop hopping on bandwagons of hate and enjoy your games people.

PonyOfWar ,

Yeah, with a launcher- and DRM-free version, I think the hate is quite misplaced here. It’s especially extreme on reddit. There is an irony of people who are supposedly against exclusivity writing things like “No steam no purchase.”. I guarantee those people never complain about a Steam-exclusive game not being on GoG or EGS.

frazorth ,

I guarantee those people never complain about a Steam-exclusive game not being on GoG or EGS.

Do you have any examples of Valve buying up studios and pulling them from other online stores?

PonyOfWar ,

That’s not the point, because that’s not the situation here. The game isn’t exclusive, wasn’t pulled from any stores and was funded by Epic games. You don’t see Valve-published or funded games on EGS either.

There are games where the criticism against Epic was completely valid. This isn’t one of those.

kieron115 ,

I think it would be easier for me to empathize with the “exclusivity” argument if it weren’t for the fact that PCs as a general rule are inherently open. I don’t have to buy a new computer to install a new games launcher as I would with a console exclusives war. Hell most of the time you don’t even have to install the official launcher as so many of them are just web wrappers/electron apps. I’ve been using the Heroic Games Launcher to claim my free Epic games for nearly a year and the only “downside”, if you can even call it that, is that I don’t get the weekly popup’s letting me know what’s free/on sale. Just building a huge library of free games, some of which I already own on Steam. Somebody please show me the actual downside of more competition on a single platform.

frazorth ,

I didn’t say it was the case here. I quoted the point I responded to.

PonyOfWar ,

My post was talking specifically about peoples’ reactions to the World of Goo 2 launch though, including the part you quoted.

kieron115 ,

It wasn’t pulled from Steam. A development company consisting of three people that put out a popular mobile game 15+ years ago got an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have had to create a sequel and took it. They published on (shockedpikachuface) their publishers platform, as well as Nintendo consoles and their own website for people who don’t like Epic. I doubt Allan, Kyle and Kyle would have had the funds or skill to do this on their own.

frazorth ,

I wasn’t referring to World of Goo, I was talking about Epic paying studios to pull their games from other stores.

The conversation was about why people are fine with Steam exclusives, and why the general hate on Epic. The answer is obvious.

ByteOnBikes ,

Epic game them money for funding. There’s a major difference. Sure they can self fund, but getting funding from a major studio can be a life changer for a small studio.

PlzGivHugs ,

Its stupid that they’re able to effectively pay the developer to not work with their competition, but thats relatively minor seeing as the developer is still independent and still able to self-publish. I get why people are mad about it though, seeing as it is still kinda anticompetitive and Epic has a long track record of doing much worse.

Chinchillax ,

I find it so frustrating you’re being downvoted for a sane opinion.

I want Lemmy to succeed, but the userbase can be so mean :(

shinratdr ,
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

Why shouldn’t he be downvoted? A downvote isn’t rude, and it’s not an indicator of how sane the opinion is. It indicates that the comment misses the point. They assume it’s about DRM, or that Epic didn’t to enough to deserve exclusivity, or that it’s not a true exclusive because you can pay the developer directly.

It’s not. It’s just about not wanting another launcher that doesn’t bring anything to the table. GOG is for old games, Itch is for small indies, and Steam is for everything else.

Epic is just Steam but worse, doesn’t work well on Steam Deck, with some exclusives that will hit Steam in a year. Doesn’t offer anything new or improved, just makes things worse by splitting a market by paying off developers, and because it doesn’t offer anything compelling, will probably die of when Epic eventually wastes all its Fortnite money and falls on hard times.

I wouldn’t give them a penny, they’re actively working to make PC gaming a worse experience when Steam arguably brought it back from the brink of death. Before Steam, PCs were about to become MMO and RTS machines. It’s hard to overstate how big their impact was.

friendlymessage ,

I still fail to see the point. Then don’t use Epic? You can get the game from the website, you need exactly 0 launchers for the game

shinratdr , (edited )
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

That’s a separate issue, I want the benefits of a launcher, just not Epic’s.

Chinchillax ,

The comment does not miss the point. You’re thinking from the perspective of a consumer, not a business.

Without Epic, World of Goo 2 would not exist.

If I was World of Goo’s developers, I would much rather have a job than not.

Skates ,

Without Epic, World of Goo 2 would not exist.

Sure it would. “wow, this publisher sponsored their development” - that’s cool, but that’s literally their purpose and there are hundreds of other publishers though. If epic had never existed, they would simply have gotten the same service from another damn publisher.

shinratdr ,
@shinratdr@lemmy.ca avatar

Why would I think from the perspective of a business? I’m not a business, I’m a consumer. I’m not saying they were wrong for taking the money, they gotta do what they gotta do. I’m saying I don’t want it and don’t want to support it.

The original comment was basically asking why Epic got so much hate when in this specific circumstance, their actions are justifiable or even actually produced something of value.

I said they are missing the point which is just that people don’t like Epic and their influence on PC gaming, and you said I need to think like a business.

I think you’re arguing something totally different now.

rdri ,

There is a downside. The best looking option - the developer website option - comes without regional pricing. This makes it the worst option for many.

People like having stuff on their Steam account because there is a value to that. Other people should stop acting like it doesn’t matter.

Letting Fortnite money fund some developer is only good for that developer (and for some time), not the industry.

kieron115 ,

It’s DRM free. Pirate it and add an external game to Steam if the other options are unappealing to you.

rdri ,

I doubt devs meant that side of “woohoo our game is DRM free”. Even if that would be fine by me, you can see they are missing a lot. Cool if the developer got so much money they don’t care about sales. But that could mean they also don’t care much about user satisfaction or feedback.

ZeroPoke ,

Took the Epic money, loose my sale. World of Goo 1 was awesome. Much disappointment.

zaemz ,
@zaemz@lemmy.world avatar

While I do agree that it’s disappointing that the game is available on Epic and not Steam (and Tim Sweeney is an assface for shitting on Linux), I’m of the opinion that this situation isn’t one that should warrant boycotting. I think being able to buy directly from the developers and have a maximum percentage of the revenue go straight to the studio is the best case.

It’s an inconvenience to have to manually add the game to the launcher/platform of choice, but it’s such a minor inconvenience to deal with given the outcome.

I understand and sympathize with the principle your expressing. However, I think it’s important to be open-minded and ultimately in support of the devs themselves over the platforms that distribute their game.

alessandro OP ,
@alessandro@lemmy.ca avatar

You can buy from website and Tim Sweeny don’t get a single ¢. If giving money to Valve is your other issue, you can also try ask for Gaben’s bank account and put there an additional fee as cutshare for your purchase.

cordlesslamp ,

Many great games has failed just because they took the Epic’s Exclusive money upfront. When will they learn?

I don’t even care if it’s free on Epic. Exclusive should not be existed in gaming no matter shapes or forms.

SRo ,

Epic fuckers don’t get my money

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

But I want to play it on my heavy computer that’s strapped to my face and sprays pixels into my eyeballs.

Does the dev not like VR?

Paddzr ,

The dev has quite the history of being… How do I say it… Butthurt.

They made a claim that 90% of the game was pirated. Something they just pulled out of their ass. The initial FAQ was very aggressive too.

I liked WoG, but this dev is yet another example of someone who should just shut the fuck up and quit damaging the company and hard work done by the team.

Etterra ,

This would bother me if I couldn’t just shove the inside sake purchase in my steam. I sure AF ain’t buying through Epic.

ILikeBoobies ,

Torn between supporting devs not using launchers and supporting devs using Epic

alessandro OP ,
@alessandro@lemmy.ca avatar

Bypass Epic completely, buy the drm-free .zip files from the website.

ILikeBoobies ,

Yes that was the not using launchers part

But I want more games to use Epic, on Epic it’s likely drm free as well so once it’s downloaded I won’t need the launcher

pyre ,

people once again prove that the hate for epic exclusives is more about not having more than one icon to click rather than any actual consistent principle. people who defend console exclusives will still cry about this even though there is a direct purchase option.

“no, but i want all my eggs in THIS basket!”

alessandro OP ,
@alessandro@lemmy.ca avatar

…as you can see, if you buy from dev’s website you get to buy the advertised Linux’s version. A Dev that publish exclusively on Epic store is de facto forced to trash away any additional Linux support they may have put into.

Basically, if a Dev support Linux, the time they go exclusively on Epic became essentially windows-only.

Chef_Boyardee ,

My favorite part of the original was the music. Kyle Gabler killed it. I still have three songs on my playlist.

Etterra ,

My favorite part was the shitty cash grab mobile port.

kieron115 ,

It seems to me that the real reason people are upset is that they don’t want to accept that the devs of games they like willingly accepted the money. As if Epic forced them.

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