Epic manufacture fake urgency with Anno 1800 to increase preorders

Epicly scummy move

Anno 1800 will be taken off Steam at release and moved to Epic Games Store

Share on: Facebook Twitter Reddit Google+

Ubisoft will take its upcoming simulation title Anno 1800 off Steam following its April 16 release.

The Anno 1800 page on Steam has posted a notice stating the game will be removed from the store on April 16.

According to Valve, Ubisoft made the decision to “make the game exclusive to another PC store.” That store being the Epic Games Store.

“The publisher has assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam,” reads the store page. “Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam.

“We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale after the April 16th release date.”

Ubisoft announced earlier this month at GDC 2019 it would extend its PC deal with Epic Games Store and release “several major PC releases” on the store. The deal was struck after The Division 2’s release on the service proved successful.

The publisher said titles included in its back catalog would become part of the Epic Game Store’s free game program.

Did someone actually buy Division 2 from EGS instead of Uplay? If so, why? Or is Ubi just thankful for the flat cash paid

And to think all this money that is going towards keeping games off steam could have gone towards developing new games.

**** this industry.

@R4gn4r0k: Epic doesn't even pay to make a game completely PC exclusive. What makes them think PC gamers won't go out and get console versions of games? They stopped the development of Unreal Tournament 4 to focus more on Fortnite but they sure have no problem showing it on their store as an incentive to get people to use their platform.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/29/17172326/tencent-ubisoft-explained

Tencent has been in the news again lately thanks to helping Ubisoft stave off a hostile takeover by French entertainment giant Vivendi

Prior to Tencent’s purchase of a 5 percent stake in Ubisoft

5 percent of Ubisoft is owned by Tencent.

Follow China's digital "belt and road" influence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games#Games_as_a_Service_and_Tencent_acquisition_(2012%E2%80%932018)

Tencent acquired approximately 48.4% of Epic then issued share capital, equating to 40% of total Epic — inclusive of both stock and employee stock options, for $330 million in June 2012

Valve Inc should be aware of Tencent's hostile intentions.

----------

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/china-how-big-tech-learning-love-party

Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou, a Tencent-backed search engine, explained this dynamic explicitly in a quote leaked in March of this year:

We’re entering an era in which we'll be fused together. It might be that there will be a request to establish a Party committee within your company, or that you should let state investors take a stake, you know, as a form of mixed ownership

No, it's China. Tencent has goals to cripple Valve Inc.

Valve should restart creating exclusive games for Steam service. Atm, Microsoft is partnering with Valve Inc.

It would be very difficult for 100 percent private funded companies to compete against partly Chinese state owned Tencent.

---------

https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/29/netease-quantic-dream-stake/

China's NetEase acquired a minority stake in David Cage's studio Quantic Dream, hence enables Quantic Dream to break from Sony.

@ronvalencia that's sketchy. Good catch, Ron.

I also find it amusing that the Division 2 Epic deal was a success story for Ubisoft - because *more people bought the game on UPlay than normal*

Kind of makes you wonder if MS was thinking something similar with their Obsidian release plans - "well, let's open it up to Epic, but not Steam. Steam will steal more sales from our store"

Take Two still have the publishing rights for Obsidian's next game. Outer Worlds going to Epic was all Take Two and nothing to do with Microsoft.

I think this is all an elaborate and quite brilliant scheme by Ubisoft to make people more accepting of Uplay

@GarGx1: oh, well never mind then

i tried the epic client but just couldn't take to it. i wasn't ever going to pay full price for exodus and i'm not interested in the division so this is the first game i would've likely bought through steam and now i can't. i'll probably let the reviews make my mind up, if they're gushing i'll probably just suck it up and buy it

I was quite mad that they removed Metro from Steam, but hey, this is a business, I can understand that.

But we are talking dozens of games now. Dozens of publishers/developers getting paid to keep their games OFF steam.

That's a lot of money, and it would've better been spent on:

• Creating entirely new games
• Getting some console exclusives over from consoles and on to the PC platform

But nope.

Man, ubi straight up telling steam they don't like them anymore.

Nope, got mine on Ubi's store. Happily maintaining my boycott of the Tencent-Epic Store.

I imagine that is why Ubisoft is so happy; not because they are getting a better deal with Tencent-Epic, but because people are avoiding Tencent-Epic and opting to go straight to the source.

So really, Tencent-Epic sort of played themselves here. The rest of us just need to keep holding out in the meantime.

Honestly, I am fine buying games straight from the publisher or developer (EA games from Origin, Ubisoft games from Ubisoft's store, and so on) but just can't support what Tencent-Epic is doing.

Well, Battle Royale finally has more than two good games going on, so they likely aren't seeing the same cash flow they did with Fortnite. And, frankly, when was the last time Epic actually developed a good blockbuster?

Robo Recall is pretty great, but also very niche. That's the only thing I can think of.

I agree, though, would much prefer it if they took the "honorable" path and made their own games, sold those on Epic Store, grew a fanbase, grew their tools and community, then started selling other people's game without having to poach them.

Man I love Epic Games. Wholesome company.

Excluding Fortnite which is mostly luck Epic peaked with the Gears Of War series. Mainly with Gears Of War 3 as afterwards Gears Of War: Judgement flopped which is one of the main reasons why they don't want to develop singleplayer games anymore.

Epic could also buy out games that are in their early crowdfunding process so devs don't have to rely on backers and then sell out and we avoid things like Phoenix Point's controversy. Or better yet Epic lets devs come up to them with their game projects and they fund the games they see fit.

At this point, it's hard to solely blame Epic... These publishers are becoming bigger and bigger wanks.

https://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/chinese-tech-stocks-pose-an-investment-dilemma-20180815-h1410o

Baidu became China's No.1 search engine partly because Google was outlawed. Tencent became the world's largest gaming company and owner of China's No.1 messaging system without needing to compete with Facebook's WhatsApp.

Baidu and Tencent are prime examples of Chinese companies simply copying the successful business models created in Silicon Valley and then rolling them out without fear of competition at home.

Alibaba, which built the world's largest online retailing business, was allowed to dominate China's small business lending without interference from foreigners or much competition from local government-owned entities.

Go Epic go

Go Ubi go

No Steam no

Struggling to discern what Epic has done to induce more pre-orders. This is the same tactic they pulled with Deep Silver and Metro Exodus. And even if it is a money-losing endeavor to engender a good relationship with developers/publishers, it's kinda what you have to do if you want to claw into the gaming retail space, particularly digital (see: MS circa 2001).

Mann I miss the days when pc gaming was dying...

Agreed, I miss the days when big companies saw no interest in PC gaming and all PC gamers were 'dirty pirates'

Way more games with less issues back then.