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.
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.
Do you have any examples of Valve buying up studios and pulling them from other online stores?
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.
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.
I didn’t say it was the case here. I quoted the point I responded to.
My post was talking specifically about peoples’ reactions to the World of Goo 2 launch though, including the part you quoted.
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.
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.
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.
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.