Borderlands CEO says his hopes on Epic Store were 'overly optimistic or misplaced'
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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford discusses his thoughts about the Epic Games Store and the years-old exclusivity deal for Borderlands 3 to skip Steam on PC.

I’m genuinely shocked how much Epic poured into the store and it still lacks so much basic features. Sorting games is still extremely barebones, store is filled with NFT/crypto garbage, the store still looks like a college student’s first front-end project, and last time I used the launcher to pick up free games (last year), it was still slow as hell. What were they doing in the past 5 years aside from dropping millions on exclusivity deals?

Epic is going to have to prioritize the store and try some new initiatives while also doubling down on earning pivotal exclusives if it is going to have a chance. I also hope other viable competitors arrive.

  • @misterdoctorEnglish
    7•16 days ago

    I hope it’s okay to ask, because I am being genuine, but why is using the Epic Games Launcher such a deal breaker for you? I have Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, Xbox, Battle.net and I’m sure more that I’m forgetting and I honestly don’t mind at all. It’s never been an issue for me but I think that I’m in the minority on that so I was curious to hear your thoughts.

    • @[email protected]English
      14•16 days ago

      No official Linux support, which means no Steam Deck support as well. Yes, there’s Legendary but I shouldn’t have to jump through those hoops.

    • FiveMacsEnglish
      6•16 days ago

      It just doesn’t appeal to me? I dunno. Epic just felt bleh compared to steam.

    • @cottonmonEnglish
      5•15 days ago

      Personally, while I do use Heroic to access games from the epic games launcher, I will probably never buy anything from them because of Epic buying exclusivity and removing Steam as an option from games that were crowd-funded.

      • @misterdoctorEnglish
        4•15 days ago

        That makes sense. Sounds like more of an Epic Games thing than specifically an anti-games launcher sentiment, or maybe a little of both? I hadn’t heard about the crowd funded game exclusivity thing though, I’ll have to read up on that. Deeply lame thing for them to do, for sure.

        • @cottonmonEnglish
          2•15 days ago

          I’ve also run into a few issues with the epic games launcher (i.e. game wouldn’t patch, so I had to reinstall the launcher. Having to reinstall a game because the launcher doesn’t see it anymore, launcher is slow, etc.) which is why I use the Heroic launcher.

          • @misterdoctorEnglish
            1•15 days ago

            I’ve heard a lot about Heroic but honestly never looked into it. Not that I’m old or anything but it reminds me of Trillian from back in the day.

    • @Katana314English
      4•16 days ago

      Funny thing is, I mostly agree with you, but in Epic’s case, it’s a launcher written by a company that’s 40% owned by a Chinese corporation. I can sometimes stomach running their executables while playing something, but not having it constantly running.

    • @[email protected]English
      -8•16 days ago

      Thank you! Ever since the start of the Epic Store, I’ve always thought this whole “exclusive” scandal was blown out of proportion. There is a MASSIVE difference between a game being exclusive to a $400+ console vs to a free launcher that you can install in 5 minutes and add your already multi-launcher platform.