- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
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.
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.
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?
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.