So, here's a thing:

Epic has announced an API being made available to developers allowing
crossplay between games sold on Steam and games sold on the Epic Games platform. https://dev.epicgames.com/en-US/news/epic-online-services-release-free-pc-crossplay-tools

This is nominally good news for gamers, since it means that - whether
you buy Call of Assassin's Craft XCIV on Steam or Epic - you can be
sure to be able to play your chums regardless of their choice of
storefront.

But it's also an admission - however tacitly - that Epic is
acknowledging that, despite all their hopes 'n' dreams, it isn't gonna
be able to dominate the market and must instead kowtow before Valve's
steamy behemoth (compatibility with other, as yet unnamed, storefronts
is forthcoming).

It's also a very tenuous linkage, and - were I a particularly evil
admin at Valve - I'd not hesitate to break compatibility with Epic's
API at the drop of a hat... or especially when there's a particularly
crucial esport match-up. After all, the majority of gamers are already
on Steam, and if the minority who buy games through Epic find it
harder to join sessions with their Steam-lovin' buddies, they'll be
less likely to buy from Epic in the future. In other words, Epic's
success in this venture depends entirely on the good graces of Valve,
which is a tenuous position to be in.

Fortunately, I'm not an evil admin at Valve.

(yet).

Of course, if Epic does allow linkages to other storefronts other than
Steam (in particular, to Sony or Microsoft platforms) then it will
have a competitive advantage that could threaten Valve's monopoly...
assuming Steam doesn't get their first.

I guess we're cursed to live in interesting times.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Of course, if Epic does allow linkages to other storefronts other than
Steam (in particular, to Sony or Microsoft platforms) then it will
have a competitive advantage that could threaten Valve's monopoly...
assuming Steam doesn't get their first.

It's more a question of whether Sony or Microsoft allow it, but given that
the console manufactures are no longer officially oppposed to crossplay,
they probably won't try to block Epic adding support to their online
services for their APIs. Otherwise it's just a matter of time, as Epic
says in the article you linked:

Remember, while the crossplay tools might be debuting today as
PC-only features, their console counterparts are coming soon as
well. So stay tuned!

However, I don't think it's going to be as big a game changer as you
think. The new API doesn't change what developers can do. There are
already of ton of games that have cross-play between Steam and the Epic
Games Store, and at least a few that have integrated the two store's
friends lists. Console cross-play is rarer because historically the
console manufactures have opposed it, especially Sony, but apparently
they're all OK with it a now, at least officially.

The new API might make a difference for smaller projects that might not
have bothered implementing cross-play without this API to make it easier.
For the most part though, I think most games that would benefit from
cross-play are going to benefit enough from it that they're going to
implement it regardless of the existence of the API.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

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On Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:10:44 -0000 (UTC), rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
(Ross Ridge) wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Of course, if Epic does allow linkages to other storefronts other than >>Steam (in particular, to Sony or Microsoft platforms) then it will
have a competitive advantage that could threaten Valve's monopoly... >>assuming Steam doesn't get their first.

However, I don't think it's going to be as big a game changer as you
think. The new API doesn't change what developers can do. There are
already of ton of games that have cross-play between Steam and the Epic
Games Store, and at least a few that have integrated the two store's
friends lists. Console cross-play is rarer because historically the
console manufactures have opposed it, especially Sony, but apparently
they're all OK with it a now, at least officially.

I disagree. One of Steam's major strengths - aside from its huge
population making it the defacto meeting place for gamers - is its comprehensive API, that allows developers to easily add online
matchmaking, DRM, voice-chat, video-streaming, game-streaming, etc.
etc. This takes a lot of load off of the developers and makes Valve's
30% cut less obnoxious. Epic's crossplay API is a shot across the bow
of this very advantage.

Yes, developers can create their own crossplay solutions (and, as
you've pointed out, many have). But this requires the developer to
maintain that solution, which is an extra burden. By using Epic's API,
they are assured of crossplay compatibility without needing to
continually update their products whenever Steam (or UPlay, or Origin,
or Sony, or Microsoft, or... or... or...) makes a disruptive change to
their networking infrastructure. It all just works. Standardized APIs maintained by a powerful third-party are a huge boon for developers
(it is a large reason, for instance, that Window95 was such an
immediate success). This is a powerful incentive for developers, and
if Epic offers it and Valve doesn't, that tilts the balance of power
more in Epics favor.

Add to that the aforementioned advantage for the gamer/customer and
this could be a seismic shift in PC gaming, especially if Epic quickly
pushes forward with crossplay to other platforms (Sony/Microsoft in
particular) and Valve doesn't offer a similar feature.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)