this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
252 points (99.6% liked)

Games

22728 readers
595 users here now

Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)

Posts.

  1. News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
  2. Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
  3. No humor/memes etc..
  4. No affiliate links
  5. No advertising.
  6. No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
  7. No self promotion.
  8. No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
  9. No politics.

Comments.

  1. No personal attacks.
  2. Obey instance rules.
  3. No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
  4. Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.

My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.

Other communities:

Beehaw.org gaming

Lemmy.ml gaming

lemmy.ca pcgaming

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 22 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Its almost like half-assing a store front that runs like shit, lacks the most basic features and is generally perceived to be user-hostile is a bad way to attract business. When the freaking open source Heroic Game Launcher does a better job hooking into Epic's servers than their own damn launcher its time to do something. Take one of those millions of dollars you rake in every year and actually invest in the platform for cripes sake!

  1. Reduce auto-signouts. This creates friction and forces users to take extra steps to access the game they wish to play. This causes users to go "nah I didn't really feel like playing that right now anyways"
  2. Embed system requirements for games into the launcher. Users want to know if they can even install a game before clicking install
  3. Show details about a game that a user has clicked on. Seriously if you're going to give away a hundred free games a year, folks aren't going to know jack shit about 90% of the indie titles you're surfacing. Most of the free titles I've actually played I've played because the marketing screenshots and description sounded cool, and I don't want to cross-reference between a web browser and a web-browser-wrapped-into-an-executable-that-runs-like-shit-but-installs-my-games-sometimes
  4. SHOW THE GODDAMN DOWNLOAD SIZE AND INSTALL SIZE BEFORE BEGINNING THE DOWNLOAD!!!! My god this is not rocket science, its barely even computer science. Its literally the most basic feature of any software installer developed in the last 50 years, show an estimate for about how much hard drive space is needed. If I have 50GB free on a laptop with a 256GB drive in it, its just russian roulette for if I'll install a game or have to manually sort out my drive being filled to 0 bytes remaining by a game download that never would've completed anyways.
  5. Stop forcing updates. If someone's launching a game that needs an update, let them launch it without updating. Also make it easier to force it to check for updates/apply already released updates. The background polling has entirely missed major game updates for my wife's Fortnite, and since those can be 30+GB downloads we'd really much prefer to run those updates when she isn't sitting down to play a bit of Fortnite.
  6. Actually enable user reviews. Yes this requires moderation which requires workhours and therefore money. This is the kind of thing that that 10% cut of all sales you take is supposed to pay for. Users want to know what they're getting into before buying a game and committing to installing it and trying it out, let them!
  7. Optimize the crap out of your launcher. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it can't be gestures wildly at everything this. Reduce the filesize of the webpages, run a few fewer javascripts, use better image compression, just most importantly make the launcher not run like its full of molasses

The part that annoys me the most is Epic could simple reduce the free games to bi-weekly and rebudget those same dollars into platform improvements and actually create a viable platform that people don't hate. Just look at Steam, its got some glaring issues (online DRM, massive illegal gambling problems, cyberbullying, unclear & inconsistent policies on adult content, rampant shovelware, etc. etc.) but by not being a pain in the butt to use, and having some decent company policies that aren't obviously anti-consumer they have an entire fandom devoted to them. Its just wasted potential. If Tim Sweeney felt like it he could actually build an incredible platform and actually compete with Steam, but instead they just engage in the most disjointed corporate bullshit possible

[โ€“] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Can't say I'm surprised by any of this, everything about the guy screamed to me that it would be a shitty experience. They are using purely business things to attract users: paying big for exclusive titles (eg mini monopolies that force interested users to their platform) and giving games away for free. Neither of those require a decent experience, so no shit they cheaped out on that. Those who are just in it for the money are far more likely to end up at a "ah fuck it, it works good enough, ship it" point than someone who wants to build something good, knowing people will come if it's good enough.

It also makes it obvious that they'll lean right into the enshitification as soon as they think they have that marketshare captured. So personally, I hope they don't fix that shit, because it won't indicate that they are becoming better but just that their strategy and tactics have improved while the end goal remains the same.

And tbf, that end goal might be about control instead of money, so only approved video games can be played. Oh right, they already did that with UT because it might compete with their fortnite cash cow.