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Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy... and then it's only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can't it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It's so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic... which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.
Getting Epic's money isn't a slam dunk for profit. You're hedging your bets taking guaranteed Epic money for lower potential sales vs non-guaranteed Steam money for higher potential sales. Having a bad exclusivity deal on Epic and then selling your game at a loss (90% discount) on steam isn't profiting both ways, and sometimes isn't profiting either way.
I also disagree with the sentiment that you're reinforcing bad behavior. If anything, you're signalling to them that you won't support exclusivity deals, and are happy to wait for a deep discount on Steam. Ultimately, that's a win for consumers.
That said, fuck exclusivity deals, and I'm much in the same boat where I'm hard pressed to support developers that take them.
Unless they're actively losing money in their deal, they're not gonna care if the sale comes immediately or years later. If Epic exclusive + late "hold outs" = $$$, they're just gonna do that until the equation changes.
It's less money in their pockets and more money in ours. That's not going to be a double win in their books.
Nobody ever hurt a company or made them reconsider their decisions by giving them money, no matter how little it was.
Companies definitely do not like waiting for money.
Economists cannot predict the future, as much as some people might wish they could.
Whatever break even point the devs of Anno 1800 considered when making the decision between releasing only on Epic and releasing to all platforms may have seemed reasonable at the time the devs were gearing up to release the game, but performance of said game is never guaranteed. Sure you may have statistics to influence things one way or another, but it's still a gamble.
We don't know if Epic exclusive + late discounts > full game purchases on all platforms specifically for Anno 1800, and it appears that you're claiming which way that equation points with no evidence. Do you work for Epic? For Ubisoft? For Blue Byte? Are there public sources pointing to game sales? What research are you pulling from that considers game futures?
I will respect that you're right about predicting devs' decisions based on which way that equation points. Everyone is downvoting you though because you're making it seem like you know the answer when clearly there's more to this game, and financial gaming decisions like this.
You're not an expert. You're a chatter. Unless you can prove otherwise.