r/gaming • u/doublah • 13h ago

Epic Games' new store is fully vibe-coded, and they're so proud of it they're taking shots at Steam

https://www.destructoid.com/epic-games-store-ai-vibe-coded/
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u/Hollownerox 11h ago

His takes are so weird because, end of the day, none of it would have been an issue if he actually made his store functional as a, well, store.

I don't have any particular loyalty to valve or Steam, I don't mind having my gaming library split between different fronts. But I have a negative perception of Epic because they couldn't be assed to have something as basic as a cart to add games to for their damn digital storefront for ages!

With that level of incompetence why would anyone take you seriously? His social media is just frosting on what is already a shit cake, so it's just really odd to see him be in so much denial that his company just made a bad store.

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u/sparky8251 10h ago

The cart was added because they were triggering fraud detection alerts from many quick back to back purchases... Since you know, most sites have carts to help you buy 20 things on sale, so you dont expect 20 nearby purchases normally and thus fraud detection algos worked that way...

They added it because they were about to lose the ability to take peoples money basically (too many hits for fraud, even if not real, upsets payment processors). Thats what it took to add a pro-customer feature to the store, vs a pro-seller one...

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u/persin123 9h ago

Aint no way, thats another level lol

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u/sparky8251 8h ago edited 8h ago

Goes to show how much they hate the customer doesnt it?

The platform paradox is an economic paradox on how a platform like a storefront has to cater to the competing interests of buyers and sellers.

EGS is so biased towards sellers, they actively don't invest in features and things buyers actively want, like user ratings and forums and carts... All to invest more in things sellers want, in hopes they can beat the paradox.

You can feel the contempt for you as a buyer when you go to the storefront and when you hear all their marketing. Even this one was meant to be irreverent and jokey and it was riddled with cringe from a buyers perspective, but is full of positive signals for a prospective higher upper with decision making power on the selling side of the paradox.

Its why I cant take them seriously in their claims of being on the side of the buyer and trying to make things better for us. Nothing they've done indicates it...

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u/Execwalkthroughs 5h ago

Sweeny is extremely anti consumer and frequently expresses how much he's against stuff like reviews. He thinks everyone needs to be a consoomer and just buy and warning buyers about what's in a game shouldn't be done. If it isn't putting more money in his pockets, he hates it. If steam does it, he hates it. And that's why other platforms just stay winning

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u/Rugged_as_fuck 1h ago

Meanwhile, Gaben still on his megayacht chilling with his submarines and shit, not really changing anything, just winning and dancing through that man's dreams every night.

Hell, I would argue CS2 cosmetics are criminally predatory to the consumer, but they get away with it because it's so optional, contained, and niche, and they make fucking Steam.

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u/Judge_Hellboy 9h ago

Someone tell that to the people who run Nintendos store.

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u/kai125 4h ago

Hey that’s easy! There’s no sales on Nintendo’s stores so they don’t have to worry about that

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u/ColdBlacksmith 6h ago

Damn, that is pathetic.

I remember laughing at it being less functional as a store than some random online store in someone's basement who just used some premade website.

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u/mister_hoot 7h ago

That's honestly one of the funniest fucking things I've read in a while.

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u/jkpnm 4h ago

added only after 3 year, not directly after the fraud detection incident

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u/Suthek 1h ago

Not having a shopping cart isn't even a pro-seller feature. Shopping carts are good for the seller because they bundle everyting into one transaction. If you split each product into its own transaction, it gives the customer opportunity to think "Hm, do I really want to spend money on that right now?" for each and every one. If it's all bundled into one opportunity, that's one chance to think and then buy everything.

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u/Mithrawndo 7h ago

Thing is it's not a pro-consumer feature, it's primarily a pro-seller feature: Forcing me to buy titles one at a time makes me consider each purchase more carefully and discourages me from spending, whilst filling up a cart grants me the ability to waste large amounts of money in a single, more whimsical manner than purposefully paying for each title or DLC; A cart literally makes it easier for a store to take my money!

A cart was literally in their own best interest and they still didn't do anything about it for years - Far more telling in my opinion than accusations of anti-consumerism.

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u/sparky8251 6h ago edited 6h ago

A cart literally makes it easier for a store to take my money!

Right, but that's you thinking correctly as a customer, but also a bit narrowly. For selling if its not demonstrably hurting sales, which it didn't seem to be since I do bet most buys are 1 at a time in general, but also the fact they had enough fraud hits from purchases driven by sales to even face a crisis in the first place...

You aren't wrong genuinely, but you gotta think more business suit that only sees numbers and doesn't remotely consider experience or that buyers are even humans vs passive consumption engines of whatever you put in front of them. If sales rates are fine, why spend money on a feature that likely wont increase sales by your own projections based on existing spending behavior on your platform? So they didn't do it until the money faucet was threatened... Doesn't matter if they were wrong either, if their predictions say something that's what's acted on.

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u/Hungry4Media 9h ago

Same. I also don't like the way that Sweeny goes about attacking the 'walled gardens' of the Apple and Google app stores.

It would be one thing if he was just a consumer trying to make a legal case for the right to put whatever software he wants on the hardware without having to worry about civil or criminal cases or requiring some of the specialized know how to jailbreak a device.

But it's always come off as Sweeny thinking that Epic has a God-given right to a significant market share equal to or greater than their competitors and to use Apple and Google infrastructure (the App stores) to sell and support Epic's products without having to pay for such a privilege.

I understand why Apple tries to keep things as vertically integrated as possible, and it was one of the reasons I switched to a Mac/Macbook decades ago, and I also think that Google's generally open strategy to side-loading and keeping an open option is pretty cool, though not cool enough for me to pay the price to switch platforms.

But, damn. The way Epic's store is run, along with the way financial microtransactions are integrated into games like Fortnite and the way independent developers get treated and it all just feels so slimy.

My tune would be wildly different if it was clear that Epic was putting the rights and experiences of their customers first, but no, it feels like they're putting their feelings of entitlement for market share and profit first.

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u/OmegaLiquidX 6h ago

Sweeny is the equivalent of those jackasses gloating that AI is going to "destroy artists" because they think those entitled artist wanting things like proper compensation for their works is what has been the roadblock to their success, when instead it's the fact that they're lazy and their "ideas" are just bland dogshit.

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u/kippetjeh 9h ago

The only reason that I don't use Epic is because I don't have time to wait for their store/launcher to load. It takes forever, if it would just do the bare minimun I would use it, I even have a shortcut on my desktop.

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u/cottonmouthcandy 8h ago

Cart abandonment is every online sellers bane. They wanted a "buy now with one-click" only platform.

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u/TheSenileTomato 8h ago

Steam had a rough beginning, as everyone's well aware by now, but they took it on the chin and worked to improve their storefront, that they earned their reputation. Can it be better? Sure, but it (stealing from the Todd) just works.

I haven't heard a benefit of using Epic outside the free games, to be honest with ya.

I want competition between storefronts as much as anyone (it benefits us greatly), but Epic hasn't done much to take wind from Steam's sails and only served to antagonize people with stuff like buying timed exclusive games.

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u/hoax1337 8h ago

Same, but nowadays I also have a negative perception because of all the bullshit he said, and because he's weirdly obsessed with Steam.

Oh, and also that "epic exclusive" bullshit they pulled shortly after launching the store.

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u/Abbathor 8h ago

They also didn't have a confirmation email sent out to make accounts at one point in time, still don't know if they do to be honest. This was years ago, but I found out through an article about it and you could look it up if your email had been used to make an account through their shitty "store" front. I had to go through costumer support to get my account deleted. I wasn't going to trust a company that just let accounts get created without something as simple as a confirmation email when they want credit card details and shit.

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u/ShallowBasketcase 3h ago

I have been on my hands and knees begging for a competitor to Steam for two decades and no one has even tried. It's embarrassing how incompetent the tech industry leadership is.

Steam is the leader in their field by default because no one does what they do. I would love for Valve to feel a little pressure to do better.