Satisfactory is coming (back) to Steam because of course it is

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Zeg

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With the recent "Update 3", Coffee Stain Studio revealed that Satisfactory is coming to Steam, at an as yet unconfirmed date but presumably around mid March when the year of Epic exclusivity should be up. Satisfactory was one of the early Epic exclusive pickups, and one of the ones that had a Steam store page beforehand which then disappeared one day...

(Also, the meme of pipes is apparently over)

The Steam news post has maybe the cross section of comments you would expect:

  1. "Screw you, I'm not buying this now you've come crawling back"
  2. "I love this and I'll buy it again on Steam"
  3. "Thanks dumb Epic users for beta testing this game so I can enjoy it now"

I fall mainly in catagory 3, but less smarmy. I played the alpha a year ago on a burner Epic account and, in a surprising turn of willpower for me, actually deleted the whole thing afterward and just let it go. It always seemed like the assumption was that it would end up back on Steam eventually and certain non-committal (probably contractually so) comments by the devs suggested such too. Interestingly, the store page on Steam might not have actually ever been removed but maybe hidden... the game reappeared on my wishlist as soon as the store page went back up. Unless Steam is just that smart.

So how do we feel about games (not just this one even) now potentially coming out of the Epic contracts? Is taking that deal too much of a black mark on a dev, or is Epic the only one that should be the target of ire? Or do we just not care by now? I think personally if I overcame this temptation, I can probably continue to pretend to have morals and carry on not bothering with the Epic store.

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mellotronrules

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at the end of the day, devs need to get paid so i can't blame them for taking the money that's offered to them.

that said as a consumer the more hoops i have to jump through to play the game on my preferred platform, the more likely i'll be distracted the new hot thing and forget about your product. so in other words- if something is coming to steam, get's pulled to epic for a year, and then returns eventually to steam- i've probably mentally moved on from your product by the time it's back.

i don't think it's a 'black mark' to have been on epic first- but something being wrapped up in an epic exclusivity deal does make me pause and think, 'hmm do i need this now, or can i wait a year and get it on steam at discount.' and in many cases i think that delay ultimately saps my interest entirely. it also doesn't help that many of the exclusives thus far (metro, borderlands 3) haven't knocked my socks off.

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FinalDasa

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#3 FinalDasa  Moderator

As someone who bought that on Epic I don't feel "dumb" or like it was a beta test. It felt no different than any other early access game.

Developers should absolutely make the best decision for their employees and the game itself. If being published on Epic first meant more money and more attention then good on those devs.

How much attention would this game have gotten in the avalanche of releases on the Steam Store?

It's the reality of the market just like owning an Xbox means you miss out on PlayStation exclusives. It happens.

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shivermetimbers

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This industry sucks to work in and while I think Epic aren't doing the world a favor by snatching up exclusives, I don't blame the devs one bit for accepting their offer.

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DodoBasse

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Much like Facebook isn't going away just because something "better" comes along, the only way to try and not have Steam be an actual monopoly is through exclusives or free games.

While Epic clearly isn't a better product, and it should try to be, going "why can't it just be on Steam?" kinda feels like defending a company's monopolistic status, which I'm not a big fan of.

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Humanity

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#6  Edited By Humanity

If people are willing to wait a year to play a game just so it’s on a launcher they prefer then hey good on you. Seems like a win for everyone involved. The devs get the Epic cash bump, Epic gets a neat exclusive, and everyone that didn’t want to use Epic can now enjoy this game on Steam. Don’t see it as a black mark at all. On PC not using the Epic launcher is a choice you either make or don’t - the games are there for you to play if you want to.

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Zeg

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Coming back to this post in the morning, I feel like maybe I came off as a little aggressive or harsh. I won't edit it, but I'll expand on my own thoughts.

I said I was mainly catagory 3, but less smarmy. I don't think Epic users are dumb. Occasionally I have the willpower not to buy into early access, on any platform (Subnautica Below Zero being the other current example), and I'm sure the money, and therefore time, the exclusivity brought made the early access development run smoother for the devs to some degree.

I still think buying exclusivity is bad in general, but I'm also not overly opposed to other launchers. Origin has been sitting around on my PC for potentially years without me running it at this point, but I still got the games I wanted from it when they came around.

I definately don't consider it a black mark on the devs... I mostly don't care what you do, providing the game is good in the end. There's been several cases of 'twitter drama' around game devs in recent times (even a little bit with Coffee Stain), and I say 'meh' to it (though that's really my opinion about the whole of social media at large; people are dumb on the internet).

I'm certainly excited to play Satisfactory once it hits Steam, but I probably would have just got it on Epic if it hadn't always seemed pretty certain it would come back to Steam eventually.

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cikame

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It's a game me and my friends would have been playing if it was available on Steam, we've all been on Steam since day one, we're all against Epic's strategies, we loved Sanctum 1 and 2, i loved Goat Simulator, but there was no way i was going to follow them to the Epic store.
It sucks that it was originally on Steam anyway before being taken away, but what annoyed me more was the reaction from the developer to upset fans, which was pretty much just ignorance and jokes, the downpayment was shrugged off as a secondary reason over the revenue share, the size of the payments haven't been revealed by anyone but is expected to be A LOT, and their joke tweets about sales numbers on Epic go all the way back to April, which sucked for fans one month into their year long wait, a fan base grown almost entirely on Steam.

I was under the impression the Satisfactory Steam page was always accessible, as i've occasionally visited it over the year to measure the temperature of the forum, as the Epic Store completely lacks community features, despite not being on it Steam became its home anyway.

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devise22

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#9  Edited By devise22

Yeah this game looked very good when it was streamed on this site, early access or no. Awesome that the devs can continue to update it and bring it to another launcher after the Epic exclusivity.

As for the whole Epic/Steam argument. *Yawn* People need to grow up and move on. Focus on the games and devs you like, period. Platform and launcher exclusives and fighting over them has to be the pettiest, most childish thing ever. As many above has said, it's a tough industry to work in and devs shouldn't be punished or feel like shit for choosing what makes the best sense for their games both creatively and financially. Support the games and devs you like, it's that simple. We need to stop fighting and caring about the "big business" aspects of this shit when all it really amounts to is in fighting over which company is doing "capitalism" the worst. They aren't the focus anyway, not unless they are actually breaking rules and hurting things. Giving competitive dollars to devs only leads to better funded games, which is a win for everyone. And since most of these exclusives are timed (both Steam/Epic and the Sony/Xbox stuff as well) it doesn't really matter the platform or launcher you support in almost all cases these days.

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cikame

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@devise22: As long as there's no repercussions for ignoring your fans it's all fine, what's a year anyway.

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doombot13

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#11  Edited By doombot13

Like plenty have said, don't blame the devs one bit for taking the exclusivity, man's gotta eat. And last year when these exclusives started cropping up, I told myself I'd just pick them up on Steam in a year, since I didn't want to support Epic.

But what usually happens is I forget all about these games since new stuff is coming out all the time. I would have forgotten about this game if not for this post.

Edit: Should mention I feel differently about games that took preorders on steam, or offered steam keys through kickstarter, only to renege on that at a later date. That's shit.

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SarcasticMudcrab

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The amazing thing the devs have pulled off with this game, and I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of coding involved, is the game plays EXACTLY the same regardless of where you buy it!

Insane.

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Seikenfreak

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Good. Was expecting this eventually. I got into one of the closed betas when it was first announced. Very promising game but I didn't have the endless free time to play it that I'd need. Then the Epic store thing happened so I just said eh.. I'll ignore it for now. If they don't come to Steam then their loss, but everything comes to Steam eventually. And here we are and I'll buy it when I can.