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Outer Wilds - Information and Discussion Thread, update: "Echoes of the Eye" DLC reviews posted


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https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/13/crowdfunded-outer-wilds-becomes-epic-store-exclusive/

 

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It's not surprising to see Epic snapping up exclusives for its Games Store, but now it's making moves on crowdfunded titles. Mobius Digital has revealed that its space exploration title Outer Wilds (not to be confused with The Outer Worlds) will be a timed exclusive for the Epic Games Store, with other platforms "coming later." While that wouldn't be so much of a shock with a conventional release, many people pledged money to the Outer Wilds campaign in 2015 on the assumption they'd get it through Steam on launch day -- they now don't know how much longer they'll have to wait to play on their preferred platform.

 

Not surprisingly, some backers are upset. The timed exclusive has been likened to a "bait and switch" or even false advertising -- players expected a Steam release and now won't get it until months later at best. Some have said they'll seek refunds, while others are more concerned about the implications of releasing the game through a store that currently lacks features Steam users take for granted. Linux support is in doubt when that's not even an option through Epic's portal, for example.

 

Not everyone is opposed to the move. Some note that this might have been necessary to get the game across the finish line, while others noted that Epic's more developer-friendly royalty cut could be appealing to a small outfit. However, there's no question that this is a big gamble. Mobius is wagering that the exclusive won't alienate too many backers on the road to launch, and that its larger share of each sale will be worth going to a younger, smaller store that doesn't always have a great reputation among gamers.

 

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Did they say their game would be on PC or did they specifically say it would release on Steam? That distinction is really what makes it a “bait and switch”.  If it was only said to get a PC/Xbox/PS4 release, then it still is, and people assuming it would get a day one Steam release had no guarantee of that

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18 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Did they say their game would be on PC or did they specifically say it would release on Steam? That distinction is really what makes it a “bait and switch”.  If it was only said to get a PC/Xbox/PS4 release, then it still is, and people assuming it would get a day one Steam release had no guarantee of that

"Currently, we’re planning to release Outer Wilds on PC, Mac, and Linux through Steam next year. But our dream is to bring it to new platforms in as many languages as possible, and we need everyone’s help to make that happen!"

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/outer-wilds/about

They also had a steam page

https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/

 

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5 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Did they say their game would be on PC

Nobody just says their "game is coming to PC" with platform announcements. Because there's a distinction between stores and a DRM-free release. This one was absolutely coming to Steam, same with Phoenix Point or whatever. Their contract with Epic is important not to break, their contract with the people who literally made their game possible? Well that one's not a real contract so they can suck some dick I guess.


This is gonna cause some lasting damage with crowdfunding, as if it needed an even worse reputation.

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This has now happened to two games that were crowdfunded through FIG rather than Kickstarter which leads me to believe that it is the equity investor component of FIG that makes it a more viable candidate for this tactic from Epic whereas Kickstarter is "pure" crowdfunding with no equity investment component.

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13 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

This has now happened to two games that were crowdfunded through FIG rather than Kickstarter which leads me to believe that it is the equity investor component of FIG that makes it a more viable candidate for this tactic from Epic whereas Kickstarter is "pure" crowdfunding with no equity investment component.

 

I think the way they "curate" the Epic store is by seeing what's popular on a crowdfunding site and poaching it for themselves.

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On 5/13/2019 at 9:02 AM, SFLUFAN said:

Yet another "bait and switch" for a crowdfunded game that will make backers are lot more cautious in the future and probably force demands for "platform release guarantees".

You are so right. Going forward Kickstarters will have to set the table in where on the PC they are releasing up front. Switching things like this can really piss off the expected audience. I hope that ones that backed it requested a Steam key get that much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I started playing this on Game Pass yesterday. Played for about an hour. I guess it’s like No Man’s Sky if it had an interesting story and characters?

I took off and landed on another planet then got out without a spaceship and suffocated to death then I stopped playing.

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So this game is kinda buggy and I'm not sure I really like the time loop reset.

 

I launched one of my probes and I took pictures and the game crashed.

 

Also, another time I was on a planet and objects just float through each other, like this one island with a mountain floated over into this inside area (this is on the water planet) and it just clipped through the environment, I couldn't get out and eventually I got crushed to death because the game is dumb. :|

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I spent a while playing over the weekend and I've quite enjoyed it. It's actually a bit harder than I expected, which for the most part has been welcome, though other times it's proven frustrating. There have been a number of times where, if I missed one jump, it was faster to just reset the time loop than it would be to make my way back and try again. Especially because, for the more difficult areas to reach, there might be a lot to discover, so you want as much time there as possible. Also annoying, there's no way to reset the loop without quitting to the main menu, so I just end up killing myself.

 

 

For some reason I expected puzzles, but it's pretty much just a mystery and exploration game. Which is fine, but I was expecting some simple Witness style puzzles, which I think the game would have benefited from.

 

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On 5/14/2019 at 6:31 AM, SFLUFAN said:

This has now happened to two games that were crowdfunded through FIG rather than Kickstarter which leads me to believe that it is the equity investor component of FIG that makes it a more viable candidate for this tactic from Epic whereas Kickstarter is "pure" crowdfunding with no equity investment component.

 

Shenmue III doe, as per your post in that thread.

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6 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I spent a while playing over the weekend and I've quite enjoyed it. It's actually a bit harder than I expected, which for the most part has been welcome, though other times it's proven frustrating. There have been a number of times where, if I missed one jump, it was faster to just reset the time loop than it would be to make my way back and try again. Especially because, for the more difficult areas to reach, there might be a lot to discover, so you want as much time there as possible. Also annoying, there's no way to reset the loop without quitting to the main menu, so I just end up killing myself.

 

 

For some reason I expected puzzles, but it's pretty much just a mystery and exploration game. Which is fine, but I was expecting some simple Witness style puzzles, which I think the game would have benefited from.

 

 

I definitely went through a few frustrating sections where I either was missing the solution and kept trying something impossible or otherwise goofed and found myself in a sticky situation. I like that the game isn't too hand-holdy and gives you lots of rope to hang yourself with since the emergent oh fuuuuuck moments are spectacular.

 

This game inverts the fear of deep water, and I now dread being plucked from the safety of my planet and thrown into space to struggle, die, and drift ever further from home.

 

For those who haven't played this game, I would strongly recommend it and I hope Epic is paying the Devs a fuck ton of money because if this wasn't an EGS exclusive it would be making much larger waves.

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42 minutes ago, Moa said:

For those who haven't played this game, I would strongly recommend it and I hope Epic is paying the Devs a fuck ton of money because if this wasn't an EGS exclusive it would be making much larger waves.

 

I dunno, it's on game pass and not clicking with a great many who have tried it.

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11 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

I get that the time loop aspect is supposed to make you explore efficiently or whatever, but it seems just... really annoying?

Efficiency really isn't part of it... it's that there are events that happen in the loop that have nothing to do with you and therefore occur at exactly the same time every loop. So it's not having a 22 minute time limit but more about picking up clues(which are kept in a loop-resistant log) that lead you where & when to be at a particular place. When you figure them out, it's very rewarding.

 

You can get to the farthest planet within about a minute. So there is plenty of time to get anywhere if you know where & when to be there.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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If you put me in a room with ten executives and asked me to pitch Outer Wilds, here is what I would say: “It’s got the exploration of a Metroid game and the structure of Majora’s Mask crossed with the interstellar wonder of No Man’s Sky and the narrative framework of Return of the Obra Dinn.”

 

Then, undoubtedly, one of them would say, “What’s Return of the Ober Dunn?” Fucking executives, am I right?

 

Outer Wilds is One of the Best Games I've Ever Played - Jason Schreier

 

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54 minutes ago, mach250 said:

This is one of those games that you watch on youtube when you get bored...doesn't seem fun to play

To each their own, but I think what differentiates this game from a lot of survival/exploration games is that it is actually engaging to play because of the very precise control you have over your ship/suit.

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I was going to create a separate thread to express how good I think Outer Wilds is, but I suppose I'll just put my thoughts here.

 

I agree with Jason Shreier, and I really don't think that this sort of praise is exaggerated or plagued by recency bias.  Outer Wilds is perhaps the most captivating video game I've ever played, and I would place it high on the list of best pieces of art I've ever experienced.  It's a shame that the conversation is dominated by the fact that this is an EGS exclusive, because this game deserves as wide of an audience as possible. 

 

I'm guessing that it's not clicking with people because it is completely self-guided, and it can be frustrating and overwhelming at the start.  But it takes barely any time at all to understand how special it is - pick a planet to explore, and you will soon find something (a physical phenomenon, a piece of story, or a captivating clue) that snaps perfectly into this clockwork universe.  It's reminiscent of Breath of the Wild in the sense that no matter where you go, you will stumble upon something fascinating along the way.  I don't want to spoil anything here, but I've had more moments of awe, terror, and emotional resonance in Outer Wilds than I ever have playing a video game. 

 

I doubt that there will be a better game than Outer Wilds this year, and we'd be lucky to get another game of this caliber any time soon.

 

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