Epic Games is officially cool with the Internet Archive preserving early Unreal games (www.gamedeveloper.com)
from Joker@sh.itjust.works to games@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 02:51
https://sh.itjust.works/post/28350338

The Unreal series may have been shelved years ago, but Epic is letting its first two installments live on through the Internet Archive.

#games

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Rin@lemm.ee on 20 Nov 2024 03:23 next collapse

Sussy, but i’m glad

stardust@lemmy.ca on 20 Nov 2024 04:04 next collapse

Winning move from Epic. Showing what should be done for abandoned games. Give it back to the people so it can continued to be enjoyed by the community that will continue to care for it.

echodot@feddit.uk on 20 Nov 2024 07:53 collapse

There’s literally no reason not to do that. The game has long since made money and keeping it out of public ownership is now not doing anyone any favors.

Some studios are just intransigent.

3laws@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 05:45 next collapse

Every 10,000 cycles Epic has a small w. I’ll take it.

Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 05:56 next collapse

Oh man, UT2004 was my fave arena death match back in the day, so much fun. Hope they release more!

Glide@lemmy.ca on 20 Nov 2024 06:22 next collapse

While I don’t approve of Epic’s stabs at exclusivity, Steam needs a competitor to keep it in check, and one that is making some efforts to support the preservation of art is a welcome choice.

HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org on 20 Nov 2024 06:54 collapse

But GOG is alresdy the Steam with Principles…

echodot@feddit.uk on 20 Nov 2024 07:52 collapse

As much as I like them I don’t think you can call them a competitor.

I’ve seen games that are available on both platforms that sell hundreds of times more copies on Steam simply because of steam’s reputation.

A competitor actually has to be able to compete.

szczuroarturo@programming.dev on 20 Nov 2024 08:31 collapse

Im pretty sure gog is more popular than epic games . Alghtough i might be biased due to my country of origin.

Glide@lemmy.ca on 20 Nov 2024 19:01 collapse

My experience with GOG is that it is a fringe option, at least in the combined North American (USA+Canada) culture. Plus, the unfortunate reality is that in many cases GOG’s principles preclude it from being a genuine competitor to Steam. Insisting on being DRM free means half of released games never go to the platform, so it will always be the secondary “better if” option.

I worry about Steam’s functional monopoly on PC game access. It hasn’t been an issue so far, because it has remembered that it is, first and foremost, a service, providing consumer protection through a generous refund policy and supporting devs with easy access to simple matchmaking and anti-cheat systems. But without a healthy competitor, it would be easy for Steam to start milking it’s users and developers alike.

szczuroarturo@programming.dev on 21 Nov 2024 11:53 collapse

Im pretty sure gog does have some games with drm.

otp@sh.itjust.works on 21 Nov 2024 13:40 collapse

Really? I thought their whole thing was that they sell DRM-free stuff exclusively

Quazatron@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 08:37 next collapse

Excellent that they don’t engage in Nintendo level community hostility and at least let people who care about old games preserve them.

Stream goes one step further and actively maintains their legacy games playable. That is commitment.

FinalRemix@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 12:06 next collapse

Gog goes another step and provides a guarantee on stuff they’ve modified to ensure it works, and provide an offline installer that’s entirely self-contained for archviing purposes.

Quazatron@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2024 17:24 collapse

I prefer to buy GOG when possible, Steam second. I even have some duplicated titles across vendors.

Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2024 14:04 next collapse

Every dev and game company is out for your money. They all suck not just Nintendo.

DacoTaco@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2024 16:05 collapse

Eh, i wouldnt say they are better. They explicitly pulled all unreal games off all stores ( steam, epic store, gog, … ), killed all servers and when asked acted like unreal never existed. They are pieces of shit for doing it and they had no real reason in doing so imo…

scholar@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2024 14:06 collapse

Still weird that they stopped selling them on steam and gog…