That's a facade anyway. We all know that when it comes to AAA developers it's the publishers and their shareholders that gobble up that extra cash. The developers get paid during the game's development (and while working on patches) they don't get any income from the game's own revenue. This doesn't necessarily hold true for indie game developers though. So really, if Steam wanted to make a response to this, they'd offer a curated indie platform where the indie devs get a higher split. I'm a business application developer, and I generally make more money than a developer does at a AAA publisher. It's laughable because those people most likely have more experience, and a better education than me. They went into their field following a passion, and said passion is being abused by their employers. Fuck that shit.
@@Dojan5 It's been well known by anyone that even tried for 5 minutes to be a game developer, and for several decades already, that passion is about the only thing that keeps game developers going. Doesn't matter what discipline it is, be it programming, music, art, etc, going into game development is a surefire way to work double the hours for 70% of the pay you'd get with your skillset just about anywhere else. This has been a long-known 'dirty secret' of the industry, as has 100+ hour 'crunch' periods. (and in fact in many cases even outside of crunch 60-70 hour weeks are 'normal') It's a complete mess, but we all collectively seem to have decided it's OK, and somehow refuse to ever really challenge it. You can't be the lone voice of protest in a company either, because that's a pretty great way to get yourself fired...
@@Dojan5 Good thing Epic's paying out the ass for all those Indie devs coming aboard amirite. You're right though. Actual devs don't get jack shit on major titles once it's released. The fact people buy into this is laughable and/or sad. Most devs are contractors on AAA titles these days anyway. Dem sweet contractor royalties and residuals.
@@KuraIthys Imagine if those same people were able to work at peak-efficiency, i.e. not overworked, not worrying about paying their bills. The games industry is just another item in a long list of proof that the best work is done out of passion, not wage slavery. TH-camrs, Wikipedia, pretty much all of what goes on in the Internet are other great examples. Yet people still think we need to keep this outdated system of wage slavery "otherwise people will be lazy and not work" ._.
in EU they plan to create an "anti tax haven" law. the law is something along the lines of "you pay taxes where you sell your products, not where your HQ is". so if Activi$ion makes 500M by selling CoD in Germany, they will have to pay taxes to Germany for that 500M at Germany's current rate, or they will be banned from selling their games there.
Honestly they make enough money that it would be more profitable to move their headquarters to the US and just not sell to Germany. I don’t know if there’s a real solution at this point Edit: Ok guys I get it pls stop @ing me, my feed is filled with replies to this comment, and I didn’t even remember what I wrote before rereading it
I've been suggesting that the u.s. do this for fucking years. It's such an obvious solution that I came to it when I was like 15. And you know damn good and well that all of these shithead politicians realized that years ago, but fuck all that because citizens united essentially legalized bribery. The United States is a literally too big of a market to ignore for almost any major corporation. Not a goddamn thing would be lost if we force them to pay taxes if they do business here except for some fucking lobbying money. Cry Me a goddamn River, I don't want to pay for a money pool for Mitch fucking McConnell
For all the people who claim that workplace regulations are harmful: Look at Europe. In Germany for example, 40 hours a week maximum are legally binding, with a daily maximum, and up to 60 hours a week for a limited time with justification. Yet companies are still internationally competitive, and successful. In fact, economic growth is now hampered due to the fact that there isn't a large enough qualified workforce. How? The employees are far more effective, since they can focus on their work instead of suffering from burnout, worrying about bills etc. Companies also invest far more, instead of paying their top brass undeserved amounts of money (The boss of Activision gets about 4x more money that VAGs boss, which is the biggest car manufacturer on the planet). Just to put things into perspective, the untrained work I do occasionally in my father's business pays more than the 12 dollars an hour some Devs get. And mine includes insurance and payments towards my retirement funds. Edit: Meant retirement plan, which is called 'Rente' here, when I wrote 'rent'
Oddly enough, it's really only America as far as I can tell that doesn't have much in terms of workplace regulation. A majority of the rest of the first world has moved on and is doing fine just like you said. So much for the land of the free and the "American Dream".
@@Neon_Plasma yeah japan is another one. think its more of a cultural thing and not because of a lack of regulation as much. Still equally as harmful to the public
@@ShinNisse I know Extra Credits are known for saying very dumb shit sometimes which is why i stoped watching their vids. When did they say triple A practices were bad?
@@MumblingSolipsist They defended loot boxes on the basis that they were legal. It, however, doesn't justify their existence when you add moral values into the mix.
Yeah, right? Carelessly talking about "hatespeech" as if that practically will amount to anything else but "wrongthink"... and funnily enough is pretty much exactly the bleaching brand of equality cAAApitalism want's to broaden their markets, numb and stupify the consumer-scum and paint us all the pretty picture of a kumbaja-society to keep us docile and apathetic.. But it's just a word, it's just videogames.. nothing amount to nothing anyway.. Hey Jim, you just want a clean, just, shit-eating equal P-C-AAApitalism anyway, don't you?!
Sure, epic isn't holding a gun to their heads. They're just handing them an active grenade, pulling the pin and saying "if you keep a tight grip long enough, we'll put the pin back in for a little bit".
Red King Rauri I get that “Active grenade” is a job (more accurately a way to pay to survive in a capitalist system) and “pulling the pin” is the implied threat of losing the job, but I guess I’m not really following the rest of the metaphor. Which sucks, because it just _feels_ accurate. Care to explain?
@@gingergamergirl98 Grenades have a grip that prevent it from going off until it's released, then the timer activates. Working overtime with the grenade is the crunch and letting it go off is getting fired. The pin is the renewed contract.
@@gingergamergirl98 I would say it's even more accurate than just that as well: if you end up just saying fuck it and "throwing the grenade" you have to deal with the guilt of messing up someone else. If you quit, those coworkers you otherwise love working with are the ones slapped with the stress. They aren't just holding your own job and future prospects hostage, but also your sense of community inside the work place.
Jesus the myths about unions in this comment section are staggering. In the UK, we’re encouraged to join a union. And for a few quid a month we get people who negotiate with the company for better pay increases, can attend any disciplinary proceedings to make sure your not getting steamrolled out of your job, protect and fight for fair working conditions and hours, provide legal support in a wide range of situations and generally make sure companies aren’t fucking you around. Countless positive changes to the way businesses treat their employees have only happened because of unions. They are not unchecked gangs of demanding bullies who force small businesses into bankruptcy, it’s not the 1920s anymore. The shit game developers are pulling with their workforce’s is the exact result of no unionisation. ‘Getting another job’ doesn’t work when you have bills to pay or a family to support, work in a competitive industry and have no guarantee that after going through the stress and admin of moving companies, your new employer won’t pull the same shit your old one did.
Yea organized labor has been demonized over generations by the poeple in power convincing you that Unions don't work because the guy who is less compitent then you is being paid more than you (slightly) and hes fucking over your success, you know.....instead of the greedy fucks screwing you and the other guy over at the same time. Its a systemic issue now.
McCarthyism, the red scare, and hegemonic neoliberal propaganda have really fucked Americans up when it comes to like... literally everything involving economic and social theory.
In the US, the union s have too much power. In a lot of northern states, you are forced to join a union to do any trade job, not asked. They force business owners to pay piss poor labor way too much money who can't be fired. The idea of union is good. But all of them squeeze the companies and businesses for every dime they can. This the business can't afford to hire people they need or lower prices to compete with cheap products.
I work as an administrator at a construction company. I represent the company in all our dealings with the Union and relevant authorities. I am also responsible for filtering all the feedback from our employees (and the authorities are fully aware of it). When I represent the company and our ”issues” to the Union; we are all smiles and roses. ”We provide fantastic opportunities and possibilities to our workers and they/we are all so very happy.” In reality all of us continously work 14 hours a day, 6.5-7 days a week. Our feet are a mixture of bruises and blood (walking on reinforcement etc. 14-15 hours a day for months in S3 shoes does have that effect) and most of us are pretty suicidal. So, what’s the catch? In my case; MY HOUSE is the catch. No job or less paying job= I lose the house (I’m keeping the story very, very short). So; I’m all smiles. Workers are all smiles. Our bosses are all smiles (their smiles are genuine, as you prolly can guess). And to top it all off; I live in a very prominent western country. Sigh.. I could write more but I swear every bone/muscle hurts right now.
The United States is effectively a cult regarding socio-economic thought. Capitalism with slaps on the wrist for corporations and the bare minimum of social welfare are the limit that you can publicly espouse in the majority of states without being considered an extremist.
The best predictor of being Rich is NOT about being smarter, hard work, etc. It is and will continue to be having rich parents to give you wvery advantage at every turn
Everything is gatekeepers and nepotism. Even if you aren't related, you gain the favor of someone who is rich and has connections, you're well off. There are plenty of smart and talented people who just don't have the money and don't know anybody that could make a significant difference.
But these people have to claim this society is a meritocracy or else people will realize their success isn't based on merit. Basically they just use meritocracy as a club to beat the poor with, blaming their poverty on not "working hard enough"
Meritocracy was coined as a term for a dystopia, where unlike the aristocrats who recognized they truly were priveleged to be born into their fabulous wealth and power and thus sympathized with the poor who did nothing to earn their bad lot in life. A meritocrat believes his wealth is his alone and lords over the poor with contempt and disdain believing it was not opportunity and luck but his own virtue and merit that earned his lot and others are beneath him.
The bigger something becomes, the easier it becomes to see the ugliness. It's much better than some other industries that rely on conflict metals and/or sweat shops, to be fair. Soon enough there will be enough trained game developers in the developing world that the jobs will start going there and you won't hear more about horrible work conditions but rather "they took mah jerb!"
One of the commenters I got in the previous Epic abuse video told me that wanting the law to hold companies accountable for abusing their employees was entitled and fascist. And that wasn't even the worst commenter I had to deal with.
@EBE Say they do quit. What do they do about money? It's not like they can quit and new work right away. What do they do about homes? About their family? Food? Money? Bills? A car? All of that can go away without money. That's why people have to stay because without money you will die. And that's why there has to be regulations.
"They can quit their job. There are 7 million + open jobs in the US today. I'm sure plenty of those are related to programming of some kind." "Hell, if they really wanted, they could work in a completely different industry. Nothing is really stopping them." ""Boycotts don't always get me what I want, boo hoo". Fuck off you crying bitch." "Maybe they should be saving their money. Maybe they should consider moving." Ooh, spicy pro-corporate speak, there. The check's in the mail; you will eat well this month.
I've said it before. But what Epic is doing is unsustainable. It's a business practice known as Loss Leader Strategy. At some point old Tim Swindler WILL pull the plug on those deals. But he'll only do it once he's bought enough customers by underpricing on contracts with publishers. The instant he's got "enough" people on his platform, those fancy deals he's giving developers will evaporate.
@@Christianityunmasked pros of a union still outweighs the cons. And you can boycott as much as you like and yet still companies richer than anyone else wilö continue to profit. Plus its far more easier to organice than hope that EVERY GAMER IN THE WORLD will join a boycott.
If they all wanted to leave and get other jobs they could. Why do you need a union when you can strike by simply leaving? Also, IT jobs are global so whats stopping them outsourcing the work to Asia?
You can rob someone without having to put a gun to their head, then you can say "I didn't put a gun to their head" and walk off merrily with their money.
better almost to do the old confidence trick and get them to hand it to you willingly and with a smile , full of naive hope. than technically (outside of theft by deception laws) nothing was stolen , just "invested"
@@joke-wo4ye not really. Sometimes you don't even generate a surplus or generate a negative one because you are not productive enough to cover your salary and other expenses but you receive your pay anyway. In that case you are the one robbing without a gun. It is easy to see just one face of the coin.
How do you make $900,000? Start with $500,000. How do you make $500,000? Start with $100,000. It's true that (if you know what you're doing, and a bit lucky) money grows faster the more money you have to start with. But It's also true that you can make small amounts of money grow, depending largely on how much you're willing to risk. Kinda like how everyone laughed at trump's "loan of a million dollars" thing saying "oh well it's easy if you have that!" No, no it's not. What are you going to do with that million dollars that's going to let you not only pay back the loan, with interest, but make you a billionaire? It's not that easy, or more people would be going to banks for an investment loan.
Piracy is actually a great example of open market. Competition is a plenty and they actually compete (as in they can have same content on their site and you choose the site you enjoy more). That being said, go to private trackets you scrub.
@@chabbab6698 Not really. Outside of admitting to piracy it is very hard to get a conviction, as there is no good way to prove it (torrent software data is untrustworthy and not acceptable as proof in court).
At this point idk which one would be more interesting to see: 1. Steam waking up from it's decade old slumber. 2. The "AAA" industry collapsing. Also: *Loved* the opening!
@@cousinvinnie6222 Then those indie developers will just corrupt with greed and turn into another AAA developers in time, repeating same old slimy money making scheme which former AAA developers did all over again.
@@skirmich I can think of a few reasons. DRM limits how you can install it. For example, The Sims 2 is pretty tough to get working on modern PCs thanks to its SecuROM DRM being incompatible with Windows 8+. With DRM free copies, you're able to just download the game and truly own it. If a game has DRM, you're allowed to operate only within the scope that the DRM allows. Some 10 years down the line that game might not be playable anymore because the DRM won't let you, and there won't be anyone that cares enough to update the game's DRM and make it playable again. DarkSpore has its DRM in the form of an always online server connection. When those servers shut down, DarkSpore became unplayable forever.
@@skirmich Denuvo is proven to cut your framerate. This creates situations where illegally cracked copies run BETTER than legally purchased copies. Publishers who use Denuvo are punishing their customers and ONLY their customers for something they didn't even do.
The epic claim of thm pulling away from exclusives if Steam matches their cut makes no sense because: 1- EPIC charges processing fees to the purchaser. Some payment processors charge an extra fee for processing fees. Steam eats that fee from their split of the revenu while EPIC ADDS that fee to the purchsers bill. 2- STEAM takes 0$ from key activations from 3rd party sellers. You bought a game from Green Man Gaming or Humble Bundle that came with a steam key? Valve gets 0$ from that sale. 3- STEAM has more features. Features cost money to develop, improve, maintain. Steam has a butt load of features that are missing form the EPIC game store so comparing steam to egs is comparing apples to oranges. It's like comparing a Kia Rio to a fully equipped Toyota Avalon. Sure they are both cars but the Avalon has way more going for it.
It makes sense to me. They are basically saying if they take away literally their only advantage they're going to give up the idea because they have no interest in actually being competition, just to rake in cash by putting in near zero effort and running a monopoly racket. If they can't do that anymore they will just focus on Fortnite and UE.
Yeah, kinda weird that Jim keeps parroting that statement verbatim without question. Like, it factually has nothing to do with the cut and everything to do with the bribe they get for exclusivity.
And let's not forget that Tencent is lurking in Epic shadow since they own a pretty sizeable chunk (48-49% i think) of the company shares and with their shady tactic and background (censorship, stealing/selling data etc) i wouldn't be surprised if it was a move by them to take over the Western PC gaming market in an attempt to replace Steam to sit on an even bigger pile of money.
I mean that's the truth. Demand for those jobs is higher than the supply, so the employer can do shit. It's exactly the reverse in other fields. If you are a developer and can't find a job in a week, you are probably shit. If you want to work on games, well tough.
You've gotta give Epic credit: instead of being the "underdog" to Steam that people might champion and be happy to flock to, they've managed to somehow be worse. And make gaming on PC a worse experience. Now That's What I Call Capitalism
@@gautiergary8604 Or self-publish. But not everyone of them can. Maybe the practical answer would be to have more options in the publisher market, then the store front market. There is a lot to change, like Jim said. It's part of a system where not the people who augth to get rich can.
@@francoiscoupal7057 I agree with that. I just feel bad for the devs, I don't really what they can do. Thinking that so many assholes sit on millions when literally all the credit should go to the devs always sickens me a bit
And how actual small indies don't make Epic's Cut. But you can be sure as fuck anything 2k and Ubisoft shits out will be bought as an exclusive and accepted immediately.
I’d write a witty comment, but I’m too busy thanking God for Jim. Thank God somebody with a platform and more than an ounce of integrity is finally bringing these issues to light. Something needs to change.
@Andrew Cargil I don't buy these games, and I am sure that I am not the only one. Doing nothing and hoping that everyone will follow is not a reliable tactic when exploitative measures are used to maintain profits.
I purposely did not go into Game making because of these horrible conditions to make literally video games. General Software development has it's horror stories, but good god it's not so industry wide that you can make a once a week video on how [Insert Company here] is abusing their employees
TheAmazingDolphin Me too. Out of high school I was excited to get into a job doing anything to do with games but I didn't have the money, so I waited and worked, and the more I waited the more stories of these abuse scandals that surfaced. Dodged a bittersweet bullet I guess.
@@ACogloc Sadly, the video game industry relies on a mix of enormous amounts of bright eyed out of university talent, and jaded, but optimistic old timers. I don't think the industry will change without unionization or restriction. Like most capitalism sadly, if they know they can get away with exploitation, there's every incentive to keep doing it.
Honestly I thought about this whole "gun against head" argument and think that yes, studios aren't putting guns to worker's heads, it's workers putting guns to their own heads and contemplating financial or literal suicide.
*"I have sold over 1M copies of this game!!!" -"Yeah... But this is the only place you can get a copy of it" *"IM SORRY, I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE MILLION COPIES OF THIS GAME I JUST SOLD"
Cormoran he’s definitely not the same Tim Sweeney that I knew back at College Park MD. Heck, I remember back when he had many of us playing ZZT, in the computer labs. A game he self-programmed, by the way. He’s having his HOOK moment. He’s become a pirate. I could see his early successes would make him big, but never expected him to jump the fence. It is very very unusual for a software developer, turned boss, to create anything but a more pleasant developer atmosphere. Usually it is a corporate person who is not sympathetic to their position. :)
Awww, but Extra Credits praised him as a good guy, surely that justifies the complete abuse of a Malignant Narcissist! m.th-cam.com/video/DiizE4cNEAI/w-d-xo.html
@@LATEXXJUGGERNUT Extra Credits also keeps James Portnow on the payroll and say loot boxes are amazing and should be kept in the industry. They've lost their integrity some time ago.
you think upper management whips the workers themselves? what is this, revolutionary France? you'd have to be in the same room as the peasants to whip them. Sweeny has people for that now.
Anyone who uses the "It's not against the law!" defense genuinely worries me. Yeah, just because it's not against the law doesn't suddenly make it not morally despicable to do. This is why laws change over time.
Review Shark that “law” has been weakened over the past years and more benefits the rich, greedy corporations and much less on the consumer. As well as the consumer protection system is likely dead as of 2016.
@@Blood-PawWerewolf Exactly. This is why it must be changed for the better. Unfortunately though, keeping big money out of politics probably isn't going to be possible for a good while.
True, but there are also legal systems in place to fight it. I see so many people complain about companies like EA, but very few of them boycotting them.
I used to pull 60-80 hour work weeks doing traffic safety for roadside construction. Our crunch time was something like work 3 weeks straight (12+ working hours plus 4 hours travel) and 2 days off. Rinse and repeat. >wake up at 3am >travel 2.5-3+ hours to job site, start ~6:00/6:30am >stand in place, hold stop sign on pole for roughly 12 hours/day (5/10 min break every hour or so if you have enough people to cover) deal with idiots who seem to think our big, bright orange or fluorescent yellow construction signs (and myself) are there for decoration. >the odd driver speeds past me into construction area (and into oncoming traffic. Not uncommon but happens) gets stopped by a construction worker, proceeds to yell at him (almost ready to drag the poor fucker out of the car and beat the ever loving crap out of him but gets stopped by foreman) >end of day, pack up and go home. Get home somewhere around 9/10pm. Rinse and repeat until the end of the season. >gets hard to think critically after a few days, reaction time drops significantly (which, in this line of work can be very dangerous) Not trying to have a pissing match but I can relate to stress brought on by crunch (match is pretty even). Also have a ton of stories. including one about a dude who placed a Mannequin dressed up in traffic gear in his place so he and anothe guy can take turns napping/keeping watch for about a half an hour at a time. It was on some backwoods road that literally nobody uses. You still need to be there for legal reasons.
Huh, I guess that's why all of the work you guys did is shit and everything is being fixed now by Dominos, or just one bad dice roll away from murdering innocent people. I don't know why you sounded like you took pride in being overworked lol
seriously what good paying high demand business doesn't have a "Crunch period". it is not abusive as the law defines and the workers are willing to put up with it so i don't see anything wrong with it.
Not a pissing match; your situation as you described was inexcusable. Yet: in game development, or any programming, the situation is kinda worse, because most of your development time inevitably goes into fixing bugs. Bugs are generally mistakes, some of them are unavoidable due to the complexity of the systems, but others could be avoided if the developers were clear headed. Which they won't be due to crunch time. Which leads to more bugs, and more work, more crunch time..
I would have purchased Metro: Exodus during launch week if it was on Steam or GOG. I would have purchased Shakedown: Miami on launch _day_ if it was on Steam or GOG. Now, I'll pick them up on sale in a year _if_ I get a chance. I hope the quick cash was worth it, because I know I'm not the only person that feels this way.
If it was na Epic, Steam and GoG you still would buy on Steam. If Epic store had the same features that Steam has or even slightly better, you still would buy it on Steam. As so vast majority of people that won't buy Epic exclusives. And majority of everyone else. For Epic you are not target audience, they even don't want you near their shop. They target audience is people that don't care but if they had to choose Epic vs Steam, they would buy on steam.
How much does everyone want to bet that this guy buys Shakedown Miami on launch day anyway? i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--W8ZYHe9O--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18j48weujcgewjpg.jpg
Epic: Developers need to be treated better and given a bigger cut Also Epic: Lets make our developers work so much some of them break down and cry :D Fuck Epic. They know Steam cant match the 12% cut when they offer way more than Epic does. Even if Steam wasn't updated once since 2010, it would still be way ahead of Epic. I also want to say, when is EVERYONE ELSE going to improve? Steam has issues, but it is by far the best gaming platform. The biggest issue it has, and some people don't even care, is lack of curation. But in terms of features and user friendly features? It puts everything to shame. On top of being the first they've also been the best. So when is it time for other launchers to step up? Hell it even puts PSN/XBL to shame. Those charge you to play online and charge you 10 bucks just to change your name. Both of which Steam offers for free.
Steam does have one other big bullet that Epic can't handle. Steam Sales. With the massive amount of games already on the platform, when they pull the trigger in summer and winter, the amount of stuff you can get for pennies on the dollar is astronomical. That's Steam's biggest and strongest weapon, bar none.
It would be, except if you look at the trends the extremity of those sales has lessened greatly. More and more the games just aren't cheap enough, and so many of us game hoarders have so many that it's not worth it to buy even more at the price. Generally in a sale I used to buy plenty of things; as my library grows more robust, and the offerings become less enticing, now in a sale I *might* buy one or two things, and often not a direct result of the price. If they're going to fight Epic with sales, they're gonna have to step their game up.
@@FishOnHead I agree that even I've bought less over time, but that's because I have a lot of what I want. If you think of the new kid on the block, when they get hit with "All of Square's shit: 3 dollars" You even look past DRM at that point. New consumers or people with PC's finally able to dive into the wider pond of the content do typically go on a bender during sales.
@@Gilbals the constant sales have served to devalue the games on Steam, among other things. I'm slowly moving my library to GOG but the migration has been slow because Steam has conditioned me and a lot of other users to hunt for deals, paying less than sticker price.
@@ChristianNeihart I wouldn't call it devaluation. I'd say it's smart shopping. If you're hype for a game, you'll buy it new. If you're broke or tight on cash, wait til the sale. If you have interest in it but not enough for the current price tag, wait. It's no different that going to a sale at a clothing store or cutting coupons. A smart shopper is one that waits for deals. An impulse shopper is what makes you money. Also, many games don't go on the sale list until they've been out for a bit. If a game is on sale within its first month, that can say a lot about a game, no?
@@Gilbals if I may disspell l (sp?) The analogy a bit, clothes and groceries (if that is what you are referring to when you say "cutting coupons") are commodities you need far more than say a video game. Also as a counter point, I would like to point your attention to this article: www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/can-american-retailers-department-stores-jcrew-gap-quit-the-discounting-promotions-drug
Even getting more bodies doesn't always work, it's like saying 9 pregnant women can have a baby in a month. These things take time, and having more people around doesn't always make it more productive.
I know this isn't what that quote is referring to, but theoretically if the company, instead of hiring a number of people and overworking them, shifted to hiring, let's say, double amounts of people initially and giving them all reasonable hours working them in shifts that would make things more efficient, right? Because everybody is able to give their all with the time they've got? But instead these companies prefer to work a few workers so much that they eventually get burned out and have to be replaced by totally new people who need additional time to get familiarized with the project. That doesn't make sense to me.
@@oftinuvielskin9020 Read the book "mythical man-month". Basically the problem comes down to communication. If a single person can do a job, there's no communication overhead. The more people you add, the more communication overhead there is. It's kinda like the rocket equation; the more fuel (or "bodies" in this case) you add, the more fuel you need.
metfan4l I mean, I won't buy HL3 if that's the case. Their fans have been begging for them to make it for so long, and it would no doubt sell well enough to say they have an excuse to print free money so to speak. But they finally do it to when a competitor pops up? Nu-uh. Fuck. That.
Well, I imagine it would be less like 20 to stab a dog to death, and more like 4.99 per individual stab, 9.99 for using a non-plastic knife, 20 for the blood cleanup DLC...
No you guys misunderstand. They *could* do it for less but they'll try to drag as much money out of said person as possible before actually stabbing the dog.
I live in a US State with a "At-will employment" law. More or less means that a company does not have to have reason to fire you. Edit: I used the wrong term. Fixed now
That's country-wide with varying wording. Where I'm at they call it "at will employment". Funny how they make both sound as if they put the blue collar worker first, but in reality it protects large companies from legal backlash when they do shitty things to their workforce. How do you think it got that way? American politics are all about who can line a politicians pockets the most. That goes for both Dems and the Repubs. This country isn't for the people, by the people, it's for the corporation, by the corporation.
@@KomamuraSajin To be fair, there are some legitimate concerns addressed by those laws. (at least in my state) Namely, unions making deals to force employers to redirect wages from non-union workers was entirely unacceptable. Unions should be a source for vetted labor, not a glorified protection racket.
It's "right to work" in Wisconsin. Fucking disgusting that Scott Walker and his Koch sucking friends pushed that through, and of course all the brainwashed working class, poor Republicans think Walker had their best interests in mind. Fucking nuts how much the right ignores everything except for minorities, immigrants, and feminism.
I mean the unchecked part does imply that if there are no rules/laws to regulate them and power to enforce those, this is the expected effect. There exist a lot of countries with better consumer and worker protections than the USA and from what I can see the US used to be better as well.
The free market extends to more than just products and consumers. A job is much like a product, and a worker like a customer. If you are getting a shitty deal, why are you still there? There are plenty of other places to work, nobody is forcing these guys to stay in an abusive job.
@@AkuTenshiiZero I'll just ask my bills to wait whilst I find a new job after leaving my current one. I'm sure the leech- I mean landlord will understand fully.
Tim Sweeney also tries to equate Epic's value to consumers to Steam's. Look we all know Steam has its problems but it definitely offers a lot more than Epic in terms of convenient features like community building, universal and in depth controller support mapping, cloud saves and more. Epic takes a small cut and does lil to nothing for consumers besides it being a launcher. Hell in 2019 we got an offline mode in EGS in February. FFS an offline mode had to be added to an online launcher for games that could be played offline.
Basically, like Jim said, when Steam is "the good guy", you know the industry is shit. Like saying the Soviets are "good guys" in WW2 because they opposed the Nazis. Low bars make heores of everybody I guess.
@@MohitKumar-jf8lz I'd figured it was the laziness of their content regulation primarily. Also the same downside that every platform but GOG has atm - you don't own a hard copy of your game because the DRM features act as something of a policing gate for Steam. Which people value at different levels - I'm not buying from anywhere but GOG anymore because of it, but I think I care more than avg joe
@@ryanjones_rheios yes drm point is valid I agree with that bit I don't agree with the asset flip argument there are several ways to discern if a game is bad or not I haven't bought a bad game yet and to be honest you can tell by just looking at the screen shots of the game
Legionnaire Sprinkles I equate both Valve and Steam to be equally as awful. What little effort Valve puts into Steam makes it better then Epic games launcher, however Epic’s effort goes into making UE4, which is in turn free to use, and inexpensive to publish a game on, extremely powerful, and such. So Valve gives back by making a good launcher, Epic gives back by making a fantastic engine. Both companies are shitty. Ultimately one has to step up and be the good guy.
@@grubbybum3614 He said "sometimes xenophobic" and that's a pretty key "sometimes", though admittedly it's a weird thing to say in passing and just gloss over without further explanation. Some people who don't understand what's actually wrong with China would still be afraid or hateful just because it's not 'Merica and is potentially powerful. And since he's specifically talking about "China's growing influence on entertainment" rather than on China as a whole and as a government, I think he may be referring to the irrational fear that Chinese-owned film studios are "brainwashing the kids to be commies" or what-have-you when in reality those corporations are behaving in very capitalistic ways and mostly just making sound investments. I know I'm interpreting a lot here, but I feel like that's more what Jim meant given the context and the use of the word "sometimes"
The "sometimes xenophobic" part comes into play when you see media outlets criticize Chinese companies doing exactly the same thing as European or American companies have been doing for decades, for example in Africa, where they will pressure African government to give them business concessions in return for developing certain areas, at fairly predatory rates. This is not something new, but apparently it's only a problem when Asians do it.
Grubby bum I'll go one step further and say that being "xenophobic" and "racist" against the Chinese is a good thing. Its a good defense mechanism. The Chinese are incredibly racist and xenophobic themselves so if you treat them with kindness and "tolerance" they will just take advantage of it and exploit you.
@@sirapple589 the kind where someone lovingly bakes a birthday cake for you with custom icing designs, the works...but hid a big ol' dog turd in it as a surprise filling to subvert your expectations of cakes being tasty. That kind of subversion.
The hat trick you pulled was truly breathtaking. No only did it have me on the edge of my floor in anticipation, but I had to rewind and watch again to make sure my brain was properly processing the visual stimulation inbound. Great bit!
I concur. He had problematic beliefs in Eugenics and Imperialism, but unlike many of his and our contemporaries he respected the other side, and while charting a tributary of the Amazon, he kicked out a long-time friend because he wanted to be carried on a sedan chair by some local boys. Also, he was a guy who could name his kid Kermit and still make him a lion-hunting badass.
I don't think Valve are going to do anything. Prolly thinking that the amount of exclusives are just a drop in the water compared to their vast library and platform features.
The only way Valve is going to put in work against another launcher is if its built by Gamestop as lets be honest thats the only possible pc game launcher that could mess up their money flow.
@@Mayhzon Only because they dont really sell pc games and they so far have avoided getting into the digital market. Gamestop's website and app literially works better than the epic store. Lots of people already have accounts so its not much of transition to a new account. Having stores adds the option that all the other stores dont have which is cash sales and they already sell gift cards. The only thing losing them money is that they avoid the digital market and kept putting money into the submarines in hope to boost sells. Yes, selling phones/tablets and merchandise are subsmarines at a place like gamestop since they are not in that market and most merch is just taking away display case area as they are not much of a sell to begin with. The base idea is epic's method to strongarm steam isnt going to work as they still get more money than they can muscle away but steam will react if their foolish practice starts bringing in sharks like gamestop.
Being a game dev is one of the most sought after positions. If everyone quit all at once they would have 5 times over the naive young people to take their place. As it is the industry is largely a meat grinder with a constant revolving door.
They already kinda do that at some companies where they hire an employee for about, say, 3 weeks and fire them one day after because they're legally forced to pay things like health insurance if an employee stays on for 4 weeks. That, and the threat of blacklisting if an employee quits during crunch time, are big reasons why unionizing and protests in the games industry don't work.
Epic's worker abuse is exactly what I described during Rockstar's "nobody was forced to do it" saga. It's way too easy for these scumfucks. We're only going to go deeper down the dystopian rabbit hole. The world is broken and I don't think it's going to be repaired anytime soon. Unless people are willing to tear down the entire system by force. Valve's problems were in part due to it being a monopoly that could print money without doing any QA. And now we have Epic, which is evil but the only alternative and intends on becoming its own monopoly. Yeah, that's the only competition there ever is.
Well I would say worker abuse is the stronger between the two evils, if you want to call Steam's poor QA an evil. If consumers were smarter asset flips wouldn't be an issue, especially with the refund system.
You point out steam's QA like EPIC has any QA whatsoever. EPIC is literally a naked monopoly, that's what exclusives are; there is nothing better about EPIC in any way shape or form, it's equal or worse in every single way.
i find it funny that all these gripes with capitalism have literally nothing to do with capitalism itself. if i sell lemonade at a lemonade stand but i horribly mess up the recipe and make shitty lemonade is it the selling of the lemonade that is the issue or is it my fault as an individual for messing up the lemonade... that is very very comparable to how people blame shit on capitalism where the selling of lemonade is the capitalism and me fucking up the recipe is being treated as capitalism.
Every time Visceral gets brought up it makes me sad. That was an insanely talented and passionate group of people, and I honestly think EA had them make Hardline knowing it wasn't really their wheelhouse just to use its poor performance as justification to eventually yeet them out of the company.
Things aren't always black and white. As someone from EA explained it in a seminar, EA is kinda like rocket fuel. You have game studios that have kept the fire going for some time by doing whatever it takes. If EA didn't step in, the fire would eventually go out. Then EA comes in and pours rocket fuel into the fire. A lot of people get burned.
@@solhsa That sounds like a piss poor paraphrased justification of what @lilspikeywikey is saying anyway! That's not even insightful; it's vapid and frankly says little about their actual operations other than that they buy up companies that are "burning out". You know, like Bioware, and Visceral. What an ignorant statement. They buy them while the fire is hot, and burn the fuel twice as hot until it goes out "twice as fast" so to speak, which is clear looking at pretty much any of their acquisitions.
You are giving EA way more credit than it deserves. It isn't devious - just incompetent. No person in business makes an investment in order to figure out a way to squander it. But it still happens more often than not.
I wonder how many times Jim has been called a socialist as if it was an insult. It's too bad you only stick to video games because when I think of shitty corporations I think of Nestle, not Epic, everyone should think of Nestle before Epic. Also still no mention of CDPR's awful treatment of it's workers?
Well considering socialism has been the cause of death of millions of people and failed government structures all over the world, it sounds very much like an insult.
@@SeasoningTheObese You realise that climate change is literally a conspiracy by rich oil+gas companies who knew the science as far back as the 1970's right And they decided "Yeah, let's actually just make the planet hotter to help us get rich" The death toll by the end of the century will be in the hundreds of millions. Human civilisation might actually just stop existing. Because of capitalism.
this is not the fault of capitalism stop blaming capitalism for every little fucking problem that happens in every industry I'm getting so sick and tired of people that want to bash capitalism but they don't even know what the fuck capitalism is capitalism is the free market it is market anarchy you cannot have that when the government is regulating the market that's called corporatism or a mixed economy.
@@AncapOtaku some regulation needs to be in place. Robber barons and trust titans existed, and screwed over their workers, long before the video game industry came along. the things Jim talks about in these kind of videos has happened before and can happen again if given the chance
You'll be telling us next that capitalism is systemically exploitative and consequently routinely brutal. Keep up the good work Jim. Thank God for you.
Also The game industry just strips all power from developers. Since games take forever to make, if you leave your first job (even if your being abused) before you ship a game good luck ever working in the industry again atleast without some paycuts or being forced to work at smaller studious
what are you blathering about? strips the power away from devs? that's any line of work for a subcontractor, which devs are. sub contractors have no power in any line of work. if you don't want a AAA publisher telling you how to make your game, don't go to work for a AAA publisher. this isn't rocket science.
@@travisseagroves7713 so what? who cares if they get bought out. if you don't want to work under those conditions, quit. jesus fucking christ, you are whiny little child. no one is forcing these devs to work there. maybe don't focus on getting a job in an absolutely bloated field?
Right-Libertarians/Ancaps: "An unregulated market is best because it provides an easier base of entry for entrepeneurs to enter the market, thereby preventing State-sanctioned monopolies through exorbitant licensing fees and fines." Multi-multi-billion dollar multinationals: Literally buy all the smaller, emerging competitors; collaborate to price fix; offer deep enough discounts that start-ups can't turn enough profit to compete; allow other multi-billion dollar foreign entities to by massive amount of stock across themselves and their competitors to form monopolies in the foreign market
leftist/liberal: Wahh! why does everyone make more money than me even though i spend everything i make on video games and put no effort into work? this is so unfair! i shouldn't be at want for anything!
@@briankenney9528 and that's capitalism's fault? that's one hell of stretch. it's amazing how fanatics will tie any wrong doing to capitalism because they want free stuff.
If you're looking for a case study as to the utmost nastiest way capitalism behaves, look no further than EVE online as everything is player driven and what that leads to is highly entertaining in a what the shit sort of way.
@Khashon Haselrig Another is that there's no real cost of living. IRL you need a constant supply of resources to survive but in EVE a pilot could just put their ships away and never have to spend anything. Having to fall back on less efficient money making is just an inconvenience rather than potentially fatal.
This is a ridiculously good video. it shows an excellent grasp of economics and does a fantastic job explaining it in a way that makes sense to the audience whom it targets. "This is what competition looks like." is a line that stood out to me because that is what I have been saying to people. They wanted competition, now that see how dirty it is. Every single business competes this way. Excellent job explaining why. I agree that Valve can compete with THEIR GAMES, the games people have been begging to get sequels to.
TLDR below: personal experience in education, aka no wonder things are going from bad to worse when inhumane for-profit policies are being taught and encouraged. On the topic of competition, this whole bit reminded me of something I'd forgotten about. I attended a translation / communication school whose advanced cursus included a fair bit of marketing and management, much to the confusion of those of us, including myself, who had enrolled to study foreign languages. One of our courses had us simulate, in small teams, the creation and management of a company, with the aim to compete against others and generate the largest profits on a set (simulated) time period. Undercutting the market for specific items, either by overproducing or monopolizing all available ressources necessary to produce said items were not only acceptable means of getting a leg up on the competition; ithere were greatly encouraged by our teachers. I remember being shocked by the way those behaviors had been gamified: we were juggling data (including a "worker satisfaction index", one data point among others) and the endgoal was to be the most profitable company; all choices we made, including in terms of employees benefits, product quality, scientific innovations, etc. were (optional) parts of a strategy to reach said goal. We weren't the core audience for this course, surely, but I believe it was taught in other schools as well. And here's the thing; as Jim pointed out in multiple videos lately. Companies, and executives themselves, don't exist in a vacuum. They don't belong to an evil cabal. They're part of a system that prioritizes and incentivizes personal enrichment, and that's bad enough on its own. But until now I hadn't much realized that younger execs in the games industry might, as in any other industry, have been *educated* to view such practices as being good, or even worse, normal.
I'd like to point out that Tim Sweeney claimed they'd stop doing the exclusive push about three days before Outer Worlds was announced as a timed Epic exclusive. So if he expects Valve to take his word that EGS will magically disappear if they can match revenue sharing...yea, not happening. At this point, Sweeney is quickly approaching Randy Bitchford levels of lying. But hey, Epic is competition, so please be excited!
@@Zardozintheireyes That sounds like it's super illegal. Like, exclusivity is bad, but limited exclusivity specifically not to do business with another competing business sounds like something that we have laws on the books against.
Valve COULD make some original games and new IP content to offset the Epic game store, but they won't, and it's not because they'd disagree with the strategy, it's because I don't actually think anyone works at Valve anymore. I think it's like a restaurant that's just a front for organized crime's money laundering-- sure, you could go in, and you could get some shitty microwaved spaghetti, but none of the decor has been updated since 1992 and there's two fat guys in suits glaring at you the whole time until you leave. It's not REALLY a restaurant, and Valve's not REALLY a game studio.
Yeah, fuck people for wanting to hold onto beliefs they've known forever that by and large did them no real wrong and beats any current alternative. Queue dirty commie cunts.
@@MGX93dot 1) Criticising a "predatory practic under capitalism" doesn't mean to bring communism! Newsflash: the world is not just black and white! 2) 150 or so years ago, whould you have said that slavery it's ok ? Back then it was a belief known since forever. 3) Do you think we live in a perfect world ? If not, what's you method of changing it into being better ?
True, Steam could definitely use competition and it could lower their cut a bit like say 5% to 10% max, which is huge overall, but Epic Games is pure slime and I'm relieved to see you are a man who can adapt to the facts shown about EG. Thanks Jim.
Could Steam actually do that? Ever consider that Steam can’t afford to do that? I don’t pay taxes or have processing fees on Steam when I purchase a game. Who’s paying for that? Steam is.
For AAA games, they're likely only getting a 20% cut anyway as Valve reduces the cut they take the more the game sells. Epics 12% cut is beneficial but it's being propped up by Fortnite. It's just not sustainable for the long term and Valve provides so much more for the customers and developers that the extra money Valve take is worth it to them.
Steam definitely couldn't lower it to 5 - 10 percent and still be making a profit lmao. Epic is at 12% and barely making a profit with none of the features of Steam. Unless the only thing you are doing is displaying a I don't think 5-10% would be profitable for any provider.
In what way is Steam better than Epic as a company ? People forgot Steam tried to launch mod selling to horrendous results and use software that captures user data and done a million other things over the years.
@@logirex "People forgot Steam tried to launch mod selling to horrendous results" and guess what? From all the backlash they received they changed their ways and stopped that shit in its tracks. Meanwhile Epic can't stop their train from buying out games because if they stop, they'll probably be dead in the water as the majority of users would rather CHOOSE to use Steam to get their games on release.
Some say Mr Sterling is still standing there wondering how the hell he's going to get out of his Jewel bed he made himself without destroying his feet til this day.
RaptorZefier Pffft, sharp jewels cutting up your feet isn’t THAT big of a deal. Now, if he was standing on top of crushed Doritos, then I’d be worried. Those things are deadly.
Don't worry once Duke Amiel, Sterdust and the chunky grumbler have finished laughing at him I'm sure they will save him. That is as long as the cornflake homonculous doesn't get to him first and that reality doesn't even bear thinking about. 😆
I think I have a good comparison for all this: Sports. Which is to say, cheating at sports. If you play a sport against others who are, more or less, of the same skill and ability as you, you expect to *usually* have a more or less equal ability to win or lose. If suddenly you found yourself losing by a long-shot, and later on you found out the other person/team started taking steroids, you would feel wronged. You didn't take them, you trained hard on your own, and you thought your opponents had as well. So how was your game at all when the other side cheated so? For businesses, especially big business, it's effectively the same thing. If you, theoretically, had the money to start your own game company to compete with all the other AAA game companies out there, you would be competing with companies essentially taking 'steroids', which is to say, they're willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to turn over as much profit, and with that profit, they can do more to compete against your company as well. So unless you basically go to their level, you are honestly going to be falling behind unless the whole system collapses (which tbh I doubt), as no matter how much money you make, they'll simply make more, and they'll use it to go against you.
In all multiplayer games I played, there has always been someone who grows too fast with microtransactions, it is like cheating but legal. Thinking you need to cheat in order to keep up with competition is just not right.
This is the video game industry's April Theses.
And I love it.
BREAK THE CHAINS!
Oh, hi. Didn't think I'd see you round here.
I knew I'd find you here after your new video. It was amazing btw
Olly, and Jim should each go on Chapo.
@Adoy agreed.
Epic: We want to support the devs who make the games*
*Does not include Epic employees.
That's a facade anyway. We all know that when it comes to AAA developers it's the publishers and their shareholders that gobble up that extra cash. The developers get paid during the game's development (and while working on patches) they don't get any income from the game's own revenue. This doesn't necessarily hold true for indie game developers though. So really, if Steam wanted to make a response to this, they'd offer a curated indie platform where the indie devs get a higher split.
I'm a business application developer, and I generally make more money than a developer does at a AAA publisher. It's laughable because those people most likely have more experience, and a better education than me. They went into their field following a passion, and said passion is being abused by their employers. Fuck that shit.
@@Dojan5 It's been well known by anyone that even tried for 5 minutes to be a game developer, and for several decades already, that passion is about the only thing that keeps game developers going.
Doesn't matter what discipline it is, be it programming, music, art, etc, going into game development is a surefire way to work double the hours for 70% of the pay you'd get with your skillset just about anywhere else.
This has been a long-known 'dirty secret' of the industry, as has 100+ hour 'crunch' periods. (and in fact in many cases even outside of crunch 60-70 hour weeks are 'normal')
It's a complete mess, but we all collectively seem to have decided it's OK, and somehow refuse to ever really challenge it.
You can't be the lone voice of protest in a company either, because that's a pretty great way to get yourself fired...
Pretty sure it doesn't include the game developers either (the actual workers that make the games) only the bosses.
@@Dojan5 Good thing Epic's paying out the ass for all those Indie devs coming aboard amirite. You're right though. Actual devs don't get jack shit on major titles once it's released. The fact people buy into this is laughable and/or sad. Most devs are contractors on AAA titles these days anyway. Dem sweet contractor royalties and residuals.
@@KuraIthys Imagine if those same people were able to work at peak-efficiency, i.e. not overworked, not worrying about paying their bills. The games industry is just another item in a long list of proof that the best work is done out of passion, not wage slavery. TH-camrs, Wikipedia, pretty much all of what goes on in the Internet are other great examples. Yet people still think we need to keep this outdated system of wage slavery "otherwise people will be lazy and not work" ._.
in EU they plan to create an "anti tax haven" law. the law is something along the lines of "you pay taxes where you sell your products, not where your HQ is". so if Activi$ion makes 500M by selling CoD in Germany, they will have to pay taxes to Germany for that 500M at Germany's current rate, or they will be banned from selling their games there.
That sounds awesome NGL
Honestly they make enough money that it would be more profitable to move their headquarters to the US and just not sell to Germany. I don’t know if there’s a real solution at this point
Edit: Ok guys I get it pls stop @ing me, my feed is filled with replies to this comment, and I didn’t even remember what I wrote before rereading it
@@SOADandLeftWing too messy for Google , the multi billion dollar tax-evading giant ? GOOD!
@@guestusersomething4340 Hopefully it wouldn't just be Germany though, it'd be the entirety of the EU.
I've been suggesting that the u.s. do this for fucking years. It's such an obvious solution that I came to it when I was like 15. And you know damn good and well that all of these shithead politicians realized that years ago, but fuck all that because citizens united essentially legalized bribery. The United States is a literally too big of a market to ignore for almost any major corporation. Not a goddamn thing would be lost if we force them to pay taxes if they do business here except for some fucking lobbying money. Cry Me a goddamn River, I don't want to pay for a money pool for Mitch fucking McConnell
Can somebody make a supercut of Jim Sterling saying "TRIPLE-A" in increasingly ridiculous voices?
I'd definitely THANK GOD for that.
th-cam.com/video/cyXXZCL4m18/w-d-xo.html
@@gogista You, sir, are the hero we need.
Can we also make a montage of every line, joke and skit that Lily Orchard blatantly stole from Jim Syerling?
"asset flips, broken garbage, hate speech, and Batman: Arkham Knight"
why did you say broken garbage twice?
How dare you to insult broken garbage by comparing it to Batman: Arkham Knight!
Nah, I'm pretty sure he repeated Hate Speech.
It's worth mentioning twice.
Why indeed? One more, and he would have rule 3'd it. Which, if you ask me, is just stellar writing.
Ouch.
For all the people who claim that workplace regulations are harmful:
Look at Europe. In Germany for example, 40 hours a week maximum are legally binding, with a daily maximum, and up to 60 hours a week for a limited time with justification. Yet companies are still internationally competitive, and successful. In fact, economic growth is now hampered due to the fact that there isn't a large enough qualified workforce. How? The employees are far more effective, since they can focus on their work instead of suffering from burnout, worrying about bills etc. Companies also invest far more, instead of paying their top brass undeserved amounts of money (The boss of Activision gets about 4x more money that VAGs boss, which is the biggest car manufacturer on the planet).
Just to put things into perspective, the untrained work I do occasionally in my father's business pays more than the 12 dollars an hour some Devs get. And mine includes insurance and payments towards my retirement funds.
Edit: Meant retirement plan, which is called 'Rente' here, when I wrote 'rent'
Oddly enough, it's really only America as far as I can tell that doesn't have much in terms of workplace regulation. A majority of the rest of the first world has moved on and is doing fine just like you said. So much for the land of the free and the "American Dream".
@@stinkysquid6533 Japan is pretty brutal about crunch too.
Germany is also the largest low wage sector in Europe.
China’s probably the worst...
@@Neon_Plasma yeah japan is another one. think its more of a cultural thing and not because of a lack of regulation as much. Still equally as harmful to the public
People need to remember:
Legal does not always mean ethical
Hardly any correlation on a lot of topics even
Something Extra Credits never understood.
Gaming companies: we are sorry what now?
@@ShinNisse I know Extra Credits are known for saying very dumb shit sometimes which is why i stoped watching their vids.
When did they say triple A practices were bad?
@@MumblingSolipsist They defended loot boxes on the basis that they were legal. It, however, doesn't justify their existence when you add moral values into the mix.
AAA Publishers: "No one is in danger. They're just gonna do the overtime.. Because of the implication."
@@robbycooper6787 you are joking is this your impression of an ea employees life and why china
why chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
#1 underrated comment
All these 70-100 hour companies are just asking for one of their workers to go postal
Yeah, it's the only I see this bs finally ending :/
Ive often thought why it hasnt happened yet, if im disgusted by whats going on i cant imagine also being a cog in that machine.
To them that would probably be a positive thing. You don't need to fire people who are dead
Postal huh? I’d sure love to see that.
The people who made the decision won't care. They won't be there.
This is the dumbest Jimquistition opening I've seen thus far and I love it!
Yeah, right? Carelessly talking about "hatespeech" as if that practically will amount to anything else but "wrongthink"... and funnily enough is pretty much exactly the bleaching brand of equality cAAApitalism want's to broaden their markets, numb and stupify the consumer-scum and paint us all the pretty picture of a kumbaja-society to keep us docile and apathetic.. But it's just a word, it's just videogames.. nothing amount to nothing anyway.. Hey Jim, you just want a clean, just, shit-eating equal P-C-AAApitalism anyway, don't you?!
@@Ulysses12244 oh look a jumped up individual angry at S O C I E T Y
@@Ulysses12244 What the fuck are you on about lol
JEWELS
@@Ulysses12244 Mate, he was talking about the silly intro with the jewels under his hat.
The most alarming thing about this video is the image of Jim in an illustrious tailor made suit except he's also barefoot.
wouldn't have it any other way
I'm honestly SHOCKED that he wasn't in stilettos. Jim is too pure and wholesome these days.
@@greenhowie Anyone else wants him to wear a pair of glass slippers?
I mean, it never goes below the waist... It's possible pants aren't a part of it either...
gotta please the fans somehow
Sure, epic isn't holding a gun to their heads.
They're just handing them an active grenade, pulling the pin and saying "if you keep a tight grip long enough, we'll put the pin back in for a little bit".
Red King Rauri I get that “Active grenade” is a job (more accurately a way to pay to survive in a capitalist system) and “pulling the pin” is the implied threat of losing the job, but I guess I’m not really following the rest of the metaphor. Which sucks, because it just _feels_ accurate. Care to explain?
@@gingergamergirl98 Grenades have a grip that prevent it from going off until it's released, then the timer activates.
Working overtime with the grenade is the crunch and letting it go off is getting fired. The pin is the renewed contract.
Red King Rauri Thanks, dood :)
@@gingergamergirl98 I would say it's even more accurate than just that as well: if you end up just saying fuck it and "throwing the grenade" you have to deal with the guilt of messing up someone else. If you quit, those coworkers you otherwise love working with are the ones slapped with the stress. They aren't just holding your own job and future prospects hostage, but also your sense of community inside the work place.
Jim, how did you think the jewels thing was supposed to go down?
Dark Star Mike well obviously he didn’t think it would go down ... the back of his shirt. 😉
I think he wanted them to be perfectly stacked on top of his head, like a cartoon.
gravity
I love it when a goof goes horribly right.
Jewels is the best gag I've ever seen him do.
Jesus the myths about unions in this comment section are staggering. In the UK, we’re encouraged to join a union. And for a few quid a month we get people who negotiate with the company for better pay increases, can attend any disciplinary proceedings to make sure your not getting steamrolled out of your job, protect and fight for fair working conditions and hours, provide legal support in a wide range of situations and generally make sure companies aren’t fucking you around. Countless positive changes to the way businesses treat their employees have only happened because of unions. They are not unchecked gangs of demanding bullies who force small businesses into bankruptcy, it’s not the 1920s anymore. The shit game developers are pulling with their workforce’s is the exact result of no unionisation. ‘Getting another job’ doesn’t work when you have bills to pay or a family to support, work in a competitive industry and have no guarantee that after going through the stress and admin of moving companies, your new employer won’t pull the same shit your old one did.
Yea organized labor has been demonized over generations by the poeple in power convincing you that Unions don't work because the guy who is less compitent then you is being paid more than you (slightly) and hes fucking over your success, you know.....instead of the greedy fucks screwing you and the other guy over at the same time. Its a systemic issue now.
McCarthyism, the red scare, and hegemonic neoliberal propaganda have really fucked Americans up when it comes to like... literally everything involving economic and social theory.
In the US, the union s have too much power. In a lot of northern states, you are forced to join a union to do any trade job, not asked. They force business owners to pay piss poor labor way too much money who can't be fired. The idea of union is good. But all of them squeeze the companies and businesses for every dime they can. This the business can't afford to hire people they need or lower prices to compete with cheap products.
I work as an administrator at a construction company. I represent the company in all our dealings with the Union and relevant authorities. I am also responsible for filtering all the feedback from our employees (and the authorities are fully aware of it). When I represent the company and our ”issues” to the Union; we are all smiles and roses. ”We provide fantastic opportunities and possibilities to our workers and they/we are all so very happy.” In reality all of us continously work 14 hours a day, 6.5-7 days a week. Our feet are a mixture of bruises and blood (walking on reinforcement etc. 14-15 hours a day for months in S3 shoes does have that effect) and most of us are pretty suicidal. So, what’s the catch? In my case; MY HOUSE is the catch. No job or less paying job= I lose the house (I’m keeping the story very, very short). So; I’m all smiles. Workers are all smiles. Our bosses are all smiles (their smiles are genuine, as you prolly can guess). And to top it all off; I live in a very prominent western country. Sigh.. I could write more but I swear every bone/muscle hurts right now.
The United States is effectively a cult regarding socio-economic thought. Capitalism with slaps on the wrist for corporations and the bare minimum of social welfare are the limit that you can publicly espouse in the majority of states without being considered an extremist.
The best predictor of being Rich is NOT about being smarter, hard work, etc. It is and will continue to be having rich parents to give you wvery advantage at every turn
The biggest and most relevant advantage being all the money they give you
Everything is gatekeepers and nepotism.
Even if you aren't related, you gain the favor of someone who is rich and has connections, you're well off.
There are plenty of smart and talented people who just don't have the money and don't know anybody that could make a significant difference.
But these people have to claim this society is a meritocracy or else people will realize their success isn't based on merit. Basically they just use meritocracy as a club to beat the poor with, blaming their poverty on not "working hard enough"
@@AnArchyRulzz YES. Meritocracy is used to gatekeep poor people for being poor.
Meritocracy was coined as a term for a dystopia, where unlike the aristocrats who recognized they truly were priveleged to be born into their fabulous wealth and power and thus sympathized with the poor who did nothing to earn their bad lot in life. A meritocrat believes his wealth is his alone and lords over the poor with contempt and disdain believing it was not opportunity and luck but his own virtue and merit that earned his lot and others are beneath him.
This is why unionisation is important and protecting those unions more so.
The police unions have made a very good argument for the Against union side sadly......
@@Sonichero151 to be fair, game developers don't have the legal right to use violence so it is totally different
@@Sonichero151 police unions do exactly what unions are supposed to do, protec the interest of the category
I dunno, when I was part of a union, they just took my money without helping me...
It's hard to believe we can't go as little as one week without hearing something shitty about the games industry
It's the normal now. For pretty much anything actually, but mainly the entertainment industry going down the drain because of greed or politics.
That's what happens when money becomes the main mover in a system. Soon enough it becomes the ONLY consideration.
Especially when other channels focus on bullshit irrelevant stuff in gaming like "sjws and NPC" and not the important stuff
The bigger something becomes, the easier it becomes to see the ugliness. It's much better than some other industries that rely on conflict metals and/or sweat shops, to be fair. Soon enough there will be enough trained game developers in the developing world that the jobs will start going there and you won't hear more about horrible work conditions but rather "they took mah jerb!"
@@prdeadpool1380 Because there audience wants to ignore the real issues and get pissy if they don't feed their outrage and they want to make money.
Jim this is why you don't show what is under the hat. Now the Boglin jewels are lost and must be gather again by Adventure Boglin.
Boglic the Boglin
Somebody make that a game!
Boglin Slayer*
That is how you keep your adventurers busy. :D
@@CeHee123 And it should be sold on the Jimporium.
One of the commenters I got in the previous Epic abuse video told me that wanting the law to hold companies accountable for abusing their employees was entitled and fascist.
And that wasn't even the worst commenter I had to deal with.
Funny considering most of the morons calling for that appalling, dangerous shit often have some pretty fascist sympathies
@EBE Say they do quit. What do they do about money? It's not like they can quit and new work right away.
What do they do about homes? About their family? Food? Money? Bills? A car? All of that can go away without money.
That's why people have to stay because without money you will die. And that's why there has to be regulations.
EBE consumer and employee boycotts don’t work and if you had your way children would still be working in coal mines
@EBE "lol guys just quit your job it's so simple" -- someone who has never had to provide for themselves or others
"They can quit their job. There are 7 million + open jobs in the US today. I'm sure plenty of those are related to programming of some kind."
"Hell, if they really wanted, they could work in a completely different industry. Nothing is really stopping them."
""Boycotts don't always get me what I want, boo hoo". Fuck off you crying bitch."
"Maybe they should be saving their money. Maybe they should consider moving."
Ooh, spicy pro-corporate speak, there. The check's in the mail; you will eat well this month.
I've said it before. But what Epic is doing is unsustainable. It's a business practice known as Loss Leader Strategy. At some point old Tim Swindler WILL pull the plug on those deals. But he'll only do it once he's bought enough customers by underpricing on contracts with publishers. The instant he's got "enough" people on his platform, those fancy deals he's giving developers will evaporate.
Every day we are a little bit closer to the megacorps of cyberpunk fiction.
We're already there. They just hide their shittier practices in small, poor countries where the media doesn't pay much attention. :(
always add example or two when making such claims.
@@VM-hl8ms Google, Amazon, Disney, Tencent, Activision, the Coca-Cola Company, fucking Nabisco, etc, etc.
We already have rentable bunk pods. It's cyberpunk already.
Not quite there. They don't straight up own countries or have private armies...yet.
Please never stop talking about the crap of the gaming industry.
Talk about the crap of movie studios as well. VFX artists go through the exact same crap.
This is like every industry. It’s a system problem. It’s a capitalism problem.
I repeat. Unions can work. We have a game developers union here in Finland.
@@Christianityunmasked pros of a union still outweighs the cons. And you can boycott as much as you like and yet still companies richer than anyone else wilö continue to profit. Plus its far more easier to organice than hope that EVERY GAMER IN THE WORLD will join a boycott.
@@Christianityunmasked Listing boycotts done by stupid people for stupid reasons isn't making your stance look reasonable.
@@Christianityunmasked Are you new to Jim's videos, or do you really need this guy to reiterate what Jim has been saying for months?
If they all wanted to leave and get other jobs they could. Why do you need a union when you can strike by simply leaving? Also, IT jobs are global so whats stopping them outsourcing the work to Asia?
@@josh-oo i think the point he was making is the fact of boycotts do work it doesn't matter if you agree with the reasons for the boycotts or not.
You can rob someone without having to put a gun to their head, then you can say "I didn't put a gun to their head" and walk off merrily with their money.
better almost to do the old confidence trick and get them to hand it to you willingly and with a smile , full of naive hope. than technically (outside of theft by deception laws) nothing was stolen , just "invested"
Yep, that's called taxes.
@@totetoresano Your boss extracts more of your surplus value than taxes ever could
@@joke-wo4ye not really. Sometimes you don't even generate a surplus or generate a negative one because you are not productive enough to cover your salary and other expenses but you receive your pay anyway. In that case you are the one robbing without a gun.
It is easy to see just one face of the coin.
@@totetoresano Compared to the amount of money most jobs produce, the amount that workers get paid for that job is pitiful.
Someone once told me "To make a million dollars, you start with $900,000"
I was told to sell something worth a £1 for £2 then do it a million more times.
How do you make $900,000? Start with $500,000. How do you make $500,000? Start with $100,000. It's true that (if you know what you're doing, and a bit lucky) money grows faster the more money you have to start with. But It's also true that you can make small amounts of money grow, depending largely on how much you're willing to risk.
Kinda like how everyone laughed at trump's "loan of a million dollars" thing saying "oh well it's easy if you have that!"
No, no it's not. What are you going to do with that million dollars that's going to let you not only pay back the loan, with interest, but make you a billionaire? It's not that easy, or more people would be going to banks for an investment loan.
Or get a loan from your dad.
My boss says there only needs to be someone selling and people will buy it. Makes sense, people often buy things like food and water to not die.
What if they're selling absurdly small strands of twine?
I would like to correct one datapoint, Metro Exodus is not an Epic exclusive, I found it on Piratebay and I found it to be a very enjoyable game.
Tanya Sapien tks mate, time to bitch slap the big man. I’ll wait a year to buy Metro Exodus at discount price on steam. Hohoho
Piracy is actually a great example of open market. Competition is a plenty and they actually compete (as in they can have same content on their site and you choose the site you enjoy more). That being said, go to private trackets you scrub.
Piracy will get you busted, sooner or later. Almost no one knows how to be secure while doing it.
@@chabbab6698 VPN
@@chabbab6698 Not really. Outside of admitting to piracy it is very hard to get a conviction, as there is no good way to prove it (torrent software data is untrustworthy and not acceptable as proof in court).
At this point idk which one would be more interesting to see:
1. Steam waking up from it's decade old slumber.
2. The "AAA" industry collapsing.
Also: *Loved* the opening!
My money's on the collapse.
I'd go with option 3. The rise of the Indie scene to take the AAA industry's place, hopefully leading to a gaming renaissance.
Triple AAA game industry colapsing, because i wander if these CEO, will do what old magnates do when the great depesion hit.
Jump from building
@@cousinvinnie6222 Then those indie developers will just corrupt with greed and turn into another AAA developers in time, repeating same old slimy money making scheme which former AAA developers did all over again.
@@cousinvinnie6222 That would be a happy plot twist indeed. That's quite an uphill battle though...
Friendly reminder when Cyberpunk 2077 releases, it will be DRM free on GOG. I love GOG.
Zeke That Gamer Geek I certainly hope they'd release their game on their own platform.
CDPR's also not innocent when it comes to long work weeks and crunch.
Serious question.. Why do I care about DRM If I buy the game? RE2 has Denuvo but I haven´t had a single issue with it.
@@skirmich I can think of a few reasons. DRM limits how you can install it. For example, The Sims 2 is pretty tough to get working on modern PCs thanks to its SecuROM DRM being incompatible with Windows 8+. With DRM free copies, you're able to just download the game and truly own it. If a game has DRM, you're allowed to operate only within the scope that the DRM allows.
Some 10 years down the line that game might not be playable anymore because the DRM won't let you, and there won't be anyone that cares enough to update the game's DRM and make it playable again. DarkSpore has its DRM in the form of an always online server connection. When those servers shut down, DarkSpore became unplayable forever.
@@skirmich Denuvo is proven to cut your framerate. This creates situations where illegally cracked copies run BETTER than legally purchased copies.
Publishers who use Denuvo are punishing their customers and ONLY their customers for something they didn't even do.
The epic claim of thm pulling away from exclusives if Steam matches their cut makes no sense because:
1- EPIC charges processing fees to the purchaser.
Some payment processors charge an extra fee for processing fees. Steam eats that fee from their split of the revenu while EPIC ADDS that fee to the purchsers bill.
2- STEAM takes 0$ from key activations from 3rd party sellers.
You bought a game from Green Man Gaming or Humble Bundle that came with a steam key? Valve gets 0$ from that sale.
3- STEAM has more features.
Features cost money to develop, improve, maintain. Steam has a butt load of features that are missing form the EPIC game store so comparing steam to egs is comparing apples to oranges.
It's like comparing a Kia Rio to a fully equipped Toyota Avalon. Sure they are both cars but the Avalon has way more going for it.
It makes sense to me.
They are basically saying if they take away literally their only advantage they're going to give up the idea because they have no interest in actually being competition, just to rake in cash by putting in near zero effort and running a monopoly racket. If they can't do that anymore they will just focus on Fortnite and UE.
Yeah, kinda weird that Jim keeps parroting that statement verbatim without question. Like, it factually has nothing to do with the cut and everything to do with the bribe they get for exclusivity.
Don't forget Steam has many projects going on, CSGO, DOTA2, Steam VR etc. and Epic Games only got fortnite.
More like comparing a Kia to a Lambo. Epic doesn’t have shit.
And let's not forget that Tencent is lurking in Epic shadow since they own a pretty sizeable chunk (48-49% i think) of the company shares and with their shady tactic and background (censorship, stealing/selling data etc) i wouldn't be surprised if it was a move by them to take over the Western PC gaming market in an attempt to replace Steam to sit on an even bigger pile of money.
"but but you are working a dream job that every other person only dreams to to have" - gamestudio CEO
I mean that's the truth. Demand for those jobs is higher than the supply, so the employer can do shit. It's exactly the reverse in other fields. If you are a developer and can't find a job in a week, you are probably shit. If you want to work on games, well tough.
Made a nightmare.
@@ciCCapROSTi False. If demand is higher than supply. The employer would do its best to keep them there and not drive them away.
Huh....I always thought it was a Boglin controlling him Ratatouille style...
MackOfHearts 😄you receive much love from me
me 3
its nice to see comrade Jim speaking the name of the source of so many problems in the games industry
I was expecting a large pile of pogs under the hat, but I guess you can use jewels to buy pogs
why not a pile of pugs
I was expecting a boglin controlling Jim mentally.
I thought it would be Willem Dafoe
Are they Alf pogs?
Jewels can be used to buy goods and/or services.
Thanks for making this video and not being dismissive of the issue and those who are concerned about it.
You've gotta give Epic credit: instead of being the "underdog" to Steam that people might champion and be happy to flock to, they've managed to somehow be worse. And make gaming on PC a worse experience.
Now That's What I Call Capitalism
why society is going crumble if this continues
thank god for jim, and consoles
Piratebay's sure going to be busy in September.
ARRRRRR
I hopwe it sinks due to butthurt gamers
@Crystal Dreams www.lifewire.com/top-torrent-sites-alternatives-to-kat-2483512
Unless you live in Australia
Then you're three billion miles in the paint
@Crystal Dreams
Try IGG Games.
Ah, yes.. The generous split for publishers. While developers don't see a single cent.
Not to mention 3rd party key distributors.
I hate to say it but devs have to go on strike and put these companies in their place
@@gautiergary8604 Or self-publish. But not everyone of them can. Maybe the practical answer would be to have more options in the publisher market, then the store front market. There is a lot to change, like Jim said. It's part of a system where not the people who augth to get rich can.
@@francoiscoupal7057 I agree with that. I just feel bad for the devs, I don't really what they can do. Thinking that so many assholes sit on millions when literally all the credit should go to the devs always sickens me a bit
And how actual small indies don't make Epic's Cut. But you can be sure as fuck anything 2k and Ubisoft shits out will be bought as an exclusive and accepted immediately.
I’d write a witty comment, but I’m too busy thanking God for Jim.
Thank God somebody with a platform and more than an ounce of integrity is finally bringing these issues to light. Something needs to change.
if you are thanking god for jim, it's pretty clear you are incapable of writing a witty comment.
@Andrew Cargil finally, someone with some sense.
@@thomasjenkins7506 And if you are not thanking God for Jim, then it's pretty clear that you are incapable of recognizing one.
@@whatdoesthisthingdo jim is just a man with a patreon that encourages him to say certain things in order to keep his job.
@Andrew Cargil I don't buy these games, and I am sure that I am not the only one. Doing nothing and hoping that everyone will follow is not a reliable tactic when exploitative measures are used to maintain profits.
I purposely did not go into Game making because of these horrible conditions to make literally video games. General Software development has it's horror stories, but good god it's not so industry wide that you can make a once a week video on how [Insert Company here] is abusing their employees
Me too, happily working in a FAANG, hopefully this means talent will go missing, and wages will increase, that's how capitalism works.
Oh, work for a big company do ya?
TheAmazingDolphin Me too. Out of high school I was excited to get into a job doing anything to do with games but I didn't have the money, so I waited and worked, and the more I waited the more stories of these abuse scandals that surfaced. Dodged a bittersweet bullet I guess.
Me too dude.
I'm 27 now. And I'm glad I didnt go to school for it. Now I'm making my own
@@ACogloc Sadly, the video game industry relies on a mix of enormous amounts of bright eyed out of university talent, and jaded, but optimistic old timers. I don't think the industry will change without unionization or restriction. Like most capitalism sadly, if they know they can get away with exploitation, there's every incentive to keep doing it.
Honestly I thought about this whole "gun against head" argument and think that yes, studios aren't putting guns to worker's heads, it's workers putting guns to their own heads and contemplating financial or literal suicide.
How can one claim to sell more copies if you only sell it in one place? Am I the only one who thinks that's kind of weird?
*"I have sold over 1M copies of this game!!!"
-"Yeah... But this is the only place you can get a copy of it"
*"IM SORRY, I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE MILLION COPIES OF THIS GAME I JUST SOLD"
Yeah seriously, what the fuck? If it would not have been an exclusive, it would only have sold more copies. Their logic makes no sense.
Tim Sweeney: I'm here for the developers.
ALSO Tim Sweeney: I'm going to work you animals to death! Produce more code or you get my whip!
Cormoran he’s definitely not the same Tim Sweeney that I knew back at College Park MD. Heck, I remember back when he had many of us playing ZZT, in the computer labs. A game he self-programmed, by the way. He’s having his HOOK moment. He’s become a pirate. I could see his early successes would make him big, but never expected him to jump the fence. It is very very unusual for a software developer, turned boss, to create anything but a more pleasant developer atmosphere. Usually it is a corporate person who is not sympathetic to their position. :)
Awww, but Extra Credits praised him as a good guy, surely that justifies the complete abuse of a Malignant Narcissist!
m.th-cam.com/video/DiizE4cNEAI/w-d-xo.html
@@LATEXXJUGGERNUT Extra Credits also keeps James Portnow on the payroll and say loot boxes are amazing and should be kept in the industry. They've lost their integrity some time ago.
you think upper management whips the workers themselves? what is this, revolutionary France? you'd have to be in the same room as the peasants to whip them. Sweeny has people for that now.
@@crazyinsane500
They had integrity? When?
Anyone who uses the "It's not against the law!" defense genuinely worries me. Yeah, just because it's not against the law doesn't suddenly make it not morally despicable to do. This is why laws change over time.
Review Shark that “law” has been weakened over the past years and more benefits the rich, greedy corporations and much less on the consumer. As well as the consumer protection system is likely dead as of 2016.
@@Blood-PawWerewolf Exactly. This is why it must be changed for the better. Unfortunately though, keeping big money out of politics probably isn't going to be possible for a good while.
To prove your point, slavery in America was also once “not against the law”.
I guess those people go fuck their friends' spouses and talk shit behind their backs because "it's not against the law".
True, but there are also legal systems in place to fight it. I see so many people complain about companies like EA, but very few of them boycotting them.
I'm genuinely happy that Willem Dafoe is getting more involved with the Jimquisition again.
Thanks, Willem.
Don't mention it
I used to pull 60-80 hour work weeks doing traffic safety for roadside construction. Our crunch time was something like work 3 weeks straight (12+ working hours plus 4 hours travel) and 2 days off. Rinse and repeat.
>wake up at 3am
>travel 2.5-3+ hours to job site, start ~6:00/6:30am
>stand in place, hold stop sign on pole for roughly 12 hours/day (5/10 min break every hour or so if you have enough people to cover)
deal with idiots who seem to think our big, bright orange or fluorescent yellow construction signs (and myself) are there for decoration.
>the odd driver speeds past me into construction area (and into oncoming traffic. Not uncommon but happens)
gets stopped by a construction worker, proceeds to yell at him (almost ready to drag the poor fucker out of the car and beat the ever loving crap out of him but gets stopped by foreman)
>end of day, pack up and go home. Get home somewhere around 9/10pm. Rinse and repeat until the end of the season.
>gets hard to think critically after a few days, reaction time drops significantly (which, in this line of work can be very dangerous)
Not trying to have a pissing match but I can relate to stress brought on by crunch (match is pretty even). Also have a ton of stories. including one about a dude who placed a Mannequin dressed up in traffic gear in his place so he and anothe guy can take turns napping/keeping watch for about a half an hour at a time. It was on some backwoods road that literally nobody uses. You still need to be there for legal reasons.
I just... Hope you're experiencing better working conditions at the moment, man. And that you 're happy and rested.
Huh, I guess that's why all of the work you guys did is shit and everything is being fixed now by Dominos, or just one bad dice roll away from murdering innocent people.
I don't know why you sounded like you took pride in being overworked lol
That mannequin thing sounds pretty funny.
seriously what good paying high demand business doesn't have a "Crunch period". it is not abusive as the law defines and the workers are willing to put up with it so i don't see anything wrong with it.
Not a pissing match; your situation as you described was inexcusable. Yet: in game development, or any programming, the situation is kinda worse, because most of your development time inevitably goes into fixing bugs. Bugs are generally mistakes, some of them are unavoidable due to the complexity of the systems, but others could be avoided if the developers were clear headed. Which they won't be due to crunch time. Which leads to more bugs, and more work, more crunch time..
did we just confirm Jim is money bags from Spyro.
Yes
“Go ahead Spyro, if you have money to spend I’m here to relieve you of the burden”
I would have purchased Metro: Exodus during launch week if it was on Steam or GOG. I would have purchased Shakedown: Miami on launch _day_ if it was on Steam or GOG. Now, I'll pick them up on sale in a year _if_ I get a chance.
I hope the quick cash was worth it, because I know I'm not the only person that feels this way.
If it was na Epic, Steam and GoG you still would buy on Steam. If Epic store had the same features that Steam has or even slightly better, you still would buy it on Steam.
As so vast majority of people that won't buy Epic exclusives. And majority of everyone else. For Epic you are not target audience, they even don't want you near their shop.
They target audience is people that don't care but if they had to choose Epic vs Steam, they would buy on steam.
I will always buy a game from GOG over Steam or anywhere else if possible.
How much does everyone want to bet that this guy buys Shakedown Miami on launch day anyway?
i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--W8ZYHe9O--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18j48weujcgewjpg.jpg
VIDEOGAME CO-OPERATIVES RUN BY GAMERS AND GAME DESIGNERS NOW
Epic: Developers need to be treated better and given a bigger cut
Also Epic: Lets make our developers work so much some of them break down and cry :D
Fuck Epic. They know Steam cant match the 12% cut when they offer way more than Epic does. Even if Steam wasn't updated once since 2010, it would still be way ahead of Epic.
I also want to say, when is EVERYONE ELSE going to improve? Steam has issues, but it is by far the best gaming platform. The biggest issue it has, and some people don't even care, is lack of curation. But in terms of features and user friendly features? It puts everything to shame. On top of being the first they've also been the best. So when is it time for other launchers to step up? Hell it even puts PSN/XBL to shame. Those charge you to play online and charge you 10 bucks just to change your name. Both of which Steam offers for free.
Origin is the best client. Steam works great on old ass pc's from the 90's. IT's lazy, they better revamp the whole client.
@@WybremGaming lol.
I honestly prefer GoG to Steam.
@DatGrunt : I think itch.io is offering a great service actually ! I love using their shop, they always have such an interesting selection of games !
Don't forget to compare it to mobile app stores too. What a nightmare.
Obligatory comment calling Jim a communist for saying Capitalism has flaws.
Half the people calling him a communist to insult him and the other half calling him a communist as a compliment.
Jim is a communist.
And that’s awesome.
Comrade Jim Stalin
I don't think anyone who calls him a communist actually knows what a communist is, or what communism is, or really much about anything really.
@@JerE2299 he does wear alot of red
"In the language of the Ordos there are no words for the concepts of trust or honor; there are more than three hundred for the concept of profit."
Wasn't expecting a dune reference here
Holy shit. Bless the maker and his fucking water.
Videogame industry is CHOAM confirmed.
Steam does have one other big bullet that Epic can't handle.
Steam Sales. With the massive amount of games already on the platform, when they pull the trigger in summer and winter, the amount of stuff you can get for pennies on the dollar is astronomical.
That's Steam's biggest and strongest weapon, bar none.
It would be, except if you look at the trends the extremity of those sales has lessened greatly. More and more the games just aren't cheap enough, and so many of us game hoarders have so many that it's not worth it to buy even more at the price. Generally in a sale I used to buy plenty of things; as my library grows more robust, and the offerings become less enticing, now in a sale I *might* buy one or two things, and often not a direct result of the price.
If they're going to fight Epic with sales, they're gonna have to step their game up.
@@FishOnHead I agree that even I've bought less over time, but that's because I have a lot of what I want. If you think of the new kid on the block, when they get hit with "All of Square's shit: 3 dollars" You even look past DRM at that point. New consumers or people with PC's finally able to dive into the wider pond of the content do typically go on a bender during sales.
@@Gilbals the constant sales have served to devalue the games on Steam, among other things. I'm slowly moving my library to GOG but the migration has been slow because Steam has conditioned me and a lot of other users to hunt for deals, paying less than sticker price.
@@ChristianNeihart I wouldn't call it devaluation. I'd say it's smart shopping. If you're hype for a game, you'll buy it new. If you're broke or tight on cash, wait til the sale. If you have interest in it but not enough for the current price tag, wait. It's no different that going to a sale at a clothing store or cutting coupons. A smart shopper is one that waits for deals. An impulse shopper is what makes you money. Also, many games don't go on the sale list until they've been out for a bit. If a game is on sale within its first month, that can say a lot about a game, no?
@@Gilbals if I may disspell l (sp?) The analogy a bit, clothes and groceries (if that is what you are referring to when you say "cutting coupons") are commodities you need far more than say a video game. Also as a counter point, I would like to point your attention to this article: www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/can-american-retailers-department-stores-jcrew-gap-quit-the-discounting-promotions-drug
Please keep Jimquisition Star Willem DeFoe on the payroll.
Even getting more bodies doesn't always work, it's like saying 9 pregnant women can have a baby in a month.
These things take time, and having more people around doesn't always make it more productive.
9 pregnant women CAN have a baby in a month, if it's pipelined. ^_^
I know this isn't what that quote is referring to, but theoretically if the company, instead of hiring a number of people and overworking them, shifted to hiring, let's say, double amounts of people initially and giving them all reasonable hours working them in shifts that would make things more efficient, right? Because everybody is able to give their all with the time they've got?
But instead these companies prefer to work a few workers so much that they eventually get burned out and have to be replaced by totally new people who need additional time to get familiarized with the project. That doesn't make sense to me.
@@oftinuvielskin9020 Read the book "mythical man-month". Basically the problem comes down to communication. If a single person can do a job, there's no communication overhead. The more people you add, the more communication overhead there is. It's kinda like the rocket equation; the more fuel (or "bodies" in this case) you add, the more fuel you need.
EPIC HAT JEWEL REVEAL!! (GONE WRONG!! NOT CLICKBAIT!!)
You may see yourself out.
[GONE SEXUAL]
If the Epic Store is the reason Valve will actually make Half-Life 3 I'm going to eat my non jewel-filled hat.
metfan4l I mean, I won't buy HL3 if that's the case. Their fans have been begging for them to make it for so long, and it would no doubt sell well enough to say they have an excuse to print free money so to speak. But they finally do it to when a competitor pops up? Nu-uh. Fuck. That.
Well not exactly hl3, but... what's your current hat status?
I guess you could say that opening was kind of a gem.
You think it would cost as much as 20$ to get the AAA industry to stab a dog?
I bet Bobby Kotick does it for 5$ to his own dog!
probably more like $5
Give them a dime and they'd even clean up the mess they made after doing so.
Well, I imagine it would be less like 20 to stab a dog to death, and more like 4.99 per individual stab, 9.99 for using a non-plastic knife, 20 for the blood cleanup DLC...
No you guys misunderstand. They *could* do it for less but they'll try to drag as much money out of said person as possible before actually stabbing the dog.
I live in a US State with a "At-will employment" law. More or less means that a company does not have to have reason to fire you.
Edit: I used the wrong term. Fixed now
That's country-wide with varying wording. Where I'm at they call it "at will employment". Funny how they make both sound as if they put the blue collar worker first, but in reality it protects large companies from legal backlash when they do shitty things to their workforce. How do you think it got that way? American politics are all about who can line a politicians pockets the most. That goes for both Dems and the Repubs. This country isn't for the people, by the people, it's for the corporation, by the corporation.
@@KomamuraSajin To be fair, there are some legitimate concerns addressed by those laws. (at least in my state) Namely, unions making deals to force employers to redirect wages from non-union workers was entirely unacceptable. Unions should be a source for vetted labor, not a glorified protection racket.
I thought that meant no company could force you to be a part of its union. (google it) also you can quit without a 2 week notice.
@@CSryoh Sorry I am not well versed in the Legal jargon but I think I fixed it to the correct term...
It's "right to work" in Wisconsin. Fucking disgusting that Scott Walker and his Koch sucking friends pushed that through, and of course all the brainwashed working class, poor Republicans think Walker had their best interests in mind. Fucking nuts how much the right ignores everything except for minorities, immigrants, and feminism.
No such thing as "unchecked" capitalism. Just capitalism.
Exploitation of the work force is not a flaw, it lies at its very core.
I mean the unchecked part does imply that if there are no rules/laws to regulate them and power to enforce those, this is the expected effect.
There exist a lot of countries with better consumer and worker protections than the USA and from what I can see the US used to be better as well.
The free market extends to more than just products and consumers. A job is much like a product, and a worker like a customer. If you are getting a shitty deal, why are you still there? There are plenty of other places to work, nobody is forcing these guys to stay in an abusive job.
@@AkuTenshiiZero I'll just ask my bills to wait whilst I find a new job after leaving my current one. I'm sure the leech- I mean landlord will understand fully.
@@llm20756 You know it is possible to apply for a new job while still working, right? Stop making excuses.
@@llm20756 Also, that "leech" owns and maintains the building you live in. What, do you think magical fairies are the ones fixing your plumbing?
Tim Sweeney also tries to equate Epic's value to consumers to Steam's. Look we all know Steam has its problems but it definitely offers a lot more than Epic in terms of convenient features like community building, universal and in depth controller support mapping, cloud saves and more. Epic takes a small cut and does lil to nothing for consumers besides it being a launcher. Hell in 2019 we got an offline mode in EGS in February. FFS an offline mode had to be added to an online launcher for games that could be played offline.
Basically, like Jim said, when Steam is "the good guy", you know the industry is shit.
Like saying the Soviets are "good guys" in WW2 because they opposed the Nazis. Low bars make heores of everybody I guess.
Could you plz tell me the downsides of steam genuinely asking
@@MohitKumar-jf8lz I'd figured it was the laziness of their content regulation primarily. Also the same downside that every platform but GOG has atm - you don't own a hard copy of your game because the DRM features act as something of a policing gate for Steam. Which people value at different levels - I'm not buying from anywhere but GOG anymore because of it, but I think I care more than avg joe
@@ryanjones_rheios yes drm point is valid I agree with that bit I don't agree with the asset flip argument there are several ways to discern if a game is bad or not I haven't bought a bad game yet and to be honest you can tell by just looking at the screen shots of the game
Legionnaire Sprinkles I equate both Valve and Steam to be equally as awful. What little effort Valve puts into Steam makes it better then Epic games launcher, however Epic’s effort goes into making UE4, which is in turn free to use, and inexpensive to publish a game on, extremely powerful, and such. So Valve gives back by making a good launcher, Epic gives back by making a fantastic engine.
Both companies are shitty. Ultimately one has to step up and be the good guy.
How many bucks for 100 Jewels Jim. What can buy from your store with Jewels Jim. I NEED JEWELS JIM
Lakerdas Pastos we need to band together and buy Jim shares, majority shares in some random company just to see what he does!!!
@@jabrilanderson8365 Oh man, what I'd give to see Jim on a Shareholders' Meeting for Activision (to say nothing about EA!)
$5.99 for 50 jewels, if you want 100, you'll need to buy the 500 jewel filled hat(hat not included), discounted at $44.99 .
@@Maradrafts If those shareholders did not know the meaning of "nerd rage" going into that meeting, they would certainly walk out knowing it.
JEEEEWELS!!
Love how that china map writes CHINA over specifically the tibet part
Everyone's turned a blind eye to the horrors of China
It's not "xenophobic" to dislike China. Why would Jim say that? They're literally an authoritarian state.
@@grubbybum3614 He said "sometimes xenophobic" and that's a pretty key "sometimes", though admittedly it's a weird thing to say in passing and just gloss over without further explanation. Some people who don't understand what's actually wrong with China would still be afraid or hateful just because it's not 'Merica and is potentially powerful. And since he's specifically talking about "China's growing influence on entertainment" rather than on China as a whole and as a government, I think he may be referring to the irrational fear that Chinese-owned film studios are "brainwashing the kids to be commies" or what-have-you when in reality those corporations are behaving in very capitalistic ways and mostly just making sound investments. I know I'm interpreting a lot here, but I feel like that's more what Jim meant given the context and the use of the word "sometimes"
The "sometimes xenophobic" part comes into play when you see media outlets criticize Chinese companies doing exactly the same thing as European or American companies have been doing for decades, for example in Africa, where they will pressure African government to give them business concessions in return for developing certain areas, at fairly predatory rates. This is not something new, but apparently it's only a problem when Asians do it.
Grubby bum
I'll go one step further and say that being "xenophobic" and "racist" against the Chinese is a good thing. Its a good defense mechanism. The Chinese are incredibly racist and xenophobic themselves so if you treat them with kindness and "tolerance" they will just take advantage of it and exploit you.
Hey Jim, can you start linking the articles you talk about and reference in the video description? I'd like to read some of them for myself.
+
I was expecting a smaller hat.
I haven't had my expectations subverted this well since The Last Jedi.
Was The Last Jedi a good or bad subversion to you?
I loved The Last Jedi. It verted me in all of my expectations.
@@sirapple589 the kind where someone lovingly bakes a birthday cake for you with custom icing designs, the works...but hid a big ol' dog turd in it as a surprise filling to subvert your expectations of cakes being tasty. That kind of subversion.
@@sirapple589 "this well" wasn't a clue? Movie's good.
@@mrbigglezworth42 Wow that's so weird how you changed your name and profile picture like that
I've always wondered what Jim's family jewels looked like
They're so little
Funny, I always just figured that they would look like a spoopy squid!
The jewels of the Sterling dynasty.
He's got a lot of brains, and he has a lot of shoopah
@@Hemostat But he has a lot of them lol
The most important thing I learned...Jim films barefoot! Your move fetish community.
Mr337M he doesn’t wear pants either
The hat trick you pulled was truly breathtaking. No only did it have me on the edge of my floor in anticipation, but I had to rewind and watch again to make sure my brain was properly processing the visual stimulation inbound. Great bit!
who want to help me Raise Teddy Roosevelt from the Dead so we can go Trust bustin?!
We need a new New Deal while we're at it.
I concur. He had problematic beliefs in Eugenics and Imperialism, but unlike many of his and our contemporaries he respected the other side, and while charting a tributary of the Amazon, he kicked out a long-time friend because he wanted to be carried on a sedan chair by some local boys. Also, he was a guy who could name his kid Kermit and still make him a lion-hunting badass.
Fuck roosevelt
@@GhostedJackal wrong Roosevelt
What proof do you have game companies are conspiring and breaking antitrust laws?
When he said "I'm bare foot" I also imagine him without any pants or underwear on too. Probably why he's always standing behind a podium.
More than being just totally naked, it's the pairing of long leather gloves and bare feet that's getting to me
This is a mystery the answer to which we may never get in this lifetime.
Oh good, I'm not the only one.
I don't think Valve are going to do anything. Prolly thinking that the amount of exclusives are just a drop in the water compared to their vast library and platform features.
thier store is better built, and thats what matters in the long run. I bought metro, not going to do it again till epic store is on par
Exactly. Their store has so much non-store related stuff to offer.
They are unmatched and unbeatable. Epic doesn't even have a basket. LOL.
The only way Valve is going to put in work against another launcher is if its built by Gamestop as lets be honest thats the only possible pc game launcher that could mess up their money flow.
@@yamadiyoo9658
You must be joking. xD
Gamestop is dying.
@@Mayhzon Only because they dont really sell pc games and they so far have avoided getting into the digital market. Gamestop's website and app literially works better than the epic store. Lots of people already have accounts so its not much of transition to a new account. Having stores adds the option that all the other stores dont have which is cash sales and they already sell gift cards. The only thing losing them money is that they avoid the digital market and kept putting money into the submarines in hope to boost sells. Yes, selling phones/tablets and merchandise are subsmarines at a place like gamestop since they are not in that market and most merch is just taking away display case area as they are not much of a sell to begin with. The base idea is epic's method to strongarm steam isnt going to work as they still get more money than they can muscle away but steam will react if their foolish practice starts bringing in sharks like gamestop.
Crazy thing about Jim is how his content evolves and its relevance increases as time goes on.
Thank god for Jim.
Imagine what would happen if all the people left their jobs, like all at once.
Try and replace all the talent then.
yea like we could have workers strike at the same time, like in 'union'
@@shadethorn3121 but that sounds like socialism! The games industry is going to be like Venezuela!
Being a game dev is one of the most sought after positions. If everyone quit all at once they would have 5 times over the naive young people to take their place. As it is the industry is largely a meat grinder with a constant revolving door.
They already kinda do that at some companies where they hire an employee for about, say, 3 weeks and fire them one day after because they're legally forced to pay things like health insurance if an employee stays on for 4 weeks.
That, and the threat of blacklisting if an employee quits during crunch time, are big reasons why unionizing and protests in the games industry don't work.
RandoDil347 there’s enough capitalist bootlickers
Epic's worker abuse is exactly what I described during Rockstar's "nobody was forced to do it" saga. It's way too easy for these scumfucks. We're only going to go deeper down the dystopian rabbit hole. The world is broken and I don't think it's going to be repaired anytime soon. Unless people are willing to tear down the entire system by force.
Valve's problems were in part due to it being a monopoly that could print money without doing any QA. And now we have Epic, which is evil but the only alternative and intends on becoming its own monopoly. Yeah, that's the only competition there ever is.
I duno about epic being the olny alternative people keep forgetting about GoG
Well I would say worker abuse is the stronger between the two evils, if you want to call Steam's poor QA an evil. If consumers were smarter asset flips wouldn't be an issue, especially with the refund system.
You point out steam's QA like EPIC has any QA whatsoever. EPIC is literally a naked monopoly, that's what exclusives are; there is nothing better about EPIC in any way shape or form, it's equal or worse in every single way.
The more I hear about people having these massive overworked schedules, the sadder I get, messed up how little value our time is to...higher ups.
It almost killed me once, 17 days straight
Still managed to be poor
"Stab your dog for an extra 20 $" Made me spill my water lol XD
My response was "Nah, they'd never stab my dog for 20 bucks. Too much effort for them."
@@TheRhetoricGamer lol
Great now there's jewels *and* water on the ground.
They'd stab your dog for a penny too.
You think you hate Mondays, but actually you hate Capitalism.
Andrew Cargil im pretty sure children from bangladesh h8 capitalism
Jerthanis that's a capitalism as street fight say over on means tv I hope that's what you're talking about if not go watch it now
Hating one doesn't preclude also hating the other as well. Just saying.
i find it funny that all these gripes with capitalism have literally nothing to do with capitalism itself. if i sell lemonade at a lemonade stand but i horribly mess up the recipe and make shitty lemonade is it the selling of the lemonade that is the issue or is it my fault as an individual for messing up the lemonade... that is very very comparable to how people blame shit on capitalism where the selling of lemonade is the capitalism and me fucking up the recipe is being treated as capitalism.
guys, do not lock yourselves in a box of 2 choices. you will lose big time.
Every time Visceral gets brought up it makes me sad. That was an insanely talented and passionate group of people, and I honestly think EA had them make Hardline knowing it wasn't really their wheelhouse just to use its poor performance as justification to eventually yeet them out of the company.
Things aren't always black and white. As someone from EA explained it in a seminar, EA is kinda like rocket fuel. You have game studios that have kept the fire going for some time by doing whatever it takes. If EA didn't step in, the fire would eventually go out. Then EA comes in and pours rocket fuel into the fire. A lot of people get burned.
@@solhsa That sounds like a piss poor paraphrased justification of what @lilspikeywikey is saying anyway! That's not even insightful; it's vapid and frankly says little about their actual operations other than that they buy up companies that are "burning out". You know, like Bioware, and Visceral. What an ignorant statement. They buy them while the fire is hot, and burn the fuel twice as hot until it goes out "twice as fast" so to speak, which is clear looking at pretty much any of their acquisitions.
You are giving EA way more credit than it deserves. It isn't devious - just incompetent. No person in business makes an investment in order to figure out a way to squander it. But it still happens more often than not.
It's the same thing EA is doing to BioWare. Having them make games that are not their specialty and they are failing at it.
I wonder how many times Jim has been called a socialist as if it was an insult.
It's too bad you only stick to video games because when I think of shitty corporations I think of Nestle, not Epic, everyone should think of Nestle before Epic.
Also still no mention of CDPR's awful treatment of it's workers?
Good ol’ Nestle, where fresh water is something to be bought not a right.
Well considering socialism has been the cause of death of millions of people and failed government structures all over the world, it sounds very much like an insult.
@@AAJillSandwich Capitalism has killed just as many people.
@@SeasoningTheObese You realise that climate change is literally a conspiracy by rich oil+gas companies who knew the science as far back as the 1970's right
And they decided "Yeah, let's actually just make the planet hotter to help us get rich"
The death toll by the end of the century will be in the hundreds of millions. Human civilisation might actually just stop existing. Because of capitalism.
@@SeasoningTheObese eand.co/if-communism-killed-millions-how-many-did-capitalism-kill-2b24ab1c0df7
The Epic Brutality Of -Unchecked- Capitalism
*Liberty Prime would like to know your location*
this is not the fault of capitalism stop blaming capitalism for every little fucking problem that happens in every industry I'm getting so sick and tired of people that want to bash capitalism but they don't even know what the fuck capitalism is capitalism is the free market it is market anarchy you cannot have that when the government is regulating the market that's called corporatism or a mixed economy.
@@AncapOtaku some regulation needs to be in place. Robber barons and trust titans existed, and screwed over their workers, long before the video game industry came along.
the things Jim talks about in these kind of videos has happened before and can happen again if given the chance
@@codysellers4151 UM no because when you regulate that market thats how you get corporatism and lobbying
Ancap Otaku research the robber barons and trust titans.
You'll be telling us next that capitalism is systemically exploitative and consequently routinely brutal. Keep up the good work Jim. Thank God for you.
You're a commie scumbag, but just this once I will agree. Unchecked Capitalism is awful. So is communism, though.
Also The game industry just strips all power from developers. Since games take forever to make, if you leave your first job (even if your being abused) before you ship a game good luck ever working in the industry again atleast without some paycuts or being forced to work at smaller studious
With early Access and live services when is a game truly "shipped"?
what are you blathering about? strips the power away from devs? that's any line of work for a subcontractor, which devs are. sub contractors have no power in any line of work. if you don't want a AAA publisher telling you how to make your game, don't go to work for a AAA publisher.
this isn't rocket science.
Unless your under contract. They can come back and sue the game devs if quit
@@travisseagroves7713 so what? who cares if they get bought out. if you don't want to work under those conditions, quit.
jesus fucking christ, you are whiny little child. no one is forcing these devs to work there. maybe don't focus on getting a job in an absolutely bloated field?
Right-Libertarians/Ancaps: "An unregulated market is best because it provides an easier base of entry for entrepeneurs to enter the market, thereby preventing State-sanctioned monopolies through exorbitant licensing fees and fines."
Multi-multi-billion dollar multinationals: Literally buy all the smaller, emerging competitors; collaborate to price fix; offer deep enough discounts that start-ups can't turn enough profit to compete; allow other multi-billion dollar foreign entities to by massive amount of stock across themselves and their competitors to form monopolies in the foreign market
Pffft, libertarianism worked great in those shitty novels Ayn Rand wrote.
leftist/liberal: Wahh! why does everyone make more money than me even though i spend everything i make on video games and put no effort into work? this is so unfair! i shouldn't be at want for anything!
Its amazing how fanatic people.defending capitalism can be. Nestle literally used slave labor. Recently.
@@briankenney9528 and that's capitalism's fault? that's one hell of stretch.
it's amazing how fanatics will tie any wrong doing to capitalism because they want free stuff.
@@thomasjenkins7506 OP: Makes a fair criticism of capitalism.
You: Addresses none of the criticisms but still think you've won the argument
I like this version of Bejeweled better than the vanilla one.
Fancy seeing u here
Jim "John McClain Die Hard Feet" Sterling
Ho Ho Ho SHUT UP, CHIP!
If you're looking for a case study as to the utmost nastiest way capitalism behaves, look no further than EVE online as everything is player driven and what that leads to is highly entertaining in a what the shit sort of way.
EVE is a lot more egalitarian than real world capitalism though. There's a lot more mobility in wealth and less strict class relations.
@Khashon Haselrig
Another is that there's no real cost of living. IRL you need a constant supply of resources to survive but in EVE a pilot could just put their ships away and never have to spend anything. Having to fall back on less efficient money making is just an inconvenience rather than potentially fatal.
This is a ridiculously good video. it shows an excellent grasp of economics and does a fantastic job explaining it in a way that makes sense to the audience whom it targets.
"This is what competition looks like." is a line that stood out to me because that is what I have been saying to people. They wanted competition, now that see how dirty it is. Every single business competes this way. Excellent job explaining why.
I agree that Valve can compete with THEIR GAMES, the games people have been begging to get sequels to.
TLDR below: personal experience in education, aka no wonder things are going from bad to worse when inhumane for-profit policies are being taught and encouraged.
On the topic of competition, this whole bit reminded me of something I'd forgotten about.
I attended a translation / communication school whose advanced cursus included a fair bit of marketing and management, much to the confusion of those of us, including myself, who had enrolled to study foreign languages. One of our courses had us simulate, in small teams, the creation and management of a company, with the aim to compete against others and generate the largest profits on a set (simulated) time period.
Undercutting the market for specific items, either by overproducing or monopolizing all available ressources necessary to produce said items were not only acceptable means of getting a leg up on the competition; ithere were greatly encouraged by our teachers. I remember being shocked by the way those behaviors had been gamified: we were juggling data (including a "worker satisfaction index", one data point among others) and the endgoal was to be the most profitable company; all choices we made, including in terms of employees benefits, product quality, scientific innovations, etc. were (optional) parts of a strategy to reach said goal.
We weren't the core audience for this course, surely, but I believe it was taught in other schools as well. And here's the thing; as Jim pointed out in multiple videos lately. Companies, and executives themselves, don't exist in a vacuum. They don't belong to an evil cabal. They're part of a system that prioritizes and incentivizes personal enrichment, and that's bad enough on its own. But until now I hadn't much realized that younger execs in the games industry might, as in any other industry, have been *educated* to view such practices as being good, or even worse, normal.
Definitely. Making a sequel to half life 2 would destroy the internet as Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for best actor.
Jim, I super appreciate your videos properly laying the blame for the game industry's failures at the feet of capitalism! Keep em coming!
Jim is becoming a prominent part of bread tube.
And thank god for him.
And thank God for breadtube
Should we interpret his dumping jewels on his head as his version of the pouring-stuff-on-face breadtube tradition?
fl00fydragon lol breadtube
@@Dorian_sapiens Cornflakes Homunculus was a warning shot.
I'd like to point out that Tim Sweeney claimed they'd stop doing the exclusive push about three days before Outer Worlds was announced as a timed Epic exclusive. So if he expects Valve to take his word that EGS will magically disappear if they can match revenue sharing...yea, not happening. At this point, Sweeney is quickly approaching Randy Bitchford levels of lying. But hey, Epic is competition, so please be excited!
TENCENT OWNED COMPETITION!
These guys literally support the Chinese slave market! Alright alright, it's a hyperbole. Still though, fuck Epic.
To be minimally fair to Outer Worlds, it's not actually an Epic exclusive- it will release without delay on the Windows 10 store as well.
he's Todd Howard level at this point, just lies and full of shit
Sweeney is the biggest fucking hypocrite in the industry.
@@Zardozintheireyes That sounds like it's super illegal. Like, exclusivity is bad, but limited exclusivity specifically not to do business with another competing business sounds like something that we have laws on the books against.
Abusing people's livelihoods is still violence.
its literally not you stupid child, violence is physical. nothing else
@@WolverineTime bUt ThEre's
No GuN pOiNteD aT yOuR hEaD.
Valve COULD make some original games and new IP content to offset the Epic game store, but they won't, and it's not because they'd disagree with the strategy, it's because I don't actually think anyone works at Valve anymore.
I think it's like a restaurant that's just a front for organized crime's money laundering-- sure, you could go in, and you could get some shitty microwaved spaghetti, but none of the decor has been updated since 1992 and there's two fat guys in suits glaring at you the whole time until you leave. It's not REALLY a restaurant, and Valve's not REALLY a game studio.
Oh no! Jim is critiquing one of the many exploitative and predatory practices under capitalism, here come the status quo bootlickers!
Yeah, fuck people for wanting to hold onto beliefs they've known forever that by and large did them no real wrong and beats any current alternative. Queue dirty commie cunts.
@@MGX93dot "The system hasn't hurt ME, I guess it must be good because I'm a myopic dunce!"
@@MGX93dot It's never too late to change those beliefs. It's much like changing your briefs.
@@MGX93dot
1) Criticising a "predatory practic under capitalism" doesn't mean to bring communism! Newsflash: the world is not just black and white!
2) 150 or so years ago, whould you have said that slavery it's ok ? Back then it was a belief known since forever.
3) Do you think we live in a perfect world ? If not, what's you method of changing it into being better ?
you could have just said "conservatives" instead of that last part and it would have still made perfect sense
I dont agree with Jim on everything. But his user rage is the Best around
Love your frank discussion of the game industry’s exploitative practices.
Good, because he's gonna keep it coming. Thank God for Jim.
Personally, I was expecting a tiny Boglin to be under his hat.
True, Steam could definitely use competition and it could lower their cut a bit like say 5% to 10% max, which is huge overall, but Epic Games is pure slime and I'm relieved to see you are a man who can adapt to the facts shown about EG. Thanks Jim.
Could Steam actually do that? Ever consider that Steam can’t afford to do that? I don’t pay taxes or have processing fees on Steam when I purchase a game. Who’s paying for that? Steam is.
For AAA games, they're likely only getting a 20% cut anyway as Valve reduces the cut they take the more the game sells. Epics 12% cut is beneficial but it's being propped up by Fortnite. It's just not sustainable for the long term and Valve provides so much more for the customers and developers that the extra money Valve take is worth it to them.
Steam definitely couldn't lower it to 5 - 10 percent and still be making a profit lmao. Epic is at 12% and barely making a profit with none of the features of Steam. Unless the only thing you are doing is displaying a I don't think 5-10% would be profitable for any provider.
In what way is Steam better than Epic as a company ?
People forgot Steam tried to launch mod selling to horrendous results and use software that captures user data and done a million other things over the years.
@@logirex "People forgot Steam tried to launch mod selling to horrendous results" and guess what? From all the backlash they received they changed their ways and stopped that shit in its tracks. Meanwhile Epic can't stop their train from buying out games because if they stop, they'll probably be dead in the water as the majority of users would rather CHOOSE to use Steam to get their games on release.
Some say Mr Sterling is still standing there wondering how the hell he's going to get out of his Jewel bed he made himself without destroying his feet til this day.
Sterdust will save him.
RaptorZefier Pffft, sharp jewels cutting up your feet isn’t THAT big of a deal. Now, if he was standing on top of crushed Doritos, then I’d be worried. Those things are deadly.
So 4 hours later?
Don't worry once Duke Amiel, Sterdust and the chunky grumbler have finished laughing at him I'm sure they will save him. That is as long as the cornflake homonculous doesn't get to him first and that reality doesn't even bear thinking about. 😆
I just refuse to purchase anything on or from Epic. Been working out fine so far.
Same
And here is how Capitalism is placed in check. Thank you.
me too, but honestly people now are such sheep with no self control or patience is sad.
I think I have a good comparison for all this: Sports. Which is to say, cheating at sports.
If you play a sport against others who are, more or less, of the same skill and ability as you, you expect to *usually* have a more or less equal ability to win or lose. If suddenly you found yourself losing by a long-shot, and later on you found out the other person/team started taking steroids, you would feel wronged. You didn't take them, you trained hard on your own, and you thought your opponents had as well. So how was your game at all when the other side cheated so?
For businesses, especially big business, it's effectively the same thing. If you, theoretically, had the money to start your own game company to compete with all the other AAA game companies out there, you would be competing with companies essentially taking 'steroids', which is to say, they're willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to turn over as much profit, and with that profit, they can do more to compete against your company as well. So unless you basically go to their level, you are honestly going to be falling behind unless the whole system collapses (which tbh I doubt), as no matter how much money you make, they'll simply make more, and they'll use it to go against you.
In all multiplayer games I played, there has always been someone who grows too fast with microtransactions, it is like cheating but legal. Thinking you need to cheat in order to keep up with competition is just not right.