Okay, I am getting really sick of all these Epic exclusivity deals. I refuse to ever use the Epic launcher for a variety of reasons, which prevents me from buying GC4 until the exclusivity agreement expires (and Stardock is not confirming Steam release dates). This means that you won't get any money from me until the game releases on Steam, and when it does I will probably wait for a discount since the game will be over a year old by that point. Less revenue for you.
I already own pretty much all Stardock games on Steam (after having to rebuy them because Impulse was shut down). I refuse to install another platform just to access one game.
Don't sign an exclusivity agreement in the future. It hurts your player count and loyalty. Also,
don't lie about wanting to release on as many platforms as possible when you have an exclusivity agreement.
i ) What are the reasons you do not like Epic launcher? Steam propaganda?
ii ) Contrary to Steam ALL Epic games run without the Epic launcher by running the executable directly. Something that cannot be said for the Steam launcher which is present on all games and I cannot get rid of it. GalCiv4 has a bug in that front and I have reported it.
I truly love this idea going back to the 90s-00s where we run the games without launchers etc.
iii) According to the EULA you do not own the games you have in Steam. You subscribe to the service that at any moment Steam can make them unavailable. There was a case at French courts about this, but Steam ignored its decision.
iv) Epic gives more money to developers, taking smaller cut than Steam. Small companies that 15-20% extra is a lot of money. As a business man myself, is makes no sense to use Steam instead of Epic atm.
