Maximum PC - USA (2019-06)

I’ve been thinking about the

preservation of PC games.

Maybe the discless Xbox One

has something to do with

it, but that’s old news as far

as PC gaming is concerned;

desktop PCs don’t come with

an internal CD drive these

days, as games are available

digitally. It’s something to

have screenshots or video of

a DOS game, but it’s another

Well, this is embarrassing.

I’ve been using a SteelSeries

Arctis Pro headset for the

last year or so, and one of its

hallmark features is a game/

chat mixer that lets you

balance the levels between

in-game sounds and voice

chat using a handy physical

dial. Problem was, I could

only get the game channel to

work, while the voice channel

to still be able to play it. That’s

why I’m happy sites such

as ClassicReload.com and

places like the Museum of

Art and Digital Entertainment

exist. As physical media

continues to lose relevance,

it’s important that we don’t

forget our own history when

it comes to PC games and the

once cutting-edge hardware

needed to run them.

always sounded garbled. So,

I just ran everything through

the one side and never

fiddled with the dial. A small

annoyance, but whatever.

Well, it turns out it was a

problem with one of my USB

ports. I switched to a different

port last week, and now

the mixer works perfectly.

I’m psyched. I just wish I’d

figured this out a year ago.

JOANNA NELIUS

Staff Writer

BO MOORE

Hardware Lead

ONE OF THE BIGGEST controversies of 2019

so far has been the Epic Games Store—

and more specifically, EGS paying for

timed exclusives. Formerly the home of

Fortnite and Unreal Tournament, EGS is

now looking to take on Steam. And after

procuring Metro Exodus in February,

EGS has added several more high-profile

games to its list of timed exclusives:

Borderlands 3, The Outer Worlds,

Control, and Vampire the Masquerade—

Bloodlines 2. Needless to say, there are

more than a few unhappy gamers.

I understand why people are upset.

Steam is convenient, it works well, we

have Steam friends lists, it supports cloud

saves, you can easily transfer files between

PCs, and more. But I also fully support

Epic’s choice to compete, especially when

it’s doing so not only with timed exclusives,

but also by giving away free games every

two weeks, reinvesting $200 million into

game developers, “no strings attached,”

and perhaps most impor tantly by taking 12

percent commission compared to Steam’s

30 percent. (Steam has added a tiered

commission structure, where it reduces

its cut to 25 or 20 percent for games

that reach $10 million and $50 million in

sales, respectively.)

Steam is good but it’s certainly not

perfect, and EGS is a lot like Steam was

back when it first launched. But just like

Valve used Half-Life 2 as a means of

boosting Steam into the stratosphere,

Epic is now attempting the same thing

via Fortnite. Plus, I’m already used to

having half a dozen game launchers,

and as far as privacy goes, I’m far more

concerned with my smartphone than with

anything that Epic might learn from my

gaming habits.

Epic has a lot to work on, and it has a

roadmap for EGS updates already laid

out. Is Steam’s dominance finally starting

to falter? We won’t know for certain for at

least a couple of years.

Steam’s rival gives its users a free game every two weeks

Epic Games Store

Plays the Game

A little competition is no bad thing.

JARRED WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

92 MAXIMUMPC JUN 2019 maximumpc.com

in the lab