Kingdom Hearts on Steam breakdown

[Robofish]

Alright so a lot of you Kingdom Hearts fans have been asking this question "When is Kingdom Hearts coming to Steam?" and you will get all sorts of answers like "It will never come to steam" or "lol gay ass buy it on egs" so I thought I'd put my two cents into this discussion.

First off, no it's not permanently exclusive to the Epic Games Store, otherwise they would have said so. Most epic games exclusivity only lasts around a year.

I have been scouring through the internet and couldn't find much of anything related until I found a reddit post that talks about how the latest update of the Kingdom Hearts games seems to have traces of code relating to the Steam Deck (Reddit post: I noticed Steam Input Strings in KH3 i didnt notice it before was that recently added?). From what I have read from the comments this has been confirmed by the SteamDB team.

This to me makes me believe that Square Enix is working on a Steam release but are wanting to make it Steam Deck compatible first before making an announcement. As for why they're taking so long when other games such as Final Fantasy 7 and Twewy didn't take as long... well, it's a collection of games.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 includes Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories and cutscenes of 358/2 days. Kingdom Hearts 2.5 includes Kingdom Hearts 2, Birth by Sleep and cutscenes from re:coded
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 includes Dream Drop Distance and Birth by Sleep 0.2
Then you have Kingdom Hearts 3

That's like 7 games to get working on the Steam Deck as opposed to one so it's obviously going to take a lot longer to make each game compatible with the Steam Deck.

[Aya]

I'm pretty sure it's a case of "if the EGS exclusivity is only timed, they would've released it on Steam by now". Hell, i'm pretty sure that the PC port of the Kingdom Hearts trilogy only existed because Epic outright paid Square-Enix to port it.

And quite frankly, I feel like Epic's bribery of Square-Enix has aged decently well in the face of Sotsu-Sunrise being given additional ammo to tell PC gamers to go ♥♥♥♥ themselves. I doubt the creators of Metal Gear Rising are any more enthused about the idea of people playing their games on a home computer either after the Babylon's Fall shutdown.

If Japanese game developers are gonna keep finding excuses to only make games on consoles while we keep telling ourselves that they don't have a negativity bias towards PC gaming, I think there's a time and place to acknowledge a necessary, and ultimately lesser evil.

The PC gaming scene in Japan has been a major source of annoyance for me in the past decade, and the effort that goes into playing Japanese games on the worst system to do so is honestly not worth remaining loyal to Valve at this point. If whatever Japanese game I'm interested sees a Steam release then yes i'll get it on Steam but if a PC port's existence depends on Tim Sweeney shifting his priorities away from sniping down indie games already planned for Steam, then I'd rather a PC port of those games coming to existence than not.

[Raging Panda]

Messaggio originale di Aya:

I'm pretty sure it's a case of "if the EGS exclusivity is only timed, they would've released it on Steam by now". Hell, i'm pretty sure that the PC port of the Kingdom Hearts trilogy only existed because Epic outright paid Square-Enix to port it.

And quite frankly, I feel like Epic's bribery of Square-Enix has aged decently well in the face of Sotsu-Sunrise being given additional ammo to tell PC gamers to go ♥♥♥♥ themselves. I doubt the creators of Metal Gear Rising are any more enthused about the idea of people playing their games on a home computer either after the Babylon's Fall shutdown.

If Japanese game developers are gonna keep finding excuses to only make games on consoles while we keep telling ourselves that they don't have a negativity bias towards PC gaming, I think there's a time and place to acknowledge a necessary, and ultimately lesser evil.

The PC gaming scene in Japan has been a major source of annoyance for me in the past decade, and the effort that goes into playing Japanese games on the worst system to do so is honestly not worth remaining loyal to Valve at this point. If whatever Japanese game I'm interested sees a Steam release then yes i'll get it on Steam but if a PC port's existence depends on Tim Sweeney shifting his priorities away from sniping down indie games already planned for Steam, then I'd rather a PC port of those games coming to existence than not.

They helped them with unreal engine, that's it.
I don't think it's permanent exclusivity. This would be the only game Epic ever did that with. It just doesn't line up.
More likely, I believe the exclusivity deal has expired, and square is just doing it's good ol' square thing of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. Some people say theorize that square forgot completely about KH being on PC, and I wouldn't really be surprised. Hell, I regularly forget KH exists on PC. I think the same is true for others.
I am by no means a KH super fan. I like the games, but I was never really big into it. That said, when KH 3 came out, I was like "oh cool, I played 2 as a kid, and It'd be nice to get it and all the games on my PC so I can play them all, even the new one." Then they announced that, and I was naturally excited. But the announcement of EGS exclusivity and the price just killed the hype for all but the typical KH fans. These people likely played the games before, but just jump on the chance to play again on a different platform. But for average people who would've otherwise been excited to finally get a KH game to a platform they own, as they may not have bought a PS4, it becomes why bother. I would've spent the $200 if it came to steam. This is not to say it's worth that much, but I probably would've just reluctantly paid it IF IT CAME to a platform I use.
So I feel like so many people, when they hype died down, just kinda dumped the thought to the back of their mind, and thus it feels like tons of people just don't remember that KH is already on PC.

[Kaylin]

I am kind of sick of all these games coming years and years later for overpriced and never on sale.

It is like they gain nothing from many of us since its like why the hell pay for it at those prices. I would love to have the old games on steam cause I trust them more than I trust epic....this exclusivity just makes me not want to give money period to them till its on steam and on sale.

Who is to say Epic wont pull an ubisoft or nintendo and shut down the way you get your product that is only available digital. No thanks not risking it with anyone but the store fronts i trust.

[Raging Panda]

Messaggio originale di Kaylin:

I am kind of sick of all these games coming years and years later for overpriced and never on sale.

It is like they gain nothing from many of us since its like why the hell pay for it at those prices. I would love to have the old games on steam cause I trust them more than I trust epic....this exclusivity just makes me not want to give money period to them till its on steam and on sale.

Who is to say Epic wont pull an ubisoft or nintendo and shut down the way you get your product that is only available digital. No thanks not risking it with anyone but the store fronts i trust.

I used to get the free games. I gave up.... It felt like a waste of time.

[Start_Running]

Messaggio originale di cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Messaggio originale di Evil Trapezium:

I'm pretty sure Epic exclusivity only lasts for 1 year. The fact that steam inputs have been datamined means they have been working on getting it done for the steam deck for a while now.

I don't use Steam forums all too much so the best I can give you is the title (I noticed Steam Input Strings in KH3 i didnt notice it before was that recently added?)

Epic exclusivitiy can last as long as the contract is made for. Some have 2 and 3 year contracts.

:qr:

Yup[ but the longer and more high profile the game and publisher the more that exclusivity costs epic and even their money bags are limited.

[Aya]

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

Messaggio originale di cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Epic exclusivitiy can last as long as the contract is made for. Some have 2 and 3 year contracts.

:qr:

Yup[ but the longer and more high profile the game and publisher the more that exclusivity costs epic and even their money bags are limited. [/quote]
I imagine permanent EGS exclusivity can be much cheaper if the developer of a game is convinced that PC gaming isn't worth their time. If it were, they would've considered a Steam release anyways.

[FOXDUDE69]

Messaggio originale di Aya:

I imagine permanent EGS exclusivity can be much cheaper if the developer of a game is convinced that PC gaming isn't worth their time. If it were, they would've considered a Steam release anyways.

And there is a good reason why they'd be convinced of that, the sales numbers of PC ports are typically laughable compared to console sales numbers, even when the PC ports are solid. Like Spider-Man, great game, great port, very high profile... Took a month on PC to sell the same amount it sold in 3 days on Playstation.

Kingdom Heart's sale numbers on PC are probably not that high either, despite being a high profile series. Most PC gamers typically only spend money on F2P games and when games they'll never play are at 75% off.

Anyway, if people really want stuff like Kingdom Hearts to keep coming to PC, they should support the Epic Games port, because they actually made the port happen, not Valve, Epic.

[Komarimaru]

Messaggio originale di FOXDUDE69:

Messaggio originale di Aya:

I imagine permanent EGS exclusivity can be much cheaper if the developer of a game is convinced that PC gaming isn't worth their time. If it were, they would've considered a Steam release anyways.

And there is a good reason why they'd be convinced of that, the sales numbers of PC ports are typically laughable compared to console sales numbers, even when the PC ports are solid. Like Spider-Man, great game, great port, very high profile... Took a month on PC to sell the same amount it sold in 3 days on Playstation.

Kingdom Heart's sale numbers on PC are probably not that high either, despite being a high profile series. Most PC gamers typically only spend money on F2P games and when games they'll never play are at 75% off.

Anyway, if people really want stuff like Kingdom Hearts to keep coming to PC, they should support the Epic Games port, because they actually made the port happen, not Valve, Epic.

I think Sony would disagree with you there. They thought like that too, and finally broke into the PC market to end up shocked on the sales of HZD. So they tried other smaller titles and went well, so started to release more and more work more coming since PC sales were that good.

And the best part is, you don't need to buy an older PC to keep playing those titles down the road like you have to do for a console. And to top that off, any future sales are all profit, since no used game market.

Microsoft learned this some time ago and profited well from it, now Sony is as well.

PC market isn't always the highest selling at launch, but it will always be the most profitable in the end.

[Aya]

If i'm perfectly honest, Japan's negativity bias towards PC gaming is honestly a p good source of validation for Epic Games to continue bribing Square-Enix. I'm fully expecting the state of Mobile Suit Gundam games on Steam to be used as justification for Sunrise and Bandai to only release Gundam games on consoles, and I've already said my piece about how PlatinumGames will feel about future PC ports after SolCresta and Babylon's Fall.

The fact that Epic remembered that they have the KH series during the EGS summer sale has me slightly more optimistic that they'll remember to bribe KH4 and FFXVI, rather than snipe down random indie games that were planned for Steam anyways. Again, I'll buy games on Steam if Japanese devs can set aside their negative opinions towards PC gaming long enough to release games on that platform but I'd rather PC ports of those games to exist than not.

[Mars]

Messaggio originale di Komarimaru:

Messaggio originale di FOXDUDE69:

And there is a good reason why they'd be convinced of that, the sales numbers of PC ports are typically laughable compared to console sales numbers, even when the PC ports are solid. Like Spider-Man, great game, great port, very high profile... Took a month on PC to sell the same amount it sold in 3 days on Playstation.

Kingdom Heart's sale numbers on PC are probably not that high either, despite being a high profile series. Most PC gamers typically only spend money on F2P games and when games they'll never play are at 75% off.

Anyway, if people really want stuff like Kingdom Hearts to keep coming to PC, they should support the Epic Games port, because they actually made the port happen, not Valve, Epic.

I think Sony would disagree with you there. They thought like that too, and finally broke into the PC market to end up shocked on the sales of HZD. So they tried other smaller titles and went well, so started to release more and more work more coming since PC sales were that good.

And the best part is, you don't need to buy an older PC to keep playing those titles down the road like you have to do for a console. And to top that off, any future sales are all profit, since no used game market.

Microsoft learned this some time ago and profited well from it, now Sony is as well.

PC market isn't always the highest selling at launch, but it will always be the most profitable in the end.

Yea, Sony got so into the PC market they bought a company specialising in console to PC ports.

That company has yet to fail.

[Raging Panda]

Messaggio originale di Aya:

If i'm perfectly honest, Japan's negativity bias towards PC gaming is honestly a p good source of validation for Epic Games to continue bribing Square-Enix. I'm fully expecting the state of Mobile Suit Gundam games on Steam to be used as justification for Sunrise and Bandai to only release Gundam games on consoles, and I've already said my piece about how PlatinumGames will feel about future PC ports after SolCresta and Babylon's Fall.

The fact that Epic remembered that they have the KH series during the EGS summer sale has me slightly more optimistic that they'll remember to bribe KH4 and FFXVI, rather than snipe down random indie games that were planned for Steam anyways. Again, I'll buy games on Steam if Japanese devs can set aside their negative opinions towards PC gaming long enough to release games on that platform but I'd rather PC ports of those games to exist than not.

You guys are way off base. Square isn't as anti-pc as you think. Look at all the games they released on PC. Hell, all the small games. Harvestella, Live a Live (i think that's SE). THey've made a ton of not so high profile games and released them on PC. Hell, on Steam. Japanese devs, especially older ones like square, do have a negativity bias towards PC, but that has been clearly changing. Look at Altus too.

[Aya]

Messaggio originale di Raging Panda:

Messaggio originale di Aya:

If i'm perfectly honest, Japan's negativity bias towards PC gaming is honestly a p good source of validation for Epic Games to continue bribing Square-Enix. I'm fully expecting the state of Mobile Suit Gundam games on Steam to be used as justification for Sunrise and Bandai to only release Gundam games on consoles, and I've already said my piece about how PlatinumGames will feel about future PC ports after SolCresta and Babylon's Fall.

The fact that Epic remembered that they have the KH series during the EGS summer sale has me slightly more optimistic that they'll remember to bribe KH4 and FFXVI, rather than snipe down random indie games that were planned for Steam anyways. Again, I'll buy games on Steam if Japanese devs can set aside their negative opinions towards PC gaming long enough to release games on that platform but I'd rather PC ports of those games to exist than not.

You guys are way off base. Square isn't as anti-pc as you think. Look at all the games they released on PC. Hell, all the small games. Harvestella, Live a Live (i think that's SE). THey've made a ton of not so high profile games and released them on PC. Hell, on Steam. Japanese devs, especially older ones like square, do have a negativity bias towards PC, but that has been clearly changing. Look at Altus too.

ATLUS isn't that good of an example, considering that we've sacrificed a lot for Persona 5 on PC, as if the franchise is some sort of pagan god. Persona 6's PC port will likely have a similar demand for sacrifice, which would likely mean even less things from Japan coming out on PC because we think one game is worth not getting the continued support of other devs

[Jacinto Pinto]

Messaggio originale di Babi Gendut:

Valve / Steam doesn't deserve KH franchise. They literally doing nothing for this game while epic help with the ports.

People should be more grateful for epic to make this game available on pc instead of hating them. But then again, gamers are notorious for being ungrateful and entitled. Especially when it involved fanboyism / hatred towards a particular company.

Fanboying agaisnt something is stupid, but worse is simping a company. Saying people should be grateful that a company did something is so mind boggling to me. Companies work for profit, thats their motto, they don't do it for love and sympathy. If I like a game they have but don't buy it because they can't captivate me to use their launcher it's a fair trade. I generally don't use this word, but humanizing companies is insanely "cringe".

[Crazy Tiger]

Messaggio originale di Delirus:

Messaggio originale di Babi Gendut:

Valve / Steam doesn't deserve KH franchise. They literally doing nothing for this game while epic help with the ports.

People should be more grateful for epic to make this game available on pc instead of hating them. But then again, gamers are notorious for being ungrateful and entitled. Especially when it involved fanboyism / hatred towards a particular company.

Fanboying agaisnt something is stupid, but worse is simping a company. Saying people should be grateful that a company did something is so mind boggling to me. Companies work for profit, thats their motto, they don't do it for love and sympathy. If I like a game they have but don't buy it because they can't captivate me to use their launcher it's a fair trade. I generally don't use this word, but humanizing companies is insanely "cringe".

Just read the debates between the "Steam fans" and "Epic fans" of a few years ago. It's gloriously cringe.

[Raging Panda]

Messaggio originale di Crazy Tiger:

Messaggio originale di Delirus:

Fanboying agaisnt something is stupid, but worse is simping a company. Saying people should be grateful that a company did something is so mind boggling to me. Companies work for profit, thats their motto, they don't do it for love and sympathy. If I like a game they have but don't buy it because they can't captivate me to use their launcher it's a fair trade. I generally don't use this word, but humanizing companies is insanely "cringe".

Just read the debates between the "Steam fans" and "Epic fans" of a few years ago. It's gloriously cringe.

There are no epic fanboys, just people who think steam is bad. Epic doesn't have the fanboying steam has I think. Not saying it's good to fanboy, but I think that speaks volumes on how good one is vs the other.