Epic Game Store - Epic's Steam Competitor

[DjchunKfunK]

Epic Games have announced their own online store the headline feature of which is that they will take a 12% cut from all sales. This contrasts favourably with other online stores. They also say that people will be doing the curating not algorithms.




You can find some further details in this interview Eurogamer did with Tim Sweeney.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018 ... ames-store

[Mantis]

Very nice.

What's your DRM policy?

Tim Sweeney: We do not have any store-wide DRM. Developers are free to use their own DRM solutions if they choose.

That little tidbit might be a good way of getting a lot of users to migrate over from Steam.

Decent curation would be very welcome too.

And to top it off, developers will want to get their games on there to get a bigger cut of the profits.

Steam desperately needs greater competition.

[Achtung Englander]

I don't know though. I like the competition but the idea of installing several type of DRM programs on my system fills me with dread. I do not particularly want a game and its associated DRM every time I want to play something new

Another digital store is fine but I doubt they will gain much traction to consumers because price will always be the commanding choice, not how much royalties devs get. I personally do not give a shit if a dev get 50% or 80% - that's their business, not mine.

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm not sure many big developers will be looking to add their games to another launcher, they all have their own launchers which allow them to take 100% of their sales already. I don't see this suddenly becoming a proper competitor to Steam, it's always nice for consumers to have more choice but on a personal level I already have games spread between Battlenet, Uplay, Origin, Galaxy and Steam. I'm not really interested in adding another one to the list.

[Alan]

Epic games is a good store name 10 years ago.

As long as it’s easy to launch them via another service be it “non-steam games” or discord or whatever I don’t care. Unlike stupid battle net

[Maturin]

I remember back when people were saying big publishers would be mad to sell exclusively on their own launchers instead of Steam, since they would lose all the customer base. Which of course turned out to be a load of twaddle - for the vast majority who want to play a game, they'll play it, even if it means having another application in their taskbar.

But I'm not sure how this will work - I wonder if they're banking on developers/publishers listing the games a few quid cheaper on Epic Games than on Steam? Due to the much lower fees? That's the only way they'll draw sales away from Steam. Cheaper full-price and cheaper bargains.

It'll be good if it takes off though, since Valve would have to lower their ridiculous fees to fight them off. Competition is a good thing.

[DjchunKfunK]

Huh, they are planning to give away one free game every fortnight throughout 2019 to try and entice people to use their store. They plan to reveal more at the Game Awards.

EDIT: Sweeney also confirmed that they are not currently actively developing Unreal Tournament. Confirms what a lot of people already thought.

[Sly Boots]

To mark its launch, the Epic digital store will be giving away Subnautica (and Super Meat Boy) free later this month.

Subnautica is fantastic, quite possibly my GOTY, so make sure you pick that up if you haven't done so already

[DjchunKfunK]

Also Hades, the next game from Supergiant Games is going into early access on Epic's store. It has art similar to Transistor, plays a bit like Bastion and appears to have roguelike elements.

[Medicine Man]

I see Journey heading to this as well.

[DjchunKfunK]

Ashen is another one that has gone to the Epic launcher and this one appears to be pissing people off because it was originally announced for Steam.

[Medicine Man]

Ashen is another game that's on Game Pass this month. Today in fact iirc.

[DjchunKfunK]

It is indeed.

[Medicine Man]

People moaning about it being on another service is incomprehensibly bizarre to me. Who knew DRM brand loyalty would be a thing.

Although it is the internet, everything's a thing.

[DjchunKfunK]

I think it's more that Ashen for instance had been announced as a Steam and Xbox Play Anywhere title and then suddenly it's Epic's store only. I can see how that can be frustrating for people.