Epic escalates free game giveaways and offers endless $10 coupons...

[ZedClampet]

New free game(s) every day on Epic. Today's is Shenmue 3.

And if you are one of those players who hates Epic, now's a great time to shop there, with every purchase guaranteed to hurt their bottom line. Not only do the free games cost them, but the $10 coupons are more than the amount they take from publishers for each sale, especially with the Holiday Sale currently active. I saw two games on their front page that are basically brand new, discounted AND which qualify for the coupon, meaning you can get some just released $60 games for less than $30.

Also, with the coupon you can now get the Final Fantasy 7 Remake for only the price of a PC game, $59! (These Japanese console-centric developers trying to up the price of regular AAA games on PC to $69 can kiss my arse)

Keep playing that Fortnite kids! There's enough of your money to help everyone else have a merry Xmas.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Wow. Shenmue 3? I'll definitely nab that one.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru With the $10 coupon, you can get FC6 for $28.99. That's pretty solid for a AAA game that just released not that long ago.

 

[Pifanjr]

Keep playing that Fortnite kids! There's enough of your money to help everyone else have a merry Xmas.

I wonder how much of Epic's income comes from children misusing their parents' credit card. I saw a reddit post from a parent who's 15 year old spend $500 on Fortnite that way.

 

[ZedClampet]

I wonder how much of Epic's income comes from children misusing their parents' credit card. I saw a reddit post from a parent who's 15 year old spend $500 on Fortnite that way.

Would be interesting to know. Would also be interesting to know the average age of a Fortnite gamer. My daughter, who's in college now, got a part time job at a daycare center and started this week. They have art time, and she said more than half the kids were drawing pictures of Fortnite yesterday. These are K-5 kids.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I wonder how much of Epic's income comes from children misusing their parents' credit card. I saw a reddit post from a parent who's 15 year old spend $500 on Fortnite that way.

To be fair, that could (and does) happen with EA, Amazon, or anything. I'm sure it happens a lot with Genshin Impact, too.

 

[Pifanjr]

To be fair, that could (and does) happen with EA, Amazon, or anything. I'm sure it happens a lot with Genshin Impact, too.

None of those are giving me free games though.

 

[Pifanjr]

These are K-5 kids.

So between 5 and 10 years old?

I found this statistic: 26% of preteens in the US play Fortnite.

Also this article: https://screenrant.com/fortnite-youngest-professional-player-8-years-old/

 

[ZedClampet]

So between 5 and 10 years old?

I found this statistic: 26% of preteens in the US play Fortnite.

Also this article: https://screenrant.com/fortnite-youngest-professional-player-8-years-old/

Yes, about those ages. Well, this sent me down the rabbit's hole. My best guess for players between ages 5 and 14 is about 31%. None of what I saw made me feel better about Fortnite. For over 30 percent of players, Fortnite represented their first in-game purchase. I'm...nevermind. At least it isn't Roblox.

 

[Brian Boru]

FC6 for $28.99

Oh believe me, I gaze longingly each time I go there to post for our Freebie thread—thanks for the heads up

 

[Pifanjr]

Yes, about those ages. Well, this sent me down the rabbit's hole. My best guess for players between ages 5 and 14 is about 31%. None of what I saw made me feel better about Fortnite. For over 30 percent of players, Fortnite represented their first in-game purchase. I'm...nevermind. At least it isn't Roblox.

I blame the parents. My child will just play exactly what I played when I was her age, as that was good enough for me

 

[Alm]

Damn, missed the Shenmue freebie. I managed to snag an Xbox at Game so I probably shouldn't partake in the sale now either 😅

 

[ZedClampet]

I blame the parents. My child will just play exactly what I played when I was her age, as that was good enough for me

My kids are 16 and 19. The only multiplayer game I let them play when they were younger was Wizard101 because there is no voice chat and text chat is very limited. They could play any singleplayer game they wanted, just nothing multiplayer. This goes with my philosophy that it isn't games that are bad for you. It's people who are bad for you.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

None of those are giving me free games though.

Lol. Genshin Impact is a free game.

I'll just say this. I think you were the one who said They've given you a lot more in games than what you've spent (was it you?). But even so, I would bet that they've sold a lot more games because of having free giveaways than they would have if they didn't have free games. I guarantee it's profitable for them, or they wouldn't do it. It's not only the Fortnite revenue that funds this.

 

[Brian Boru]

I guarantee it's profitable for them, or they wouldn't do it

I doubt that's the case. Looks much more like the standard build an audience first, then let's monetize 'em. I've read they don't expect profit until ~2027 if I recall correctly.

ETA: finally found that article, it is indeed 2027:

Epic has sunk $500M into the Epic Games Store, doesn't expect to make a profit until 2027

Well, at least it can afford it.

www.pcgamer.com

"Epic projects to lose around $139 million in 2021"

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I doubt that's the case. Looks much more like the standard build an audience first, then let's monetize 'em. I've read they don't expect profit until ~2027 if I recall correctly.

ETA: finally found that article, it is indeed 2027:

Epic has sunk $500M into the Epic Games Store, doesn't expect to make a profit until 2027

Well, at least it can afford it.

www.pcgamer.com

"Epic projects to lose around $139 million in 2021"

If they're not planning on making a profit until 2027, then they may be idiots. But still, like I was saying, I don't think they would have ever been able to build an audience without the free games. Without free games and exclusives, there is no reason for anyone to use them. The crappy store and client sure aren't enough to pull people over.

 

[ZedClampet]

I guarantee it's profitable for them, or they wouldn't do it. It's not only the Fortnite revenue that funds this.

It's all a part of the long-term plan. It's actually Fortnite and Unreal Engine that fund this, and Rocket League to a lesser extent. Only two of their exclusives had turned a profit last I heard. One of them was Satisfactory, but I can't remember the other. And, of course, the giveaways cost a ton, and they just aren't selling games much except during sales, and during sales they lose even more money because of the $10 coupon they give out. If they sell Far Cry 6 for $39, that $20 discount is Ubisoft's to swallow (they made the decision to lower the price). So since Epic takes 10% of each sale, they could make $3.90 off of that Far Cry sale, but instead they give you a $10 coupon out of their pocket and end up losing $6.10. Here's just one article about the whole thing:

Epic Is Losing An Astonishing Amount Of Money Securing Games For EGS

Epic knew they’d be going through the X-ray machine for its case against Apple, and now some new, rather eye-popping figures have been released showing just how much Epic is losing in order to build up a game base for the Epic G...

www.forbes.com

 

[Brian Boru]

If they're not planning on making a profit until 2027, then they may be idiots

Not at all, that's standard business practice for potentially big companies. How many years did it take to reach consistent profitability for Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tesla etc etc?

The whole venture capital industry is based around fledgling companies needing lots of up-front cash to launch their idea and then acquire market share.

The difference with EGS is Epic is providing the seed capital. The upside is they'll own 100% of EGS and its profits, rather than the usual 10-20%—iow they'll win big if EGS succeeds.

 

[ZedClampet]

The upside is they'll own 100% of EGS and its profits, rather than the usual 10-20%—iow they'll win big if EGS succeeds.

Except for the 40% owned by Tencent.

 

[Brian Boru]

Except

"They" = the owners

 

[ZedClampet]

"They" = the owners

Quit being pedantic. Oh, wait, that was me. Never mind.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Not at all, that's standard business practice for potentially big companies. How many years did it take to reach consistent profitability for Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tesla etc etc?

The whole venture capital industry is based around fledgling companies needing lots of up-front cash to launch their idea and then acquire market share.

The difference with EGS is Epic is providing the seed capital. The upside is they'll own 100% of EGS and its profits, rather than the usual 10-20%—iow they'll win big if EGS succeeds.

Yeah, and I guess we need to remember what it means for a corporation to turn a profit. All of the actual people working for the corporation are all still drawing their paychecks. Profit is after all of that. So from a personal perspective, it's profitable for the individuals to work there, but not profitable for the corporation on a whole, and its shareholders. They're investing for the long term, and not for a quick profit.

 

[Pifanjr]

Lol. Genshin Impact is a free game.

Only one and a lot of the game's content is still only available by paying for it.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Only one and a lot of the game's content is still only available by paying for it.

That's kind of my point. You were talking about Epic making a bunch of money off of kids using their parents' credit card without permission in Fortnite. I said I'm sure the same thing happens with Genshin Impact (as well as other things, like Amazon...)

 

[Pifanjr]

That's kind of my point. You were talking about Epic making a bunch of money off of kids using their parents' credit card without permission in Fortnite. I said I'm sure the same thing happens with Genshin Impact (as well as other things, like Amazon...)

And my point was that the money Epic makes at least gets translated into free games for me, while Genshin Impact only offers Genshin Impact, which is only one game and it isn't really free.