Let's talk about Epic Games Store.

[Pifanjr]

A thought I had with regards to what Epic might offer customers that nowhere else does currently is I guess not entirely related to PC gaming. With Epic taking on Apple in court over platform control, it seems to me that the next logical step is launching their store on mobile platforms. It seems like they already could on Android without legal issue, as Amazon already launched their own app store there. And while that's not directly PC related, it would make it such that one could buy a game once and play on both platforms. There are quite a few indie games that have been put on mobile and could be fun to play there, and with phones getting more performant more graphically advanced games could continue to show up. I'd like to have a mobile gaming option, but I'm not big on spending money on the same thing twice, whether that's games software, or mostly redundant hardware (i.e. Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch)

I would love this. I'd love to have some proper games to play on my phone, but I don't have the disposable income to buy a bunch of mobile games and most free ones suck. It would be great if I could share a save between my computer and my phone of Crying Suns, Guild of Dungeoneering or Stardew Valley, for example. And even if you couldn't share saves, it would still be nice to not have to buy every game twice.

 

[Sarafan]

As some of you noted, competition on the market is a good thing. The problem is that EGS introduced an exclusivity policy that isn't in favor of the competition. Real competition is when you have a particular game available in as much stores as it's possible. EGS tries to fight for his position on the market by making games available only there. Thankfully this is less visible in the last year. Probably the store brings too big losses and that's why this policy has been toned down a bit. Besides that, I have nothing against EGS. I sometimes redeem free games that are available there, but didn't have the occasion to buy anything yet.

 

[flashn00b]

The problem is that EGS introduced an exclusivity policy that isn't in favor of the competition. Real competition is when you have a particular game available in as much stores as it's possible. EGS tries to fight for his position on the market by making games available only there. Thankfully this is less visible in the last year.

I can understand the annoyances behind Epic's tactics, though I feel that it's counterintuitive to complain about an EGS exclusivity deal on games where the developers otherwise wouldn't have even considered porting their games to PC, as I have mentioned with Kingdom Hearts.

Heck, I actually wonder if the people who have complained about Square-Enix's EGS exclusivity deal specifically will find themselves actually WANTING other Japanese companies to take an Epic bribe. I doubt most of DMC5's userbase on Steam really appreciate being shamed by Capcom for piracy, ignore the fact that a mouse symbol can be seen on Steam profiles who own the game for the forum they're posting in.

 

[Sarafan]

I can understand the annoyances behind Epic's tactics, though I feel that it's counterintuitive to complain about an EGS exclusivity deal on games where the developers otherwise wouldn't have even considered porting their games to PC, as I have mentioned with Kingdom Hearts.

When we're talking about those games that were console exclusives before, then I agree. It's better to have a game on PC rather than not have it at all. The problem is with those games that were planned to release on PC from the very beginning. Some of them even were announced on other distribution platforms and then withdrawn from these platforms. This is the policy I criticize.

 

[Enntröpy]

I'm all in for the Epic Games Store.

Even tho I've never cared about having 10 storefronts installed on my PC, nowadays, I try to buy my games on the EGS if possible. Steam has lost me after a decade of numerous purchases. What once was a storefront with a terrible UI but an efficient UX, is now a purée of half-arsed features that are all convoluting the only thing I care about: Games.

Why the EGS over Steam or GOG? Well, first of all, compared exclusively to Steam, the EGS is curated beforehand. There might not be hundreds of new releases each day, but at least I'm not developing the skill I developed with Steam to become blind to thousands of shitty shovelware titles and hentai puzzle games. The UI is much cleaner. IMO, the library view looks beautifully simple on the EGS, while the last big Steam redesign made me loathe using the platform even more.

GOG, well, while I like their approach, their promise of DRM free titles is very volatile, and I wouldn't want to get comfortable with that selling point and then get f'd like some people has with certain titles. I do have around 30 titles purchased in there but, then again, it's CDPR, which I dislike a lot, GOG is one of my last options.

On the exclusivity thing, I couldn't care less. As I've said, I don't and never have had any issues by having multiple storefronts installed. I'm used to it. After all, the first thing I do after a fresh OS install, is to remove the launch-on-startup option from pretty much everything. Morally speaking, I don't care either. It's business, and more power to game devs if they get a good deal.

Then Epic as a company is one I actually like, for the most part. I was unaware of them until I started to get into gamedev and stumbling upon the Unreal Engine made me know a bunch of what they're doing to make things easier and free for game devs and artists. Ie: Mega Grants, Quixel, Godot, Artstation Learning (which I previously paid a yearly sub, and it caught me off guard when Epic acquired them and made it free for everyone).

So well, without going in further, I hope they gain some ground, but realistically speaking Steam's monopoly isn't going to get a dent in probably decades. On the Unreal and gamedev side of things, I always see a lot of hate from the Unity community, for example. One common narrative I've read is that Epic should pause the development of Unreal and other technologies or start charging the same as Unity does (a **** ton), because they have too much money, which gave them a huge advantage over everyone else and by making things free, it makes an unfair competition... I mean, am I crazy, or is this as ridiculous for everyone as it is for me?

 

[Hitobat]

I like Epic.

The free games are reasonably recent, and many have won awards etc. so they're not just no-name small titles to fill out the numbers. Also since they're completely free - not free TRIAL - I feel there's less of a mental block to trying out a title you're unsure about. I don't think I would have ever bothered with Minit despite all the good reviews because the screenshots put me off, but I did try it from Epic and enjoyed it too.

Not only free games, I've also bought games there with actual money such as Satisfactory and recently Timberborn too. Could I have bought them on Steam? Eventually yes, but Satisfactory in particular were on Epic first, and as far as I know the devs get more of a cut there too, so I don't regret the early purchase.

Could the store be better? Yes and they are quite slowly improving it. One thing that did surprise me is that actually some of the dev details are public (although I only found out through one of the Satisfactory update videos). You can see their Trello board here for details of feature ides and upcoming changes.

Trello

Organize anything, together. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, know what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.

trello.com

Anyway in summary:
* Competition for Steam is probably a good thing
* Devs get a larger cut from Epic (than Steam)
* Creator codes at checkout, I assume they get a small bounty from purchases too.
* Free games are pretty decent.
* Public roadmap on what new features they're working on.

Which isn't to say that Steam is bad at all. Really it's still my primary platform, but I have to admit I find Steam very difficult in terms of discovering new games. Possibly they're a victim of their own success here, but there's such a huge quantity of games that actually I get tired of looking through them to see something interesting.

I feel the days of the Steam devs finding something like Narbacular Drop and helping develop it into a Portal are probably long past now, what with the huge volume of games they must see (and ignore) on the platform now.

 

[Brian Boru]

I find Steam very difficult in terms of discovering new games

I agree, and it's not just Steam. I gave my Discovery Queue a few whirls but didn't get anything out of it. Anything new I've wishlisted in last few years has come from friends, videos, websites or forums.

 

[flashn00b]

Remember how i said that Japanese game developers do a really good job at validating the short leash that Epic Games has around Square-Enix?

While ATLUS is riling up a reaction out of their PC fans and the Tekken developers are looking for a convenient statistic on why they should only make games on consoles, guess what's releasing on PC next week? I know that Epic Games are pretty scummy, but when you consider the Japanese treatment of PC gamers, it's apparent to me that the morally correct decision is to actually buy FFVIIR on the Epic Games Store. I'm pretty sure i said this earlier, but I still think that Epic Games should be rewarded for doing exclusivity deals on games that would otherwise never see the light of day on PC.

The success of FFVII on Epic is actually pretty important, i think. If it does well, Epic might continue to pursue more exclusivity deals in a similar direction, rather than gobbling up multiple indie games or ruining the trust that has been developed between the consumer and several western publishers.

 

[flashn00b]

Time for me to double post cuz with Street Fighter V sipping that NFT koolaid and Valve banning the usage of NFTs, I wonder if Epic Games would be this sort of safe haven for idiots who get themselves banned for selling games that violate the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

I know it might seem odd for me to word my post like that since I probably come off as an Epic shill, though honestly... I actually do not like Epic Games, but I feel that some of the work they do is a necessary evil when it comes to very specific aspects to PC gaming.

 

[Pifanjr]

Time for me to double post cuz with Street Fighter V sipping that NFT koolaid and Valve banning the usage of NFTs, I wonder if Epic Games would be this sort of safe haven for idiots who get themselves banned for selling games that violate the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

I know it might seem odd for me to word my post like that since I probably come off as an Epic shill

Wouldn't that be a bad thing for users of the Epic Store?

 

[flashn00b]

Wouldn't that be a bad thing for users of the Epic Store?

It wouldn't but do you think that developers that are willing to submit a banme on the Steam Store would care about this detail?

 

[Pifanjr]

It wouldn't but do you think that developers that are willing to submit a banme on the Steam Store would care about this detail?

But do you think Epic wouldn't care too?

 

[flashn00b]

But do you think Epic wouldn't care too?

Thing is, they actually allow NFT-based games on their store.

Epic Game Store Will Support NFT Games - Play to Earn

After Steam announced to remove all NFT games from their store, Tim Sweeney and Epic Games used the opportunity to once again put the Epic Game Store in the spotlight.

www.playtoearn.online

You'll probably find the next Street Fighter and STALKER 2 when those games' respective developers get themselves banned on Steam

I think Epic Games being a safehaven for banned developers will actually hurt their reputation more than them buying exclusivity deals on games

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I've thought a lot about this ever since they started giving out free games. Firstly, I do appreciate the free games, and it doesn't bother me if they're using them to try to entice you to spend money on another game. That's how business works. It's the same with Steam sales, too.

People give them crap about the exclusivity, but is it really that big of a deal. It's not like on consoles, where if a game is exclusive, you have to pay hundreds of dollars for another console. With this, you just download another free client. It's not that big of a deal.

So I don't have any problem with their business model. What I do have a problem with is their crappy client and store. They're both so lacking in features. I haven't checked in a while, but last I saw, the store didn't even have a cart where you could buy more than one thing at a time.

 

[Brian Boru]

last I saw, the store didn't even have a cart where you could buy more than one thing at a time

[ETA: below is wrong, see correction in next post]

Still the same. Been that way a bit long now, they really need to work on the site next year—it's got to be costing them sales.

 

[Pifanjr]

Still the same. Been that way a bit long now, they really need to work on the site next year—it's got to be costing them sales.

They have the cart now. Got it a week or two ago I think.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

They have the cart now. Got it a week or two ago I think.

That's good. It's about time.