Epic Games Store - A game changer?

Finnn

Hey peopz,

would really like to hear your opinion about the upcoming Epic Games Store and the shifts in the Game Store world.

I think Steam is under alot of pressure. When comparing numbers the amount of people playing Fortnite monthly is around 80 Million when Steam has total amount of 46 Million Users.
Also the Epic Games Store has alot better revenue share offers than Steam does.
Other Games Stores are opening up all over the place (like the Discord Store)

Is this the end of the Steam Era?
Will Epic Games Store or some other take it's place?
How much does this matter to the industry anyhow?

Zocky

Well, i don't think steam is going to vanish anytime soon, but will have to change bunch of things.

I also don't think Epic store is going to be too dangerous to steam right at start, i think Epic kinda said so themselfs too in one way or another, but, in a year or two, they can slowly get there.

I honestly think that Epic store is right now the only one who actually even wants to directly take on Valve's Steam, and they sure as hell have financial and other means to do so.

They are also very consumer friendly, which means a lot,  and they are already starting to address  some issues of Steam and taking advantage of those.

Like, they are already bring cool games like Journey if i'm not mistake, for me, that already is great move. They are having far better share (12%), it seems like games will controlled, so that not just any game can be there.

This alone is kinda big thing, at least for me. Like, i don't have anything against visual novels and almost assets flips, but, at least for me, when i look for games, i don't want to see 6/10 games on the front page, as "newly release games", to be some visual novels, there's hardly anything interactive about them. I don't mind special section for such, but these are first and foremost gaming platforms, so lets have actual games on the front page. That, or entire front page being flooded with dlcs and what not of the same game or something, which i also seen in past.

Basically, they are pulling the right moves so far, though i do feel like they still have  a lot of work to do around UI on their store, but, yes, i think they are one company that can be atm the only serious competition to Steam. And that's only good.

Zack Maxwell

Epic will likely get my business from now on, if only because they actually have curation. Any games I make will likely go there first as well.
Valve are notoriously lazy in the way they handle Steam, and try to automate as much as possible. They've been actively harming the Indie market for a long time now with such practices. Removing any pretense of curation, automatically generating promotions for only the most successful games, rarely removing anything or banning developers no matter how toxic or unprofessional, unless they make a straight-up death threat against Gabe Newell, etc.
Epic Games on the other hand have been giving out grants to indie devs for years. They reduced the royalties on marketplace assets to 12% instead of the standard 30%. They're setting the royalties on the game store to 12% as well, and even waiving the royalties on using Unreal Engine for sales on their storefront.
They're also using some level of curation to tone down the level of cancerous shovelware flooding in and drowning out legitimate games, and the asset store already does a fair job of spreading around the front page spots.

PyrZern

Epic Game Store will most likely win in the short term, because EGS offers great deal for gamedev. EGS also pays for exclusivity. 

Consumers, however, will most likely suffer from this.... 2nd Coming of Console War.... I mean Game Store War... (Windows Game Store already lost. We don't talk about Uplay. Origin kinda still hang in there for now... GOG has no DRM, so win win for consumer and everyone.)

EGS has no mod support. It has no forum for each game. It may have 80m users, but that's for a f2p Fortnite game. Steam has 46m paying users. As far as I know, EGS has no Key Activation, yet. Meaning you won't be able to get free or buy discounted games from somewhere else and activate there, unlike Steam. Many websites support Steam like HumbleBundle, and others.

ZacD

There's moddable games on the launcher already, so I'm hopeful mod support is coming

lefix

Steam is definitely starting to feel a little dated. And it doesn't help that their exclusives like TF2, Dota2, CS:GO, Portal, L4D, etc are getting old and they haven't really followed up with anything except for Artifact just now.
However, they can always release HalfLife 3 to bring people back

Ryusaki

Can they? I seriously doubt it.

VelvetElvis

Can someone make a game launcher launcher? That way I don't have to remember which game needs which one of the 12 launcher services I have to have installed.

Zack Maxwell

lefix said:

Steam is definitely starting to feel a little dated. And it doesn't help that their exclusives like TF2, Dota2, CS:GO, Portal, L4D, etc are getting old and they haven't really followed up with anything except for Artifact just now.
However, they can always release HalfLife 3 to bring people back

DotA has been really showing off the scummy side of Valve in recent years, as well. The revenue share on marketplace items, made almost entirely by the artists with negligible input on Valve's part, has gone down from 70% to something like 10%.
On the surface it's the same, but if I remember correctly they instated a policy in which they just NEVER choose anyone who submits stuff under the normal procedure, and instead approach people with a special deal that has the 10% split.

Kwramm

Depends a lot on the audience Epic can reach. Lower revenue share sounds good in theory, but if you reach fewer people then it won't help. Publishers will still want to have their game in as many distribution channels as possible. "Must-have" games with stellar reviews can probably choose their store and then be exclusive to it for while. Everyone else will likely still aim to be on as many stores - Gog, Epic, Steam, Humble - as possible.

Aabel

Is the Epic store on Linux? Is Epic supporting Proton?. Until Epic does those two things I can't use it. Steam is well on it's way to becoming the mega repository for gaming, and even some software on Linux. If Epic doesn't at least match Valve's efforts in this area there is simply no reason for me, or the 15 other people using Linux for games to support them.

rube

@VelvetElvis Discord does sort of work as a launcher launcher.

PolyHertz

The #1 complaint I've heard so far about Epics store is that they lack regional pricing. Until they have that I don't expect the store will really take off.

Also Steam supports a wide variety of controllers, and recently made it so users on Linux can play Windows games. Both of those things are great features I think all game platforms on PC should have.

Steams biggest issue is that it has no curation at all, and eventually Valve is going to have to do something about it. I don't think players care much if at all about curation, but for developers the lack of curation leads to a lack of exposure which in many cases contributes to a lack of sales.

VelvetElvis said:

Can someone make a game launcher launcher? That way I don't have to remember which game needs which one of the 12 launcher services I have to have installed.

https://playnite.link/

Finnn

Kwramm said:

Depends a lot on the audience Epic can reach. Lower revenue share sounds good in theory, but if you reach fewer people then it won't help. Publishers will still want to have their game in as many distribution channels as possible. "Must-have" games with stellar reviews can probably choose their store and then be exclusive to it for while. Everyone else will likely still aim to be on as many stores - Gog, Epic, Steam, Humble - as possible.

I think this is a very realistic prediction. Most likely both small and big studios will always try to reach as many people as possible and therefore steam will not go down in flames nor will EGS take over. But anyhow I personally think a new era begins as in the monopoly of steam is over. I think this is good and healthy and also a very normal process.

lefix

Finnn said:

When comparing numbers the amount of people playing Fortnite monthly is around 80 Million when Steam has total amount of 46 Million Users. 

From what I see, Steam has about 125m registered user, and about 90m of those are monthly active users. But still Fortnite alone comes close to that number already. Add a few other exclusives on top and they can compete with steam.

ZacD

VelvetElvis said:

Can someone make a game launcher launcher? That way I don't have to remember which game needs which one of the 12 launcher services I have to have installed.

There's already services like that for video streaming platforms. Just put in all your accounts and you can search or view suggestions based on every service you subscribe to. 

sacboi

@OP, your posted metrics are way off by far as opposed too OEM sourced data:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)

Is this the end of the Steam Era?
Will Epic Games Store or some other take it's place?
How much does this matter to the industry anyhow?

...No!

...No!

...in a business sense, not disruptively which is what matters when revenue streams are a primary consideration for developers adopting monetisation strategies.

So IMHO Steam is a mature platform especially for independents to enable potential sales of their particular consumable.

ebbob

Will Epic store support drm-free features? Means games don't require service to launch (as in GOG)

Personally I don't like steam.

Kwramm

Steam does have DRM free games though. Steam doesn't require developers to use it's DRM. So some games don't have DRM - you can run them without Steam installed. Problem is, there's no easy way to tell which games are DRM free on Steam.

PolyHertz

Yep, Ori and the Blind Forest is DRM free on Steam for instance (you just delete the steamworks folder that comes with it and you can run it without steam).

Meloncov

ebbob said:

Will Epic store support drm-free features? Means games don't require service to launch (as in GOG)

Personally I don't like steam.

They said their won't be any Epic Store DRM, with individual games free to include or not include DRM as they choose.

PolyHertz

So this was just posted to the Discord twitter:

https://twitter.com/discordapp/status/1073606080188637189/

ZacD

So 2% cheaper for non-unreal engine games, 3% more expensive for UE4 games (after adding the 5% royalty/discount). I wonder if developers will consider adding games to Discord for 15% cheaper than Steam, and if that will attract more consumers. 

defragger

It sure has the potential to be a game changer. Especially since they see this as a long term thing. Will be watching the progression closely and I hope they add linux support.

Someone know if they will have something like early access too?

Finnn

PolyHertz said:

So this was just posted to the Discord twitter:

https://twitter.com/discordapp/status/1073606080188637189/

lol the first comment under the tweet. Face palm. ^^

@defragger I guess they will have the early access model as it is highly popular and as Epic really aims to attract indie developers.

Skinpop

as much of a game changer as ea origins or Bethesda store.
the features just aren't there compared to steam so consumers don't have any incentive to buy games on egs or Discrod rather than Steam. I think this will end up being a dud. This would be a game changer if they made a product that's actually better than steam but just like all the other publisher store-fronts it's completely half-assed.

Nosslak

@Finnn @defragger Yeah, they've already got at least one Early Access game on there (Hades).

Justin Meisse

Is steam chat and friends-list relevant anymore? These are the games installed on my computer right now from 3 different stores, I double click the link and it launches. The fact that steam is always running in the background is making it look more obtrusive compared to modern competitors.

Aabel

Well the Epic store TOS looks like it was written by Tencent. No way I will ever install it. No game is worth that.

Finnn

@Aabel Can you please justify your opinion and not just scream it out there?

Tencent owns 48,4% of Epic Games, they own 92,78 % of Riot Games and also Supercell ( Clash of Clans etc)
I did a quick search on them but couldnt find anything strikingly crtical
What's so wrong with them in your opinion?

Finnn

Justin Meisse said:

Is steam chat and friends-list relevant anymore? These are the games installed on my computer right now from 3 different stores, I double click the link and it launches. The fact that steam is always running in the background is making it look more obtrusive compared to modern competitors.

I think Steam missed the chance they had to become THE platform. And the missing part was the social system. They did a UI overhaul though, but that didnt change much. Steam had the potential to become like a facebook for gamer.

I think that is where discord comes in play. They have a great community system and combining this with a gaming community makes alot of sense and is a smart move.

What I would like to see on these kind of platforms is are public sharing, an active profile page, liking/sharing.

Aabel

@Finnn Tencent is one of the companies participating and profiting off China's social credit system. If that is the kind of company you want to give business to that is your prerogative. I will abstain.  Epic's terms of service and privacy policy clearly state that anything you say using their services can and most likely will be sent to another country, and be governed by that countries laws, not the laws of your jurisdiction. The terms governing user generated content (includes everything you say/post/click/load) are far broader, in Epic's favor, than the Steam terms.

Discord is also a nightmare from a user privacy point of view. When the service is free, you are the product. Everything you say, do, look at, click on, group you join, friend you make, is saved on Discords servers for the purpose of monetizing you. That may not be a problem for you, however I don't find the use of 'free' chat rooms to be worth that kind of trade off.

defragger

Apparently a Linux version of the store is not even on the roadmap which makes it far less appealing to us.

Fingers crossed for support in the future.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/epic-games-have-confirmed-a-linux-version-of-their-store-is-not-on-the-roadmap.13257

Finnn

I am reviving this post, as Epic Games has made another move. They bought Artstation.

How has Epic Games Store performed, was it a game changer?

Yes it was, not because Epic Games Store has surpassed Steam, but it shows that Epic Games make the right business decisions.

As I see it, Epic Games is and will be the most influential company in the gaming industry in the next few decades. They will influence Indie Development, as well as the AAA industry. 

https://segmentnext.com/2020/07/09/epic-games-store-vs-steam/

What is the bigger picture here and How do Artstation and Epic Games Store fit into that?

As I see it, it fits into the general shift in all kind of industries, towards conversion into online businesses.

Epic Games already has a strong foot in online business, but I suspect they will try to shift the industry towards a more connected and more digitalized, marketplace based field. This could include a marketplace for freelancing services similar to fiverr, a stronger emphasis for Artstation on their online marketplace capabilities.