Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

Wintermute · Dec 4, 2018

For the past five years, we've been building tools enabling Epic to bring our games directly to players. We built the Epic Games launcher on PC and Mac featuring Fortnite and Unreal Engine; we built a worldwide digital commerce ecosystem supporting dozens of payment methods; and we gained great economies of scale thanks to Fortnite's growth.

As developers ourselves, we wanted two things: a store with fair economics, and a direct relationship with players. And we've heard that many of you want this too!

Soon we'll launch the Epic Games store, and begin a long journey to advance the cause of all developers. The store will launch with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac, then it will open up more broadly to other games and to Android and other open platforms throughout 2019.

All Engines Are Welcome
The Epic Games store is open to games built with any engine, and the first releases span Unreal, Unity and internal engines.

UnrealEngine_News_Announcing+the+Epic+Games+Store_EpicGamesStore_InfoGraphic-1920x1080-df66848...jpg

Taking Fortnite's success and turning it into a way to get into the game sales market with attractive revenue share is the way to do it.

More competition is always good IMO.

Punko · Dec 4, 2018

I'd rather pay 10% more on steam then get it elsewhere which is less convenient.

In fact I think everyone that buys games on steam is already doing that.

a_skeleton_05 · Dec 4, 2018

Punko said:
I'd rather pay 10% more on steam then get it elsewhere which is less convenient.

In fact I think everyone that buys games on steam is already doing that.

This is pretty much the mentality that we've all had for quite some time for obvious reasons. It's not however the mentality of the youngin's playing Fortnite. This won't destroy Steam by any means, but it's another player in an increasingly competitive field that will take a chunk out of a stagnanting Steam run by lazy uncoordinated developers.

Vandyn · Dec 4, 2018

Competition is always good. The issue is for a vast majority of PC gamers, we are so invested in the Steam ecosystem (game libraries, workshop, etc.) that it's almost impossible to fully get into another platform. I have a decent amount of games on Origin that I've gotten for free at one time or another but I couldn't tell you the last time I fired up that client. Now that being said, most consumers are going to go where the sales are best. I'm just not enthusiastic about firing up yet another client (Steam, Battle.net, Origin, etc.).

Caliane · Dec 4, 2018

that 12% is some serious, "shots fired".

fanaskin · Dec 4, 2018

If someone invented some kind of simple program that let you browse every game library system at once this would be more tolerable.

Discord kinda does that but only for launching games. a hub that would plug into steam, origin, gog and epic and browse buying games all at once would be kinda hot, make the game platforms compete against eachother more spotting more discounts with ease.

a_skeleton_05 · Dec 4, 2018

fanaskin said:
If someone invented some kind of simple program that let you browse every game library system at once this would be more tolerable.

Discord kinda does that but only for launching games. a hub that would plug into steam, origin, epic and browse buying games all at once would be kinda hot, make the game platforms compete against eachother more spotting more discounts with ease.

Would have happened by now if it was possible. It's not possible exactly for the competition aspect: They don't want to play in the same sandbox as the other guys.

Soygen · Dec 4, 2018

Dom said:
Would have happened by now if it was possible. It's not possible exactly for the competition aspect: They don't want to play in the same sandbox as the other guys.

With more competition, though, it might open up the possibility of an open API allowing for front-end software that facilitates consolidating your libraries. Steam definitely has no reason, thus far, to even entertain the idea.

Ravishing · Dec 4, 2018

I think it's pretty big they say they'll support Android eventually too.. Another F-U to google after the whole FortNite app bypassing the Play Store and Google publishing a vulnerability before giving Epic a chance to fix it.

I like the move. I am not a game enthusiast in the sense I buy 10's or 100s of games. I target a few games at a time and dedicate lots of time to just those games. So that said, I already don't use Steam. The last games I played on Steam were TF2 and No Man's Sky.

I see the appeal of Steam but I'm definitely NOT attached to it at all. I think a lot of the younger gen will use Epic over Steam for sure.

pharmakos · Dec 4, 2018

Multitude of streaming services leads to piracy: report

I wonder if a similar effect can happen in gaming

... · Dec 4, 2018

worked so well for orgin, uplay etc etc

Kaines · Dec 4, 2018

... said:
worked so well for orgin, uplay etc etc

Origin and UPlay allow 3rd party developers onto their store front?

... · Dec 4, 2018

ahh yea that is true. I do think competition to steam is a good thing. them getting other games on their platform is a good idea.

I just get annoyed when they pull games off of steam to sell them in their company app. I end up basically buying less of their games is the net result.

Punko · Dec 4, 2018

Dom said:
This is pretty much the mentality that we've all had for quite some time for obvious reasons. It's not however the mentality of the youngin's playing Fortnite. This won't destroy Steam by any means, but it's another player in an increasingly competitive field that will take a chunk out of a stagnanting Steam run by lazy uncoordinated developers.

The young folks playing fortnite don't have a budget worth mentioning.

Its the next bubble.

I guess its too complex to explain like that, but teens have the attention span of a gnat and little expendable income, so fortnite is going to die before star citizen stops generating income.

Pyros · Dec 4, 2018

The thing is Steam is much more than just a storefront for developpers, it comes with a lot of tools to monitor and analyze your selling data, it comes with a bunch of things to support your game like online matchmaking or modding and obviously it being Steam, it comes with more reach than other stores to sell your game to people who might not have heard of your game otherwise. And then for the user, Steam does a lot of cool stuff that no other store does, or does poorly, like refunds, family sharing, offline mode, gamepad support and so on.

But now all these cucks making pixel art shovelware indie games that kept whining about how "Steam's not worth the 30%" can go fuck themselves off to the Epic Store and see how it works out on another store.

And it might lead to good things eventually.

meStevo · Dec 4, 2018

Time for Movies Anywhere but for games. Let me buy them at participating storefronts and play through any of them.

... · Dec 4, 2018

this is only partially related but...all these companies that payment processors keep deplatforming. why don't they just sell something on steam? an animated gif of a frog jumping?

Sentagur · Dec 4, 2018

Didnt steam have an option to add non steam game to their launcher?
I have not used that option i a while but i remember adding some physical box games i purchased into the steam launcher few years back.

A third party option that just lets you enter your credentials for all the different services like GOG, Steam and Origin and such and then displays them in the consolidated way would be pretty awesome.
In regards to mobile games, whats the pont when you are using the mobile software installer anyway also mobile games are "teh Debil".

Vandyn · Dec 4, 2018

Pyros said:
The thing is Steam is much more than just a storefront for developpers, it comes with a lot of tools to monitor and analyze your selling data, it comes with a bunch of things to support your game like online matchmaking or modding and obviously it being Steam, it comes with more reach than other stores to sell your game to people who might not have heard of your game otherwise. And then for the user, Steam does a lot of cool stuff that no other store does, or does poorly, like refunds, family sharing, offline mode, gamepad support and so on.

But now all these cucks making pixel art shovelware indie games that kept whining about how "Steam's not worth the 30%" can go fuck themselves off to the Epic Store and see how it works out on another store.

And it might lead to good things eventually.

It might eventually but it'll take awhile. Steam has upwards of around 100 million users and they are not going to magically disappear from the platform if some small time dev decides to jump ship. You have to wonder how much business sense that makes, to shut out basically 90% of the market by going exclusive on another platform. For big companies (like Blizzard/EA) they can get away with it because they have the capital and license fees to sustain their own titles on their only platforms but what about the little guys? That's a lot of money being left on the table for an extra 10-15%.

It may work out in the long run (where you can make comparable sales on say Epic). If they put in on both (Epic and Steam) then what makes the Steam user buy it somewhere else?

Fucker · Dec 4, 2018

Whoever has the best sales wins. I don't care where I get what, because I already have all the clients installed.

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Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

Wintermute

Punko

Macho Ma'am

a_skeleton_05

Vandyn

Blackwing Lair Raider

Caliane

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fanaskin

Well known agitator

a_skeleton_05

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One

Ravishing

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pharmakos

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...

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Kaines

Potato Supreme

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Punko

Macho Ma'am

Pyros

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.

...

Goonsquad Officer

Sentagur

Low and to the left

Vandyn

Blackwing Lair Raider

Fucker

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