Epic Games

[Gym2]

So I just found a crap ton of games like assassin's creed, borderlands, hades, final fantasy, control and a lot of indie games were in some kind of contract where Epic Games would pay millions so they would have their game on their Epic Games Store for a year. I've been on steam for quite some time and all these games are games I've never even heard about. And so I was really curious of what the steam community thinks about Epic Games Actions regarding them buying a lot of games from their cash dump in fornite.

[Kargor]

ReBoot の投稿を引用：

Sweeney's playing loss leader. This may look good to dimwits ("FR33 STUFFZ"), but is ultimately devastating for the market, if the rest of the market chimes in. Looks like the rest of the market doesn't chime in so the situation's a good one: user choice.

Yeah, seems like Valve looked at the situation, and I can almost see the meeting room where everyone is like "Epic Games? Who's that? And they are doing what? Challenging us to a money-burning duel?". So, they decided to not play their game and just go on with their usual business.

[Aahzmandias]

I always thought that exclusives are just games taken hostage and general anti customer behavior. One of the reasons I did not buy any of the new consoles.

Think about is what you want, but I think companies that are doing that to get leverage are just unethical trash. I tend to avoid making deals with them on general principle alone. They cannot be trusted.

At least MS and Sony did see the light and started porting games. I guess money did indeed talk.

I am more lenient towards companies like EA UBISOFT, MS and Sony because they make their own games and have the right to have them exclusive on their own shops, but that is not the case for EPIC games, maybe except for their Fortnite. Making other games their exclusives is just despicable.

[Aluvard]

Babi Gendut の投稿を引用：

WhiteKnight の投稿を引用：

I think Epic Games made a massive mistake in paying many of the titles to be exclusive. They should have focused on publishing titles like they are doing with Alan Wake 2 and many others.

They could also funded indie devs who has ambitions but unable to proceed due to funds.

Those could have been admirable. A lot of things they did was downright detestable.

Nah haters gonna hate.

Just look at the poster right below you. Steam fanboys will dig into the core of a black hole just to find a speck of reason to hate epic if they have to.

I think Epic should just ignore these haters and do whatever they can to satisfy their own customers and people who care more about games than it's launcher.

Nah, they lost lot of goodwill, when they started taking games into "console exclusivity".
Also despite assurance that 12% share will mean cheaper games on their store, it's exactly opposite. Pricing same as on Steam, overall functionality worse.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Why doesn’t Sweeney just make every title made with Unreal Engine Epic-only exclusives?

[DiceDsx]

WhiteKnight の投稿を引用：

I think Epic Games made a massive mistake in paying many of the titles to be exclusive. They should have focused on publishing titles like they are doing with Alan Wake 2 and many others.

They could also funded indie devs who has ambitions but unable to proceed due to funds.

Those could have been admirable. A lot of things they did was downright detestable.

I doubt they care if what they did was detestable or not: bad publicity is still publicity, and all that jazz.

That said, I'm sure they would've had less detractors had they refrained from those aggressive exclusivity deals and didn't act as if they were heroes coming to save Pcgaming from the evil clutches of Steam.

[Aahzmandias]

DiceDsx の投稿を引用：

I doubt they care if what they did was detestable or not: bad publicity is still publicity, and all that jazz.

...

Anheuser-Busch with Bud Light would like to disagree with you ... Just sayin' .

There is indeed destructive publicity. The thing about "no such thing as bad publicity" is a myth, taught by incompetent teachers. That will tank many companies in the future.

[Babi Gendut]

Aahzmandias の投稿を引用：

I always thought that exclusives are just games taken hostage and general anti customer behavior. One of the reasons I did not buy any of the new consoles.

I always find it weird when people use the word "taken the game hostage" when they are talking about gaming exclusivity, as if they own the rights to sell games as their own property. I mean imagine if I say you're holding your car hostage after you refuse to drive me around town.

Think about is what you want, but I think companies that are doing that to get leverage are just unethical trash. I tend to avoid making deals with them on general principle alone. They cannot be trusted.

Right... always hide behind the circumstances of "valve never pay for exclusivity". While ignoring the fact that exclusives are the major reason why steam dominates pc gaming and it force people to use steam regardless if valve pay for the deals or not.

At least MS and Sony did see the light and started porting games. I guess money did indeed talk.

Microsoft porting games to steam just to make sure that Sony's lawyer won't have ammunition to accuse them with anti competitive suit so they could acquire activision blizzard. And Sony still hold their latest exclusives to PS 5.

I am more lenient towards companies like EA UBISOFT, MS and Sony because they make their own games and have the right to have them exclusive on their own shops, but that is not the case for EPIC games, maybe except for their Fortnite. Making other games their exclusives is just despicable.

Think of it this way : If I made a video game, and I want to sign exclusive deals with epic for whatever reason, what give you (an unknown people to me) the rights to complain? It is basically the same thing as I made epic the first party to distribute my games.

If you have a problem with that, feel free to make your own game and release it as steam exclusives.

[Mailer]

Sometimes Epic Exclusives get caught in a vacuum where I never even hear from a game I might genuinely be interested in, until it gets close to release, like with LOTR: Return to Moria, for example, but I don't think it actually correlates to every single game that goes exclusive. Most people were well aware of Borderlands 3 coming out, for example, so exclusives don't necessarily do bad on the EGS.

I would happily welcome Epic Games Store as a competitor, but the problem with their current vision is that they just waste tons of money made from Unreal Engine games on short-sighted gains, as opposed to putting that money into innovating with hardware and software, like Valve is.

And that's where I feel that they are going to continue doing wrong, unless they come to realize that innovation is the way forward. Their store is just in a perpetually inferior state otherwise. And it's not like Epic Games is unable to innovate. They made a cross-platform system at one point, so surely they have some capable minds over there.

[DiceDsx]

Mailer の投稿を引用：

I would happily welcome Epic Games Store as a competitor, but the problem with their current vision is that they just waste tons of money made from Unreal Engine games on short-sighted gains

Unreal Engine royalties aren't nearly enough to sustain their loss leader strategy: they're a drop in the ocean compared to the billions Fortnite brings home.

[Babi Gendut]

Aluvard の投稿を引用：

Babi Gendut の投稿を引用：

Nah haters gonna hate.

Just look at the poster right below you. Steam fanboys will dig into the core of a black hole just to find a speck of reason to hate epic if they have to.

I think Epic should just ignore these haters and do whatever they can to satisfy their own customers and people who care more about games than it's launcher.

Nah, they lost lot of goodwill, when they started taking games into "console exclusivity".

Epic's problem is not about losing the goodwill of people. It's about triggering the explosive hate of steam fanboys.

It was a choice between facing the wrath of steam fanboys (who never had any intention of using epic anyway) vs gaining some users who don't care about launcher. And Epic made the right choice.

Also despite assurance that 12% share will mean cheaper games on their store, it's exactly opposite. Pricing same as on Steam, overall functionality worse.

Actually, no one ASSURE that 12/88 share means cheaper games. Ironically no one but steam fanboys. You people wanted epic to fail so much that you keep spreading a promise that epic never made.

But hey let's ignore the fact that epic give free games every week, unlimited coupons during mega sales and winter sales, and their new 5% cashback policy.

[Mailer]

DiceDsx の投稿を引用：

Mailer の投稿を引用：

I would happily welcome Epic Games Store as a competitor, but the problem with their current vision is that they just waste tons of money made from Unreal Engine games on short-sighted gains

Unreal Engine royalties aren't nearly enough to sustain their loss leader strategy: they're a drop in the ocean compared to the billions Fortnite brings home.

I should have clarified that I also meant Fortnite revenue included with that saying since it is an Unreal game, but yeah, you are probably right too.

But my point still stands. If they wanted to innovate with that innate amount of cash, they could. And in my opinion they absolutely should.

When they make additions to Unreal Engine about ways to simulate grass, dirt, whatever... that's actually genuinely cool tech, and it benefits everybody that they do that. I just wish that they made more of that, and less of the promoting-the-store stuff.

[DiceDsx]

Babi Gendut の投稿を引用：

Also despite assurance that 12% share will mean cheaper games on their store, it's exactly opposite. Pricing same as on Steam, overall functionality worse.

Actually, no one ASSURE that 12/88 share means cheaper games. Ironically no one but steam fanboys. You people wanted epic to fail so much that you keep spreading a promise that epic never made.

Well, Tim Sweeney did say that we were going to see lower prices[www.google.com] at some point.

Babi Gendut の投稿を引用：

But hey let's ignore the fact that epic give free games every week, unlimited coupons during mega sales and winter sales, and their new 5% cashback policy.

Let's also ignore that the free games are going to end in 2024 (fun fact: according to a leak, this year's Mega Sale was supposed to have 8 freebies, but it went back to 4 for unknown reasons);

That the coupons are temporary (I doubt they'll want to keep losing 13% of every coupon sale forever);

That their cashback is unsustainable with their cut (Tim Sweeney said that, after direct costs, they're left with 5% ~ 7% store revenue. With the cashback, their revenue goes down to 0% ~ 2%)

That the store has missed the revenue goals 3 years in a row.

But hey, free games! Everything else doesn't matter, right?

[Aluvard]

Babi Gendut の投稿を引用：

Aluvard の投稿を引用：

Nah, they lost lot of goodwill, when they started taking games into "console exclusivity".

Epic's problem is not about losing the goodwill of people. It's about triggering the explosive hate of steam fanboys.

It was a choice between facing the wrath of steam fanboys (who never had any intention of using epic anyway) vs gaining some users who don't care about launcher. And Epic made the right choice.

Disagree on this part - trying to "encourage" people to join your store/online service by buying out game exclusivity 2 weeks before its release (Exodus)?
It's simply bad move. Considering that they had money for exclusivity deal they should be able offer better price for potentional customers on EGS.
Shortly - allow game to be released here and there but offer better price.

Also despite assurance that 12% share will mean cheaper games on their store, it's exactly opposite. Pricing same as on Steam, overall functionality worse.

Actually, no one ASSURE that 12/88 share means cheaper games. Ironically no one but steam fanboys. You people wanted epic to fail so much that you keep spreading a promise that epic never made.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/epic-ceo-youre-going-to-see-lower-prices-on-epic-games-store/

Speaking to Ars Technica, though, Epic co-founder and CEO Tim Sweeney says that players should look forward to paying less on the Epic Games Store in the future. While Epic leaves pricing decisions completely in developers' hands, Sweeney said, "after you go through several cycles of game developers making decisions, you're going to see lower prices as developers pass on the savings to customers, realizing they can sell more copies if they have a better price.

But hey let's ignore the fact that epic give free games every week, unlimited coupons during mega sales and winter sales, and their new 5% cashback policy.

Free games won't create paying customers. If people are used to not paying for games, they won't suddenly start buying new ones.

5% cashback is great in theory but not so great in practice. If you want to have meaningful return (let's say 60$), you need to spend on EGS 1200$.

Unlimited coupons are great, that was without a doubt great idea.

[Anonymous Helper]

Wynters の投稿を引用：

Why doesn’t Sweeney just make every title made with Unreal Engine Epic-only exclusives?

Because every developer on earth would stop using Unreal the second Epic did that and started use some other engine that allowed them to release their game on Steam.

[CyberNinja]

They do. I pay every month for Fortnite Crew