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Maybe less investment in trying to monopolise the market and more investment in developing their shopping platform so it’s not a smouldering turd.
Well not to discourage them but I like Epic games because every Thursday they give me a free game sometimes two. Hell all the 100 games I own on their platform I gotten for free. So maybe that’s why it’s not profitable?
Beyond that I see no monopoly every game on their I can find on Steam and so far have had no issues with it.
They literally pay for exclusivity. It’s weird that people seem to selectively ignore that every time someone brings up their desire to get free games from them.
This is the main reason why I never made an account, despite the free games.
Epic still has to pay the developers even if they give away the game for free. I’m happy to help bleed Epic dry by taking their free games. But I will never ever spend a single cent on their platform.
You’re lying to yourself. They pay a fixed amount for the giveaway and it doesn’t matter if the games are claimed. If anything, you owning a game on Epic means you’re more likely to mention it to your friends and possibly get them to use the platform and spend on it.
They pay a fixed amount based on expected/average number of units given away. If that number is higher, devs can get more money.
Can you provide any evidence for this? The documents from the Apple trial showed fixed and round figures for every single giveaway.
This. Active usernumbers are more worth to them than the small fee they pay the Devs. Everyone who “just redeems the free games” is helping them actively.
Same If I buy a game it will be either directly from the maker or Steam. Epic strictly for the free games.
I mean, I get why people hate this, but some games would literally not exist if not for that exclusivity funding. For example, the newly released Alan Wake 2 is completely funded by Epic. I’d say at that point, the exclusivity is fair game.
Epic funding games development was only a recent thing. For the most part, they were buying exclusivity for games that were already set to be released or were already in active development. The other reason why this was hated was because they bought exclusivity for games that were crowd-funded back when the store was newly opened.
After Control’s success, I’d imagine AW2 still would’ve been made even without Epic’s exclusivity/publishing deal. If anything, Control’s timed EGS exclusivity hurt their numbers until they eventually hit Steam.
So your theory is that Control wasn’t a major success on Epic, so Remedy decided to do the same thing with their next game? Sounds legit.
Epic funding games just makes them a publisher, nothing groundbreaking.
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I have not bought a single game from their store. I have over 300.
I also haven’t played any of the games I got for free. Maybe one day I will, but today is not that day.
I started playing a few and they play well and so far are fun. Have had no issues with the platform.
Oh yeah? Find these:
3 out of 10
A Knight’s Quest
Alan Wake Remastered
Alan Wake 2
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Battle Breakers
Binary Smoke
Castle Storm 2
Core
Corruption 2029
Crime Boss: Rockay City
Dangerous Driving
Dauntless
Dead Island 2
Diabotical
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
Goat Simulator 3
Grit
Infinitesimals
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
Kingdom Hearts series
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Ooblets
PC Building Simulator 2
ReadySet Heroes
Rocket League
RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures
Salt and Sacrifice
Saturnalia
The Settlers: New Allies
Shoulders of Giants
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Space Punks
Star Trek: Resurgence
Tchia
The Crew Motorfest
The Expanse: A Telltale Series
Tortuga - A Pirate’s Tale
Touch Type Tale
Witchfire
The Wolf Among Us 2
Okay, fair, there are some exclusives. But reading through these, wow, nothing of value is lost.
Most importantly because for the newest ones like AW2, they’re just on a 1 year Early Access release in a lot of ways. Every time someone I know bought a game there, I was grateful they did the paid (as in, they pay, not get paid) bug testing work for the poor devs. And then once it releases on other stores, you can buy a somewhat patched-up version, and usually for 25%-50% off.
They bought fall guys and removed the possibility of buying it on steam. And timed exclusives like borderlands 3.
This list is just another argument against epic… artificial exclusives. For a FUCKING LAUNCHER. Even fucking Playstation, EA and Ubisoft opened up.
Fuck Epic.
Fucking Playstation is not better than Epic with handling exclusives lmfao come on now
They are literally releasing their games on another platform that actually requires them to put money into the project again to develop a port. So yeah, even PS atm is better than Epic.
So Playstation releasing some of their games literally years later as often sub-par ports is better than being able to play a game day 1 native on PC? I’d love to hear to the logic for that lol
It’s better than keeping them artificially locked behind a launcher for no reason whatsoever, yes.
This is a bad example to put down, can’t find that on the epic store either.
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-is-turning-off-online-services-and-servers-for-some-older-games
I don’t know about any of the others, but at least Rocket League and Fall Guys are great examples here.
Both games already existed and were extremely successful on Steam.
Both games got bought by Epic and we were told they were going to get continued support.
Both games were then REMOVED from Steam.
Both games then started suddenly having objectively worse monetization. Both communities grew a pretty negative opinion of the changes.
Both games are objectively less popular now, though at least some of this is just age/fads.
But both games are just objectively in a worse spot than they were before. All Epic did was make them objectively worse.
If you count all of Steam’s features (Steam Input, Big Picture Mode, Proton etc), then Epic has decades of catching up to do. The problem is that usually executives will choose the “easy way out” of problems, so let’s just give free games instead of making a good platform.
Yeah, if I’m reading that right they’re complaining that they’re stuck at phase one of enshitification - lose money on aquiring users. The reason behind that is they’re not able to monopolize the market for their games. “These damn mobile stores won’t let us turn the corner and put the clamps on our users. Fix it please.”
We made the shittiest thing and nobody likes it. We’re all out of ideas.
This is the most asinine approach IMO.
“Let’s release a worse product. Hey, no one likes it. Okay, let’s spend money on games so THEY can essentially force people to use our software. Hey, still, no one really likes it. Okay, let’s try to give away stuff for free. Hey, people use our thing for the free stuff but still no one likes it for any other reason.”
They just keep spending money to up their numbers and their product is still missing features and inferior to competition. They spend big money on exclusivity, but that is only temporary - if that’s how you’re getting your customers, you’re going to have to keep doing it forever to retain them. If people only use you for free stuff, you’re just going to have to keep giving stuff away at a loss to retain them.
This model is not sustainable. You’re not doing anything that aligns value with your customers besides just throwing free stuff at them. That’s not a business.
What’s especially sad to me is they could literally have just spent that same money to improve their launcher and have an actual product. Instead they’ve invested in temporary stats. They’re essentially bankrolling other devs on games with temporary popularity instead of in their lifelong product.
Using other games exclusivity as sway into your ecosystem only works when you have a good product the person would be interested in but they haven’t seen it yet. EGS is currently something people are essentially coerced into using but no one really gets any real value out of it other than “well I couldn’t buy this game anywhere else”
I think it just depends on how long they can do this. I think they are banking on getting the fortnite kiddies hooked on the store. They typically have far less disposable income (yet they still charge kids for 20$ skins), they will most likely not have a super large steam library (probably due to the aformentioned skins) so they are banking on the store being that kids default to Epic rather than steam. Its not terribly odd since Steam basically did the same thing, when it used to have those mega sales with the flash sales and the such. That is when the love for Steam basically exploded and its been cruising on that hypetrain for a while.
Plus it’s not like there wasn’t room for a good shopping client, if you go smart about it.
Steam had at the time - and still has - tons of bad UI design, stemming for its very old layouts wrangling with newer client additions and changes. Plus Steam for the longest time until the new client solved it had serious issues with late boots and hanging closures. GOG had just tried to bring out their own client a few years before, but in the move to GOG Galaxy had gotten a lot of ire and fucked a lot of things up. All the per-developer clients were berated constantly.
There was room there. But Epic, hell, this is so not it. Your client is so much worse than even the bad competitors…
Steam may suck at extra goodies like streaming but they sure as hell don’t suck at selling games. Constant sales, cloud saves, pre-downloads, a solid friend system for co-op games. They nail all the important shit and that’s really all that matters to most people.
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I started playing Epic Games after support was added on Heroic Games Launcher. But I ain’t spending money on them because there’s no guarantee it will still be working tomorrow.
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Did they get a shopping cart yet? I remember not being able to buy multiple games at once, but I just gave up on that store so no idea how it is now
They do now, yeah
Whether its games stores or streaming services, the media seems to constantly miss the obvious, lack of accounted profits means no tax to pay…
that’s also called tax evasion
No… No, that’s not tax evasion.
Is it actually not profitable or is this one of those tax writeoff bullshit things where it makes them money in some indirect way
Most likely actually non profitable. With crapton of Chinese cash, they can keep paying studios more of a cut than Steam, giveaway games, pay for exclusivity. Their goal right now isn’t to make money, but to take market share
Only way epic can compete, even with bloody ubisoft launcher, is to remove competition. Improving their store just isnt part of their business plan, if it was they would do it.
If you haven’t tried a linux distro since the release of the SteamDeck, I highly recommend you give gaming on linux a shot.
What does this have to do with the Epic store?
No thanks
Not worth the hassle but you do you. Keep fighting the good fight.
And it really is the good fight in this case. I’ve been running Linux on my gaming PC for around four years with very little trouble. Games from Epic and GOG run very well(for me at least) through Heroic Games Launcher. I’ve been using Windows for work on/off the last couple of years, but especially since they “upgraded” to Windows 11, it’s such a relief to come home to Linux.
Which destro would you recommend? I’m kind of sick of Windows.
Nobara has, for me, been the most plug and play no headache distro I’ve touched, ever.
If you want a Couch Gaming Station I recommend you to look at ChimeraOS. Linux first that boots directly to Stream Big Picture (since it’s based on SteamOS) and it supports emulators and Epic Game Store.
On my old i5-8700T with qUHD630 it pretty much was a install, reboot, login to Steam and start playing. My Wireless Xbox Controller USB dongle was plug’n’play.
What brand of graphics card do you have? If it’s Nvidia Pop!_OS will likely work best. If you have an AMD card I’ve heard good things about EndeavorOS.
Also, feel free to shop around for a desktop environment (DE) you like, which controls the look and how things are organized. While distros have a default, it’s pretty easy to swap them. I personally use KDE Plasma (the same DE the Steam Deck uses) with Pop!_OS
Fedora with “Dash to Panel” and the “Applications Menu” make the GUI identical to Windows. That would be a good start :)
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6/applications-menu/
Or just use KDE instead of Gnome. It’s such a terrible DE anyway.
Sorry, I’ll wait some more. I tried two times getting back to Linux as I see the potential. It didn’t work. I’m gonna stick to windows until some problems will be fixed, or Microsoft further enshittifies itself.
Man, I enjoy Linux too, but I cannot see how its related to the post.
Gotta love the diehard linux users promoting their preferred OS on a topic even slightly related.
How’s the performance on Nvidia cards? Most benchmarks that I saw are people using AMD cards.
NVIDIA is a one-line command to install and setup the drivers.
For me? Most of my games run better on Linux. Such as CSGO, which is why I initially switched.
I generally prefer AMD, how are they for Linux?
Great! You don’t even need to install any drivers. It just works.
Also some distros like Pop!_OS just have it included and automatically update them
Thanks for the tip but no
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Yes, both from Valve working hard on compatibility and game devs testing against it
Having been on Linux for over a year now, I don’t. It’s still plagued by instability, weird bugs, and big limitations whenever non-Steam games are involved.
You mean games that arent available in steam at all, vor those which you haven’t bought there? I found the easiest workaround for me was to simply add the games to my steam library and to launch it from there. Then I don’t have to worry about what proton version I should use or whatnot.
Doesn’t need to be profitable, when they’re just rolling around in Fortnite money wondering what to spend it on.
then why they layoff like 10% of their staff recently?
Because they’re greedy?
Well they’re not gonna cut top salaries, can’t have any of that, it’s bad for business!! Imagine being able to only afford one yacht instead of your standard three! Gotta let those lackeys at the bottom of the pyramid go, what’re they even holding up, anyway? The foundation of the company? Surely not.
It’s the hip new tech company trend to help keep wages and salaries down.
Everyone (in big tech at least) has. Just didn’t want to feel left out.
Shouldn’t have bought Mediatonic either.
because profit + 10% of salary > profit
Would that be because it is still a pale imitator not remotely competitive with steam?
See it’s not all negative news on the internet.
I was upset when Epic acquired Rocket League and drove it into the ground, and then I was pissed when Epic paid for exclusivity on ubisoft games. I bought one game on Epic game stores app two years ago and have since claimed every free game they offer every week whether I care to play it or not. I have also repurchased that game on Steam, so literally the only time I even open epic games is to claim the weekly free game and cost them money.
Epic has exclusivity on all Ubisoft games? I stopped buying Ubi games years ago, so I guess that’s fine with me. I hope Ubisoft loses money on that deal.
I don’t LIKE the epic games store, but it is kind of fucking strange, that valve is a company whose literal monopoly is not only not questioned, but specifically celebrated.
Yeah cuz they doing it right
For now… Except for all the showelware, and OS support of “the current” one…
If you want to fight the monopoly, go with a good alternative like GOG Galaxy. This article is about Epic, hence the preference for Steam.
I recently played hitman 3 with Lutris on Kubuntu in Epicstore.
Sync was working well. Game was running well.
It is not Steam (which has a native Linux installation), but at least it works.
If the price is the same I go with steam, if epic is much cheaper I go with epic.
Lucky you, that you managed to make Epic run properly over Linux!
It was really straightforward to be honest. But I did it 2 weeks ago.
Maybe 6-12 months ago was more difficult.
I installed Lutris I opened it, then installed epic store Then I logged in and installed hitman.
To play I have to open lutris > epic store > hitman 3.
Do you guys think e.g. YouTube or redshit is profitable despite of what they say and without “profit” that’s pumped in by investors or mother companies?
it’s just a business,
They get market share by loosing profit then once they are establish enough so most people won’t leave if they change things and they change things and start to make profit.
At least that’s the plan.
Google’s goal with YouTube was never profit. Had it been YT would end up on Google graveyard long time ago. They are looking for market dominance with video streaming which in turn provides a lot of useful data for mining. Ads are there to curb price of whole ordeal a bit.
Epic Games launcher/store is nothing more than Tencent spyware using “free games” as bait and masquerading as a Steam competitor.
Well. It’s required for downloading Unreal Engine for development. Not really sure about spyware.
Yeah I am not buying that spyware argument either.
WeChat would like a word
WeChat is not Epic Launcher last time I checked.
All it took last time was Tencent to say jump to their asset.
Here’s some info about the spyware that they had in Epic Games that was allegedly “fixed”
https://www.eurogamer.net/epic-responds-to-accusations-its-launcher-accesses-steam-data-without-permission
You can sell access to your PC for the free games from Epic if you choose to. I choose not to install their garbage app, because I have plenty of other games and I don’t need their free bait.
Once trust is lost, it’s hard to get back.
That shit is 4 years old already and it is fixed no more outrage.
But you do you.
I was up for a Steam competitor. I signed up for the Epic store a few years back. Tried to get the first free game. It wasn’t available in my region despite being plastered all over the store in my region. The exact same thing happened the next month. Both of those games were available on Steam in my region at some pretty low prices by then.
Then, Epic started paying for exclusivity, making games not available in my region at all. I had at least deleted their stupid app by then anyway. Fuck Epic entirely.
GOG Galaxy has been good even before Epic Store existed.
My only complaint about GOG is that developers treat it as an afterthought. Plenty of games that stop receiving updates, or are pulled out of the store entirely, while the Steam version remains maintained. Also, the required lack of DRM makes multiplayer online games relatively scarce.
GOG is great. I have an account and have bought a few games there when I think of it. I just wish they had Souls games.
Used to have similar problem with Steam back in the day.
Edit: I like how some people disagree that i experienced something by downvote. It’s not like i can change it or something 😅 👌
I don’t doubt it, but I’ve been a pretty regular user since 2009, and I’ve never had a game advertised to me on the front page that wasn’t available in my region. In fact, there are games I want that I know aren’t available on Steam here, and the only way to get to the Steam page for them is by using a proxy or VPN. I definitely can’t buy them with my account. It seems pretty amateurish of Epic to advertise unavailable games and to even let me click “buy” before telling me I can’t buy it. Maybe they’ve fixed that by now, but whatever. The paid exclusivity bullcrap showed me where their priorities lie.
It’s not amaterish anymore than GOG or Steam giving out free games back in the day. Even before it used to be magazines with free games on CDs. I still have these games in my libraries. It’s widely used strategy by bigger business to start new departments or even child companies. It’s why they say money makes money.
It’s amateurish that their store advertised games to me that were unavailable to me. I’m no code whiz, but it can’t be that hard to chuck in an if (region == false) then !advertise; Valve and GOG don’t seem to have any problems with that.
I have no issue with them giving away free games. Too bad that and the paid exclusives don’t earn them a loyal customer base. Maybe if they’d put more effort into their store. Like maybe not advertising region locked games to regions where they’re not available.
That part i agree. It’s not that unrealistic with their budget .
There are mistakes being done unintentionally when you develop complex software.
Take my example, Humble showed me Bandai Namco game that I could not even get in a bundle. So out of 10 games, I received 9, while other regions receive 10.
That is even worse than Epic’s (probably honest) mistake.
Humble isn’t trying to compete with Steam or Epic, and they don’t engage in the anti-consumer practice of paying off developers for exclusive access to games.
I’m aware of the complexities of software development. If Epic seriously wanted to compete with Steam, they really should have tried harder to provide a better service instead of trying to buy loyalty through free games and exclusivity contracts.
Seems to me that the most lucrative thing in gaming is still just making really good games.
Sure, there’s Steam, but that’s a fluke. The exception that proves the rule. Just get back to actual game making.
I mean, Steam is owned by Valve, and they make some pretty good games. Half-Life, Portal are some of the best series out there. I recently played HL Alyx and it was a banger.
Their latest game is garbage tho.
I wouldn’t say garbage, I’d say rushed. The gameplay is debatable, as it’s carbon copy of CS GO with sprinkles.
Call garbage as garbage. Rushed means no quality, means garbage.
So you say every game is either absolute garbage or a masterpiece? Life must be fun.
But you have to give Valve credit for supporting Linux gaming witch if gets popular enough will create perfect competition for Windows. imagine system that requires 1GB or RAM instead of 4-5GB when idle , that doesn’t spy on you and is more secure. Perfect for gaming IMHO if taken seriously.
Windows PC gamers and Xbox gamers are more or less the only ones who game on non-*Nix kernels; PlayStation is BSD-derived, Switch is BSD+Android, Steam Deck is of course Linux, a lot of arcade cabinets run on Debian. Gaming on non-Windows platforms is absolutely viable, it’s just being hidden from players by a thin layer of customization.
nowhere near related to either, nintendo just took some BSD/MIT licensed bits and pieces to not come up with their own
yes it is, in fact it would be much better experience if properly supported if nothing else because Linux can be modyfied into anything, though free community driven Linux is preferable to Sony’s closed system.