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Is the Epic Game Store really going somewhere at this point?

StereoVsn

Gold Member
The deals are better on EGS than on Steam at the moment, it is true.

I love for Steam to have some real competition. Customer can only profit from competition. I wish Epic the best for the store. Force Steam to be better. :)
Better at what? Steam is better at virtually everything and anything as far as storefront and platform services go.

Publishers set game pricing. Epic coupons (not present in the last sale mind you) come from Fortnite cash which Steam doesn’t have and doesn’t need really.
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
I don't think it's so much that the market is impenetrable as they went about it the wrong way. Throwing money at a problem doesn't fix usability issues, a lack of basic features, and a reputation for the launcher itself being a resource hog.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
they should probably make a deal with Sony and make it Playstation‘s PC store.
Like Sony haven't done enough to piss of the PC community. And also looks like none of these EGS exclusive deals have been profitable, as publishers choose to abandon the EGS as soon as they stop throwing money at them.
 
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Like Sony haven't done enough to piss of the PC community. And also looks like none of these EGS exclusive deals have been profitable, as publishers choose to abandon the EGS as soon as they stop throwing money at them.
Sony owns like 5% of Epic. Exchanging another 5% for PC publishing rights, seems like a fair deal. Giving a Epic a carrot to save their store to add more equity is definitely something they would do. Pissing off the PC community shouldn’t matter, would be Epic’s problem.
 
Without implementing even the most basic features in their store and platform, I don't see the point of EGS at all. Valve competes with digital stores for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Plus there is already GOG. Really don't need another cash-in desktop app pushing further fragmentation on PC.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I'm not surprised they didn't become a proper Steam competitor. The biggest problem is they've taught people to visit the store only when there's a new free game to be redeemed or a new coupon to be used during a sale. The customers are not going to go there to buy full priced games. I don't know if it was ever possible to turn the store into a successful one by making different decisions, but the result is they've sunk a ton of money to provide the free/discounted stuff and didn't get a lot in return.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
John Candy No GIF by Laff
 
I'd say at this point the only stores that could rival Steam are either the MS store if they ever get their act together or Sony's probably/possibly coming PC store. Both are big enough to offer those exclusive equivalents CS up until the Orange Box were to move people on Steam's DRM-thing. But naturally establishing and evolving from no competition was easier to now challenge the sorta monopoly.
Maybe Tencent and other Chinese companies doing their own thing can also move a bunch of people onto their eventual platform.

I have no idea how anyone at the top at Epic kept their job. The whole investment in the EGS only gave Fortnite money away, for no returns at all, after years. Fortnite still runs and still expands with regular content updates but while having only that one cash cow is risky, wasting your profits on a bottomless pit is just dumb at this point. They could have built themselves up to be a major third party player and eventually then make a store. Rivaling EA and Ubi and their stores that are not going anywhere but at least not clearly losing money.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
They should be worried about Sony's store, especially if they make all Sony pc games exclusive to the Sony pc store and offer a sweet deal to third party publishers.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
Sony owns like 5% of Epic. Exchanging another 5% for PC publishing rights, seems like a fair deal. Giving a Epic a carrot to save their store to add more equity is definitely something they would do. Pissing off the PC community shouldn’t matter, would be Epic’s problem.

If you ignore Helldivers 2 for a second, Sony games are not that popular on PC. They only end up not selling their games.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
They should be worried about Sony's store, especially if they make all Sony pc games exclusive to the Sony pc store and offer a sweet deal to third party publishers.

If this was a good idea, more publishers would do so. EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Activision all tried their own store thing for a while, before eventually coming back to Steam. More exclusive launchers are so outdated on PC at this point. Most PC gamers are fed up with PC launchers, but they are willing to tolerate them as long as their games are being sold trough Steam.
 
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Wildebeest

Member
It is weird that your continued access to your game library is dependent on the success of one game, Fortnite, unlike Steam which seems viable by itself.
 

Laptop1991

Member
I've only ever used it for the free games or when i got a game free with a GPU and had to use it, it will never evolve into a good PC client, because it's just a store in reality, it doesn't come even close to Steam in being a functional PC client with options for gaming, and the other problem it's got is there isn't enough good big games being made that will sustain their free game giveaways in the long run, we all know the industry keeps making gaas and live service titles with the focus on monetization that fail mostly, so Epic will just keep giving away the same games most people already have when they got them in the 1st giveaways on there, or smaller games not many would buy anyway,

Only making better games that gamers want to pay money for will improve this situation for gamers and storefront's alike, maybe Epic should make some good games again like they did a long time ago. i loved Unreal, back in the 90's!.
 

duck_sauce

Gold Member
Better at what? Steam is better at virtually everything and anything as far as storefront and platform services go.

Publishers set game pricing. Epic coupons (not present in the last sale mind you) come from Fortnite cash which Steam doesn’t have and doesn’t need really.
Stop defending a storefront. That fact that steam doesnt need that already shows you the monopoly (which is never a good thing for consumers)

I dont know how but games are cheaper on EGS than on Steam when in comes to pricecuts. Not always, but i noticed that on several occasions.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Stop defending a storefront. That fact that steam doesnt need that already shows you the monopoly (which is never a good thing for consumers)

I dont know how but games are cheaper on EGS than on Steam when in comes to pricecuts. Not always, but i noticed that on several occasions.
The publishers decide on sale prices, but Epic bolstered their sales to make them look sweeter by giving vouchers which came out of their pockets. All digital store sales are pretty tame compared to old retail sales when they wanted to clear stock, or online key sellers when they want to do the same. Imagine going back to 2000 and telling a gamer to be excited about 50% off on a five-year-old game.
 
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Same. Storefront Wars are Retarded.

I'm not, ive bought a fair few games on Epic because they were cheaper there, compared to Steam.

I hear you. Once you double click the icon for a game, it doesn't much matter where it came from. Especially single player games.

It's hard to figure how the "store warrior" mentality formed since the stores are just free apps that everyone can access, a bit different from the plastic box wars that set you back $400 or $500. Not that I'm against the people that like to keep their library on Steam, do whatever you like. If I can save $10 getting something on Epic that's what I'll do. :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 

winjer

Gold Member
Stop defending a storefront. That fact that steam doesnt need that already shows you the monopoly (which is never a good thing for consumers)

I dont know how but games are cheaper on EGS than on Steam when in comes to pricecuts. Not always, but i noticed that on several occasions.

That's just because Epic is using that Fortnite money to give away more discounts and coupons.
But that tactic is unsustainable on the long run.

There is another thing to consider, because Steam is not a monopoly, and it is possible to buy Steam keys in many stores, that means there are always promotions going around.
In fact, in those stores, it's almost always cheaper than to buy on Steam. And quite often, in the Epic store.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
If this was a good idea, more publishers would do so. EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Activision all tried their own store thing for a while, before eventually coming back to Steam. More exclusive launchers are so outdated on PC at this point. Most PC gamers are fed up with PC launchers, but they are willing to tolerate them as long as their games are being sold trough Steam.

None of them had the lineup of aaa exclusive games that Sony has. Sony are already working on this, they don't want to share pc revenue with Steam long term.
 

Sorcerer

Member
I think that if the Epic Games Store has proven anything, it's that the PC games market is completely impenetrable and nothing is going to lure consumers away from Steam.


Epic has been literally giving away a shitton of AAA games for free over the years, and it still hasn't gotten consumers to bite in any meaningful way.
To paraphrase Phil Spencer "Digital libraries is why Xbox is losing" At least Valve tries to be innovative. Epic cannot even get a store front correct.
 
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ClosBSAS

Member
They were never going anywhere. The moneyhats were to straight up prevent the games from being on steam. Which backfired on their asses so fast, specially for metro exodus.

Terrible store, shitty functionality, slow, clunky...they deleted my account and i had to start a lawsuit to get it back and the games i bought
 

kiphalfton

Member
Better at what? Steam is better at virtually everything and anything as far as storefront and platform services go.

Publishers set game pricing. Epic coupons (not present in the last sale mind you) come from Fortnite cash which Steam doesn’t have and doesn’t need really.

Was weird there were no coupons last sale, but Epic is probably weaning people off coupons and good free games, in hopes they'll retain those same customers.

Jokes on them, there are people (like me) who just go there for the free stuff and never otherwise use it.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Was weird there were no coupons last sale, but Epic is probably weaning people off coupons and good free games, in hopes they'll retain those same customers.

Jokes on them, there are people (like me) who just go there for the free stuff and never otherwise use it.
Yeah, most of their customers use Fortnite and grab free games. Their 3rd party sales were abysmal according to those reveals.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Now that Kingdom Hearts is finally free of the epic chains, I just don't care anymore lol (unless they come back at it). Kingdom Hearts and Tony Hawk were the two games that made it so frustrating for me, but they are finally both on Steam, no more reason to be depressed by the awful EGS, thankfully.
It seems like the exclusives are getting weaker, but who knows, they could still be annoying again with various stuff.
I'm thinking KH4 is 100% releasing on PC day 1
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
I hear you. Once you double click the icon for a game, it doesn't much matter where it came from. Especially single player games.

It's hard to figure how the "store warrior" mentality formed since the stores are just free apps that everyone can access, a bit different from the plastic box wars that set you back $400 or $500. Not that I'm against the people that like to keep their library on Steam, do whatever you like. If I can save $10 getting something on Epic that's what I'll do. :messenger_grinning_smiling:
What if I'm not buying a game out of steam just so I don't have to use a M&K interface? No other store offers that feature
 
What if I'm not buying a game out of steam just so I don't have to use a M&K interface? No other store offers that feature

That's a valid point. Either Windows itself or a third party needs to create an alternative gaming front-end that's all controller based and is store agnostic.
 
Same. Storefront Wars are Retarded.

The deals are better on EGS than on Steam at the moment, it is true.

I love for Steam to have some real competition. Customer can only profit from competition. I wish Epic the best for the store. Force Steam to be better. :)

Stop defending a storefront. That fact that steam doesnt need that already shows you the monopoly (which is never a good thing for consumers)

I dont know how but games are cheaper on EGS than on Steam when in comes to pricecuts. Not always, but i noticed that on several occasions.

Epic game store represents the alternative to steam.

Wouldn't be an EGS thread without thick headed posts overlooking EGS' flaws.

EGS' features suck. I don't like stuff that sucks.
 

Red5

Member
Stop defending a storefront. That fact that steam doesnt need that already shows you the monopoly (which is never a good thing for consumers)

I dont know how but games are cheaper on EGS than on Steam when in comes to pricecuts. Not always, but i noticed that on several occasions.

You didn't answer the question, EGS is good to force Steam to be better at what? Because Steam was better feature wise in when EGS was released and still is all these years after EGS was released. So EGS would force Steam to be better in what?

Games are cheaper on EGS because Epic subsidies the prices using Fortnite and Unreal Engine revenue.
 

Braag

Member
They've been giving away free games for years now. If it hasn't worked thus far, I don't know what will.
As a PC only gamer I directly go to Steam where my library and my mates are to play something. I have Epic Launcher on my PC, but months will go by before I remember to launch it to see if they've done any major improvements to it.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
That's a valid point. Either Windows itself or a third party needs to create an alternative gaming front-end that's all controller based and is store agnostic.
Or the stores can provide that features as a selling point. That's what Steam did and that alone (without counting everything else) is just whole universe ahead of EGS.
 

Fbh

Member
Unlike others I'm not a a hater of everything that isn't steam. In fact if everything released on GOG that would probably be my platform of choice.
That said I just don't really see the point of the Epic games store aside from the free games, the occasional exclusive and the occasional good discount.
I've bough some games on Epic when they were considerably cheaper (regional pricing + that coupon they have every now and then is nice), but other than that there's no reason to choose it over steam which works better, has more features and is where most of my library already is.
 
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rm082e

Member
As someone who plays single-player games, I literally never use any of the features of Steam. It's nothing more than a storefront and launcher. So for my use case, all of the launchers are about the same. Steam, EGS, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, Origin, etc. are all the same to me - I click the icon for the app, then I click the play button on the game and it loads.

I get that Steam is the best of them, but that doesn't mean much for me. I do have the mobile app for Steam installed and buy most of my games there, but I don't see any point in avoiding other storefronts like EGS if the game is cheaper on them. I've gotten a few games on EGS that were $10 cheaper than other stores because of their coupon deal.
 
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kiphalfton

Member
Now that Kingdom Hearts is finally free of the epic chains, I just don't care anymore lol (unless they come back at it). Kingdom Hearts and Tony Hawk were the two games that made it so frustrating for me, but they are finally both on Steam, no more reason to be depressed by the awful EGS, thankfully.
It seems like the exclusives are getting weaker, but who knows, they could still be annoying again with various stuff.

Unless they provide native ultra wide support on steam, doesn't make any real difference. All they'll do is charge full price on steam. They do the same shit every time a game is released on a new store/console, and it gets old. Why even release new games when you can stagger release.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Love the free games. I’ll fire it up if they do get an exclusive as it doesn’t bother me.

Do I ever use the store as my first choice for pc purchases? Nope. Never.

It really is just a Fortnite launcher.
 

YeulEmeralda

Linux User
As someone who plays single-player games, I literally never use any of the features of Steam. It's nothing more than a storefront and launcher. So for my use case, all of the launchers are about the same. Steam, EGS, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, Origin, etc. are all the same to me - I click the icon for the app, then I click the play button on the game and it loads.

I get that Steam is the best of them, but that doesn't mean much for me. I do have the mobile app for Steam installed and buy most of my games there, I don't see any point in avoiding other storefronts like EGS if the game is cheaper on them. I've gotten a few games on EGS that were $10 cheaper than other stores because of their coupon deal.
And if you have a technical problem do you look at the EGS forums?
 
They've been giving away free games for years now. If it hasn't worked thus far, I don't know what will.
As a PC only gamer I directly go to Steam where my library and my mates are to play something. I have Epic Launcher on my PC, but months will go by before I remember to launch it to see if they've done any major improvements to it.

Maybe try improving their storefront?
 
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