Epic Games Store goes live, free games and surprise titles inbound

[midian182]

What just happened? After revealing it was launching a digital storefront that would compete with the likes of Steam and Origin earlier this week, the first games have appeared on the now live Epic Games Store. A couple of big names will soon be free to download, and there are a few unexpected surprises in its launch lineup.

Following Epic founder Tim Sweeney’s recent announcement, the Epic Games Store is up and running. There are only a handful of games to pick from right now, but there are a few interesting entries.

For those who love something for nothing, the excellent Subnautica and Super Meat Boy will be available gratis for a limited time. Normally priced at $25, alien ocean survival adventure Subnautica can be grabbed for $0 from December 14 to December 27. Classic indie platformer Super Meat Boy, meanwhile, is free from December 28 to January 10.

Epic’s own Fortnite and Unreal Tournament are also free on the store, and the company promises a new free game will be on offer every two weeks.

Additionally, a previously unheard of title called Hades, which comes from Transistor and Bastion developer Supergiant, is listed. Like its previous titles, this is an isometric action RPG with a distinctive art style. You can get early access for $19.99 right now.

The surprises don’t end there. Also listed in the store is Journey, the PlayStation 3 (and PS4, eventually) title that launched in 2012. We don’t know whether it will be exclusive to Epic Games' platform when it arrives, which will be “soon,” or if it will also be available on Steam and other digital storefronts.

Epic has promised that unlike Steam, which takes a 25 - 30 percent cut of sales, it will give devs 88 percent of the money it makes from their games.

Here is the full list of titles on the Epic Games Store:

• Ashen by A44 and Annapurna Interactive (now available)
• Darksiders 3 by Gunfire Games and THQ Nordic (available Dec. 14)
• Hades by Supergiant Games (now available)
• Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek by tinyBuild (now available)
• Genesis Alpha One by Radiation Blue and Team17 (coming soon)
• Journey by thatgamecompany and Annapurna Interactive (coming soon)
• Maneater by Tripwire Interactive (coming soon)
• Outer Wilds by Mobius Digital and Annapurna Interactive (coming soon)
• Pathless by Giant Squid Studios (coming soon)
• Rebel Galaxy Outlaw by Double Damage Games (coming soon)
• Satisfactory by Coffee Stain Studios (coming soon)
• Subnautica by Unknown Worlds (available for free from Dec. 14 - Dec. 27)
• Super Meat Boy by Team Meat (available for free from Dec. 28 - Jan. 10)
• Super Meat Boy Forever by Team Meat (coming soon)
• World War Z by Saber Interactive (coming soon)

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77757-epic-games-store-goes-live-free-games-surprise.html

 

[Burty117]

Unreal Tournament hasn't had any development work on it since Fortnite took off. It's just an Alpha. Shame really as it looked very promising.

 

[ypsylon]

If by any chance they can pull-off one with bringing (some) EA games to the new platform I'll sign in a blink of the eye. Oh please guys, please...

Technically they can reach some deal with EA. After all there is a lot of content in EA inventory which runs on Unreal engine.

 

[Puiu]

Journey is a game that I really want on PC.

 

[rrwards]

If by any chance they can pull-off one with bringing (some) EA games to the new platform I'll sign in a blink of the eye. Oh please guys, please...

Technically they can reach some deal with EA. After all there is a lot of content in EA inventory which runs on Unreal engine.

They already have Origin. There's no reason to sacrifice even 12% of your revenue just to have games available elsewhere.

 

[Kibaruk]

I'm pleasantly surprised, when I heard initially about the Epic store I was not looking forward to the fragmentation, however with the marketing and their initial offering it's mighty impressive, I've been wanting to get into Subnautica for a while now so I guess this caught my attention =)

 

[psycros]

Unreal Tournament hasn't had any development work on it since Fortnite took off. It's just an Alpha. Shame really as it looked very promising.

And now we know why it was shelved. I can't believe Epic is going to try to go the way of Valve - that's just sad. I think we're looking at the devolution of digital game sales. Yes, Steam created this mess by demanding a third of its client's profits, but the solution isn't to go back to the early 2000's. The answer is revenue sharing that's actually *fair*.

 

[GreenNova343]

Unreal Tournament hasn't had any development work on it since Fortnite took off. It's just an Alpha. Shame really as it looked very promising.

And now we know why it was shelved. I can't believe Epic is going to try to go the way of Valve - that's just sad. I think we're looking at the devolution of digital game sales. Yes, Steam created this mess by demanding a third of its client's profits, but the solution isn't to go back to the early 2000's. The answer is revenue sharing that's actually *fair*.

OK, got it....30% fee to the host (Steam) isn't "fair", & apparently 12% fee to the host (Epic) isn't "fair"...so what percentage do you do think would be "fair" to charge devs to be able to host/publish their games through a 3rd-party (vs. having to spend the money themselves to develop a digital distribution platform)?

 

[misor]

With so many game launchers (steam, ea origin, uplay, gog, blizzard battlenet), windows' start menu suddenly becomes an interesting attractive alternative.