Many gamers have made it clear they are ready pay more for getting game on Steam rather than buy same game cheaper on Epic store or elsewhere.
I doubt marketing would change that.
Epic Games Store reports continued growth, 765 million free games claimed in 2021
- Thread starter Jimmy2x
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I doubt marketing would change that.
Well duh, it's normal to avoid Epic after what they did.
Instead of focusing on the 12% cut, like Epic wanted through tons news articles, the majority of gamers focused on the cancer that is third party exclusive games and the abysmal start Epic had, for example, by pulling Metro Exodus from other stores including Steam. And then, even worse, there were a lot of kickstarted games that moved from Steam and other stores towards Epic in spite of major uproar from backers.
Notice something? Everything was done IN SPITE of what gamers actually wanted.
Epic essentially showed the middle finger to gamers and now you are wondering why people want to pay more just to avoid it?
Just as a side-note, I previously bought the previous two big Metro titles, I didn't buy Exodus even though I had it in my wishlist.
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dangh
Posts: 1,245 +2,031
I don't believe PC market is that fragile, and as a developer it becomes a healthy market, where I can choose a front store which will actually give me some real benefits. There were no competition before for devs - you made a game, you had to throw away 30% of earnings (BEFORE taxes and actual gain) to front store. Now I can actually put it in store which will take 3 times less. Without Epic that wouldn't happen for years, and still other shops have to make a similar offer.
And no, exclusivity is nothing bad. I have no moral responsibility to make my game playable whenever, whoever want it to play. I might add port if I find it financialy viable. And if someone will create a similar product on other front store, then excellent - this is an open market.
Exclusivity didnt destroy Nintendo, MS or Sony. And will only make Steam, GoG and Epic better.
dangh
Posts: 1,245 +2,031
It is actually shocking how many people used to a monopoly so much, that they have hard time to cope with an actual competition. And yes, competition is about money and about options. For all the customers. And customers are on both side of a front store.
Like I said, that 12% cut is pretty much invisible ot end users. Users that support Steam cancer simply needed a lesson. Epic had no better choices than make exclusives to get those Steam supporters even consider Epic Store. Because gamers wanted to continue using Steam, that's what gamers wanted. Epic was more than justified to give gamers something they didn't really want. That was only way.
Steam has offered middle finger to gamers long time, Epic just showed that. I highly doubt Epic games would have more popularity your way.
They had a choice and they made the wrong one. They will forever be known for introducing cancer to the PC market. Like it or not, Steam isn't anti-consumer, Epic is. This is a fact.
It seems like you forgot how things were when Epic announced their store and all of the good things about it and how hyped everybody was for more competition in the market... until Epic decided that they don't want to compete and started doing exclusivity deals.
Epic Games Announces Store Launch, 88% Revenue Share with Developers - IGN
Epic Games will be launching an online store where developers will get an 88 percent revenue share.
Look at those IGN comments and how positive they were back then, before the **** hit the fan.
I suggest you start remembering things as they were really were in 2018. Being sarcastic doesn't hide that you don't remember.
I seriously don't understand your stance on this. It's all weak excuses for something that you should hate. "They couldn't do x or y because of Steam" - it's just not true. They just decided that not competing with Steam is easier.
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Sangheili
Posts: 9 +7
It's mainly from unreal engine and fortnite. Only 1 or maybe 3 games made profit so far.
As for free games I would say 1/16 of the games that where free where also free on steam, gog, itch.
It's because I have 3 to 4 copies of some games I never paid. I kept track
GamerNerves
Posts: 181 +109
I agree with this statement even if I'm only a customer. I'm a customer (and even a voter) who is not only after his own benefit. I'm a customer who appreciates the supportive value of Epic Store to developers, when they get more money for their work. I appreciate what the actual 'worker' does, rather than what the intermediary does, whose work is also very important in today's gaming market, but I simply think Steam has gone little bit too far with their cut.
I can place myself in the position of the person who does the hard creative work and probably wants to earn well from that too. I see Valve doing extremely well with Steam, like they already did years ago, so why they still take so much cash for being a distributer is to me little concerning. The clear and obvious solution is competition, since boycott will never happen given how easily gamers can be lured by marketing schemes, and of course, due to practical monopoly.
Overall Valve has done a great job with Steam and I congratulate them for that, but times are ever changing and stagnation needs to be avoided. They understand this situation themselves very well and it's up to them to respond, but currently I guess they don't see Epic Store as a threat and I don't believe Steam can really be that easily toppled anyway. There is just room for another (major) player, like basically in any market.
The very important note that @dangh post misses, is that Epic Store is free, so access to exclusive titles there is free, unlike with consoles. Console exclusives are completely different matter like everyone should realize by now, since this ongoing debate has been around long enough.
Now, with the recent and upcoming much needed improvements to Epic Store and possibly better selection of titles in the future, all what Epic is missing is Unreal Tournament 4. If any good, that title would surely break the bank. Tuned port for the current gen consoles would be perfect to showcase the powerful hardware, while there is no real competing similar title right now for them.
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brucek
Posts: 1,723 +2,689
What this line of thinking is missing that is that Steam is making your game more valuable. What's really throwing away value is taking an otherwise great game that a developer poured love, labor, and dollars into and then crippling it by depriving it of the essential services that Steam provides. Not having achievements is complete BS, I have games I rebought on Steam and will never play again on Epic over that, I should have gotten a much bigger discount than 30% just for that. Then there's the less players to play with, the fragmentation of launcher, no big screen mode, no steam streaming, etc.
I'm sorry some developers miss it but Steam really is providing essential value to your game and trying to save some pennies on the cut to throw away dollars in value realized by gamers is just foolish.
Sausagemeat
Posts: 1,597 +1,423
Epic is cheaper than steam. In my eyes this makes it more pro consumer. They also charge devs less than steam. Making it friendlier to them too.
As soon as the steam fans like yourself wake up we can be rid of steams dominance. They get away with charging us and devs more because of blind loyalty that they don’t deserve.
It's not cheaper, it's just your own delusion. I can find better deals. That's the whole point, it's not just about Steam it's about all of the stores. Not only can I search for a game on 5-6 stores, but I can pick the store and price that I want. You can do neither with games that are exclusive to Epic.
Right now Epic and other stores have a big sale going on, right? Well, I've picked 10 games from the front page at random and all of them have the same discounts on GOG, Steam and Humble. This isn't "cheaper".
And I am sure that there are deals on Epic that don't exist on other stores, but let me give you another example where choice is better for consumers. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is discounted on Steam, but isn't on Epic. (it's also another example that works against your "epic is cheaper mantra").
We don't need to "get rid of steam" if it means accepting anti-consumer practices. What Epic is doing is having zero effect on Steam (Steam is still growing fast), it's affecting the smaller stores like GOG and Humble since they miss on 80-90% of the sales of a big title exclusive to Epic, sales that happen during the launch window. It's a known fact that GOG is having financial troubles now.
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dangh
Posts: 1,245 +2,031
First, if I have product, I decide where to sell it. If I want to give away, it is my decission. If I decide my super tetris clone is worth $500 - nothing will stop me. That how much valuable is to me. If I decide I don't want to put 1/3 of my crew on starving wage, I need to keep some standards. this mean: don'e sell yourself cheap and don't get yourself robbed.
Second, Steam is more popular and go-to store. The other name for it is 'monopoly'. Thanks to epic now I have choice where to sell my game. Thanks to that Steam is loosing a bit ppopularity, and epic is gaining. I'm happy withy that because that's the only way to reduce steam tax.
So I'm absolutely fine to take initial hit even if Epic make it sweeter knoing this will improve the competition. Agreeing to unreasonable cut is just living with a prisoner dilema. People who do not care about competition and actively insisting to use a monopolist store are the problem, not people who wants to be part of the market.
You have a choice - and I have a choice. I do not have make a choice you want me to make. And that's completly fine. go somewhere else. Customer (on both sides) are right
dangh
Posts: 1,245 +2,031
in major sales, on top of the deal you have $10 off on each game which after discount is above 15 eur. Yes, unless you go to get stolen keys nothing is cheaper. And a bit of patience is not bad - you can save serious money that way.
That is wrong. The 10$ cuts are also just part of major sales. Sales happen all the time, it's not something that Epic made exclusive only to their store (yet)
I've given you examples real examples that disprove what you said. It made this entire "cheaper" argument a moot point.
In the end it all boils down you getting baited by free games. There's no other reason I can think of that could make someone support these third party exclusivity deals. I guess cancer can only grow.
"You have a choice - and I have a choice" - No you don't have a choice when games are limited to one store. Accepting or not a deprival of choice is not a "choice" and the fact that you believe otherwise is just... sad.First, if I have product, I decide where to sell it. If I want to give away, it is my decission. If I decide my super tetris clone is worth $500 - nothing will stop me. That how much valuable is to me. If I decide I don't want to put 1/3 of my crew on starving wage, I need to keep some standards. this mean: don'e sell yourself cheap and don't get yourself robbed.
Second, Steam is more popular and go-to store. The other name for it is 'monopoly'. Thanks to epic now I have choice where to sell my game. Thanks to that Steam is loosing a bit ppopularity, and epic is gaining. I'm happy withy that because that's the only way to reduce steam tax.
So I'm absolutely fine to take initial hit even if Epic make it sweeter knoing this will improve the competition. Agreeing to unreasonable cut is just living with a prisoner dilema. People who do not care about competition and actively insisting to use a monopolist store are the problem, not people who wants to be part of the market.
You have a choice - and I have a choice. I do not have make a choice you want me to make. And that's completly fine. go somewhere else. Customer (on both sides) are right
There should be a limit to how much you can ignore common sense just to find excuses for something that is objectively bad. You've long past that limit.
While I have a couple of thousand games on steam (vs about 200 on epic) and I do love the peripheral features that steam offers - specially the strong community, from a purely gaming platform perspective I have had no issues with Epic. Sure, in the beginning I went there to get the free games, but in recent times, I have actually bought more on epic than on steam, simply due to the better offers they make.
What epic is missing out on - and its fairly big in my opinion, is the bundle market as its very rare to find epic based bundles.
Epic needs to build on it platform to get closer to the full package that steam is, before it can compete on an equal footing with steam. But the free offerings have clearly attracted more users and unless you are a steam only fanatic you can always gain from Epic's offers.
Well I also love GoG and always want to support them as well - mostly for their efforts to promote DRM(trash) free gaming.
What epic is missing out on - and its fairly big in my opinion, is the bundle market as its very rare to find epic based bundles.
Epic needs to build on it platform to get closer to the full package that steam is, before it can compete on an equal footing with steam. But the free offerings have clearly attracted more users and unless you are a steam only fanatic you can always gain from Epic's offers.
Well I also love GoG and always want to support them as well - mostly for their efforts to promote DRM(trash) free gaming.
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