News Epic Games Store

Arc

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I listened to the video in the background while doing something else so I didn't give it my full attention. Apologies if I get something wrong. From what I gather: Apple looks kinda bad going back on their word, but they made the offer back when the lawsuit was first happening last year. Also Tim's email to Phil Schiller uses some language that dances around the issue and could allow Epic to once again flaunt Apple's rules. Additionally, Apple has seen how Tim has acted on Twitter and don't have enough trust that he won't pull another stunt. Basically Tim had been such a bad actor that Apple doesn't want to mess with him at all for the time being.
 

Arc

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The top sellers updated for the first time since September 16. Nothing too interesting with Kena obviously being #1, but there is one thing that I found a bit odd.

Timberborn sold 130k units in a week. I bring this up because it is a multistore release and it had about 1600 Steam reviews when the developers announced the sales milestone. The reviews:sales ratio would be about 88k on Steam assuming an upper bound of 55 reviews:sale. I simply assumed the remaining 42k were split between GOG and EGS. However the EGS version of Timberborn didn't even make the top 25. Looking at the other games on the list, it isn't like there's a ton of competition so I'm surprised it didn't even make the list at all. Of course, as usual, I have to preface that we have basically no idea how EGS top sellers work so I might be wasting all these words for nothing.
 

Arsene

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The top sellers updated for the first time since September 16. Nothing too interesting with Kena obviously being #1, but there is one thing that I found a bit odd.

Timberborn sold 130k units in a week. I bring this up because it is a multistore release and it had about 1600 Steam reviews when the developers announced the sales milestone. The reviews:sales ratio would be about 88k on Steam assuming an upper bound of 55 reviews:sale. I simply assumed the remaining 42k were split between GOG and EGS. However the EGS version of Timberborn didn't even make the top 25. Looking at the other games on the list, it isn't like there's a ton of competition so I'm surprised it didn't even make the list at all. Of course, as usual, I have to preface that we have basically no idea how EGS top sellers work so I might be wasting all these words for nothing.
Really wouldnt bother looking too into reviews as theres a lot of factors that contribute to review counts. Timberborn has been consistently hitting 10k+ CCU on steam and has been floating around the top 10 global sellers since it launched. Its probably safe to assume 90% or so of sales came from Steam.
 

ExistentialThought

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GOG/EGS being 32% of all sales seems high compared to the handful of times we have seen direct % breakdowns or had them alluded to. Unfortunately I cannot find the few titles that had provided those breakdowns. Heck they are probably listed in this thread, but I am on mobile. I have heard the % breakdown, barring exclusivity or freebies, is more like under 15% and it seemed reasonable given what a few have shared.

Really is strange how little we have seen any % breakdown after this many years. Heck, even before Epic, with other stores and platforms.

Really wouldnt bother looking too into reviews as theres a lot of factors that contribute to review counts. Timberborn has been consistently hitting 10k+ CCU on steam and has been floating around the top 10 global sellers since it launched. Its probably safe to assume 90% or so of sales came from Steam.
I wonder too how long it takes for the review score ratio to settle and how much it differs for genres, early access, and the like.
 

CommodoreKong

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GOG/EGS being 32% of all sales seems high compared to the handful of times we have seen direct % breakdowns or had them alluded to. Unfortunately I cannot find the few titles that had provided those breakdowns. Heck they are probably listed in this thread, but I am on mobile. I have heard the % breakdown, barring exclusivity or freebies, is more like under 15% and it seemed reasonable given what a few have shared.

Really is strange how little we have seen any % breakdown after this many years. Heck, even before Epic, with other stores and platforms.
Democracy 4 is one I know of off the top of my head:
 
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Arc

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Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look forward to welcoming other stores as well in the future.
EGS finally has user reviews! :upside-down-face:
 

C-Dub

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Now you can get itch.io, a store in a store in a store.
 

Mor

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Downloading a store within a store within a store :thumbsupblob:

 

thekeats1999

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Why would I want to install a store from within a store that will now control it's updates and is notoriously flaky?

Also if a game uses EGS as it's DRM (not sure if that is a thing) then does EGS use the Winstore as it's DRM.

And finally does this mean games installed from EGS will be hidden behind the stupid bloody locker system and I have even less access to games? I mean I guess epic lets you choose where to install games, but doesn't that break the sandbox nature of Winstore installations?

Not an issue as I don't use EGS, but still worth knowing what you are getting in to.

This is the snake eating its own tail...
 
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Ascheroth

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Why would I want to install a store from within a store that will now control it's updates and is notoriously flaky?

Also if a game uses EGS as it's DRM (not sure if that is a thing) then does EGS use the Winstore as it's DRM.

And finally does this mean games installed from EGS will be hidden behind the stupid bloody locker system and I have even less access to games? I mean I guess epic lets you choose where to install games, but doesn't that break the sandbox nature of Winstore installations?

Not an issue as I don't use EGS, but still worth knowing what you are getting in to.

This is the snake eating its own tail...
I'm not going to try this out all, but I would be shocked if the Microsoft Store would be anything other than a glorified downloader for the EGS-exe and everything download/install/update/remove of the actual EGS-library would still work entirely through the EGS itself with the Microsoft Store contributing nothing.
 
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thekeats1999

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I'm not going to try this out all, but I would be shocked if the Microsoft Store would be anything other than a glorified downloader for the EGS-exe and everything download/install/update/remove of the actual EGS-library would still work entirely through the EGS itself with the Microsoft Store contributing nothing.
That's what you would hope. But it's Tim Sweeny we are talking about.
 
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thekeats1999

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I miss the old days when a Metaverse was just a series of interconnected movies, or connected books.

Not this hellhole that is designed to fleece you of your cash at any and every opportunity.
 

Digoman

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Metaverse this... Metaverse that....

I recently watched Free Guy (through total legal means of course) and couldn't help to think.... "this and Ready Player One must be really like porn for Sweeney".

NOT a good thing to think about while trying to enjoy a movie :oops:
 
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gabbo

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This is one doozy of an article. I've said it before, but the metaverse sounds like an advertising hellscape.
Yeah, I'm stopping right here: "has separated commerce from the general audience " If anyone, let alone Tim Sweeney thinks the internet has become LESS commercialized in the last... 20ish years, and their plan is to merge it further, well then I want off now. can we get a metacouncil usenet board?
I don't need more advertising tailored to me by tracking my online movement anymore than it already is. thanks, you can keep your 'metaverse' I'll just do my own thing over here.

edit: Read a little further, paraphrasing: To make sure the car maker's car gets the attention it deserves...
Yep fuck all of that metaverse stuff and people trying to push it on kids, let alone adults as some kind of positive.
 

Aaron D.

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Metaverse as it is used today feels like nothing more than nostalgia hooks engineered to reap unearned affection or outright commercial gain.

Started really noticing it years ago with the Family Guy's low-effort brand of, "Hey remember that thing you used to really like? Here's a joke referencing it." Then it morphed into the obscene with Ready Player One's "how many references can we jam into a single frame".

What started as relatively innocent nods & Easter eggs seems to have devolved into outright manipulative cash-grab nostalgia bait.

No thanks.
 

xinek

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What started as relatively innocent nods & Easter eggs seems to have devolved into outright manipulative cash-grab nostalgia bait.

No thanks.
Yes. I can't count how many times someone has started saying "HEY DO YOU REMEMBER" and my internal response is how the fuck could I forget anything whatsoever, if every single thing is constantly brought up over and over in service of this weird fake nostalgia? Yeah, I remember shows and toys I used to consoom as a kid. Who gives a shit?

I wouldn't be so jaded and annoyed at this stuff if it wasn't so constant. It just feels like more advertising, but now normal people have become deputized by the ad people. Fuck off.
 

gabbo

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Yes. I can't count how many times someone has started saying "HEY DO YOU REMEMBER" and my internal response is how the fuck could I forget anything whatsoever, if every single thing is constantly brought up over and over in service of this weird fake nostalgia? Yeah, I remember shows and toys I used to consoom as a kid. Who gives a shit?

I wouldn't be so jaded and annoyed at this stuff if it wasn't so constant. It just feels like more advertising, but now normal people have become deputized by the ad people. Fuck off.
The metaverse takes the idea of product placement from the 50s and early tv and reverses it to the nth degree. You're playing a commercial that happens to have some game content attached, and unlike Lucille Ball showcasing a brand of cigarettes or laundry detergent for a few seconds (or Mac and Me, if it was interactive and not a Paul Rudd meme), the Epic Metaverse is 24/7/365 and doesn't have to be subtle. And we're meant to be happy about this because it uses fomo and nostalgia to hook you.
 

fantomena

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I wonder what it is. Working with EOS is harder than they thought, problems with EOS? Epic not responding during the weekend?
 

Digoman

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I don't know if trying to have such a "rigid" structure for achievements including XP is going to work on an open platform, but I guess first people need to actually be interested in it for someone to bother doing a SAM for Epic.

Also, unrelated and it's fixed now, but when I first tried to follow the link or access the store I got this very professional looking 404 error:
 
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ExistentialThought

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I think the rigid structure will undoubtedly hurt them on older titles unless they themselves are willing to put in the work on a devs behalf.

Like I mentioned, Valve has struggled to get folks to update library art. Having devs assign tiers of trophies with XP values while adding avatars all while stating these things can NEVER be changed, updated, or removed is a tall order.
 

Arc

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I wonder if Epic will make exceptions. There are some games with hundreds of achievements that can't fit into their structure. The first example I can think of is The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth which currently has 637.
 
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ExistentialThought

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It is hard to say, though granting any exceptions could lead to a tiff over who gets special treatment. If some well known publisher or developer gets to side step the rules, then others would speak out to pressure getting an exception and it could pretty quickly change the rules.
 
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fantomena

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Those rules are too strickt for a lot of devs, especially smaller devs.
 
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