Imagine putting money into Sweeneys ego dream trip.I've overcome my animosity against EGS and I've made a couple of purchases there
News Epic Games Store
- Thread starter Blizniak
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I have no beef with people spending money on the store. My grudge is against Tim Sweeney. I just don't like obnoxious self righteous people.
I legitimately don't know. I'd guess Pharaoh and SS EGS preorders were so low that the publishers could afford to just refunds and focus on the more important platforms.
I wonder, could the EGS back end have handled the "price restructuring" of Pharaoh ? Had the game actually launched there.
The amount of sales there will probably so low, someone working at the store can just manually refund lol
Ubisoft really was going to drop EGS until First Run was announced.
Also today's free game is Melvor Idle.
If there was going to be an AAA company that joined the program it was them for sure haha
Ubisoft really was going to drop EGS until First Run was announced.
Also today's free game is Melvor Idle.
Not gonna lie, gun to my head, I'm not sure which of those five games I'd pick.
Ubisoft really was going to drop EGS until First Run was announced.
Also today's free game is Melvor Idle.
I wonder if the Square Enix and Ubisoft CEOs both attended the same Clown School of business.
Doesn't buying EGS games with the coupon actually take money away from Sweeney?
Not sure about FFXVI and FFR7 pt2 but for upcoming smaller stuff don't think we should worry
Rockstar is next. Coincidentally, I expect the First Run program to end the day after GTA 6's PC release.
Yes. The coupons and cash back come out of Epic's pocket. As an example, they are giving away $24 for a $60 purchase ($60 base price - $20 for coupon and $4 for 10% cash back). As their cut for that $60 game is $7.20, they're losing nearly $17 per sale.
Of course the entire thing is propped up by Fortnite and Sweeney's crusade against Valve. From what we know, the winter sale wasn't even going to have coupons, but Fortnite's recent revival probably emboldened Tim.
Apparently the new CEO is pro multi-platform, but we'll see if he puts his money where is mouth is. FWIW I expect XVI and Rebirth to have Steam releases day one.
I'll believe it when I see it. In my mind Square and Ubisoft are the two companies that really love shooting their own feet.
And if the game happens to be a First Run game, like Avatar, they do not even receive a cut. So if someone bought Avatar right now at 70USD, they lose 30USD (33% off coupon + 10% cash back which its not realized until someone actually spends it). And that does not even include their operational costs which is probably another 3 to 5 USD for payment processor fees and server costs. So maybe 33 to 35USD lost per sale!!!
Super sustainable!
Funny thing about Avatar being First run is, does that means that newest will come to Steam after 6 months or they will still be 12 to 18? I'm monitoring this stuff for fun tbh.
Remember Blankos Block Party? It was the first NFT game that launched on EGS. Well the PC version shut down nearly a week ago.
The EGS store page is still up.
The EGS store page is still up.
EGS worker cannot keep up with the ups and downs of NFTs games lol
Slightly off topic as this isn't exactly store related but I don't want to pollute other threads with epic's bullshit.
I was surprised with this yesterday (the video should be timestamped, otherwise skip to 45min)
I'm honestly not even mad, I'm simply impressed of how shameless this company is in ripping off other games, ideas and mechanics, it's not the first time and I bet it won't be the last. But I have to hand it to them, their copy-pasting factory is a well oiled machine, at least their frankenstein "creation" seems playable and stable, it's just devoid of any actual creative content.
I was surprised with this yesterday (the video should be timestamped, otherwise skip to 45min)
I'm honestly not even mad, I'm simply impressed of how shameless this company is in ripping off other games, ideas and mechanics, it's not the first time and I bet it won't be the last. But I have to hand it to them, their copy-pasting factory is a well oiled machine, at least their frankenstein "creation" seems playable and stable, it's just devoid of any actual creative content.
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Since the 90s, Epic has been a bandwagon chaser. Sometimes they get out ahead of it, other times they don’t.
Fortnite’s continued success is taking popular concepts and repackaging them for the Fortnite audience. The BR mode of Fortnite is just PUBG with a more family friendly aesthetic, and since that worked so well for them they’ve essentially operated a hybrid model of licensing stuff from third parties or just flagrantly ripping them off.
It’s kind of an appalling way of doing business, but there we go. If Epic didn’t do it, someone else would.
Fortnite’s continued success is taking popular concepts and repackaging them for the Fortnite audience. The BR mode of Fortnite is just PUBG with a more family friendly aesthetic, and since that worked so well for them they’ve essentially operated a hybrid model of licensing stuff from third parties or just flagrantly ripping them off.
It’s kind of an appalling way of doing business, but there we go. If Epic didn’t do it, someone else would.
Epic ripped off Among Us wholesale several years ago. It doesn't even surprise me any more. 
From what I've read, LEGO Fortnite was originally a scrapped RPG mode but was repurposed with the license. I did find it funny he talked about how the game would pop off in the video, and he was right! But it's also lost about 80% of its playerbase in two weeks.
Edit: Today's free game is probably Ghostwire Tokyo.
From what I've read, LEGO Fortnite was originally a scrapped RPG mode but was repurposed with the license. I did find it funny he talked about how the game would pop off in the video, and he was right! But it's also lost about 80% of its playerbase in two weeks.
Edit: Today's free game is probably Ghostwire Tokyo.
Yeah, we monitor the islands at a weekly rate and it was quite obvious this would not last long as it has happened with others, it's not different than any other level created by the community, this is natural evolution and engagement. Retention stays steady after some time with the ones that will stick with it.
tbh for all the crap I'll give epic about their pc strategy I don't consider literally copying what works from other games and putting it in theirs a flaw, if something works you should definitely try copy/integrate it in your product.
Personally I don't have an issue with 'clones' per se, developers iterating on existing concepts can lead to innovation and evolution of game design. The thing that bugs me about Epic's approach is the 'in Fortnite' thing. Epic isn't creating brand new games with their own mechanics, art style and vision. They are throwing them into the Fortnite grinder and the result is this homogenized sludge that feels creatively bankrupt. Epic is trying to create the all-game and I really, really don't like that.
It also gives Epic a faster turnaround on their clones, meaning the original developer can sometimes be gazumped on their own creativity before it’s had time to fully succeed.
Look at how Fortnite completely rug-pulled PUBG.
As the year is basically over, I'm doing my prediction for the EGS year in review infograph.
83 million MAU.
$1.1 billion total spend
$625 million first party/$475 million third party revenue
MAU is based on statements by Tim Sweeney that they had 80 million recently plus a boost from the holiday sale.
First party is based on Fortnite getting a massive revival in November. As far as I know, Rocket League and Fall Guys had big declines this year and Alan Wake 2 wasn't a blockbuster so their contributions will be muted.
Third party spend is based on the floodgates opening, big games such as Hogwarts and Honkai Star Rail and extremely aggressive discounts during the winter sale. The biggest third party exclusive this year was Dead Island 2 and, while it sold well, it probably wasn't a major contributor compared to a title like Borderlands 3.
Still funny to read comments about how it was a Minecraft killer when it first released.
83 million MAU.
$1.1 billion total spend
$625 million first party/$475 million third party revenue
MAU is based on statements by Tim Sweeney that they had 80 million recently plus a boost from the holiday sale.
First party is based on Fortnite getting a massive revival in November. As far as I know, Rocket League and Fall Guys had big declines this year and Alan Wake 2 wasn't a blockbuster so their contributions will be muted.
Third party spend is based on the floodgates opening, big games such as Hogwarts and Honkai Star Rail and extremely aggressive discounts during the winter sale. The biggest third party exclusive this year was Dead Island 2 and, while it sold well, it probably wasn't a major contributor compared to a title like Borderlands 3.
Yeah it's following basically every other multiplayer game. Massive launch -> big tapering off -> leveling out. Right now it's leveling at around 325-350k peak, but that might decline more when the winter break is over.
Still funny to read comments about how it was a Minecraft killer when it first released.
Saints Row 2022 is today's free game. Remember how it was one of the top 10 best sellers on EGS last year? Good times.
According to a Reddit rumor the remaining free games are Ghostrunner, Escape Academy, 20 Minutes til Dawn, A Plague Tale: Innocence and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Within the Fortnite ecosystem, they felt like okay minigames, but they don't bring anything unique. I know Tim wants Fortnite to be the one game, but you're right about everything feeling homogenized. His vision of Ready Player One being real will probably not occur in any of our lifetimes anyway.
According to a Reddit rumor the remaining free games are Ghostrunner, Escape Academy, 20 Minutes til Dawn, A Plague Tale: Innocence and Guardians of the Galaxy.
I know I'm days late with this post, but I played Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing. Rocket Racing feels like a run of the mill racing game. Fortnite Festival feels like a worse DJ Max (especially as there are no plastic instruments which was the major selling point for the Harmonix music games back in the day). Now I didn't play them more than an hour so I could be off base, but I wasn't compelled to continue. I've read the Lego mode is the star of the show, but I'm not interested in that.
Within the Fortnite ecosystem, they felt like okay minigames, but they don't bring anything unique. I know Tim wants Fortnite to be the one game, but you're right about everything feeling homogenized. His vision of Ready Player One being real will probably not occur in any of our lifetimes anyway.
One thing EGS used to do better than Steam (lol) is the age check being a single click. Now they've changed it to where you have to enter a full date just like on Steam. Is that some kind of regulation these stores need to follow? It's so annoying that it doesn't save my birthday somewhere but is just a temporary browser cookie or whatever on Steam (but that's on me and my ocd clearing browser files every so often I suppose) - on EGS too but I don't use it often enough to care.
I finally had to leave the /r/EpicGamesPC Discord server. It wasn't due to the stupid shit that they said about EGS vs Steam. It was because occasional homophobia that I've seen on the server. In the last day, someone asked how to remove a pride flag from the new Saints Row game and another person replied that the person has to search the web because Nexus Mods cries about those mods. Also, I've seen users on the server complain about children knowing about LGBTQ+.
Truly shocking to me that people stupid enough to shill for a billion dollar company are also just very stupid in general
LEGO Fortnite and Fortnite Festival have also fell flat on their faces. Granted none of the new modes have received content updates and they can recover, but considering how much time and money were put into those modes, that isn't a great look.
I don't know what they were expecting to be honest
Fortnite fans want to play Fortnite. Why would they care about "Guitar Hero but with Fortnite characters" or "Rocket League but with Fortnite cars"?
If Naughty Dog released The Kart of Us would current tLoU fans buy it en masse outside of the novelty? Even Mario Kart and standard 2D and 3D Mario games have different fanbases, just look at their overall sales
Fortnite fans want to play Fortnite. Why would they care about "Guitar Hero but with Fortnite characters" or "Rocket League but with Fortnite cars"?
If Naughty Dog released The Kart of Us would current tLoU fans buy it en masse outside of the novelty? Even Mario Kart and standard 2D and 3D Mario games have different fanbases, just look at their overall sales
I wonder how hard Harmonix and Psyonix will be hit if Epic does another round of layoffs this year.
The new modes have seemingly opened way better than I would have expected and I think their slow fall is still reasonable until updates come along. Now if the next round of updates they do not see a good bump, and slower burn off, I could see a slight shift to Epic's strategy. Their CCUs really seem to indicate they may be really NA-centric given how much they dip when other timezones are active.
I still think the separate monetization in each mode, even with items crossing over modes, may still burn folks out too much. Especially at a time when other GaaS games are having a reckoning and folks are maybe spending a bit less and being potentially pickier.
I still think the separate monetization in each mode, even with items crossing over modes, may still burn folks out too much. Especially at a time when other GaaS games are having a reckoning and folks are maybe spending a bit less and being potentially pickier.
Funny thing is Rocket League is still pushing 400k concurrent which is currently more than all the new modes combined. That's down from its F2P launch peak of 1.8 million, but that's still good considering it doesn't get many updates any more outside of cosmetics. I'm sure Fall Guys is still peaking at a few hundred thousand as well.
Fortnite is certainly a western focused thing. There was an infograph by Sony a few days ago that showed the most played games in every country on Playstation. Fortnite was either #1 or #2 in basically every country except Japan and South Korea. The most played PS game in Japan was Apex Legends of all things and Fortnite was #3 behind that and Genshin Impact. The most played PS game in South Korea was Diablo 4 and Fortnite didn't even make the cut.
Epic lost their Supreme Court appeal in the Apple case. That specific chapter is completely over.
U.S. Developers Can Now Offer Non-App Store Purchasing Option, But Apple Will Still Collect Commissions
Apple is making major changes to its U.S. iOS App Store policies, and developers are now able to direct customers to a non-App Store purchasing...
www.macrumors.com
I think Epic will win on that. The spirit of the original verdict was to allow developers to notify customers that other payment options exist outside Apple. A link inside the app that leads to a completely external website and payment service shouldn't be subject to the 27% fee.
It's been a long time, so my memory is hazy about that, but didn't the judge say that apple was still allowed to charge a fee even if they redirected to their website ? And scare screen aside, isn't that the same idea that google is using with user choice billing?
Epic's legal expenses are probably in the same ballpark and there's the Google case to account for. There's also the fact Epic has lost hundreds of millions of dollars by not having Fortnite on mobile for nearly four years.
Given there were job cuts at Epic recently, it makes me wonder how many less there would’ve needed to have been had Tim not gone on his crusade?
Yep, the judge explicitly allowed Apple to charge a commission even for out of store purchases. The 27% charge that Apple wants is kind of hilarious though. That's their 30% cut minus the 3% payment processor fees that a developer would have to pay anyway if they used non Apple billing. Which means they would earn nothing extra and would completely destroy the purpose of having non Apple billing in the first place, which is what Apple wants.
Sweeney whining about how it's "bad faith compliance" is funny because Epic was probably preparing something similar in the other direction too. Something like a user getting 5 splash screens when they launch Fortnite telling them how much cheaper the currency is if you buy it directly from Epic and maybe even making people go to their webpage and look at the prices before letting them start a game.
Is Apple even going to let Fortnite back onto the app store anyway? There's nothing that says they need to do that right?
An Update on Rock Band 4 DLC
Hi Friends, After over 8 years of weekly Rock Band 4 DLC releases, we’re here to let you know that January 25 will be the last DLC release of the RB4 era. All other live services will continue as normal, including Rivals seasons, online play, and everything else. Working in support of the Rock Ba
www.harmonixmusic.com
Harmonix got sent to the Fortnite mines permanently.
The same of today.
He'd have embarked on something equally stupid and costly.
Apple pro
Before I left the /r/EpicGamesPC discord, they were getting all excited about this despite it being similar to Steam's. They think EA is bring EA Play Pro to the service despite it being on Origin only and that Epic is going to start their own monthly bundle like Humble.
Before I left the /r/EpicGamesPC discord, they were getting all excited about this despite it being similar to Steam's. They think EA is bring EA Play Pro to the service despite it being on Origin only and that Epic is going to start their own monthly bundle like Humble.