News Epic Games Store

PC-Patriot

Press Any key, where the hell is it ?
Aug 5, 2019
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I honestly can't see the appeal of random free games. I don't think I even bother with free games offered on steam. If a game interests me I would have bought it and played it years before it becomes free. So far I haven't touched anything from Epic don't even have their client installed on my PC and not about too any time soon either.
 
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Phoenix RISING

A phoenix always RISES!
Apr 23, 2019
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fantomena

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Dec 17, 2018
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With all the free games Epic is giving, some people will surely just wait for what they want to buy to become free.
 
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bobnowhere

Careful Icarus
Sep 20, 2018
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Oh, you mean ppl who talk about "race to the bottom?"


That article is pretty transparent. All about Versus Evil who managed to sell their invisible games to Epic in the last month so take it all with a grain of salt (straight from the epic marketing department word for word I imagine.) Remember when stores used to compete for customers, it's just like that another a launcher, except not at all like that. Nonsense article.
 

MJunioR

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Mar 13, 2019
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Saw this being a xpost on /r/FuckEpic and while there's plenty red flags about this 'leak', it doesn't seem far-fetched at all. Even if this is just a guess, I can definitely see Epic doing a subscription service next year. Plus the encore thing makes sense too (I might be thinking too much into it but the timing of this post with that tweet asking people their fav free games, hm).
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
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Saw this being a xpost on /r/FuckEpic and while there's plenty red flags about this 'leak', it doesn't seem far-fetched at all. Even if this is just a guess, I can definitely see Epic doing a subscription service next year. Plus the encore thing makes sense too (I might be thinking too much into it but the timing of this post with that tweet asking people their fav free games, hm).
If that's true, at least Epic is trying to make their store appealing to us as consumers. Still won't support them because of their moneyhats of course, but still... This is something Epic should have done from the very beginning.
 

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Oh, you mean ppl who talk about "race to the bottom?"


The mental gymnastics to talk about discoverability when developers are literally abstracting their games from the number one location of eyeballs to a store no one wants to use, then telling users they're wrong for not wanting a fragmented ecosystem on their PC "because marketing" is so fucking dumb. So stupid. It's the "gorilla in a suit" Steve Ballmer school of business where they think their super smart business acumen and marketing departments can make sheep consumers go anywhere they want and eat any shit they tell them to. And we all saw what happened during Ballmer's tenure of Microsoft: everyone, most notably Apple and Google, ate their lunch and post-Ballmer caused the company to have to undergo a major pivot in order to stay relevant.

Why have Apple been so successful? It's the ecosystem, stupid. That ubiquity of service (Apple pretty much provides end-to-end service for everything you'd want to use their devices for) and continuity across devices drives their platform. Valve brought similar, though more open, qualities of that ecosystem to the PC and became the center of gravity because they provided a level of ubiquity of service and portability across hardware that no one else has come anywhere near accomplishing.

The way I see it is if a money grubbing operation like EA - who are traditionally more craven and stubborn than literally every other AAA publisher in gaming history - has given up its war of attrition with Valve, and if Microsoft - who own the fucking Windows platform - can't win with a home side advantage and has given up its war of attrition with Valve, then why is anyone who shows no interest in developing an ecosystem like Valve's even bothering at this point?

If you want to topple Valve, throwing money at it is only going to solve half the issue. And regarding Epic, they threw their money around in all the wrong places. Trying to scoop up 75-85 Metascore 1-12 month exclusives is dumb - they might as well have set their cash on fire. There are plenty of ways they could've more wisely spent that cash, including developing their own games, buying studios to make more games, hiring and developing their client, building that irresistible ecosystem and so on.

The other half is actually having the sense to innovate. Finding potential users who aren't currently buying games and finding ways to make them buy games. And even here Epic got it all wrong: why try and lure people who are already happily buying PC games on established stores when they could be building bridges with underserved audiences? The first sign I've seen of Epic doing this is via the Android client, but their PC side is so toxic now that I can't see the cross-platform benefits really being a selling point anymore.

If they'd come out with an Android client, promising "buy once, play on mobile and PC" they'd have actually served an audience who want that functionality and may then think about which store they buy their games on.
 

MJunioR

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Mar 13, 2019
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If that's true, at least Epic is trying to make their store appealing to us as consumers. Still won't support them because of their moneyhats of course, but still... This is something Epic should have done from the very beginning.
They probably didn't even had time to think about a subscription service and how to implement it since they just rushed its launch. Now, next year one of the only reasons that people use EGS is going away, and a cheap sub service might be the only thing (other than extending the free game every week thing indefinitely) to fill a bit of the gap of that the free games will leave on their service as a whole.
 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
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Epic is following a current industry trend. Quelle surprise.
Fortnite players who are already regularly spending 10-20€ a month will probably bite, if epic throws in enough stuff into the deal. But that wouldn't be growth, just the same income rerouted.
For the rest of us: meh, uplay+ and origin premier are already underwhelming. Game pass is currently fine but mostly because it's dirt cheap.
People are paying for music streaming, movie streaming (several services) and are now supposed to pay for multiple game subscription services.
This will become an inflated bubble and burst. Epic has no chance imo.
 

Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
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I don't believe this leak.
  • Subscriptions like Game Pass or Humble Trove are what companies are after. Customers rent a service: if they stop paying, they have nothing left.
  • Subscriptions like Humble Monthly Choice will disappear. The 66% price increase for new subscribers is the first step towards the disappearance of Humble Monthly Choice, The size of the customer base will only decrease. At the end, only the $5/month subscription Humble to Trove would survive.
 
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Stone Ocean

Proud Degenerate
Apr 17, 2019
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I don't believe this leak.
  • Subscriptions like Game Pass or Humble Trove are what companies are after. Customers rent a service: if they stop paying, they have nothing left.
  • Subscriptions like Humble Monthly Choice will disappear. The 66% price increase for new subscribers is the first step towards the disappearance of Humble Monthly Choice, The size of the customer base will only decrease. At the end, only the $5/month subscription Humble to Trove would survive.
Even if they don't disappear, they're guaranteed to get shittier over time. Less games, older games, smaller games, and so on.

Just look at what happened to PS+.
 

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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The reason subscription services tend to get shitty over time is a cynical issue.
  • Subscription service starts out, makes waves as a hot new "deal" giving you new, high quality "free" stuff.
  • Subscriber base balloons as more people hear about the great deal.
  • IP owners see the growing subscriber count and think about development their own subscription service.
  • In the meantime, while they mull development, they start asking for progressively higher licensing fees from the original subscription service that leads to regular content outages.
  • Eventually, a few years later, the IP holder pulls their stuff from the original service and announces their own "X Company PLUS" subscription fee.
It's literally the repeated story of everything from Netflix and Disney+/Apple TV+ to PS+ and and Uplay+
capitalism™
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
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NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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If it's a Humble Monthly style thing they can just add the games when they're added to the sub.
But that would be bleeding money like crazy no? I dont think people will susbcribe for something they can get elsewhere for cheap (Humble) or on a better package (Gamepass).
Unless they really like Fortnite I guess.
 

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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But that would be bleeding money like crazy no? I dont think people will susbcribe for something they can get elsewhere for cheap (Humble) or on a better package (Gamepass).
Unless they really like Fortnite I guess.
I think this is just about selling Fortnite shit while building up people's EGS library. I doubt the games will be the real value.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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I have no idea how EGS top seller list works. Outer Worlds has been on top since they added the list and my observations on different discussion boards is that the game pass version has made an impact. So either Outer Worlds is selling very well on EGS despite of Game Pass or everything on EGS is bombing.
 
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MJunioR

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I think this is just about selling Fortnite shit while building up people's EGS library. I doubt the games will be the real value.
Now that you mention it, yeah. I didn't even cared much for the Fortnite part of the post but they can definitely have a big emphasis on it while giving games like Costume Quest and Alan Wake with some of their exclusives that still haven't sold all copies Epic bought by then.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
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It would appear
:odell:
That Epic
:odell:
Has begun to realize
:odell:
The shitstains that have been on the fan
:odell:
For every action they've done
:odell:
Thus far
:odell:
I don't think so. I would be surprised if they stop with free games next year, but I'm pretty sure they will continue moneyhatting games. I even expect them to go after more AAA games.
Fuck em. Scum of the earth. Kickstarter killers.
This. These guys may be responsible for the downfall of crowdfunded games. I pray that the pc community votes with their wallets.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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I have no idea how EGS top seller list works. Outer Worlds has been on top since they added the list and my observations on different discussion boards is that the game pass version has made an impact. So either Outer Worlds is selling very well on EGS despite of Game Pass or everything on EGS is bombing.
Without user reviews or currently active users we have no idea how well anything's done on EGS. Their vague celebration of a game's sales that is careful to avoid actually disclosing anything of tangible use is also designed to obfuscate.

Part of me thinks if they were super successful they'd be shouting it from the rooftops, but I don't even know if that's true.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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I still believe that everything Epic is doing is just an elaborate plan to get more Fortnite players and thus MTX buyers.


Have they released any player numbers/spending in Fortnite since EGS opened? Theyd have better luck starting dev on UT back up and trying to push that. Something to catch people not interested in battle royale/or fell off FN but dont use Steam. On top of UT's built in audience. Hell id use egs if a new UT came out*








...*and was better than 2K3/UT3
 
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Tizoc

Retired, but still Enabling
Oct 11, 2018
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I don't think so. I would be surprised if they stop with free games next year, but I'm pretty sure they will continue moneyhatting games. I even expect them to go after more AAA games.
That is
:odell:
Fine
:odell:
We already know
:odell:
Who the top dog is
:odell:
And who the desperate thirsty clown
:odell:
is. Let him
:odell:
Flaunt his assets
:odell:
Our stance has become
:odell:
Mildly affected
 
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Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
Nov 4, 2018
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I have no idea how EGS top seller list works. Outer Worlds has been on top since they added the list and my observations on different discussion boards is that the game pass version has made an impact. So either Outer Worlds is selling very well on EGS despite of Game Pass or everything on EGS is bombing.
I'm going to go with the latter. No one is talking about EGS games.
 

madjoki

👀 I see you
Sep 19, 2018
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Sub to replace free games would be silly. Apart from fortniters who probably don't buy other games, that's probably biggest traffic source.
And until they get "wishlist on EGS" going, they can't even send emails to those "game's on sale" etc.

or maybe, you know, the list is manually curated ... just like about everything else on egs
It uses same backend as curated collections too.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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let me tell you a tale about physical book stores...
Spoiler: they are all addvertised places.
As someone who worked in that industry... Yep. 100%. To a large extent, let's say 8/10 of the time, what's cool is decided by publishing executives and influential agents who are taste makers. And they just don't have a fucking clue and are frequently blindsided by successes from "nowhere" when the bland milquetoast fiction written by a washed out comedian they've been peddling for the last 12 months is less popular than a writer sharing their work on Wattpad after being rejected by tastemaker agents for being "too risky" (aka not what they like).

What Epic is trying to do is analogous to that. Basically only sell games that are made by big pubs and occasionally let some safe indies through, but only if their curators like the looks of the game. Then rig the charts with bogus figures so it looks like their stuff is popular and try to manipulate people into buying what they're telling them is the next big thing.
 

Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
Nov 4, 2018
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humble seem to do it, so ... dunno
let me tell you a tale about physical book stores...
Spoiler: they are all addvertised places.
As someone who worked in that industry... Yep. 100%. To a large extent, let's say 8/10 of the time, what's cool is decided by publishing executives and influential agents who are taste makers. And they just don't have a fucking clue and are frequently blindsided by successes from "nowhere" when the bland milquetoast fiction written by a washed out comedian they've been peddling for the last 12 months is less popular than a writer sharing their work on Wattpad after being rejected by tastemaker agents for being "too risky" (aka not what they like).

What Epic is trying to do is analogous to that. Basically only sell games that are made by big pubs and occasionally let some safe indies through, but only if their curators like the looks of the game. Then rig the charts with bogus figures so it looks like their stuff is popular and try to manipulate people into buying what they're telling them is the next big thing.
Got it, thanks. I was under the impression that these lists on digital stores are populated automatically based on sales data. Hopefully Valve so not engage in this practice since they say they don't sell advertizing space on the store.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
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Got it, thanks. I was under the impression that these lists on digital stores are populated automatically based on sales data. Hopefully Valve so not engage in this practice since they say they don't sell advertizing space on the store.
Well, we have no rumors or any evidence that Epic is doing it, or any other gaming store.
Does Gamestop have a bestseller section? I could imagine it would be more "viable" in brick and mortar stores for games.

If Steam would be doing it, Tim would be shouting it from the rooftops while some of the thousands of indies would leak it immediately.