News Epic Games Store

$300 million in third-party revenue is honestly pathetic given how much Epic has been spending on the store. No wonder they're shifting away from exclusivity deals; I would guess that most of the EGS exclusivity deals announced in 2021 were actually signed in 2020, before their strategy changed.

Besides the obvious Squenix releases (KH, TWEWY Neo, Stranger of Paradise, FFVIIR), I don't think that much else was announced as an EGS exclusive last year? Off the top of my head, I can only think of:

  • Tchia
  • Star Trek Resurgence
  • Sifu
  • Sonic Colors Ultimate
I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I'm reasonably sure there were significantly more EGSclusive announcements in 2019 and 2020.
 
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i would bet 350M on third party, well, isn't this the third year in a row with a stagnant growth in third party revenue compared to users ?

All this numbers are inflactionated by the coupons, and some people which remembers EGS exist when he redeem a free games during a coupon sale

When they will close the welfare loss feature, the numbers will deflate
 
Alexandros said:
Still, credit where credit is due, they still keep making these awful numbers public. That's gotta count for something.
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They're kinda forced to. If they don't release them, people will assume the worst.

Nabs said:
Are they only offering one coupon this time? Uh oh.
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They only do infinite coupons during the Mega Sale in spring and the winter sale. Every other time is just a one-off.
 
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Alexandros said:
Still, credit where credit is due, they still keep making these awful numbers public. That's gotta count for something.
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Arc said:
They're kinda forced to. If they don't release them, people will assume the worst.
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Ironically the one part of their store that's seemingly doing well (their first party games) is where they're obfuscating numbers, by removing playlist and concurrent player counts from Rocket League
 
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okay i was way off when i said 450-500 million in third party numbers, how the hell did they only generate 300 million when they had such big exclusive games combined with tons of more games released at the same time as steam?
 
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I do think that the 2020 numbers looked artificially low because of how big Borderlands 3 was in 2019. But this time there's no way to spin it, those are awful numbers. They really are being kept afloat by exclusives, coupons and giveaways even at this point.

Another point is of course that almost all the biggest sellers are exclusives which isn't sustainable in the long run. If something as big as Battlefield can't beat Darkest Dungeon 2 then I don't know where you go from there.

Tim would have been better off with the company going public as stock holders would never have allowed this wild goose chase.
 
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The interesting bits are always hidden away.

They had an increase in users. But how many of them are for Fortnite/Rocket League/Genshin Impact type F2P games, how many are there for the free game and how many are there as actual customers buying games outside of voucher season. I would heavily lean towards option 1 being the case.

So 300 million. If we guess at an average game price of $30 (probably skews lower than that). That would be 10 million games sold last year. But look at Days Gone, we are reliably told that has sold 1 mill copies on steam alone last year. Valheim did the same in it;'s first week as well. Loop Hero sold 1 million last year as well. Forza Horizon sold well, Halo Infinite sold well, and so on. With the exception of Valheim they are all $40+ games as well. Now before anybody says/asks, yes that is a number pulled from my ass. But I am working on the principle that the have been working Ubi for a while, SE is the master of fucked up pricing, and so on. Even 20 million games sold isn't that impressive.

That then ignores the fact that the 300 mill figure is spent on third party games. So going forward you would think they would take 12% of that 300 mill. But they had to pay for those deals. I am guessing that, because of the big fortnite bucks, they have written that off as the cost of doing this business. However realistically, in any other store, that would come out of the 300 million. So yeah, that number gets less impressive each time I look at it.
 
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So 540 mill for FortNite and RocketLeague mtx?
Aside from the Epic deals to devs, I don't see how that $300 split between every third party game is a signal to devs to want to go to EGS. It would seem chasing the FortNite crowd is a nonstarter since it's a very small amount of money per user. You're fighting for EGS 'scloosey deals or fighting Epic's own juggernaut for mind and wallet share in a seemingly losing battle.
 
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I wonder if Epic will offer their customers Steam keys for all their games once the EGS inevitably goes bust.
 
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C-Dub said:
I wonder if Epic will offer their customers Steam keys for all their games once the EGS inevitably goes bust.
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This is my biggest concern with Epic (and to a lesser degree MS). They have abandoned PC gaming once before when the lure of console money was too much. MS did the same to focus on the likes of Xbox and when they did come back it was with GFWL.

So I don't have a great deal of faith in Epic "Staying the Course" and seeing this out. Yes they have Fortnite money behind them, but they know that can't last forever.

This is besides all the other reasons I don't support EGS.

Now this is one thing that could even happen to steam at some point (I know there is no indication of this) but the other parties mentioned above have abandoned PC gaming (games side that is I know Unreal/DirectX and so on still carried on).
 
Hasn't GabeN said that there are measures in place to secure customer game library's should Valve go under? Im sure i read that somewhere.
 
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curi0usBystander said:
They've said that, but I wonder how that would work with games taht have denuvo and other drms.
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The long and short answer is it probably won’t.

But it’s not a concern given how Valve has been able to survive despite onslaughts from Microsoft, Epic and EA over the last 15 years. I doubt they’re going anywhere, and Steam is too valuable to just let it close down.

I think people who bought games on EGS should be more concerned. Their freebies will be gone, but for purchased games I hope that publishers do the decent thing when Epic inevitably gets bored of this failed project.
 
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At the time he made that statement I would imagine it was true. However now, with so many games on there I am guessing that it's now a legal quagmire to actually even attempt something like that.

I mean one of the easier ways is to keep a back up of Cracks for games you own and have the important ones backed up away from steam.
 
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To be honest, if a digital store that a game you rightfully purchased goes under, I consider it a moral right to be able to just pirate that game, even if you don’t have it backed up.

I know that’s illegal, but the law is an ass in such cases.
 
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Paul said:
The point when this would be relevant is the point access to our games is going to be the least of our problems.
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People keep saying this but I don't agree.

Nintendo have confirmed they will shut down downloads for the Wii store at some point

How to Redownload Wii Shop Channel Content on Wii | Nintendo Support

In this article, you'll learn how to redownload content already purchased/downloaded in the Wii Shop on Wii.
en-americas-support.nintendo.com en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Sony tried to kill purchasing on PS3 store, downloads would surely follow at some point later.
And this already happened with OG Xbox Live, and of course the litany of shut down GaaS titles where your in game purchases are of course gone.

PC, especially Steam, is more immune than consoles I'd argue but the threat is still there.
I know it's the future but I've never been happy with this inexorable move to digital when consumer rights remain so poor in this space, and it's why I still largely buy physical on console.
 
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Steam has become such a big money maker and valuable for the PC industry as a whole, it won't die until the sun swallows the earth or humanity go extinct.

Also, I see a lack of a lot of simultanous releases on the graph, so no wonder Sony has yet to announce an Epic exclusivity deal. The vast majority of PC revenue for Sony is definetly coming from Steam.
 
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I don’t think it’s very likely at all but nothing I’ve said is untrue

I don’t expect to ever lose access to the movies I’ve bought from iTunes for example but it could happen theoretically
 
Another thing I wanna comment on, is Epic and new titles on the store.

I have a theory that Epic's lack of growth in 3rd party revenue will not only make new timed exclusives more costly for Epic (lack of revenue means that devs and pubs know that their games won't reach minimum guarantee) and they will have problems getting simultanous releases on the store. Notice the lack of FNAF, Elden Ring, MH Rise, Ready or Not and a crapload of indies (Warm Snow, Mirror 2: Project X, Vampire Survivors etc.) isn't on Epic? I think it's partially because the EGS revenue numbers are so low, they don't bother with taking their time to release their game on there.

Basically, the lack of growth will make it more costly for Epic to pay for new timed exclusives and harder for Epic to get more big games and indies onto to the store.

Again, looking at stats, graphs and numbers, timed exclusives does best and still they don't do well enough. Their big things all points to Epic Games Publishing and Metaverse.
 
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fantomena said:
Another thing I wanna comment on, is Epic and new titles on the store.

I have a theory that Epic's lack of growth in 3rd party revenue will not only make new timed exclusives more costly for Epic (lack of revenue means that devs and pubs know that their games won't reach minimum guarantee) and they will have problems getting simultanous releases on the store. Notice the lack of FNAF, Elden Ring, MH Rise, Ready or Not and a crapload of indies (Warm Snow, Mirror 2: Project X, Vampire Survivors etc.) isn't on Epic? I think it's partially because the EGS revenue numbers are so low, they don't bother with taking their time to release their game on there.

Basically, the lack of growth will make it more costly for Epic to pay for new timed exclusives and harder for Epic to get more big games and indies onto to the store.

Again, looking at stats, graphs and numbers, timed exclusives does best and still they don't do well enough. Their big things all points to Epic Games Publishing and Metaverse.
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Basically this. EGS as a third party store looks terminal. I expect it will limp along as their first party client, which is fine by me, but I reckon third party sales will taper off or Epic will end that option in the coming years.

I also think the Hitman 3 debacle is just another nail in the coffin for third party exclusives.
 
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fantomena said:
Their big things all points to Epic Games Publishing and Metaverse.
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This. Epic will not shut down EGS nor abandon PC gaming, since their long term goal is to build a metaverse that spans across every hardware platform. Everything they have done so far was meant to keep games and gamers away from other storefronts, which won't be a part of their metaverse.

EGS will become part of the metaverse in the near future. Until that happens, EGS will be nothing more than another Origin, that people use for exclusives and deep sales. As long as Fortnite exists, Epic can afford this.
 
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Ge0force said:
This. Epic will not shut down EGS nor abandon PC gaming, since their long term goal is to build a metaverse that spans across every hardware platform. Everything they have done so far was meant to keep games and gamers away from other storefronts.

EGS will become part of the metaverse in the near future. Until that happens, EGS will be nothing more than another Origin, that people use for exclusives and deep sales. As long as Fortnite exists, Epic can afford this.
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EGP and Metaverse are still pretty big risks for Epic. They fund EGP projects from the beginning, so if they game does bad, it's all on Epic, it's good financial security for the dev, but everything financially is on Epic. Metaverse can easily bomb, it's a whole new thing which so far is just a buzzword for big companies like Epic and Facebook. I don't really know if any company understand what it actually involves.

Part of EGP is not just about funding new projects like Alan Wake 2 and Rumbleveerse, but also adding companies to help with the Metaverse. If Metaverse doesn't take off, oopsie.

Also:

www.theguardian.com

I’ve seen the metaverse – and I don’t want it

The tech world has been overtaken by the seductive idea of a virtual utopia, but what’s on offer looks more like a late-capitalist technocratic nightmare
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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C-Dub said:
Real talk here, the metaverse is a pile of shite. I don’t see it being anything meaningful, no matter how hard socially detached Silicon Valley tech bros want to push it.
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100% this and even if a metaverse were to take off, I think it would come from a more unlikely company than Epic or Facebook who seemingly only ideas of using it for things like concerts, movie tie-ins, meetings, museums and stuff (i.e. the things you can monetize).

I am just surprised Epic has not officially launched their metaverse sooner rather than later since the longer Epic allows Facebook go around and poison the well with their terrible showing of their metaverse, the more likely Epic is going to have to try to latch on to a different buzzword since the public will come to associate the metaverse with things like this...

106986799-1639005421186-CreateAWorldOfYourOwn_1.png
 
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If the coronavirus taught us anything, it's that people are sick to fucking death of working in offices and socialising over the internet. The metaverse is basically a combination of online chat rooms and putting on a headset to simulate the office environment while you sit on your sofa in your underpants. I don't think I've ever come across a more ill-concieved product in my life.
 
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Le Pertti said:
Yeah metaverse won’t take off as long as big companies are the ones driving it. Because they want want it to be family friendly.

metaverse will take of the day when people can go there to be pervs.

that Is also the day I will have any interest in it!:D
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It is funny how the porn industry helps drive technology. Helped VHS, DVD, the Internet. Long live porn say I.

The Metaverse will never take off because it is being driven by 50+ year old techies and advertising execs and it all reaks of "Hello Fellow Kids".

The funniest thing is Epic have the closest thing to a natural Metaverse in Fortnite where Marvel sits next to DC and can beat up on Star Wars while watching Ariana Grande concerts. It occured for them naturally overtime by letting the player base decide what they wanted, christ some of the skins have almost had me playing the thing and I am 50 this year. However they are trying to fuck it all over by now seeing how much money they can shoehorn in. It will only take the wrong branding to make it blow up in their face.

Now I am going to have a shower after actually crediting Epic with something positive. I feel so dirty.
 
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ExistentialThought said:
100% this and even if a metaverse were to take off, I think it would come from a more unlikely company than Epic or Facebook who seemingly only ideas of using it for things like concerts, movie tie-ins, meetings, museums and stuff (i.e. the things you can monetize).

I am just surprised Epic has not officially launched their metaverse sooner rather than later since the longer Epic allows Facebook go around and poison the well with their terrible showing of their metaverse, the more likely Epic is going to have to try to latch on to a different buzzword since the public will come to associate the metaverse with things like this...

106986799-1639005421186-CreateAWorldOfYourOwn_1.png
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Their Metaverse is Fortnite. In the same way as Roblox and Minecraft are metaverses,. Fortnite is one. That is the main reason they keep pushing for other experiences that are not BR.

In the end, "metaverse" is just babble PR, what matters is "platform where you maximize the time people spend in there by leveraging gamification and social interactions, and then use it to earn money by advertisement and increased monetization of users".

People focusing too much on Facebook / Meta idea of metaverse (VR / AR focus, COMPLETELY take over people social side) miss that it is unlikely that something like this will end up taking up control compared to other stuff that is much closer to "metaverse".
 
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If you divide the total third party spending with MAU rather than total users, you get about $4.80 spent per user, which seems like a more sensible number. Still really, really low.
 
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Dinjoralo said:
If you divide the total third party spending with MAU rather than total users, you get about $4.80 spent per user, which seems like a more sensible number. Still really, really low.
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I would guess you could safely half the MAU. There are an awful lot of them that will be Free game players/Fortnite players/Rocket League Players who don't spend on third party devs either.
 
Rest of the article at the link: The Ashen Broken Multiplayer Fiasco - Lords of Gaming

To go over the platforms where Ashen’s multiplayer works:

  • Xbox
  • PlayStation
  • Nintendo Switch
  • Steam
So why did this issue appear on the Epic Games Store only and what exactly is causing the platform? The developers appear to only be having a problem with just that version. Yet, still have failed to notify players of any direct reason behind it.
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thekeats1999 said:
I mean one of the easier ways is to keep a back up of Cracks for games you own and have the important ones backed up away from steam.
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tbh i sometimes feel so dirty as i still do that when possible :cool: #fuckdenuvo
but this weird quirk of mine save lots experiences i loved and made them playable till this days , despite their original DRMs being killed since Win7
 
Well, I lost my $10 coupon. Went to buy Disco Elysium for $5.99 after coupon. Go to the payment portion, and I recently got a new credit card, so I forgot to update the expiration from my old one.
It throws an error at me, so I updated my new card’s info, and clicked to buy it. Noticed after I clicked it, that I was now being charged $15.99 - so the coupon was gone.
I immediately look for contact info to send an email about what happened. Then I noticed they have a live chat function (!!). So I’m on with this person, who tells me I qualify for a partial refund. I figure great. He checks the details, and after several minutes comes back and tells me Disco Elysium “is not qualify for $10 discount”. AND EXITS THE CHAT.

What the hell? Of course it was eligible! It’s part of the sale! Whatever, I hit the full refund option - and immediately received an email that I was refunded.

Damn Epic. Your customer service doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.
 
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DrShrapnel said:
Well, I lost my $10 coupon. Went to buy Disco Elysium for $5.99 after coupon. Go to the payment portion, and I recently got a new credit card, so I forgot to update the expiration from my old one.
It throws an error at me, so I updated my new card’s info, and clicked to buy it. Noticed after I clicked it, that I was now being charged $15.99 - so the coupon was gone.
I immediately look for contact info to send an email about what happened. Then I noticed they have a live chat function (!!). So I’m on with this person, who tells me I qualify for a partial refund. I figure great. He checks the details, and after several minutes comes back and tells me Disco Elysium “is not qualify for $10 discount”. AND EXITS THE CHAT.

What the hell? Of course it was eligible! It’s part of the sale! Whatever, I hit the full refund option - and immediately received an email that I was refunded.

Damn Epic. Your customer service doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.
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My advice is to refund the game and use a competent and pro-consumer storefront instead. 😉
 
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Having used the EGS refund system before (bought an indie game with a coupon and the game was broken on 4K displays) I actually found Epic’s refund system better than Steam’s.

Valve can’t win ‘em all, ey?
 
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C-Dub said:
Having used the EGS refund system before (bought an indie game with a coupon and the game was broken on 4K displays) I actually found Epic’s refund system better than Steam’s.

Valve can’t win ‘em all, ey?
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Yeah credit where it’s due their refund system is very speedy
 
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