News Epic Games Store

[Arc]

I just remembered something. I was digging through the old Apple trial documents and user spending is juiced by about 10% to account for taxes. So the true third party revenue is around $320 million.

-2% in overall revenue just means Fortnite is declining. Or no longer growing and can't carry EGS.

It makes sense since the game is getting old now but still concerning for Epic.

I expect them to monetize the fuck out of the game in the coming years. Or they are gonna make a new big game in hope of it becoming another cash cow.

Correct.

Sweeney attributed that drop primarily to Fortnite. “The funny thing that’s happened post-pandemic is that Fortnite monthly active users have held up, but playtime, hours played, and spending has gone down,” Sweeney said. I’m interested to see if that changes this year, especially with a promising-looking new season launching soon.

Fortnite is getting old and Tim is trying to turn it into Roblox so it can stay relevant.

You know, not a single KH game has charted in their top selling games in two years (which is pretty telling)

Stranger of Paradise didn't make the list either. At least we know FF16 will next year.

 

[TheTrain]

Didn't we knew that they paid million of dollars for having RDR2 for a couple of weeks from the apple trial? Or was it for Borderlands?
Also during the same month didn't they gifted GTAV?
Yeah surely rockstar wanted to take advantage of that split, its believable especially because they dont even have their own store where they get 100% cut so....ah...

 

[Arsene]

More high profile EGS exclusives incoming, including Epic published games like Alan Wake 2:

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-isnt-done-with-epic-games-store-exclusives-its-just-focused-on-big-ones/

I hope every one of these exclusives bombs hard. This practice needs to die rather sooner than later.

RDR2 being timed EGS exclusive without money hatting is at rather alarming tho. Let's hope this doesn't become the norm...

Interesting note is they mention Epic published games would be exclusive for “a long time”, not permanently.

 

[prudis]

The 18% seems pretty good in my opinion, if we consider that the store had very few exclusives in 2022.

with 60+% rise with number of titles on the store?


lets count a bit

355M on thirds parties .... 230+M users = ~$1.5+ average revenue per user .... 0 change from last year
but spread over 68% more games (1,548 vs 922 last year) ... so less spend per user per game

 

[Sadrac]

Interesting note is they mention Epic published games would be exclusive for “a long time”, not permanently.

I think that by "a long time" he means until the investment is recovered, which is going to be a very long time indeed.

 

[Arc]

Epic Games Store launches self-publishing tools for game devs and publishers

Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store.

venturebeat.com

That will happen for more and more categories of games as Epic Games Store grows, to the point where when developers start foregoing Steam because they just take too much money, Sweeney said.

“Valve will have to make some hard choices. When mobile platforms are opened up to the same form of competition – and that day is coming – we’ll compete there too. Ultimately their day of reckoning will come as well, where stores have to compete on their merits and margin to win business from developers,” he said.

Tim is extremely bitter about Valve.

 

[Shantom]

Im surprised Tiny Tina Wonderlands done that well?

Done better than GTA V and Fortnite what?

I expect Epic are doing the same thing as Valve and not ordering games within tiers, so Tiny Tina is one of the top 5, but we don't know where in the top 5.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Epic Games Store launches self-publishing tools for game devs and publishers

Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store.

venturebeat.com

Tim is extremely bitter about Valve.

day of reckoning will come

A bit overly dramatic.

He tried to take fornite out of the Play store and it failed. I really really really really doubt that when iOS (because all of this was about that sweet mobile money) finally allows third party stores (which IIRC they're prepping probably to get ahead of some EU legislation),
people are too lazy to install and use another account, maybe I'm wrong but If people are too lazy to go to the web browser to buy vBucks, I really doubt they'd Install another store.

 

[Mor]

Epic Games Store launches self-publishing tools for game devs and publishers

Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store.

venturebeat.com

Tim is extremely bitter about Valve.

tends to happen when people prefer other services and only use yours to grab free games, one tends to get defensive when after 4 years people still ignore mostly your store when it comes to spend actual money.

 

[Gintaro]

Epic Games Store launches self-publishing tools for game devs and publishers

Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store.

venturebeat.com

Tim is extremely bitter about Valve.

Merit wise Epic already lost though The only thing Epic can only boast about is still the cut margin

 

[Paul]

355M on thirds parties .... 230+M users = ~$1.5+ average revenue per user .... 0 change from last year
but spread over 68% more games (1,548 vs 922 last year) ... so less spend per user per game

I can't help but find this hilarious

competing by...pissing people off and training them to only get freebies

what could go wrong

 

[Morten88]

Gotta say im very surprised that its 355m on third parties, i thought they would hit about 500m in 2022, since alot of new games released on both steam and EGS at same time.

 

[TioChuck]

EGSs player spending was 355m, so this should include taxes and fees, 12% -5%(being generous here) from fees, Epic made about 21m, and thats not taking in considerantion that the biggest money maker was Genshin Impact, that, as far as I know, does use Its own payment system and Epic makes 0(zero) money from It, so the real number should be less than 20m.

EGS is losing a lot of money.

 

[Rockin' Ranger]

EGSs player spending was 355m, so this should include taxes and fees, 12% -5%(being generous here) from fees, Epic made about 21m, and thats not taking in considerantion that the biggest money maker was Genshin Impact, that, as far as I know, does use Its own payment system and Epic makes 0(zero) money from It, so the real number should be less than 20m.

EGS is losing a lot of money.

There's also the coupon sales where Epic was taking a loss on the transactions.

 

[Arc]

EGSs player spending was 355m, so this should include taxes and fees, 12% -5%(being generous here) from fees, Epic made about 21m, and thats not taking in considerantion that the biggest money maker was Genshin Impact, that, as far as I know, does use Its own payment system and Epic makes 0(zero) money from It, so the real number should be less than 20m.

EGS is losing a lot of money.

Genshin Impact – Step into a Vast Magical World for Adventure

Genshin Impact is an open-world action RPG. In the game, set forth on a journey across a fantasy world called Teyvat. In this vast world, you can explore seven nations, meet a diverse cast of characters with unique personalities and abilities, and fight powerful enemies together with them, all...

genshin.hoyoverse.com

Genshin MTX on EGS use Epic's payment processor. I'd wager that is where most of their increase went in 2022.

 

[Ascheroth]

Genshin Impact – Step into a Vast Magical World for Adventure

Genshin Impact is an open-world action RPG. In the game, set forth on a journey across a fantasy world called Teyvat. In this vast world, you can explore seven nations, meet a diverse cast of characters with unique personalities and abilities, and fight powerful enemies together with them, all...

genshin.hoyoverse.com

Genshin MTX on EGS use Epic's payment processor. I'd wager that is where most of their increase went in 2022.

Yeah. It's in their highest revenue tier and I would imagine they cannot track non-epic payments.
Which makes things look even worse for all the "regular" releases.

 

[fantomena]

Tim Sweeney everytime he talks about Valve

 

[Durante]

Yeah. It's in their highest revenue tier and I would imagine they cannot track non-epic payments.
Which makes things look even worse for all the "regular" releases.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw Genshin topping their game list.

They only had an anemic increase in third party revenue with a lot more releases, despite including what is literally one of the most profitable games of all time -- and one with a monetization model which I assume to be more likely to find success with the type of audience EGS has cultivated than packaged sales.

 

[madjoki]

I saw someone on Reddit insist Valve is doing secret Steam exclusive deals. The truth is out there.

Surely they have here's DEFINITIVE proof.

 

[STHX]

I can't help but find this hilarious

competing by...pissing people off and training them to only get freebies

what could go wrong

 

[Ge0force]

Here's more EGS-related news:

• A sustainable approach can’t rely on shelling out for expensive exclusives, Allison says, noting the portion of store revenue coming from exclusive games has healthily declined from 75% in the store’s first year to 40%-45% in 2022.
• “The message is definitely changing from 'we're the place to go to do exclusive partnership deals' to 'we're a great option that you should be launching with the same time you launch everywhere else across console and PC,'” says Allison.
• Epic will generate some PC exclusives through its nascent game-publishing division, which has about 15 PC/console games in the pipeline, including Remedy’s Alan Wake II. Games from acquired studios like Psyonix and Mediatonic help, Sweeney said, though he downplayed the chance of Epic buying more teams. Epic, he says, has “no intent to expand to become a massive game conglomerate, like Activision or Electronic Arts.”

Source: Epic Games has big plans for its store, has its mobile apps ready

This explains why Epic is going for long-term exclusivity with their publishing label.

 

[curi0usBystander]

In theory, a publishing label is a better approach but it's also a riskier one.

Also why does he speak like that:

"a new breakthrough, a new Cambrian or evolution type of event in the history of stores, that gets us out of the doldrums we've been stuck in for so long.”

 

[Mor]

Here's more EGS-related news:

• A sustainable approach can’t rely on shelling out for expensive exclusives, Allison says, noting the portion of store revenue coming from exclusive games has healthily declined from 75% in the store’s first year to 40%-45% in 2022.
• “The message is definitely changing from 'we're the place to go to do exclusive partnership deals' to 'we're a great option that you should be launching with the same time you launch everywhere else across console and PC,'” says Allison.
• Epic will generate some PC exclusives through its nascent game-publishing division, which has about 15 PC/console games in the pipeline, including Remedy’s Alan Wake II. Games from acquired studios like Psyonix and Mediatonic help, Sweeney said, though he downplayed the chance of Epic buying more teams. Epic, he says, has “no intent to expand to become a massive game conglomerate, like Activision or Electronic Arts.”

Source: Epic Games has big plans for its store, has its mobile apps ready

This explains why Epic is going for long-term exclusivity with their publishing label.

The only reason why they continue doing the exclusivity thing is to stay relevant at a news level cause' otherwise, no one would mention them at all. even backlash is good for them cause' it creates movement around their brand. It's sad, tbh lol

 

[Ge0force]

The only reason why they continue doing the exclusivity thing is to stay relevant at a news level cause' otherwise, no one would mention them at all. even backlash is good for them cause' it creates movement around their brand. It's sad, tbh lol

Many sites are still reporting the free games every week, but yeah, I also feel like EGS becomes less and less relevant. People are barely talking about it nowadays.

I also believe that opening the flood gates for everyone without decent discovery tools will kill one of the major benefits that EGS has today: visibility. I'm not sure paying streamers to post links to the EGS store page will make a significant difference for the majority of indies.

 

[prudis]

speaking of scloosies

they got this: (or at least the playtest is egsclusive)

---

and Crime Boss EGSclusiviy got clarified (source)

so basically they are doing 3 months of "Unmarked Early Access" on EGS prior to consoles ..... and after that its the standard 1 year egsclusivity

 

[C-Dub]

There is saying, and then there is doing.

Epic: “[We want EGS to be] a new breakthrough, a new Cambrian or evolution type of event in the history of stores, that gets us out of the doldrums we've been stuck in for so long.”

Valve: “We made some hardware because we thought it was an interesting space for us, our customers and developers. Since then growth has been organic and developers have been falling over themselves to support it.”

 

[Alexandros]

Here's more EGS-related news:

• A sustainable approach can’t rely on shelling out for expensive exclusives, Allison says, noting the portion of store revenue coming from exclusive games has healthily declined from 75% in the store’s first year to 40%-45% in 2022.
• “The message is definitely changing from 'we're the place to go to do exclusive partnership deals' to 'we're a great option that you should be launching with the same time you launch everywhere else across console and PC,'” says Allison.
• Epic will generate some PC exclusives through its nascent game-publishing division, which has about 15 PC/console games in the pipeline, including Remedy’s Alan Wake II. Games from acquired studios like Psyonix and Mediatonic help, Sweeney said, though he downplayed the chance of Epic buying more teams. Epic, he says, has “no intent to expand to become a massive game conglomerate, like Activision or Electronic Arts.”

Source: Epic Games has big plans for its store, has its mobile apps ready

This explains why Epic is going for long-term exclusivity with their publishing label.

Well, it might have taken them 3+ years and God knows how much money but it seems that they finally realized that they can catch more flies with honey. Hopefully they will stick to that plan and provide actual competition that is beneficial to customers.

 

[prudis]

Allison says, noting the portion of store revenue coming from exclusive games has healthily declined from 75% in the store’s first year to 40%-45% in 2022.

i would say almost 50% revenue from scloosies is still way too much to be called heatlhy storefront

 

[Arc]

Well, it might have taken them 3+ years and God knows how much money but it seems that they finally realized that they can catch more flies with honey. Hopefully they will stick to that plan and provide actual competition that is beneficial to customers.

Between Epic's hostile practices the past 4 years and Tim Sweeney constantly running his mouth, I want them to be the last stewards of competition on PC. Frankly their shenanigans have lessened my enjoyment of this hobby.

 

[Alexandros]

Between Epic's hostile practices the past 4 years and Tim Sweeney constantly running his mouth, I want them to be the last stewards of competition on PC. Frankly their shenanigans have lessened my enjoyment of this hobby.

Quite the opposite for me. Seeing the PC gaming community kick the ass of a rich company like Epic and an arrogant prick like Tim Sweeney reinvigorates my passion for gaming.

 

[Magnamalo]

I expect Epic are doing the same thing as Valve and not ordering games within tiers, so Tiny Tina is one of the top 5, but we don't know where in the top 5.

That's a good point, even for Tiny Tina to reach top tier is interesting..
Wonder if there was a deep sale for this on EGS or something

 

[Arc]

Quite the opposite for me. Seeing the PC gaming community kick the ass of a rich company like Epic and an arrogant prick like Tim Sweeney reinvigorates my passion for gaming.

Between Tim's rant about Steamworks and unhinged quote about "day of reckoning" I simply can't stand the man and his holier-than-thou attitude. He has that same unlikable energy ala Musk.

That's a good point, even for Tiny Tina to reach top tier is interesting..
Wonder if there was a deep sale for this on EGS or something

As of December 31, 2022, Tiny Tina had grossed $158 million across all platforms combined (EGS, Steam, and consoles). Being (extremely) generous we could maybe say EGS was 1/3 of total sales which would make it about $52 million gross. That doesn't seem unreasonable for one of the five biggest games on the store last year.

 

[curi0usBystander]

I know that sales in games are very top heavy, but if one of your top games generated like ~15% of the revenue (of third party games) and another one is Genshin and GTA,
And the second category includes a flop (Saints Row) and a mid-tier game budget-wise (SIFU sold like 1M copies between PC and PS during it's launch week).
I have to wonder how much money the rest made

 

[gabbo]

Well, it might have taken them 3+ years and God knows how much money but it seems that they finally realized that they can catch more flies with honey. Hopefully they will stick to that plan and provide actual competition that is beneficial to customers.

They can still fall further to get learn the harder lessons - like publishing exclusivity. It took EA< MS, and Ubi a few years, Epic seems content to ride this out.

 

[Alexandros]

They can still fall further to get learn the harder lessons - like publishing exclusivity. It took EA< MS, and Ubi a few years, Epic seems content to ride this out.

It will be interesting to see if they can in fact ride this out since Fortnite seems to be declining. I don't think Epic will be as willing to throw money around if its main cash cow starts faltering.

 

[CommodoreKong]

It will be interesting to see if they can in fact ride this out since Fortnite seems to be declining. I don't think Epic will be as willing to throw money around if its main cash cow starts faltering.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fortnite is seeing a similar decline across all platforms not just PC.

It's probably a pretty major decline as well since their numbers include Fall Guys.

 

[FunnyJay]

The question on everyone's mind:

When will Peter Molyneux discover EGS?

 

[STHX]

• “The message is definitely changing from 'we're the place to go to do exclusive partnership deals' to 'we're a great option that you should be launching with the same time you launch everywhere else across console and PC,'” says Allison.

 

[Arc]

Cherry picked quotes:

After 12 years of development, across four different studios, Dead Island 2 is finally a playable videogame, with release planned for April 21 this year. After such a troubled journey it's impressive that its final custodians Dambuster Studios have pulled together anything at all—but after an extensive hands-on with the first third of the game, I'm sadly left feeling that the final result is a thin and uninteresting experience.

I'm not someone who wants every game to be a 100 hour epic, but Dead Island 2 doesn't make up for that small scale with variety or cleverness—it's a pretty basic game of zombie-whacking. A humble scope was probably a sensible choice for finally getting this game out the door, but it is still being sold at a premium price, and it's hard to escape the fact that you could get Dying Light 2 instead for the same cost.

All together it does make for a decently layered combat system, even if none of the individual elements are necessarily that original. When it works, it is fun, at least at first—a kind of controlled chaos that makes you feel smart even though your opponents literally don't have functional brains. But way too often, it simply fails to gel—and when the game doesn't really have anything else to hang its hook on, it can be really deflating.

When that core melee experience starts to fall apart, the sad truth is there isn't really anything else to sink your teeth into. The city looks nice enough, but feels much less distinctive than the first game's tropical resort, and while it has a bit of fun with the Hollywood theme—one memorable sequence has you fighting zombies across b-movie film sets—it doesn't take it anywhere original, at least not in this first third.

Dead Island 2 feels like it's come out of the trials and tribulations of its long development humbled and a little lost. I applaud Dambuster Studios for transforming the seemingly doomed project into something actually releasable, and even in some ways impressive—the gore tech particularly is a genuine achievement. But that doesn't make it a good value proposition for players. As a full-priced game, it's uninspired and too quick to wear out its welcome—but worse, it simply doesn't have a reason to exist in a gaming world that's long moved past its predecessor.

Looks like another winner alongside Rockay City.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I’m shocked I tell you

shocked

 

[Paul]

I actually just saw two previews, one czech from guys I trust and one australian from Skillup, and both were positive (and the czech one was very positive). So I was surprised to visit PCG and see complaining right on the frontpage.

I will make up my own mind of course...next year.

 

[lashman]

 

[Arc]

I'd rather see 50 poorly made hentai games over one crypto scam.

 

[curi0usBystander]

1. Some times I wonder if the number 30 hurt him or something?
2. You'd think If NFT game did well there they'd be shouting in any direction.
3. Look man, seeing everything that happened with Axii infinity, and how a huge chunk of the crypto was stolen (most likely by North Korea), I'm not sure if it's a good idea to try to make that kind of game.

 

[Arc]

Meta gives up on NFTs for Facebook and Instagram

Trying to call them “digital collectibles” didn’t work.

www.theverge.com

I expect to see an article about Epic pulling NFT games from EGS within the next 12 months.

 

[madjoki]

When Epic realises you get $100 back on Steam after it does $1000 in sales...

What if it does actually mean other games are just doing bad on Epic?

Also doesn't smart contracts allow enforcing sales fees?
So Valve could take cut from crypto too if they wanted and programmatically enforce it. (rather than contractually).

 

[C-Dub]

Avoiding NFT is more of an ass-covering exercise than anything else.

While Epic have probably absolved themselves of any legal liability with these games, the court of public opinion will crucify them if a bunch of kids get scammed in an NFT grift.

Better to just stay well clear of it, especially since it the whole thing is now out of vogue in favour of the next Silicon Valley grift: AI.

 

[ExistentialThought]

When Epic realises you get $100 back on Steam after it does $1000 in sales...

Seriously, it is funny how blatant they are copying and yet still want to be seen as some sort of innovator over Steam.


Also, the number of companies still diving into NFTs, web3, and blockchain is too high. I am hoping Facebook killing off their NFT platform is yet another alarm bell for these other companies to dip out. Epic/Tim Sweeney defending crypto/NFTs/etc. is completely failing to read the room, but I guess I should not be surprised from a company that has benefited from FOMO and capitalizing on people's fondness of other media franchises sees the parallel in crypto/NFTs that they could stand to gain from.

 

[thekeats1999]

Opps wrong thread...

 

[Arc]

Epic explains its game store's ban on adult content

CEO says this is business, not "moral preaching"

www.axios.com

What they’re saying: “This isn't Epic moral preaching here,” Epic CEO Sweeney tells Axios.

• “Where there's lawful porn, if adults want to engage with it, that's their right,” he said. “But we're building an ecosystem that tries to convey a set of values about the content it hosts. It would be very hard to be a porn company as we're trying to be the things that are really hardcore to our business model.”
• Epic also didn’t want to have to sort through the legalities of different types of adult content, Sweeney says.
• “I've always thought that porn businesses should be separate businesses from mainstream businesses because they require a different philosophy and ethic than a typical mainstream company.”