News Epic Games Store

Arc

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Epic updated their weekly top sellers list and Football Manager 2021 came in in 13th place. In comparison, the Steam version was 4th place last week on its platform. While it's impossible to get raw numbers, it gives a tiny glimpse into how concurrent Steam/EGS releases compare to each other in sales. Also the fact the EGS version of FM was outsold by games such as Bugsnax and Farming Simulator makes me think the lion's share of sales for simultaneous releases are on Steam.

Of course my speculation is based on the fact that Epic doesn't fudge their top seller numbers and honestly: who knows?
 

Mor

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Epic updated their weekly top sellers list and Football Manager 2021 came in in 13th place. In comparison, the Steam version was 4th place last week on its platform. While it's impossible to get raw numbers, it gives a tiny glimpse into how concurrent Steam/EGS releases compare to each other in sales. Also the fact the EGS version of FM was outsold by games such as Bugsnax and Farming Simulator makes me think the lion's share of sales for simultaneous releases are on Steam.

Of course my speculation is based on the fact that Epic doesn't fudge their top seller numbers and honestly: who knows?
Well, as I said in the past here, it's not that interesting to make a deep observation to Epic's top 20 because we don't have the scale of sales, nor numbers to compare each other, SOMETIMES something happens and a dev says a number which we can use to make an scale.

In the case of FM21, for example, one member of the dev team said this:

50k ccu peak for the game in general.


In that precise moment if you check the information on SteamDB, Steam's CCU peak was 41,9k


So... can we assume the ratio is 42-8? Maybe or maybe not, it's just a guess at the moment.

Unfortunately, EGS top 20 is useless in terms of data :crying-face:
 

Arsene

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Epic just released a new Joker skin pack for Fortnite but its physical only until December so you can’t get it if you’re a PC only user. The game includes a code and no disc so you’d think they would just sell game cards like they do with vbucks right? No. Physical box only everyone except PC and Android gets it fuck you have fun waiting until December.

Great to see that despite desperately trying to become a big top PC distribution platform they continue to fuck over PC players and prioritize console users. Definitely feel like im being treated like a first class consumer when I support Epic as a primarily PC user.
 

fantomena

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Embracer acquired a big bunch of nice studios that will be put under Saber meaning there's a chance they won't arrive on Steam. :(
 
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Mor

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Embracer acquired a big bunch of nice studios that will be put under Saber meaning there's a chance they won't arrive on Steam. :(
Literally the only game from Saber that hasn't come is WWZ.

Ghostbusters remastered came out on Steam just yesterday.
Crysis is known to be 12 months exclusive via redacted documentation
The truck game I can't remember the name is more or less the same kind of deal than Crysis.

So, I'm not really sure why the pessimism.
 

fantomena

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Literally the only game from Saber that hasn't come is WWZ.

Ghostbusters remastered came out on Steam just yesterday.
Crysis is known to be 12 months exclusive via redacted documentation
The truck game I can't remember the name is more or less the same kind of deal than Crysis.

So, I'm not really sure why the pessimism.
Well thanks for giving me hope at least. :p

I really wanna play Snowrunner, I suspect it will get a complete edition on Steam when all the planned DLCs for the season pass is out.
 

Mor

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Well thanks for giving me hope at least. :p

I really wanna play Snowrunner, I suspect it will get a complete edition on Steam when all the planned DLCs for the season pass is out.
SNOWRUNNER, THAT WAS THE ONE HAHAHA

And yeah, do not worry because at the very least for most of them there's already big indication of their deals, unfortunately for those who are waiting, WWZ seems to be an exception to the rule for an unknown reason, probably due to the MP nature of the game, we don't know.
 

Ge0force

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Embracer acquired a big bunch of nice studios that will be put under Saber meaning there's a chance they won't arrive on Steam. :(
Yeah this is definitely not good news. Saber is completely in bed with Epic so I don't feel like buying anything from them anymore.

It's remarkable that several of the studios that are put under Saber already did EGS exclusivity (4A, Zen, Snapshot...). Coincidence or not?
 

Eferis

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Mor I'm a terrible person but I lost all bookmarks. Can you link your Epic spreadsheet again? Thanks
 
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Mor

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It's remarkable that several of the studios that are put under Saber already did EGS exclusivity (4A, Zen, Snapshot...). Coincidence or not?
We theorized that Embracer was using Saber as their potential "EGS deals" line of action without affecting directly to other arms of the structure such as THQ Nordic, however, this doesn't make much sense as Deep Silver and Coffee Stain also made deals with them, so as I don't think this theory is correct at all, I will just say that it's simply an accommodation and a mere coincidence.

Embracer structure doesn't let this kind of theories to work properly.
Mor I'm a terrible person but I lost all bookmarks. Can you link your Epic spreadsheet again? Thanks
This is a link because I don't want the automatic embed :3
 

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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According to the Crytek leaks, Crytek have agreed to 12 month timed exclusivity for Crysis 2 Remastered and probably Crysis 3 Remastered. We know it is 12 months because a separate agreement with Electronic Arts says that Crysis 1-3 Remastered will be put on Origin 12 months after their initial PC release date. The agreement is very pedantic that it's 12 months after the PC release, not the Switch release, for example. So Crysis Remastered will come to Origin and Steam and other platforms on the 18th of September, 2021, not July 2o-something, when the Switch port came out.

Crysis 1 and 2 are super firm agreements. There's even a standard EGS minimum guaranteed agreement in place for C1 and C2. Crysis 3 wasn't locked down at the time, probably because its development was a bit staggered. (edit: To be honest, the way C3 is described in some of the contracts is a bit odd. C1 and C2 Remastered are 100% in development. And Epic have the distribution agreement for 3 already. And Crytek paid Denuvo for licences for all three titles. But it's not 100% clear what is going on behind the scenes. In the Saber contract, C3 was pending Crytek approval. The milestones for C3 were a fair bit later. It seems they originally intended to launch C1 and C2 in 2020, and C3 in 2021. Both C2 and C3 have seemingly been pushed back. It seems like they'll be selling a C1/C2 bundle on EGS before C3 comes out.)

Additionally, they are going to put Ryse on the EGS.

Additionally, the proposal document for Crysis Next (which is likely going to be branded Crysis Wars) lists the platforms as Xbox, Playstation, and Epic Games Store. I would not rule out an Epic publishing deal for Crysis Next. Like, the proper publishing deals they do where they fund it, market it, dev keeps the rights, etc.

I'm curious what they're gonna do pricing-wise. Crytek's plan is to release each Crysis remaster at 30 US dollars. After six months, each drops to 20 dollars. After 12 months, drop them to 15 dollars. After all three remasters are released, they are going to release a bundle retailing at 50 US dollars. After 3 months this will drop to 35 dollars, and after 9 months this will drop to 20 dollars.

I would not be surprised if they remove the individual titles from sale eventually, in favor of selling them all as a 20 dollar bundle. I certainly think 15 dollars per game vs 20 dollars for all of them is kinda weird economics that will confuse audiences. I'm just wondering how they're gonna handle Steam pricing. By the time Crysis 1 Remastered comes to Steam, it'll be 15 bucks US on EGS.

It should be interesting to see how the game sells on Steam. The launch on EGS was pretty rough. And we are still waiting for the third PC patch. The last PC patch was about 8 weeks ago. Crytek have said that they're dedicated to fixing the game's issues, and Saber have popped into the official Discord to say they're listening to all the suggestions people have made. If the Crysis Remaster is properly fixed by the time it comes to Steam next September, and it's selling for fifteen bucks, I think that'll move some units.

It definitely doesn't help the "THANKS, EGS BETA TESTERS" perception, though.
 
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Aelphaeis Mangarae

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Whats the point in remastering Crysis 3? Isnt it still used for technical benchmarks?
It has a simplistic global illumination solution, the grass runs at 30fps, the water reflections are screen space and glaringly so, the texture quality is inconsistent outside of "hero assets", and generally there's significant room for improvement with a lot of finer details.

The PC version was already a major upgrade over the console versions in terms of texture resolution, shaders, AO, etc.

But the geometry was shared between versions. A problem that presents itself is that these are quite moderately budgeted remasters. Crytek budgeted 15 million for the entire trilogy. The Saber contract has them spending more on C1, which means they were likely aware C1 was going to be a pain. The budget constraints mean that Saber were told to SELECTIVELY update assets. This is why C1 hasn't updated a lot of assets you'd kind of expect a remaster to do, like trees, for instance.

What this might mean is that they probably won't fix the nanosuit fingertips looking angular, for instance.

And it's unlikely they'll fix Psycho's head not being rounded enough. But they will likely dig up the OG facial map and use a higher resolution one. They do likely have source assets for C3 that were higher quality than what shipped, even on PC. But again, upgrading textures and lighting and shader work is simple enough. Changing geometry is trickier and so far they've been reluctant to do it.

I'm hoping that they implement the classic nanosuit as an option in Crysis 2 and 3, as they've done in Crysis 1 Remastered. And hopefully the bump up the difficulty a bit. I really don't know why they're waiting so long to announce the other two remasters, especially since the cat is out of the bag now, and was never really IN the bag because you had the first press release talking about the "original campaigns" and Tim Willits talking about how happy he is to be working on the Crysis "games".
Crysis Remastered was a complete joke and Crysis 2 & 3 aren't very good games to begin with
C1 is a work in progress. I think it was terribly botched in terms of quality control, and the PS4 version is STILL completely unpatched and deeply broken -- but in the first two weeks they fixed a whole lot of issues on PC. Now we wait for the third patch. They've been quietly working on the game for almost 8 weeks now. I am optimistic that when the PC patch drops (and Crytek's lack of communication is grating) it will resolve most of the issues people have raised.

And C2 is a very good game. If they don't botch it, it will sell well across all platforms. It's the most well rounded game in the series, and it's the game most casual Crysis fans played. I'm hoping that they take some of the lessons learned from C1 Remastered and include a classic nanosuit mode, for example. And with luck the difficulty rebalance mod by that Destiny writer (Seth Dickinson) should work on the remaster. I kinda hope they boost the AI in Crysis 2 to shoot more persistently, and also get stuck less.

 
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Arsene

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I was reading some of the leaked internal documents and a bunch of the early documents only list PS4/X1. This was definitely a current gen port with PC tacked on later for a quick buck. (Switch also wasnt listed until later)





I wonder if Epic got them to do the PC port or if they decided to do it on their own later in development and Epic paid them for exclusivity.
 
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fantomena

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My problem isn't really Epic paying for timed exclusivity as I can just wait out the Steam version anyway, but how CryTek is not handling the series well at all. After Warhead everything went to shit in terms of gameplay, freedom and story.

Im still pissed that they killed Nomad in a damn comic and the way Alcatraz became Prophet.
 

ISee

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My problem isn't really Epic paying for timed exclusivity
Selling to Epic is one of the symptoms of the problem with the Crysis Remastered: It's a soulless cash grab.

"Make it look better on screenshots, add as many "next gen" buzzwords as possible for PR and lets swim in cash."

And while I'm convinced that their DX11-Vulkan hybrid RT solutions is something that many engineers are rightfully proud of, the achievement gets diminished by the state of the game in general: Same old legacy problems exist, an incomplete game version was used that is even missing graphical options and a level, quick save wasn't there, many control options were missing etc.

And yes, all products exist to make money: but the difference in passion, understanding, care and master of craftsmanship are the key factors that decide between a good and bad product. C&C Remaster, REmake 2, FF7 Remake, Demon's Souls have all that.

Selling it exclusively to epic, while fully aware that there is a big controversy about those kind of practices, is just another sign of the problem behind Crysis Remastered. The people calling the shots only saw dollar signs and didn't care or understood anything else.
 

Ge0force

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And C2 is a very good game.
I didn't enjoy C2 at all. For me, it lacked everything that made the first Crysis so amazing. No more sandbox gameplay, no more freedom. Instead we got
another linear shooter that was designed to please the casual CoD crowd. I even felt insulted when I encountered the first "go left for stealth or go right for action" signs. Perhaps it's not a bad game at all, but it's definitely one of the most disappointing sequels ever for me.
 

Swenhir

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I liked Crysis 2, but there is not denying a lot of that love was colored with awe at the graphics. I still can't understand the killing off-screen of Nomad, the whole thing with Alcatraz isn't exactly bad but it was a horrible mistake to just not even acknowledge the previous game's protagonist. This is who I wanted to play after all, for that big damn hero moment.

Also, Crytek is really sinking even lower with this but after the lawsuit I'm not surprised.
 

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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I didn't enjoy C2 at all. For me, it lacked everything that made the first Crysis so amazing. No more sandbox gameplay, no more freedom. Instead we got another linear shooter that was designed to please the casual CoD crowd.
Comparing Crysis 2 to Call of Duty has never made sense. The MP cribbed from Call of Duty, but MP was by a different team and not really relevant. The campaign's design template is closer to Killzone. It has strong similarities to FEAR 2. It is heavily influenced by Half-Life 2, just like Homefront: The Revolution is. The level design consists of a series of open, vertical areas where the player is free to choose their own approach. Wheras Modern Warfare-era Call of Duty was marked by scripted monster closets and large numbers of cannon fodder enemies, Crysis 2 favors small numbers of highly intelligent (when they're not malfunctioning) enemies. This is something HL2 did, too.

The Call of Duty games that Crysis 2 resembles are the post-Crysis 2-inspired "advanced movement" ones like Advanced Warfare, which made the Modern Warfare fanbase throw a tantrum about "muh boots on the ground" because the "casual CoD crowd" as you put it absolutely hated Crysis 2's design ideas..

On another note, a pretty massive patch for Crysis Remastered dropped. There are still things that need fixing, but it's a fairly substantial patch.

 
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Ge0force

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Just read an interesting post on the other forum about Mechwarrior 5:

The information from the acquisition is that MWO has generated around 75 million CAD revenue in its lifetime, MW5 has sold "hundreds of thousands of copies" since its EGS release and has generated around 22.7 million CAD in revenue as of September 2020.

If this is true, it seems we are strongly underestimating the sales of (certain) EGS exclusives.
 
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Alextended

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That would be around 500k sales maximum, not so unheard of. Had a lot of hype surrounding the release even if ultimately it was a disappointment for many. Though I guess it's revenue even if it's Epic's money being given, not sales. Would they sign a known IP exclusive for less pre-sold copies than such an amount?
 

Mor

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Just read an interesting post on the other forum about Mechwarrior 5:

The information from the acquisition is that MWO has generated around 75 million CAD revenue in its lifetime, MW5 has sold "hundreds of thousands of copies" since its EGS release and has generated around 22.7 million CAD in revenue as of September 2020.

If this is true, it seems we are strongly underestimating the sales of (certain) EGS exclusives.
to be completely honest, if that's true, then they are the least excited people in the universe, no news about reached goals (in terms of sales) and revenue can be including the exclusivity deal, so, to be honest, it just sounds as PR talking and nothing else, BUT AS WE DON'T HAVE FUCKING FIGURES, WE CAN'T POSSIBLY KNOW! :crying-face:

That would be around 500k sales maximum, not so unheard of. Had a lot of hype surrounding the release even if ultimately it was a disappointment for many. Though I guess it's revenue even if it's Epic's money being given, not sales. Would they sign a known IP exclusive for less pre-sold copies than such an amount?
That's the think, wording is quite small when talking about sales with a vague figure of "hundred of thousands" but quite specific when it comes to the revenue.
 

gabbo

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to be completely honest, if that's true, then they are the least excited people in the universe, no news about reached goals (in terms of sales) and revenue can be including the exclusivity deal, so, to be honest, it just sounds as PR talking and nothing else, BUT AS WE DON'T HAVE FUCKING FIGURES, WE CAN'T POSSIBLY KNOW! :crying-face:


That's the think, wording is quite small when talking about sales with a vague figure of "hundred of thousands" but quite specific when it comes to the revenue.
I also wonder how much it cost to license the IP from Topps and whether that 22.7 million CAD might have been eaten into by that cost
 

Mor

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I also wonder how much it cost to license the IP from Topps and whether that 22.7 million CAD might have been eaten into by that cost
No idea, to be fair, but wording is quite.... strange...
 

Wok

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Surgeon Simulator 2 launched as an Epic Games Store exclusive, and failed to have the same impact of its predecessor, which was a 2013 Steam hit. However, in an interview with Eurogamer, Bossa co-founder Henrique Olifiers denied the performance of Surgeon Simulator 2 had anything to do with the round of redundancies.

[...]

Surgeon Simulator 2 launches on non-Epic platforms in 2021 once Bossa's exclusivity deal with Epic expires, and Bossa remains committed to that release, Olifiers insisted.

"We're still updating the game," Olifiers said. "We have a team working on it, and we're going to launch the game on three platforms in August next year. So we're still heavily invested in the game, keeping it going. If the game didn't perform as we expected, we would wrap it up and focus on something else. We are not big enough to support something that is not performing."

One person at Bossa, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the record to press, described tension over recent decisions as well as management's involvement in day-to-day production.
Not sure what to think about it.