this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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I'm genuinely shocked how much Epic poured into the store and it still lacks so much basic features. Sorting games is still extremely barebones, store is filled with NFT/crypto garbage, the store still looks like a college student's first front-end project, and last time I used the launcher to pick up free games (last year), it was still slow as hell. What were they doing in the past 5 years aside from dropping millions on exclusivity deals?

Epic is going to have to prioritize the store and try some new initiatives while also doubling down on earning pivotal exclusives if it is going to have a chance. I also hope other viable competitors arrive.

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[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 115 points 2 months ago (9 children)

I see some larger publishers bemoan the fact that Epic hasn't caught on, but it should be pretty obvious why. Markets that favor the buyer more than they favor sellers will typically attract the largest user base, and the sellers don't have a choice to not sell where the buyers are.

Epic giving away free games is a nice buyer friendly action, but literally everything else they've done, from paid exclusives to poor client experience isn't favorable to buyers. They've created a market that no buyers want to use unless the product is free or literally not available anywhere else.

Giving publishers/devs better cuts is great, but it does nothing for you if all the buyers are on Steam instead.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 42 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Advertising better cuts to publishers doesn't mean much when the price is the same across platforms. If epic was consistently 10% cheaper than steam it would get better traction.

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

They do often have better sales, but you have to launch the store to know and personally I would rather pay the extra $1 to buy on Steam...

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Steam also has a lot of other stores selling their games though. Unless epic is giving it away for free, I'm probably going to get a better deal through a fanatical bundle or someone else than I would on epic.

[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

This is true, here in Brazil we have an official key seller called Nuuvem that has prices so good TikTok banned their ads thinking it was a scam, since they often have small discounts even on new games.

Just have to be careful because sometimes the key is for Uplay instead of steam.

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[–] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (10 children)

I always say the reason they give so many free games is because the real price is in having to use that goddamn launcher

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[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't even get their free stuff. And if it's only epic, I won't even bother checking it out or well...ya know.

[–] misterdoctor@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I hope it’s okay to ask, because I am being genuine, but why is using the Epic Games Launcher such a deal breaker for you? I have Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, Xbox, Battle.net and I’m sure more that I’m forgetting and I honestly don’t mind at all. It’s never been an issue for me but I think that I’m in the minority on that so I was curious to hear your thoughts.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago

No official Linux support, which means no Steam Deck support as well. Yes, there's Legendary but I shouldn't have to jump through those hoops.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It just doesn't appeal to me? I dunno. Epic just felt bleh compared to steam.

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I also think that developers/publishers don’t care about the % cut that much, they would rather just sell a lot of games. Which comes back to your point, the value proposition of EGS isn’t appealing to the buyer.

It’s like I make a competition to Uber with better cuts and working conditions to drivers. That is nice, but if the consumer has to wait 25 mins for my taxi while the Uber is there immediately, than they will not pick me for the same price.

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[–] Sidewalker@lemm.ee 107 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Fuck Epic. I will never forgive them for buying Rocket League and ripping it away from my Linux library on steam. I will never do business with them, never play any of their games, never give them a dime, never even sign up to claim their free slop of the week. Fuck Epic with a cactus.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I own the original CD release of Unreal Tournament 2004, made by Epic, it includes a native Linux installer on disc, you get the full game, and it worked fine.

It makes me so sad that they did a complete 180 on this.

[–] Defaced@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

My theory has always been they wanted to keep the door open for Microsoft if things just go under. When you think about it, they were struggling quite a bit in the early 2000's until gears. Microsoft really propped them up with that franchise, then they made fortnite, lost a lot of money until they pivoted to the BR mode and now they make millions every damn day.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago

To be fair, Rocket League runs fine in Proton.

Also, to be fair.....agreed. Fuck Epic.

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[–] Tellore@lemmy.world 48 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (12 children)

I like how many games they give away for free, but tbh I've never played any of them there. Some of those games I decided to buy later on Steam anyway just to do achievements (epic launcher doesn't have achievements, cards, any meaningful statistics, etc).

[–] AutoPastry@sopuli.xyz 21 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Sorry if this comes across pedantic, but in case anybody isn't aware there are some games that offer Achievements (Alan Wake 2 is one I know).

I do agree though, Epic just doesn't have the features Steam does. I don't think their barrage of free games idea is a bad one, but it feels like an afterthought when it's just not as fun to play them there. (Better Linux support would be nice too, at least there's Heroic.)

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[–] msage@programming.dev 44 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I am always suprised that people expected anything differently.

Epic was from the start doing things the wrong way, and I will not support any store that has exclusives.

Making a good gaming platform that could rival Steam would take A LOT of time and money and dare I say - no company is willing to lose that for a chance of one day perhaps being only slightly worse competitor that still can't convince people to migrate.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are only a few companies that could even hope to take on Valve, at this stage. The likes of EA and others. But by definition, their company culture means they'll never be able to take on Valve.

Someone else made a comment about what will happen when Gabe steps down and I suddenly realize what a short-term golden age we're likely living in, even with all the bullshit.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

EA tried about a decade ago to compete with steam. It didn't go well for them either.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago

I can support a store if they keep their own games exclusive. Completely fair game. But fuck the gobble up companies.

[–] Tamo240@programming.dev 7 points 2 months ago

Making a platform that was simply a copy of all of Steam's features would certainly take a lot of time. That's why to break into the space a new platform would need to actually innovate a killer feature that brings early adopters to it even without having all the bells and whistles Steam has. Then the user base can and will grow as you fill in the gaps so the 'sacrifice' of using your platform is lessened.

All exclusive games do is build resentment in your customers at being forced to use an inferior product.

[–] Vespair@lemm.ee 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've said it before, but until Epic adds some way to provide feedback to others, I won't spend any money on it. Being able to read if a game is buggy, runs on my hardware, etc, is too essential to the experience to not have.

Epic wants to be the pro-developer storefront, but since that seems to involve being anti-consumer, I as the consumer have no interest.

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[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

I'm far from being a business savvy person, but honestly, from business perspective what exactly is Epic offering that sets them apart from other competitors? Even if Epic fixed their launcher issues, how would they be different to Steam that is already well established for 20 years? That's why I like GOG as Steam's competitor. GOG focuses on selling DRM-free and retro games. If a game also happens to be available in GOG, I would prefer to buy it from there than Steam. Moreover, GOG keep old games well maintained and updated to run in modern computers; something that Steam is very poor at doing. What does Epic even do differently, apart from doing exclusives which any companies could do?

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It's slightly cheaper for developers to put their games on there. But that sucks as a business model, because game prices aren't any lower so for the end user it doesn't matter. And on features, Epic just loses every matchup against Steam.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Hmm... that's fair but it seems that Epic even forgot to think of end users-- the gamers-- in that regard before trying to compete with Steam. They prioritised devs first over the actually most important stakeholder.

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As the customer, which in a practical sense is the only perspective that matters to me day-to-day, Epic offers me nothing close to what Steam or GOG can give me. Hell, even EA's and Ubisofts launchers were more useful since they at least had exclusives. All Epic has is Fortnite and for someone like myself that doesn't care for that kind of game, there is no reason to even consider their platform for anything.

And given my recent switch away from Windows and to Linux full time on my gaming PC to put a further wedge between me and the things Microsoft has been doing with Windows that I don't like that is a good thing given Epics history of embracing things that will never work as smoothly on Linux as Steam games do with Proton or GOG's native Linux options do.

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[–] atkdef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This CEO may think it's developer-friendly, but I highly doubt if Epic will keep such developer-friendly stance if Epic becomes a giant in this industry.

Epic burnt so much money on Epic store these years. If it succeeds, it's very likely Epic will try to earn it back. From player? Will players willing to pay more in Epic store than the others? If the answer is no.. Sometimes it really makes me wonder if these CEOs are really that stupid..

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Epic burnt so much money on Epic store these years

It burned money on exclusives. The free games are a much cheaper marketing tool than advertising.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They burn a ton of money on free games too. They're only free to us. Epic pays for them at wholesale rates.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, and at wholesale rates it's a pretty good bang-for-your-buck, as an advertising scheme. Advertising is a numbers game about getting as many eyeballs as possible on the product, and I know I actively check for free games on the Epic launcher most weeks. Even if I don't ever buy anything because of that specifically, it keeps the app on my computer and keeps me checking back in.

Edit: And I shit you not I just opened it to check 'cause I can't remember if I looked at this week's free game. Turns out it's a good thing I did too, the Fallout collection is free right now!

(dammit, see what I mean?)

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[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've bought one game on the epic store.

I then immediately had to install the EA app, because you... didn't buy it on the epic store? You bought a license that you have to activate on EA's shit instead.

Kinda thinking there's no point to that, and I should have skipped epic (I had a coupon).

[–] ABCDE@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh so it's just EA sucking, then. Well, it's nice to know nothing ever really changes I suppose.

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[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If Borderlands 3 had released on Steam, I'd have probably bought it when it came out because I still had a lot of goodwill for the series at that time. Instead, I had to wait until the Steam release when the game already had loads of negative press. Exclusive deals are idiotic

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[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Epic store not being profitable and despite the backing of Fortnite and Unreal Engine surplas being at the state that it is shows that it is probably much more expensive than expected to make a feature rich launcher. What epic has is more a glorified storefront like humble bundle or Fanatical but worse because it isn't even selling keys for the platform of your choice, and they have to handle server costs of storing all the games too.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 53 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

They didn't invest in features.

They "invested" in paying out the ass for exclusivity and loss leaders thinking that buying users would result in users ignoring how terrible their store was and buying more games there.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 months ago

In a way it like trying to enter the smartphone market and paying for app exclusives then ignoring the part about polishing the OS experience as much as possible and putting out something that is from the flip phone era.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago

Randy is not known for being very smart.

[–] ramsgrl909@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

There was a point I tried to switch to Epic, just to try it out - it is so unbelievably slow & oddly hard to find and organize my own games. They NEED to start putting $$ into the UI otherwise all those free games are for nothing if idetest opening the client itself.

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