By now everybody has heard about Epic Games launching their very own virtual game store, in hopes to become competitor for the one and only STEAM itself. While it may sound good at a first glance, there are some serious problems this may bring in the future.
We have seen the decline of VALVe as a company and Steam in its quality for some time now. Latest news about Steam releasing uncensored anime sex games (understand – cheap weaboo cash grab) was the last drop. We needed something to change. And since the God Gaben himself is too busy counting money and can’t hear Steam user’s outcry because of all the clanking of coins, he needs another kind of wake up kick up the arse. And Epic Games own store may just as well be it.
Epic Games – owners of Unreal Engine – are rolling in Fortnite cash and therefore decided to put it into good use and eventually make even more money. And to show VALVe they are not invincible, throughout the process. At the time of writing this article, Epic Store is kinda empty, but let’s remember Steam store back in the day, when it contained only those few VALVe games and nothing more. Everyone has to start somewhere.
THE GOOD
So why should we be all hyped-up about this “yet another damned game client I have to install”? Because it sounds great! To promote the whole thing, they teamed up with some game developers and publishers, and every two weeks will be giving out free game. It will all start on 14.12.2018 with Subnautica, continuing with Super Meatboy being free for grabs from 28.12.2018 (more games are supposed to come later).
While this may be seen as a cheap trick to make us install their client… so what? We are getting free games in exchange of few megs on our HDD and 5 minutes of installation. Most of us already have all the launchers anyways (Steam, Uplay, Origin, GOG Galaxy, Battle.net) so what does one more matter?
And that’s just one direct benefit for us, gamers. There is potentially plenty of indirect benefits later on:
Developers will only pay 5% for using Unreal Engine, which will cut down development costs and making it easier for games to make it from development hell, not getting cancelled due to financial issues.
As for sales, Epic Games will only ask for 12% of the profit that devs/publishers makes from sales through their game store. Compare that to Steam’s 30% (potentially 20% if the title sells well) cut and we have a winner. While this may not mean cheaper games for us, in the long run it can assure that makers of games will have enough money to start new projects, with less worries about the sales, and focus on making better games, not falling for cheap cash-grabs and implementing shitty mechanics to get more out of our wallets.
Epic Games also promises real cross-platforming in every way possible. Fortnite is already running smoothly on 7 platforms that are fully interoperable – you don’t have to login on console, as it supports multi-platform login through Xbox Live, Facebook, Google, PSN, and Nintendo accounts, in addition to Epic accounts. And they plan to give these tools to the developers to implement it into their own games – for free!! And did I mention it can support linking your Twitch account with it?
Throughout the 2019, we should get cross-platform parties and matchmaking, shared friend lists and profiles, cross-platform data storage, sharing cloud-saved games across all platforms alongside achievements and trophies and basic Voice Comms for every game… if the developers chooses to use the tools. Gamer’s wet dreams are coming true, at last?
THE BAD
Unfortunately, not all is gold in the promised land of Epic Game Store and it brings some questionable practices with it. Practices, that are raising my eyebrow and can herald dark days for PC gaming community.
No questions asks refunds that were promised, are not as innocent as we thought. Sure – unlike Steam – Epic will not ask you why are you refunding the game, but instead will insist on giving them a lot of personal data about you and your account. They say it is to make sure you are who you are, but it seems scammy at least. Compare it to Steam where you just say you didn’t like the game and get your money back.
Also say goodbye to the user’s reviews. Epic argues they want to prevent so called “review bombing” of games, but not giving us at least upvote/downvote button is just plainly BAD. How are we supposed to know what community thinks? We know that most of the review sites can’t be trusted, as they are all in the publisher’s pockets. Looking for independent reviewers is a pain as they are well hidden below the trash that big review sites and their paid ads are shoveling into our Google search results… and even small guys like me doesn’t have enough time and money to actually play and review all the new games.
Don’t know about you but I love Stream reviews, because when you sift through all the bias (both negative and positive), you can get pretty clear picture about the game in question and whether you should buy it. Without that, you may be refunding half of your library on a monthly basis, giving all the personal data to Epic Games…
Fun fact – when I was installing Epic Games Store on my PC, part of the installation was automatic download of Emperor-forsaken Fortnite! I just wanted the store, not the garbage attached to it. As a person previously working in advertising, I applaud this strategy. You “just want the free game from Epic Store”, and with it you get this Fortnite everybody is talking about. And since you can’t cancel the installation, why not try it? It’s there, it’s free… BAM! Three hours later you giggle like a little goblin purchasing this awesome funny costume for your level 23 fortnite character… By the way if you don’t want the Fortnite installed, you have to hard-cancel the installation by pressing Alt+F4. How scammy is that? Imagine more companies taking page of this heretical grimoire…
Last but not least – Epic Games Store Exclusive titles. This is maybe the worst of them all. I don’t know how much money Epic Games promised the developers for this, but there has been already several titles withdrawn from Steam and announced as Epic Store exclusives. Some for a certain time window, but most of them permanent. Like Ashen, Hades or eagerly expected Satisfactory.
This is bad. This is EXTREMELY bad, my friends and it could mean more diversion and problems in PC gaming community. We all know the struggles of console peasants and their exclusives, where you have to own multiple consoles just to be able to play the good games. But PC gamers never had such issue. Because – why would we? PC is the universal gaming/working device and there is no need for such steps. We are above that nonsense.
Imagine all the big publishers going this route. Imagine all Ubisoft or EA games being only available on their own platforms. Imagine smaller developers banding together, throwing out their half-arsed, buggy clients with their games only available on them….
And I forgot to mention cross-platform matchmaking. Sounds kinda good, but for FPS titles it is impossible. Console players can’t possibly compete with mouse and keyboard players and forcing them to buy mouse and keyboard, or letting them use aimbots – none of that sounds good, does it?
THE (POSSIBLY) UGLY
This is what worries me the most. All that sweet talk about cross platforming, shared achievements and game saves across the board – and then they slap us with exclusivity. As a counter-play, other platforms (Uplay, GOG Galaxy, Steam) can refuse cross-platforming just to show they are not supporting exclusivity for PC gaming. They can easily restrict using their own data (i.e. Steam achievements or save game files) by Epic Store or even make devs/publisher make a choice that they can either publish on Steam or Epic Store, but never on both. And we can end up with an ugly War of Titans with us – poor gamers – caught in the middle of this shitstorm.
Or they can take the wrong page from this book and restrict reviews on Steam or changing refund policies. The list goes on.
On a bright side, this can make Steam and gaming industry overall a better place. Steam may wake up and starting to listen and care about gaming community once again. They may start preventing scammers selling fully priced asset flips on Steam store or maybe even implement new, cool features on Steam to combat Epic Store.On a bright side, this can make Steam and gaming industry overall a better place. Steam may wake up and starting to listen and care about gaming community once again. They may start preventing scammers selling fully priced asset flips on Steam store or maybe even implement new, cool features on Steam to combat Epic Store.On a bright side, this can make Steam and gaming industry overall a better place. Steam may wake up and starting to listen and care about gaming community once again. They may start preventing scammers selling fully priced asset flips on Steam store or maybe even implement new, cool features on Steam to combat Epic Store.
As always, this can also mean that games possibly could become cheaper, or at least worth their full price. But don’t quote me on that, it most likely won’t happen.
I am not saying Epic Store is a Steam killer or any such BS, on the day I am writing this article, Steam Store it is far from any kind of competition even to the Battle.net client – and that’s saying something. But look at the potential. Look at the possibilities it can bring! Give it a chance.
I am surely going to monitor this thing and will bring more news as they become available. I wish all the best to Epic Games and pray to the Gods of Heavy Metal, that this end’s well, and won’t become a burning dumpster fire.
Until next time, the Emperor protects!
EPHEMERIS INQUISITIO 