Its almost like half-assing a store front that runs like shit, lacks the most basic features and is generally perceived to be user-hostile is a bad way to attract business. When the freaking open source Heroic Game Launcher does a better job hooking into Epic’s servers than their own damn launcher its time to do something. Take one of those millions of dollars you rake in every year and actually invest in the platform for cripes sake!
- Reduce auto-signouts. This creates friction and forces users to take extra steps to access the game they wish to play. This causes users to go “nah I didn’t really feel like playing that right now anyways”
- Embed system requirements for games into the launcher. Users want to know if they can even install a game before clicking install
- Show details about a game that a user has clicked on. Seriously if you’re going to give away a hundred free games a year, folks aren’t going to know jack shit about 90% of the indie titles you’re surfacing. Most of the free titles I’ve actually played I’ve played because the marketing screenshots and description sounded cool, and I don’t want to cross-reference between a web browser and a web-browser-wrapped-into-an-executable-that-runs-like-shit-but-installs-my-games-sometimes
- SHOW THE GODDAMN DOWNLOAD SIZE AND INSTALL SIZE BEFORE BEGINNING THE DOWNLOAD!!! My god this is not rocket science, its barely even computer science. Its literally the most basic feature of any software installer developed in the last 50 years, show an estimate for about how much hard drive space is needed. If I have 50GB free on a laptop with a 256GB drive in it, its just russian roulette for if I’ll install a game or have to manually sort out my drive being filled to 0 bytes remaining by a game download that never would’ve completed anyways.
- Stop forcing updates. If someone’s launching a game that needs an update, let them launch it without updating. Also make it easier to force it to check for updates/apply already released updates. The background polling has entirely missed major game updates for my wife’s Fortnite, and since those can be 30+GB downloads we’d really much prefer to run those updates when she isn’t sitting down to play a bit of Fortnite.
- Actually enable user reviews. Yes this requires moderation which requires workhours and therefore money. This is the kind of thing that that 10% cut of all sales you take is supposed to pay for. Users want to know what they’re getting into before buying a game and committing to installing it and trying it out, let them!
- Optimize the crap out of your launcher. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be gestures wildly at everything this. Reduce the filesize of the webpages, run a few fewer javascripts, use better image compression, just most importantly make the launcher not run like its full of molasses
The part that annoys me the most is Epic could simple reduce the free games to bi-weekly and rebudget those same dollars into platform improvements and actually create a viable platform that people don’t hate. Just look at Steam, its got some glaring issues (online DRM, massive illegal gambling problems, cyberbullying, unclear & inconsistent policies on adult content, rampant shovelware, etc. etc.) but by not being a pain in the butt to use, and having some decent company policies that aren’t obviously anti-consumer they have an entire fandom devoted to them. Its just wasted potential. If Tim Sweeney felt like it he could actually build an incredible platform and actually compete with Steam, but instead they just engage in the most disjointed corporate bullshit possible
GoG is generally the better alternative to steam than epic.
Steam isn’t perfect but it works and has a decent consumer oriented service. GoG is doing great with conservation and drm free options but their launcher isn’t amazing. Pair either with Heroic games launcher or similar for a great experience on almost any OS
Makes sense, I have an account because it’s fun to collect the free games even if I never play them, but I can’t see myself spending money there.
I’ve never even claimed a “free game” from those assholes. Fuck 'em.
I dont even login to get the free games anymore. Fuck 'em they aren’t interested in making a good experience.
Same, I don’t even claim the free games anymore
Whats the point? I’ve got to wrestle the client to play them and my speeds are capped ridiculously low. Steam at least doesnt seem to have a tiny cap on update and game downloads. Though sometimes whatever is hosting workshop can be slow.
Right? The epic store is so slow and sluggish and awful. How fucking hard can it be today to make a good app for a single OS.
So you know how everyone uses Electron because it’s makes it easy to make a cross platform app using web tech?
Well apparently Epic doesn’t even use Electron. They embed Chromium in an UE4 application. That’s right, they’re running a browser AND a game engine for their fucking launcher/store. Even just plain Electron (so just Chromium) would be an improvement.
My first thought is that they’re eatingtheir own dog food, which is good.
But the store still wasn’t good last I checked, and it’s the end-user experience that matters.
How about using that infinite Fortnite money to actually make your business good instead of praying your 1 game’s popularity never runs out
Login. Get free game. Log out.
That’s it lol.
why even do that…
Epic pays some amount of the price of the game to the devs for every free game claimed, so it costs Epic money and makes money for game devs in exchange for a bit of your time. Sometimes you end up trying a game you never would’ve purchased and end up loving it. For example, I snagged Sable a few months ago for free through Epic and was absolutely blown away by how good that game was. It wasn’t even on my radar but I saw it come up as the weekly free game and thought it looked neat so I downloaded it and booted it up
I always felt there was promise to a new store with a big backing to challenge Steam. I think Steam is great and it’s my primary PC games store, but I see the concern of only having one real player in the market. But EGS simply hasn’t done it. It feels like they recognized the reasons Steam is such a huge player in the space; it’s not just the library and the sales, but the level of consumer-focused support and features the platform offers. And that’s the key, Steam is a platform, not just a store.
EGS has never become a platform. It’s missing features, it’s social features are anemic, it’s like they put some effort in to get it off the ground and not broken, and then have just hoped giving away free games will somehow magically convince people to spend money there.
I think there’s reasons to be concerned about Steam, but you cannot ignore how broadly consumer friendly the platform is. Their hardware initiatives only highlight what a complete package their ecosystem is and they’re loaded with some of the most consumer-friendly choices in the industry.
EGS is stuck in no-man’s land. Steam is a better platform, GoG is more consumer-friendly. Humble has Choice which can be a good deal. Fanatical does a better job with sales and credit from purchase. EGS just kind of sits in a no-mans land with no compelling features other than you don’t need to spend money to get games, which is great for us but a terrible business strategy for Epic.
One of the reasons EGS fails is Fortnite in my opinion. In Fortnite they have done all these things: they created a platform with social abilities and all that. Fortnite still brings them lots and lots of money, but this shouldn’t be in Fortnite it should be in their launcher. It could be even more integrated than Steam does. Why not let games grant you skins you can use in other games as a character model (given the game supports it)?
By going the route exclusives they deliberately avoided being competition and cemented themselves as the early access platform with no features.
Hades was as good as it was because it had a year to be mediocre on EGS first
The problem is these stores (Epic but also the Microsoft Store and Amazon’s PC game store) only come along because some executive says “hey what if instead of Valve taking a cut from most PC games, we took a cut from most PC games”, there’s 0 interest or intent for them to be competition (as seen by the exclusives) for Steam or improve the developer/user experience.
Any time these massive companies offer a cheaper subsidised alternative to any existing product it’s to push out the smaller players with less resources and build their own monopoly.
Absolutely. It’s also an immense amount of work to get a platform up to a competitive standard with Steam; I’m not sure a small company will ever be able to catch up in any short term time frame.
But stores like Fanatical, GreenManGaming, GameBillet, etc. have the better idea of just being stores that focus on getting customers better deals. They don’t even attempt to edge onto Steam’s turf because a storefront can’t compete with Steam, nor can a half-baked launcher.
Reality is that Valve has functionally a 20 year head start on any company that wants to try and edge in on their turf. So it can’t be done just to get a cut of sales because you’re not going to have the follow-through to build the user base if that’s your reason.
I got 222 games on epic games store but haven’t bought any at all.
By redeeming Epic giveaways and never buying anything you are sending profits to the developer while simultaneously costing Epic money. Win/Win.
Download the games too. Up their infastructure costs.
Really? Anything good?
There’s some really good ones mixed in with intensely not-me games that get given away. Touch Type Tale, Strange Horticulture, Sunless Skies, Turmoil, Two Point Hospital, Sable, Lego 2k Drive, LOTR Return to Moria, Farm Simulator 2022, Bus Simulator 2021, The Bridge, etc.
I got Outer Worlds with all dlcs included, that’s the only game I’ve installed and played from my EGS collection. I think I got Control there too, which I’ve been curious about.
Oh those are both dope games!
Subnautica is good
Revenue increasing by 1.6% is loosing to inflation…
Not your ability to spell ‘losing’ correctly 😏
still quite impressive given all the free games they give away and presumably pay the publishers for…
It’s revenue, so costs don’t matter.
Oh true 🤦😅
Yep, let’s see how their profit has improved (or not) in that same timeframe.
Waiting for them to cut their losses within the next couple years. Sunset the money-losing platform and revoke all the free game licences
Their entire plan is giving away AAA games for free to lure people in and then make all that money back later by raising prices or subscription models. Its been quite obvious but people just use their shitty store anyways.
Honestly it doesn’t sound like it. To get that many new users and that little revenue pretty much implies that most of their “new users” are people who come in to get the free game, and won’t put a dime into using it.
If I ran a bookstore and did a promo where I gave a book away to everyone once a month. I went from 1000 customers a month, to 2,700 customers a month. but only sold 10 more books each month. That would pretty strongly demonstrate that people don’t want to buy my books, and almost all of the increased traffic is people just taking free books and leaving.
Who’d have thought making things free while making a big noise out of it, taking over what people liked and expected elsewhere, not offering tangible improvement and showing spite towards competition would cause them to not show healthy growth. Also makes me wonder who finances them.
Epic Games Store is Fortnite morons subsidizing everyone else
Also makes me wonder who finances them.
Wonder no more, It’s the Chinese Government.
Nah its the parents of iPad kids. Remember, this is the company that owns the biggest game with kids and teens right now, Fortnite.
I have hundreds of games on epic. I get the free game every time it changes. Never paid for a single thing from them.
I caved and bought Alan Wake 2 and Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memories because I lost hope of them ever coming to Steam. The few exclusives they have explains the minimal growth pretty succinctly. I hope nobody involved is surprised
It’s the best game I’ve played in years, but I’d rather but physical or in any other manner than giving money to epic. Still waiting for any other chance.
I wouldn’t give them a dime even if it meant playing my favorite series’ sequel. I don’t like the people behind it, I don’t like how they think, I don’t like what they envision for the industry, and I don’t want to contribute in any measure to any of that ever happening.
And that’s why I would never purchase any games there lol
Alan Wake 2 is the only title I ever bought on Epic too. Do not regret it, despite my dislike of Epic and EGS. My desire to support Remedy was magnitudes larger than any desire to protest Tim Sweeny.
I’d sooner post them some cash and pirate it, honestly.
Full-circle back to the days of buying computer games through the mail.
the free games store
