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Epic Games Store 2020 Year in Review
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
yeah and that was silly then
yeah guy is still making 15k a month from patreon alone even though steam spy has been broken for over a year and he hasnt worked on "fixing" it (if you even can)
definitely feels shady to me but maybe its just me
I just checked - he's still (apparently) getting 14k a month from steamspy....which IIRC doesn't even really work with anywhere near its former level of accuracy.....while also getting paid for being (one of?) the head(s) of the EGS.
When you get away with the grift, why not keep at it.
I don't remember when, but Sergey has made several quotes during the early EGS days about not having sales and coupons, because it would de-value games.
Like a month later, the EGS had its first big summer sale and lowered game prices without contacting developers.....complete with epic-sponsored 10dollar coupons.
Oh yeah i remember that, didnt some publisher pull their games from the store because of that?
No one wants EGS to fail, people just want a reason to buy games there outside of game being time exclusive on it.
Right now the only reason to use EGS is because it has free games and paid to withheld some games for a year. With a game is available on Steam or GOG there's 0 reason for me to go to EGS since I get less features for the same price.
It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I believe several developers asked that/had their games be temporarily pulled, but eventually were reinstated at a higher (still on-sale) price point.
they pulled it from sale so it couldnt be used with the coupon, but it wasnt pulled from the store
but yeah talk about a "pro dev" move
I guess it's about time to start playing those free games in case I lose acces to them as I'm not sure EGS will still exist in 5 years.
If you look at the revenue for Epic's own games it's so unimpressive too. They made $429 million on Fortnight PC in 2019 but only $435 million on Fortnight and Rocket League on the EGS store in 2020. Only $6 million more despite adding a second game and covid lockdowns.
Yeah, the stanning for EGS, complete with the entire gamut of the bad-faith/lazy arguments, was out of control for a while.
Then a lot of PC-diehard folks left, and most of the EGS-stanning vanished.
Granted, EGS has had less controversy around the exclusives in 2020 (as well as being more of a 'known' possibliity), but it does seem a lot quieter now.
i wonder if this is bad news for the pc versions of the upcoming games from remedy, playdead, and gendesign. pc gamers just seem largely uninterested in spending money on EGS, and unlike other exclusives these games are probably never coming to steam. we'll have to see if people will cave when it's an exclusive game from a dev they like.
the console versions will probably do fine tho.
the console versions will probably do fine tho.
I mean if you know the history of the whole EGS discussion on era then you should know WHY people want it to fail.
Its their strategy and way of doing things. No one has said in the past nor is now saying that it should fail just cause its giving more money to devs.
Epic and EGS literally are conducting practices unheard of in PC gaming territory and the actual bad thing is that these practices go against the philosophy of PC gaming. Devs being free to put their games where they want without any forced exclusive bullshit, companies not restricting access from the customers when it comes to content and services, customers having the option to choose and pick, etc. Customers/consumers or the market doesn't respect any entity that doesn't respect it and even if a company attains success using this way, they at least invest in their own platform via features and their own client, making it better. Epic don't even wanna do that without taking forever.
No one here wishes to serve Gaben and give money to him just for the sake of it. People like OPTIONS, FREEDOM to pick and choose. For them Steam is just the best option to do it for the most part. They put money into the pockets of the STEAM SERVICE. Now if that money goes to gave in part then thats a side effect.
Anyways personally speaking, iam really happy to see this outcome and honestly i expected this. The console market and PC market is different. Both have different priorities. The PC market doesn't really like exclusivity AT ALL or any other BS action that goes against what the PC platform stands for. As expected it only uses EGS to nab freebies and a lot of the people are who just redeem games and never or barely play them including me even though i hate EGS personally.
I'm sure you're an expert on this matter. Btw did you know that the global PC revenue in 2019 dropped by over 20% and piracy has risen to long forgotten rates?
I'm actually legitimately surprised revenue wasn't noticeably higher than the previous year, especially with all the big games like GTAV that got given away for free that could be making revenue. Perhaps I missed some nuance of the numbers? Supposedly Fall Guys, my favorite benchmark, may have made over $200 million on Steam in a few months, vs the entirety of 3rd party games on EGS making $270 million for the whole year?
The fact quite a number of Epic exclusives has ended up on Game Pass within the last 18 months has put me off buying games full price anymore. I am more likely to wait till games are dirt cheap or use subscription services for a few months at a time. If not am going to invest in a game involving any sort of DLC I will use Steam.
With their coupons at sale time, they typically have the best prices around- often by a decent margin. I'm not surprised REVENUE hasn't grown given the low prices + free games. But a lot of people are going to turn around and realize they actually have a decent sized game library on the platform. That has certainly softened my resistance to buying there.
I'd say the one thing that really hurts them at this point is the very limited catalog. I'm always looking for more to buy at sale time and realizing...huh, there's very little I want and don't already have.
I'd say the one thing that really hurts them at this point is the very limited catalog. I'm always looking for more to buy at sale time and realizing...huh, there's very little I want and don't already have.
Not sure if they'll be exclusives (probably), but I wouldn't worry about the PC versions. In Remedy's case, Epic is funding 100% of both games in production, including salaries, QA, etc.
In 2019, players spent $251 million on third party games on EGS. Epic's 12% cut of that is $30.1 million. They gave out $23 million in coupons, which were absorbed by the cut. This left a mere $7 million to cover all the normal costs of doing business. That's effectively less than a 3% cut. It's obvious that EGS wasn't nearly profitable in that year. And that's before taking all those free games into account. We don't know what Epic paid to do that, but I can't imagine it was cheap.
In 2020, players spent $265 million on third party games on EGS. Epic's 12% cut of that is $31.8 million. You'd think the pandemic would lead to a bigger boost, but I guess not. The total cost of the coupons is no longer shown. Why? Probably because it highlighted EGS's revenue problem last year, and would do so again. Perhaps even worse? We can only speculate. And of course, there are even more free games this time. Wasn't GTAV given away in 2020? That one must have cost a bundle.
It should be clear at this point that EGS is not doing well. Their profit margin is razor-thin in the first place, and it can't possibly absorb these extra costs. At some point, I assume Epic will want to actually start making money, or at least break even, and then they'll have to stop the coupons. And probably the free games too (or at least most of them, including the big ones). But they can't do that! The coupons and free games are what maintains interest in the store.
Epic desperately needs to give people a reason to use EGS that doesn't expire and doesn't involve taking a loss on every sale.
In 2020, players spent $265 million on third party games on EGS. Epic's 12% cut of that is $31.8 million. You'd think the pandemic would lead to a bigger boost, but I guess not. The total cost of the coupons is no longer shown. Why? Probably because it highlighted EGS's revenue problem last year, and would do so again. Perhaps even worse? We can only speculate. And of course, there are even more free games this time. Wasn't GTAV given away in 2020? That one must have cost a bundle.
It should be clear at this point that EGS is not doing well. Their profit margin is razor-thin in the first place, and it can't possibly absorb these extra costs. At some point, I assume Epic will want to actually start making money, or at least break even, and then they'll have to stop the coupons. And probably the free games too (or at least most of them, including the big ones). But they can't do that! The coupons and free games are what maintains interest in the store.
Epic desperately needs to give people a reason to use EGS that doesn't expire and doesn't involve taking a loss on every sale.
yeah, i don't think the devs are taking any financial risks there. i just mean if they're gonna be disappointed with the PC sales.
Rocket League would be part of the spending on 'first-party' games, correct?
On one hand, you can argue it's decent performance considering the fraction of high-profile timed-exclusives in comparison with 2019?
On the other, the pandemic, the average spending shrinking, the presumed momentum the store may have and still some high profile multi-platform releases..
It's no wonder we aren't hearing about specific game sales and performance.
On one hand, you can argue it's decent performance considering the fraction of high-profile timed-exclusives in comparison with 2019?
On the other, the pandemic, the average spending shrinking, the presumed momentum the store may have and still some high profile multi-platform releases..
It's no wonder we aren't hearing about specific game sales and performance.
Why not spend money on the store where its trying to influence people by giving free games?
It's not that hard, its not like the store is stealing your privacy information and targeting you for something.
CA launched a DLC for Troy a few hours ago.
Quite a few people on official forums and reddit are complaining that after pre ordering the DLC the dlc was removed from their account and the game doesn't recognize it.
Do you really think people will engage in a store with this level of quality?
While steam CAs total war launch have been rather smooth.
Because EGS is a store and Steam is a platform. Most people are going to buy on Steam when given the option because there's more features and benefits for buyers.
To be fair, GTAV is also in Steam's top 10 grossing games from 2020.
Given your post it's not that you don't understand, it's that you didn't even try to.
That or you have some huge reading comprehension problem if you can only summarize hundred of post about the subject in the past couple years to people licking Gabe boots.
I have 150 Epic Game Store transactions dating back to the first being Subnautica in December 2018.
148 are purchases for $0.00
1 is Witcher 3 GOTY for $5.49
1 is Disco Elysium for $19.79
Both cost Epic $10 each out of their pocket due to coupon.
I have never downloaded the actual launcher. I just use EGS implementation in GOG.
Keep on giving free games Epic and I'll be sure to keep "buying" them.
148 are purchases for $0.00
1 is Witcher 3 GOTY for $5.49
1 is Disco Elysium for $19.79
Both cost Epic $10 each out of their pocket due to coupon.
I have never downloaded the actual launcher. I just use EGS implementation in GOG.
Keep on giving free games Epic and I'll be sure to keep "buying" them.
Borderlands 3 made up a lot of the EGS revenue in 2019, something like 50%. The only game with the same clout in 2020 was Valhalla, but sales would be split between EGS and uPlay.
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It's easy for Steam to embrace a "no exclusivity deals" stance when they basically have a monopoly. With more platforms coming along in the past few years, their position will be challenged on several angles. If they care so much about the "PC mentality", they'll keep their openness AND give fairer shares of profits to developers. We'll see how it goes, but they're a bad corporation just like any other one. More competition will bring different ways of dealing with distribution, and in the end, it's all good. Wishing for EGS to fail just for Steam to be reconfirmed in their shitty ways is just counterproductive to me.
Anyways, thanks for answering respectfully.
I just grab the free games from my web browser, I don't even have the client installed. I've never installed a game via EGS, lol. I own a lot of the free games on other platforms anyway. I guess I just like collecting free shit that I'll never use.
Valve already changed their revenue share to 25/75 at $10 Million
in revenue and 20/80 at $50 Million
in revenue plus they allow developers to generate unlimited Steam keys that Valve doesn't see any revenue from.
I think we don't even really need to do a lot of math to determine the store is not making back what Epic's spending on it for exclusivity and those coupons. I almost have to wonder if it's actually some kind of money laundering scheme, but I don't know how those work.
And only ~5% growth in sales despite a ~50% boost in users, after last year, is absurd.
And only ~5% growth in sales despite a ~50% boost in users, after last year, is absurd.
That's really bad. And pretty much expected given how little the store has improved in the last year, and the simple fact that it's curated. It's literally just used by most people as a free game vending machine right now, and is not building up any brand loyalty at all.
Exactly. And when did they do that? In 2010 when they had basically no competition? Nah. These things literally come because of competition.
I don't want any single platform to "win" (definitely not Epic) but wishing for some of them to fail in a huge trainwreck still sounds stupid to me.
Me too, I do want more free games and then never play them.
Though I have bought like 3 or four games on the store, I go where its cheaper
I'm not surprised with the lack of growth in user spending. When you don't even have a shopping cart, it does make the shopping experience in EGS very burdensome. Like, imagine if you go to an actual, IRL department store or a grocery store and they don't have any shopping cart available to customers. Then you're only allowed to carry one item to the cashier and if you want to get another item, repeat the whole process again.
Ive purchased maybe five games total so far, and only when the $10 coupon was in play.
I do wonder how many of those accounts are extras, where people claim the free games, with the intention of selling the account?
I do wonder how many of those accounts are extras, where people claim the free games, with the intention of selling the account?
I don't care who "wins" as long as this practice of exclusivity is dropped. 6 months locked on this store, 1 year locked there, publishers shopping around for exclusivity deals. In no way should players desire a mirror of the subscription market where accessibility to content is a constant maze. Not to mention the question of gamedev maintaining their builds across all stores fairly and equally.
At least they were apparently transparent about it. Had they not, you would have called them out for massaging the stats.
I want a large part of their model to fail and never be attempted again. Exclusivity to a store is so unbelievably stupid. If it takes EGS with it that sounds like it's their problem, not mine.
Yeah I absolutely would have, you're right. I shouldn't give them too much grief because it's the better of the two outcomes. I'm mostly still surprised they did it and I think most other companies wouldn't have.
That's some incredibly low growth there holy shit... like, almost negligible growth even if 2020 were a regular year, and considering Covid and the lockdowns that's even worse...
Not to mention the fact that they gave away more games and some very high profile games in 2020 as well, and were much more aggressive with their sales and coupons. There's almost no way that they turned a profit this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if EGS lost them some money as well. Whatever happens, I hope I will still be able to play my free games if/when they inevitably shut down the service in a few years
I don't want the EGS to fail just on account of it being the only thing that has potential to be a Steam competitor (and Steam just not being that good despite being the best PC client by an exceptionally wide margin), but it honestly feels like Epic wants it to fail sometimes. The UI is shit, the user experience is shit (any time I turn off my computer I have to sign back in, and sometimes it just signs me out randomly as well, despite me clicking the "remember me" option on sign in), the game selection is limited and even sorting the library is rough. Plus no light mode. Not to mention their marketing plan of getting high profile exclusive games for the launcher when the launcher has been barebones at best and hasn't been on track with their proposed updates for a good while now meaning that gamers were not only upset but that unfazed gamers were given a noticeably shittier experience.
Not to mention the fact that they gave away more games and some very high profile games in 2020 as well, and were much more aggressive with their sales and coupons. There's almost no way that they turned a profit this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if EGS lost them some money as well. Whatever happens, I hope I will still be able to play my free games if/when they inevitably shut down the service in a few years
I don't want the EGS to fail just on account of it being the only thing that has potential to be a Steam competitor (and Steam just not being that good despite being the best PC client by an exceptionally wide margin), but it honestly feels like Epic wants it to fail sometimes. The UI is shit, the user experience is shit (any time I turn off my computer I have to sign back in, and sometimes it just signs me out randomly as well, despite me clicking the "remember me" option on sign in), the game selection is limited and even sorting the library is rough. Plus no light mode. Not to mention their marketing plan of getting high profile exclusive games for the launcher when the launcher has been barebones at best and hasn't been on track with their proposed updates for a good while now meaning that gamers were not only upset but that unfazed gamers were given a noticeably shittier experience.
I mean Steam isn't a monopoly. Its not forcing other companies to use its service exclusiveiy. The only exclusive stuff on it is the service company's own games. As more and more consumers/customers embrace the platform, the companies keep putting their games on it. Valve simply just invests a lot in their own baby as opposed to making moneyhatting deals. Also i wouldn't say that they're a bad corp just like any other, they're one of the few places where devs really wanna work, they don't crunch on devs, they invest a lot in their product, etc. More competition isn't exactly 'competition', its just in EGS's case, shoving off the competition by restricting the customers to exclusivity buy on its own platform, a platform thats not ready for consumer launch, that doesn't even have a shopping cart after 2-3 years. Any disruption like that is detrimental to the PC market.
tldr: Not a surprise PC people(by large) want EGS to fail just so they can stop making games exclusive to their platform which is not in a shape for consumer use at all going by modern standards whereas steam puts the customer first and respects it. EGS doesn't even have mandatory product reviews which are an essential feature in a store as it informs customers about the quality of the selling product.
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