How long do you expect the Epic Game Store to last?

[Wrellie]

Right on obedient doggo, outsider perspective indeed. As someone who games primarily on PC since the 80's, keep that console garbage out of the PC space.

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It would be really great if we could have an Epic Games thread without users name-calling and being hostile toward others. Just because some people do not care where they buy games or think EGS is not bad does not make them any less a gamer than anyone else.

 

[Sorian]

The next generation of gamers are in EGS' ecosystem. Asking resetera what they think is useless because this is just "old man yells at clouds" EGS will be around for decades easily and will continue to thrive even once the fortnite bubble finally pops.

 

[skeezx]

I don't see it just fizzling out. But long term, 5-10+ years a lot can happen

 

[ThisIsBlitz21]

TIMED MONOPOLY

 

[Blayde]

Is this a poll to make those of you that want it to fail feel better?

 

[Joyful]

they said they could refund literally everyone who bought paragon and then they released the assets for free which apparently amounted to 12million dollars
no company would be willing to do either unless they were flush with cash

fortnite has made a lot of money

 

[Hate]

It won't. Epic is big enough as a game developer, publisher and licenser of their engine that it will keep going. Much like Valve's source engine and their games helped propel Steam.

 

[Shadout]

Decades probably. But hopefully they change.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

they said they could refund literally everyone who bought paragon and then they released the assets for free which apparently amounted to 12million dollars
no company would be willing to do either unless they were flush with cash

fortnite has made a lot of money

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The investment was gone regardless. Epic didn't spend 12m on art to give it for free, they spend 12m for Paragon's art, which didn't work out.

Paragon assets being free had absolutely 0 impact on Epic's bottom line, even opposite, there is value in education and marketing of UE4 by giving away high-end creations.

 

[Ghostwalker]

I would say decades, if worst come to worst they will be brough out by Tencent and they will use EGS to sell games.

How long Tim will last if he keeps going this rate that's a more intresting question.

 

[Amauri14]

I will say decades, but I don't think they will be buying exclusives after the first 3 years. I also expect them to quietly raise their split around that time or once Fortnite stars dipping.

 

[Deleted member 27471]

Can't they get better? Like almost every single app ever relesed?

And monopoly? really?

oh, god...

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Timed monopoly? Loving these new terms.

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Era loves to use the word monopoly. Just add it to any other word to make it even more fun.

The good thing about them is that the companies behind them don't pay publishers and developers money to only have the games availlable (for a time being) in their store. The only exclusives those store have are games made by themself.



On certain goods, yes. Epic controls who get's to sell games they have moneyhatted (controls supply of a good or service, and where the entry of new producers is prevented or highly restricted ), so far only GMG and Humble are allowed to sell Borderlands 3 Epic keys. Meanwhile, Steam let's publishers and developers generate as many keys they want and give them to stores so any store can sell them.

They can keep the price as high as they want as they are the only store selling currently Satisfactory on PC or Ashen for that matter.

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It's not a monopoly. All of gaming isn't controlled by one business.

If you could only ever buy fruit from me and no one else and I made it restrictive for anyone to sell fruit, and exploited the situation to keep costs high, that would be a monopoly on fruit. EGS is just buying exclusive time deals to put on their shitty store so you have no choice but to use their service if you want that one specific game.

 

[TaySan]

So just bend over and take it, folks. Praise your new corporate overlords.

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I'm just being realistic. Hate on EGS for all I care.

I'm not so sure about that. People are complaining about it on gaming related sites from all over the world. I also see irl friends and colleagues strongly speaking out against Epic's efforts to establish store exclusivity deals on pc.



While most pc gamers have no problem using other stores/launchers for 1st party games, the fact that Epic moneyhats 3rd party games is a bridge too far for many of them.

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Like I said outside of the hardcore people will not care where their games are released on. They will go to where they can play the big anticipated titles.

 

[Goldenroad]

If GoG and Humble can survive with their tiny piece of the pie, I'm sure Epic will find a way to make their storefront thrive. I don't like to predict anything past 5 years because, who knows? Maybe we find out computers directly cause cancer and need to all be destroyed, but barring some completely industry shifting event taking place, I don't see EGS going anywhere.

 

[Tygre]

It will last as long as the Fortnite money.

Based on the length of popularity of past trends, I'd give it a decade.

 

[shark97]

i'm 100% sure if they do shut down there will be a solution to keep your games, unless you think Epic themselves is going out of business in 5-10 years. Which with fortnight piles of money seems unlikely.

Beyond that nothing lasts forever guys. Disc rot is a thing too.

 

[shark97]

It will last as long as the Fortnite money.

Based on the length of popularity of past trends, I'd give it a decade.

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Epic themselves though existed before in Unreal Engine.

As I said, I cant see Epic not giving a solution to keep games as long as they exist, would be too much of a black eye.

 

[Hucast]

I'm giving it a year.

 

[Asbsand]

It's here to stay. We have much worse and more limited storefronts from other publishers.

 

[Evilmaus]

I don't ever see it becoming as large as Steam, but I don't think it's going anywhere, and will basically become its main competitor.

 

[cHinzo]

I don't see them going away for a long time. Game devs like to use their engine and their store gives a larger cut to devs.

 

[Keikaku]

As long as fortnite brings in money, when the fad dies so does epic store.

 

[LordDraven]

Normally this would be a question only meant to infuriate but given that we're talking about a digital game store where losing the store means your purchases are gone (unless the devs start handing out Steam keys as the end approaches like many games did on Desura) and stores shutting down isn't unprecedented this is a major issue of trust. Fortunately it's not tied to a hardware generation so at least it won't become automatically obsolete like, say, the Wii shop.

How long do you trust the store to stay up and is it long enough for you to tie purchases to it?

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This is the silliest OT I've seen in a long time...

 

[Cotton McKnight]

I took a stab at 8 years, no basis behind it. I don't plan to ever use the epic store, and I don't see it going anywhere.

 

[hersheyfan]

Yes, I fully believe EGS will keep on investing in exclusives for the next seven years. They will more than likely become more strategic on which games they target and will pick 1-2 games a year.

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How does even your proposed "1 to 2 games a year" make sense in year 5, let alone year 7? Remember, any game EGS "invests" in gives them jackshit in profit because their cut is so low.

By EGS year 5, it's all but guaranteed that one of two things have already happened:
1) EGS has managed to muscle its way into a strong enough marketplace position (sales volume, etc.) that releasing an AAA game on EGS alone (with no money hats) is a better deal than releasing on both Steam and EGS.
2) Epic has decided that the massive continued outlay of cash isn't bringing in the positive benefits that they wanted, so the EGS just keeps existing as another third party PC games store.

Neither of those two scenarios involves Epic "investing" in any exclusives, as you said. Considering we're not out of year 1 yet and we've got Sweeney out here making ultimatums like he's got Valve by the fucking throat (lol), it's likely we don't even make it to year 4 without knowing either way.

 

[JLP101]

Its here to stay for good. Fortnite will be huge for years to come. The real question is when will they stop doing exclusives?

 

[ShiningBash]

Probably just a few more weeks. They don't have a good return policy and Nazis aren't welcome in their non-existent forums. The EGS' day of reckoning is soon, and anyone who says otherwise in anti-consumer.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

What kind of question is this? Even if it's just Fortnite, Paragon 2 (dreaming), and Unreal Engine 4 262.20 it will still need to be around. You do know Epic Game Store is used for Unreal Engine stuff right? Assets, and other stuff the thing use (I don't mess with UE4). Unreal Engine is used in so many games too so yeah.

 

[DaciaJC]

Why erase the rest of my post in which I stated that I didn't think Epic's plan would work as well as they think?

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Because it's irrelevant. You stated Epic are "within their rights" to be pursuing this strategy of moneyhatting exclusives on PC, as if the community should actually give a crap if whatever anti-consumer bullshit a corporation is peddling isn't technically illegal, or as if it somehow invalidates the community's concerns as, in your own words, "making a big deal out of nothing." I responded to that.

 

[Mentalist]

I give it 2-3 years before they stop being in the news every week and become just another PC store where people go for "permanently exclusive games" like battle.net or Uplay, while keeping most of their library on good storefronts (GOG and Steam)

At least I'm hoping for this, because if the market allows EGS' "pay us more for shitty service because we have fuck you moneyhats" practice to become entrenched on PC, then we're in for dark times

 

[TaySan]

Unreal Is one of the most popular engines among third parties. Epic is not going anywhere even if Fortnite dies off.

 

[CaviarMeths]

They are creating a timed monopoly.

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Lol, that's a new one.

 

[Deleted member 3897]

Lol, that's a new one.

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I know.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

I give it 2-3 years before they stop being in the news every week and become just another PC store where people go for "permanently exclusive games" like battle.net or Uplay, while keeping most of their library on good storefronts (GOG and Steam)

At least I'm hoping for this, because if the market allows EGS' "pay us more for shitty service because we have fuck you moneyhats" practice to become entrenched on PC, then we're in for dark times

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I honestly this wont last forever. Microsoft has all the money in the world and own the very OS that has the biggest presense in PC gaming and even they cant seem to steer players to their side. Not everything is about money.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I know.

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As in, it's a thing that you just made up.

 

[Ant_17]

Origin and uplay are still a thing, so I say decades.

 

[Prophane33]

If there's anything the "sky is falling" nonsense when Origin came out and the "Steam is DRM, you'll never make me use it" crowd from the Paradox forums taught me it's that this whole EGS overblown end of the world/console wars style reaction stuff will blow over in another 6 months or so. I can't wait, because the anti-EGS stuff is way past annoying at this point.

 

[Deleted member 3897]

As in, it's a thing that you just made up.

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All terms and words are made up.

So yes, and it's fantastic.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

If there's anything the "sky is falling" nonsense when Origin came out and the "Steam is DRM, you'll never make me use it" crowd from the Paradox forums taught me it's that this whole EGS overblown end of the world/console wars style reaction stuff will blow over in another 6 months or so. I can't wait, because the anti-EGS stuff is way past annoying at this point.

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As soon as EGS stops being anti-consumer, I'll stop being anti-EGS.

I was initially all for the store when Epic first announced its plans. I thought it was a genius move to capitalize on the success of Fortnite and bring a big new audience to the expanded PC gaming, all while making it a sweeter deal for developers (discount with UE4 games, smaller cut). Too bad they couldn't just stop themselves there and instead focus on giving consumers a good reason to use their store over Valve's other than moneyhats.

 

[Mentalist]

As soon as EGS stops being anti-consumer, I'll stop being anti-EGS.

I was initially all for the store when Epic first announced its plans. I thought it was a genius move to capitalize on the success of Fortnite and bring a big new audience to the expanded PC gaming, all while making it a sweeter deal for developers (discount with UE4 games, smaller cut). Too bad they couldn't just stop themselves there and instead focus on giving consumers a good reason to use their store over Valve's other than moneyhats.

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Same.
If they rolled out the store with basic feature set to match Steam, same type of pricing and no exclusivity BS, I'd have loved to support them. I was actually contemplating buying Ashen once all the holiday spendings were paid off and I installed the store to grab Subnautica and other games they were offering.

Then they started being aggressive by moneyhatting first Metro Exodus, and then Phoenix Point.

At which point they became a no-go store for me. And then the spyware accusations came up, and after seeing those files, i deleted the launcher.

 

[Imitation Of Life]

Hopefully they take over PC gaming.

 

[TaySan]

If there's anything the "sky is falling" nonsense when Origin came out and the "Steam is DRM, you'll never make me use it" crowd from the Paradox forums taught me it's that this whole EGS overblown end of the world/console wars style reaction stuff will blow over in another 6 months or so. I can't wait, because the anti-EGS stuff is way past annoying at this point.

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Yup. I'll give them a year or two and they will stop money hating games and they will just be another competitive store front in the market.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

Hopefully they take over PC gaming.

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And why would you hope that?

 

[Ubik]

We may not even be buying and launching games on PC in the traditional sense for that many more years. Then you will all be wishing that EGS was moneyhatting a timed monopoly away from the streaming companies.

 

[Mentalist]

We may not even be buying and launching games on PC in the traditional sense for that many more years. Then you will all be wishing that EGS was moneyhatting a timed monopoly away from the streaming companies.

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I guess that'll be the signal that it's time to get cracking on my Steam and GOG backlogs then.

That's what makes Epic's threat of "do what we say or you won't get to play these games you like" so pitiful. This isn't late 2000s when PC games suddenly dissappeared from the shelves of all brick and mortar stores in North America. There's an abundance of quality games available for sale that I don't have time to play. Unless EGS pays off literally all publishers to pull all games already available from other stores and put them exclusively on EGS, they can't win. There will always be good non-EGS games to play.

 

[Bricktop]

The hate has seriously clouded a lot of peoples abilities to separate their feelings from the reality of the situation. It's here to stay and it's not going anywhere.

If there's anything the "sky is falling" nonsense when Origin came out and the "Steam is DRM, you'll never make me use it" crowd from the Paradox forums taught me it's that this whole EGS overblown end of the world/console wars style reaction stuff will blow over in another 6 months or so. I can't wait, because the anti-EGS stuff is way past annoying at this point.

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Pretty much. A few years from now this hysteria over the ESG will seem silly, not that it isn't already, but people will finally start seeing it that way.

 

[Arsene no Kiseki]

And why would you hope that?

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Inb4 I hope this company becomes a monopoly because I dont like this other company being a monopoly