Steam's Business Model Is "Unrealistic," Ubisoft Executive Says

[Jebusman]

I mean, no, because I think it's the 12% cut + the guaranteed money, because developers know even if they don't get the guaranteed money, having Epic will around will possibly lead to smaller cuts from Steam, in the long run.

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It's literally just the guaranteed money. Devs were taking these deals to ensure a minimum of revenue against the risk of the game failing. The 12% cut means nothing because unless you (the dev) think that the guaranteed sales offer is lowballing your sales projections, you are never actually going to see the benefit of the 12% cut, you won't actually sell enough copies to exceed that initial sales guarantee and start seeing sales income.

This is especially true if you do eventually release the game on Steam in a year and you still haven't met those sales projections, because now the brunt of your sales are likely to come from Steam, and unless you're going to be running your own storefront to sell keys with 0% cut to Valve, you're accepting the 30% cut.

Valve isn't going to adjust their cuts due to the EGS. They have zero reason to do so.

 

[JesseEwiak]

you keep ignoring my post

it's unfair, because it's ignorant of the stuff the do for those developers. It's incredulous ignorance. And to respond like this after I answered your question with a direct example, you're just outright not arguing in good faith. What are you even doing?

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I am arguing in good faith, it's not just an argument you like.

My argument is, "Steam has done a lot, but in the end that doesn't matter if developers think Epic is a better deal for them, financially and culturally." You can tell me all you want about what Valve has done, but unless that directly connects to the success of various games, there are going to be plenty of devs and publishers, like we've already seen, who will say, "that's nice and all, but what will you give me that Epic isn't, that I care about?"

 

[Deleted member 12790]

I am arguing in good faith, it's not just an argument you like.

My argument is, "Steam has done a lot, but in the end that doesn't matter if developers think Epic is a better deal for them, financially and culturally." You can tell me all you want about what Valve has done, but unless that directly connects to the success of various games, there are going to be plenty of devs and publishers, like we've already seen, who will say, "that's nice and all, but what will you give me that Epic isn't, that I care about?"

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This is like when people say "what has the amazon rain forest done for me lately"

I also don't know why you choose to speak for "many" developers ITT.

 

[Deleted member 7373]

I'm still confused why people still think anyone is releasing games on the Epic Store for reasons other than being handed a SHIT TON OF MONEY UPFRONT. The split is basically meaningless because no one is buying games on EGS. Also itch.io let's you set the split to whatever you want, if that matters at all.

 

[olag]

It's unfair, but yes. Welcome to life. You don't keep coasting on what you've done, when other people are offering something even better, that will effect them positively more directly.



I mean, there are the multiple developers who have taken the Epic deals, which show that Steam isn't offering them enough, no matter what they've done in the past.

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I mean, sure if you wanna say everything that steam has achieved/done < a large sack of money but I for one am not about to support an extremely selective store which has constantly used misdirection and lies to garner support while positioning to be standing up for the little indies(who they wont even let onto the store cause of reasons). But you do you.

Lets see whether every indie dev who wants money from Epic will get it.

 

[JesseEwiak]

This is like when people say "what has the amazon rain forest done for me lately"

I also don't know why you choose to speak for "many" developers ITT.

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Yes, it is. The good thing is, instead of the future of the planet, we're talking about video game launchers. So, ya' know, slightly less important.

Which is the whole problem with this argument - to folks on your side, it's basically a holy war. For folks on my side, which is ironic, because I have 2 games in the EGS as opposed to hundreds on Steam, it's really not. Since we see no differences on our end that matter to us, I see no reason, no matter whatever arguments you've made above, that developers shouldn't reach the best deal possible for whatever situation they're in. If that means the game is on Steam, OK. If it's on Epic, OK. If it's on Origin, OK.

I'm still confused why people still think anyone is releasing games on the Epic Store for reasons other than being handed a SHIT TON OF MONEY UPFRONT. The split is basically meaningless because no one is buying games on EGS. Also itch.io let's you set the split to whatever you want, if that matters at all.

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Why is being handed A TON OF MONEY UPFRONT not a valid reason when you're running a company that needs to make a profit?

I mean, sure if you wanna say everything that steam has achieved/done < a large sack of money but I for one am not about to support an extremely selective store which has constantly used misdirection and lies to garner support while positioning to be standing up for the little indies(who they wont even let onto the store cause of reasons). But you do you.

Lets see whether every indie dev who wants money from Epic will get it.

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I'm not saying that. I'm saying developers are obviously saying that, by taking the Epic money.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Yes, it is. The good thing is, instead of the future of the planet, we're talking about video game launchers. So, ya' know, slightly less important.

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I'm actually talking about my job here, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

developers shouldn't reach the best deal possible for whatever situation they're in. If that means the game is on Steam, OK. If it's on Epic, OK. If it's on Origin, OK.

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You mean sort of like I'm doing when I defend the model that I use??

 

[Lain]

This is like when people say "what has the amazon rain forest done for me lately"

I also don't know why you choose to speak for "many" developers ITT.

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You should seriously consider ignoring obvious trolls who keep disingenuously arguing in bad faith while pretending to be doing it in good faith. You're giving them the chance to keep peddling their bs. Report, put them on ignore and move on. Talking to brick walls is useless.

 

[Jebusman]

"that's nice and all, but what will you give me that Epic isn't, that I care about?"

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I mean all Epic is offering them is literally money. That's it. Epic is taking advantage of the fact that many of these devs have sunk a lot of cost into projects without guarantee of success, and dangling the carrot of financial security in exchange for sacrificing features that many consumers have come to expect. There are going to be a subsection of consumers who weren't using these features and thus may see EGS as "just another launcher", but you are throwing away the rest of them for upfront cash.

And many of these devs aren't in positions to refuse such a generous offer. That's it. That's all it is.

Which is the whole problem with this argument - to folks on your side, it's basically a holy war.

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This is the most disingenuous take you'e made so far. This is console war nonsense.

 

[JesseEwiak]

You should seriously consider ignoring obvious trolls who keep disingenuously arguing in bad faith while pretending to be doing it in good faith. You're giving them the chance to keep peddling their bs. Report, put them on ignore and move on. Talking to brick walls is useless.

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Always funny when disagreeing with the herd here is "peddling BS." I'm sorry I disagree with the notion that the EGS is ruining things and that Steam should be he default PC launcher.

I'm actually talking about my job here, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

You mean sort of like I'm doing when I defend the model that I use??

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You can defend your model all you want - I just don't see why your ability to make money should be more important to me than the dev who took the EGS deal's ability to make money via the EGS deal?

 

[JesseEwiak]

I mean all Epic is offering them is literally money. That's it. Epic is taking advantage of the fact that many of these devs have sunk a lot of cost into projects without guarantee of success, and dangling the carrot of financial security in exchange for sacrificing features that many consumers have come to expect. There are going to be a subsection of consumers who weren't using these features and thus may see EGS as "just another launcher", but you are throwing away the rest of them for upfront cash.

And many of these devs aren't in positions to refuse such a generous offer. That's it. That's all it is.

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Maybe Steam should start offering money, too. Since it seems plenty of consumers, like the millions of people who already use the EGS, including the next gen of gamers, don't seem to care too much about all of Steam's wonderful features.

This is the most disingenuous take you'e made so far. This is console war nonsense.

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I agree. That so many people act like Epic is ruining PC games is console war nonsense. I don't care about Steam. I don't care about Epic. I don't care about any of the multi-national corporations, so I approve of any developers extracting as much cash from their coffers in any way they can.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

I'm still confused why people still think anyone is releasing games on the Epic Store for reasons other than being handed a SHIT TON OF MONEY UPFRONT. The split is basically meaningless because no one is buying games on EGS. Also itch.io let's you set the split to whatever you want, if that matters at all.

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Anyone play Fortnite here? I don't have it installed to check, but I wonder if you can launch it by clicking a icon which will start EGS automatically without having to look at the front page or anything. The way I launch games that require EGS to already be open is to just launch EGS first, which shows the front page with the games. Maybe that's why they want to be on EGS because they may have a chance to be front and center when people go to launch Fortnite.

When Dauntless launched and had server issues I was wondering why the heck a video for their game was the first thing you see when you launched EGS. The last thing they needed was more people in the game.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

You can defend your model all you want - I just don't see why your ability to make money should be more important to me than the dev who took the EGS deal's ability to make money via the EGS deal?

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So now you've argued that A) game player's money isn't important compared to EGS developer money:

I'm sorry I don't care that some gamers think they have an inherent right to pay as little as possible for every single game.

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And now B) that other developer's money making ability isn't important compared to EGS developer money.

This is "fuck you, got mine" mentality, but the embarrassing thing is it isn't even "mine" in this instance. It's "fuck you, they got theirs." It even comes at your own expense.

 

[Deleted member 7373]

Why is being handed A TON OF MONEY UPFRONT not a valid reason when you're running a company that needs to make a profit?

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I think individual developers should take whatever deals they can that make sense but in terms of digital stores, the stuff that epic is doing right now is unsustainable. They will turn off the money faucet in a year or two tops. A store that has to pay people to sell on it isn't gonna work out for very long.

 

[Carlius]

So what happens when epic stops throwing money at Ubisoft? They gonna come back crawling to steam? Or keep going egs exclusive and have Uplay? Like now...don't see it being very profitable for ubi.

 

[JesseEwiak]

So now you've argued that A) game player's money isn't important compared to EGS developer money:



And now B) that other developer's money making ability isn't important compared to EGS developer money.

This is "fuck you, got mine" mentality, but the embarrassing thing is it isn't even "mine" in this instance. It's "fuck you, they got theirs." It even comes at your own expense.

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I'm for developers making their money any way they can, especially in a fractured and screwy market like games. If it means going to Steam, great! If it means going to Epic, great! If it means taking an EA Partners deal and ending up on Origin, great!

I think individual developers should take whatever deals they can that make sense but in terms of digital stores, the stuff that epic is doing right now is unsustainable. They will turn off the money faucet in a year or two tops. A store that has to pay people to sell on it isn't gonna work out for very long.

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I think people are underestimating just how much money Epic has to burn.

 

[Tracygill]

Why isn't Gabe personally giving me more money. His current lack of donations to me is unrealistic.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Why isn't Gabe personally giving me more money. His current lack of donations to me is unrealistic.

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I mean, yes, if another company A is offering me money, why shouldn't I ask company B for money as well, and go with company A if they refuse?

 

[Tpallidum]

If you don't give a fuck about the developers ability to earn a living, why should they give a fuck about your opinions on which URL their game should be on?

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A lot of them already don't care what people think. Clearly. Which is fine. Let them get paid. If you're a dev then I get it. It's important to you. Get yo money. I'm not a dev so I don't care about splits. I'm not a business. I'm just a guy and as long as we keep seeing the same price tag over here vs over there, it really is of no consequence to me what the split is. To me it's just businesses arguing business details. What baffles me is the consumers that get real dumb over the whole thing. It really feels like fanboying walmart vs kmart. I say let devs sell wherever they want and as a consumer I can stick with whatever is convenient to me. It's not the end of the world. It feels like manufactured drama by Epic in a lot of ways. And everybody got baited into it. to the point where we actually have epic and steam fanboys. I can't believe it!

Is it bad though? Is it bad that I don't care? I'm open to any arguments: why should I care from a consumer standpoint about how company 1 and company 2 split their profits? Off the top of my head I can only think of "if the dev gets more money they'll put out more DLC or put out a sequel faster" but that may or may not be the case necessarily. I just don't know how it affects me directly in the immediate/short-term

 

[CloudWolf]

"Unrealistic" business models usually don't run successfully for more than a decade, Ubisoft.

 

[danhz]

I didnt know steam had physical disc games which work without internet, fool me i was buying codes :S

Nah, steam cant ask for 30% when they are mainly digital, and the physical is just a code on a box

 

[JesseEwiak]

"Unrealistic" business models usually don't run successfully for more than a decade, Ubisoft.

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For most of that decade, they had no real competition in the PC space. So yes, if you have people over a barrel, an unrealistic business model can be very successful. Weird how Steam was really loud about the changes they were making to developer splits after EGS kicked off. Almost like they had to respond to a no longer realistic business model.

A lot of them already don't care what people think. Clearly. Which is fine. Let them get paid. If you're a dev then I get it. It's important to you. Get yo money. I'm not a dev so I don't care about splits. I'm not a business. I'm just a guy and as long as we keep seeing the same price tag over here vs over there, it really is of no consequence to me what the split is. To me it's just businesses arguing business details. What baffles me is the consumers that get real dumb over the whole thing. It really feels like fanboying walmart vs kmart. I say let devs sell wherever they want and as a consumer I can stick with whatever is convenient to me. It's not the end of the world. It feels like manufactured drama by Epic in a lot of ways. And everybody got baited into it. to the point where we actually have epic and steam fanboys. I can't believe it!

Is it bad though? Is it bad that I don't care? I'm open to any arguments: why should I care from a consumer standpoint about how company 1 and company 2 split their profits? Off the top of my head I can only think of "if the dev gets more money they'll put out more DLC or put out a sequel faster" but that may or may not be the case necessarily. I just don't know how it affects me directly in the immediate/short-term

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If you only care about how good a game is, and not the people making the game at all, then yeah, there's not much of an argument to make to you.

 

[Delusibeta]

So what happens when epic stops throwing money at Ubisoft? They gonna come back crawling to steam? Or keep going egs exclusive and have Uplay? Like now...don't see it being very profitable for ubi.

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Depends very heavily on a) whether or not Epic continues to give Ubisoft tonnes of money, and b) how well Uplay+ and the new Ghost Recon and Watch Dogs does on PC. As soon as Epic stops paying, I expect Ubisoft will drop them completely. I would anticipate that they will try selling their PC games strictly exclusively on their own store (a la EA and Origin). If that doesn't work out, then I would anticipate that they return to Steam, and someone will necrobump this thread and we'll all have a hearty laugh.

 

[Jinaar]

Finally, a small up and coming Indie dev, like UBISOFT, has the balls to say what everyone has been thinking. It is refreshing to see this.

 

[Crayon]

I'm still thinking about how valve doesn't hit any of these balls back. I've always thought that was really smart. You can try to send a bigger and bigger waves at them, but it meets with nothing. So they end up with a lot of slander going on, but at least it's consistent. Not like trying to predict the outcome of some PR pissing match.

 

[Static]

So what happens when epic stops throwing money at Ubisoft? They gonna come back crawling to steam? Or keep going egs exclusive and have Uplay? Like now...don't see it being very profitable for ubi.

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I don't know if there are figures but my suspicion is that they won't be doing a whole lot of crawling anywhere. I feel like EGS and Steam's platform war has been hugely beneficial to Ubisoft because they get a huge payday from EGS for the privilege of promoting Uplay risk free. They're having their cake and eating it too. I suspect most of their Division 2 sales were at a 100% rather than an 88% cut. Maybe they'll decide that when the EGS payday ends, it's still best of them to just keep doing business on their own store with any game big enough to safely draw a crowd.

Or maybe they'll return to publishing on every platform. Either way, it won't be crawling. EGS funded their little experiment for them and they are laughing all the way to the bank, have no doubt. If it fails, they'll return to Steam without the shame of being any the poorer for it.

 

[Jebusman]

So what happens when epic stops throwing money at Ubisoft? They gonna come back crawling to steam? Or keep going egs exclusive and have Uplay? Like now...don't see it being very profitable for ubi.

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They just assume Valve (or someone) is going to cave.

The EGS will keep going as it does until Fortnite stops printing money, so as long as that doesn't end they assume the Epic gravy train will keep rolling in.

 

[Massicot]

For most of that decade, they had no real competition in the PC space. So yes, if you have people over a barrel, an unrealistic business model can be very successful. Weird how Steam was really loud about the changes they were making to developer splits after EGS kicked off. Almost like they had to respond to a no longer realistic business model.

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As far as I know, Steam announced their revenue split changes before EGS 12% split was public.

 

[ZugZug123]

So what happens when epic stops throwing money at Ubisoft? They gonna come back crawling to steam? Or keep going egs exclusive and have Uplay? Like now...don't see it being very profitable for ubi.

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Ubi was already on the way to divest from selling on Steam. The only thing EGS did was play the fool and offer money that otherwise would not be available to Ubi to do it a little faster. Everyone that used to buy Ubi games on Steam went to Uplay, they got 10x the sales bump because Steam prob used to be 90% of their game sales and all those people went to Uplay when Steam was not available, not to EGS.

I guess it was still worth it to EGS that now they have a mouthpiece at Ubi to criticize Steam to mainstream media...

 

[SteveWinwood]

I didnt know steam had physical disc games which work without internet, fool me i was buying codes :S

Nah, steam cant ask for 30% when they are mainly digital, and the physical is just a code on a box

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can you clarify what you're saying with this post a bit please?

 

[Delusibeta]

They just assume Valve (or someone) is going to cave.

The EGS will keep going as it does until Fortnite stops printing money.

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Again, the store cut is completely irrelevant, it's all about the guaranteed money. Anyone who argues otherwise is lying to your face.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

It's obvious Ubisoft is just happy people are buying their games on their own store now. When you buy their game on Epic it's pretty much bought from their store, not needing EGS open or any trace of it from what I can tell. Testing a Ubisoft game I have on steam, when I launch it on UPlay with Steam closed it tries to open Steam.

 

[ramoisdead]

Always funny when disagreeing with the herd here is "peddling BS." I'm sorry I disagree with the notion that the EGS is ruining things and that Steam should be he default PC launcher.

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What are you talking about? No one is saying here that Steam should be the default PC launcher or that it should hoard all the games. People on this forum who game on the PC have been saying that games should be distributed on all stores and let the consumers decide where they want to shop at. These Epic Games Store exclusivity deals rob people from that choice because those games will only be on EGS.

For most of that decade, they had no real competition in the PC space. So yes, if you have people over a barrel, an unrealistic business model can be very successful. Weird how Steam was really loud about the changes they were making to developer splits after EGS kicked off. Almost like they had to respond to a no longer realistic business model.

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Again, what are you talking about? Valve announced a change in their revenue splits late last year because games from Activision and Bethesda were ditching Steam. You also had Discord announcing their game store about how their game store would benefit developers in revenue splits. This was before Epic announced EGS.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/3/18123649/valve-steam-revenue-sharing

If you're gonna spout all of this, at least be factual.

 

[Mr Spasiba]

I mean, yes, if another company A is offering me money, why shouldn't I ask company B for money as well, and go with company A if they refuse?

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Because devs have a moral duty to be loyal to [my corporation of choice]

 

[Crayon]

I didnt know steam had physical disc games which work without internet, fool me i was buying codes :S

Nah, steam cant ask for 30% when they are mainly digital, and the physical is just a code on a box

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They can and they do. What do you want to do? Regulate them? If it's such a shitty deal, sell your game on another store.

 

[EllipsisBreak]

Weird how Steam was really loud about the changes they were making to developer splits after EGS kicked off. Almost like they had to respond to a no longer realistic business model.

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Valve did that before the EGS was announced, and I don't remember them making a big deal about it.

 

[Queen Of Hunting]

the split has never been the issue, its a scapegoat and easy out that most people wont bother reading how steam works.

any developer can generate steam keys as long as the game is on the store, they could technically direct anyone to their own website to buy the game and steam would recieve no money from the purchase but the game would be played and redeemed on steam.

this is still being done now with games like this https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/remnant

you buy through publisher and redeem the game on steam, if you brought the game from link above you can play fully like anyone else on steam but valve recieve not split.

so again this proves the % split is pointless because steam/valve already offer a lower split than what epic games even do

 

[Urthor]

I wish Epic wasn't so bad at their job.

Like everyone knows the 30% business model absolutely sucks, but the way you solve this is timed exclusivity in the order of two weeks, and gamestop style free skins and weapons for buying on Epic Game Store to incentivise people to actually go there.

Everyone knows EGS is much, much better for the developers, but the PR fiasco behind it means that I can't see it succeeding, the PR is just too bad atm

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Is it bad though? Is it bad that I don't care? I'm open to any arguments: why should I care from a consumer standpoint about how company 1 and company 2 split their profits? Off the top of my head I can only think of "if the dev gets more money they'll put out more DLC or put out a sequel faster" but that may or may not be the case necessarily. I just don't know how it affects me directly in the immediate/short-term

Click to shrink...

It raises the price for games you want to play, that's how it directly affects consumers. EGS exclusivity is bad for both consumers AND developers except the very tiny number of already successful small companies that get allowed onto EGS.

It raises the price you pay, because Steam games are like Playstation games - Steam is a platform games run on, and just like you can buy Playstation games at many stores including the PSN store, you can also buy steam at many stores. Example, a topic from yesterday:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/wh...-me-playing-on-pc-was-so-much-cheaper.137151/

Someone brought up that thanks to PC gaming, they could get a recently released game for under $12. Some user tried to come in with "but that's only the sale price!" ignoring this:

An info graph charting the price of the game across multiple store fronts -- all of which sold "Steam" games -- for multiple months. As you can see, a single store's sale period might only be a few days, but since there are so many of them, and stores stagger them, it has effectively permanently dropped the price of the game. If you look around, you can ALWAYS get the game below $12, because lots of stores means lots of sales.

Now, the same type of graph when a game goes EGS exclusive:

Not only do we no longer have stores competing for our dollar, in some instances, the actual default price also went up.

Care, because the EGS hurts your wallet.

 

[olag]

I agree. That so many people act like Epic is ruining PC games is console war nonsense. I don't care about Steam. I don't care about Epic. I don't care about any of the multi-national corporations, so I approve of any developers extracting as much cash from their coffers in any way they can.

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Thats precisely whats going on, Epic are going to steams most wished for products and essentially using console-esq tactics to coopt the few that they deem worthy for their store whilst ignoring the multitudes who I can only assume are meerly asking to be put on the store without exclusivity. There in lies the issue, the success of a platform essentially throwing its money around to create a monopoly will encourage other stores to do the same. Once they own said games they will be free to set the rules of engagements. Quality of service sub par, doesn't matter developer got their cheque and their store owns that game. Overworking your staff, doesn't matter developer got their cheque and their store owns that game.Break faith with customers by not keeping your promise, doesnt matter developer got their cheque and their store owns that game.Increase the price and keep it high for months on end, doesnt matter developer got their cheque and their store owns that game. In this game some indies may benefit but lets be honest, these stores arent going to waste time bidding on them. Like always some will get a bone thrown to them like indies on consoles whilst the lions share of the funding will most likely go to the AAA titles which bring in the most users(which dont even need the extra revenue but will encourage it because the 30% split is so "unrealistic" and "unbearable")

You see where Im going with this.What Epic is demonstrating here is the very same monopolistic attitude they accuse steam of having whilst hypocritically failing to uphold their own principles by refusing to support devs without an exclusivity clause.So many customers and devs are against the EGS. Well where are these devs you might ask?......well look on the EGS store. With such a life saving deal why arent their hundreds if not thousands of devs going on the store every month? After all there must be hundreds of good games being released everywhere else.

But yep,your right. This is all console war bullshit.And gamers and devs just need to deal with it cause......a few developers are getting paid??? Listen you can argue that some devs feel like steam inst doing enough and you can even argue that based on some devs taking the deal that the support model for indie devs may need to be amended but when you start using big ass microtransaction peddling publishers like Ubisoft to say that steam is unrealistic then I got a bridge to sell. At no point should you take the word of AAA industry publishers at their word when it comes to the quality of their working conditions or revenue split. These companies primarily exists to make their shareholders billions and if even though they make that much and they start complaining about paying millions being unrealistic....well they can cry me a river all the way to their slot machine mechanics.

 

[Alvis]

I'm still confused why people still think anyone is releasing games on the Epic Store for reasons other than being handed a SHIT TON OF MONEY UPFRONT. The split is basically meaningless because no one is buying games on EGS. Also itch.io let's you set the split to whatever you want, if that matters at all.

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This. EGS customers don't exist. Eventually Epic will stop the moneyhats, and after that, EGS exclusives will cease to exist because they will stop making sense. People prefer the superior platform, and Epic isn't intereseted in becoming the superior platform, so they will fail.

 

[danhz]

They can and they do. What do you want to do? Regulate them? If it's such a shitty deal, sell your game on another store.

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I dont want to regulate anything, i feel their platform does not give the same priviledges as consoles so they shouldnt ask for the same amount of % as them, if developers start searching for stores that gives them more profit, i will take them.

 

[Jebusman]

I wish Epic wasn't so bad at their job.

Like everyone knows the 30% business model absolutely sucks, but the way you solve this is timed exclusivity in the order of two weeks, and gamestop style free skins and weapons for buying on Epic Game Store to incentivise people to actually go there.

Everyone knows EGS is much, much better for the developers, but the PR fiasco behind it means that I can't see it succeeding, the PR is just too bad atm

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Not everyone knows that the 30% business model sucks, because not everyone agrees with that sentiment. Devs agree with that because having to give even a fucking cent is considered too far for some of them, and I don't think the EGS has proven that a "huge" amount of customers are willing to give up the features that the 30% cut funds. Hell devs aren't willing to give those features up considering they're almost all coming to Steam after their 1 year exclusivity is up, and games like Tetris Effect, as Kreljooc has mentioned, using Steam tech shows these devs want to leverage what that 30% cut funds.

And not everyone agrees that EGS is much better for developers because people are debating the long term ramifications of thumbing your nose at the consumer base for short term security, and how rational it is to believe that Epic will continue to do this for the indefinite future, when they themselves have admitted that their "12%" model is unsustainable despite how barebones the EGS is.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Care, because the EGS hurts your wallet.

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So, what you're saying is Epic might actually stop the race to the bottom that Steam sales and the various other gaming stores have created? Sounds even better to me.

so again this proves the % split is pointless because steam/valve already offer a lower split than what epic games even do

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You're ignoring the part where in theory, you can do this, but in reality, in the vast majority of cases, unless you have a pre-existing fanbase, that most users will just open up Steam, and pay for it there, since Steam has made it so easy.

 

[neonneongod]

So, what you're saying is Epic might actually stop the race to the bottom that Steam sales and the various other gaming stores have created? Sounds even better to me.

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just pack it up and take the L

 

[Megatron]

I'd love to ask him about the split on consoles, since it's also 70/30...

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Consoles are a closed garden though. There's no alternative. If you want to release a game on PS4 you have to do it through Sony. Thats not true on PC. You can release your games on PC without Valve,. It's not surprising to see companies go after them.

 

[JesseEwiak]

just pack it up and take the L

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Why would I take the L? I get it that most people here think devs having to keep game prices artificially low is a good thing, but I disagree.

At this point though, just because the meltdown would be hilarious, I hope the next From Software game, a sequel to Neir, and whatever other games are loved here all end up exclusive to the EGS.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

So, what you're saying is Epic might actually stop the race to the bottom that Steam sales and the various other gaming stores have created? Sounds even better to me.

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The same epic store that had their exclusive partners actually pulling games for sale temporarily because Epic was lowering their price without their consent?

LOL

 

[JesseEwiak]

Thats precisely whats going on, Epic are going to steams most wished for products and essentially using console-esq tactics to coopt the few that they deem worthy for their store whilst ignoring the multitudes who I can only assume are meerly asking to be put on the store without exclusivity.

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Except it's not a console-esque tactic because I don't need to pay $300 for a new Epic machine. I can download a new launcher and have access to all these Epic exclusive games. Also yes, if you're offering the good terms, you can set them as helpful as you can.

Perhaps, if Steam offered the same monetary deal as Epic, but without exclusivity, people would go back to them.

I don't think Epic are saints here, I just don't think they're the devil, same as Valve.

 

[EllipsisBreak]

Why would I take the L? I get it that most people here think devs having to keep game prices artificially low is a good thing, but I disagree.

At this point though, just because the meltdown would be hilarious, I hope the next From Software game, a sequel to Neir, and whatever other games are loved here all end up exclusive to the EGS.

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I don't think it's fair to describe the situation as "devs having to keep game prices artificially low" when we're talking about things like this: https://isthereanydeal.com/game/bloodstainedritualofnight/info/

That's real competition, doing what competition is supposed to do.