Tim Sweeny: Soon you will see lower prices on Epic Games Store

[GhostTrick]

I'm interacting with most posts and you're accusing me without evidence by screaming "but WHAT ABOUT SWEENEY" when I have stated several *times* why I am not defending Epic either and why I have issues with the store and their practices. The industry standard doesn't mean it should remain the case just because it is. Many companies are circumventing this cut or are even charging a mark-up for the consumers to eat this cost especially in the mobile space. Sweeney's wealth didn't come from EGS anyway, it came from Unreal Engine, which is a supposedly good engine that is apparently friendly for developers as opposed to Unity, & Fortnite (of which he needs to answer about the bad crunch the devs experiences on the daily).


Should I make a thread for every console company to lower their cut too so I can be believed? How many times must I say it? Please, tell me because it is becoming increasingly annoying at this point.

If companies are ready to eat the cost of international payment just to circumvent the 30% cut in mobile companies, then surely there is money to be made? Am I wrong?


So I don't see the issue with not making it a blanket 30% even for small devs then? Steam also needs to make their discovery features better for them.

Indies sells for 20, games from big publishers still sells for 40 with resellers, it doesn't push out smaller devs this way. Even then big pub are still strangling smaller devs with micro-transactions so it's always more than 40/60 anyway.

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You cant fix that with discovery. If there are more than 2000 legit games releasing each year, discovery tools wont give you more visibility. There's just too much games.

The problem of the industry right now is one of visibility. And it wont be fixed with better tools. Not everyone can be a winner, that's the sad truth.

Nowadays because of accessible tools, everyone is making games. So you either need to decide who can sell games, which means you already picked the winners... Or you let the people decide but then you need to bring your A game.

 

[Hektor]

Is it just me or has the argument for epic been deflating for a few weeks now? Like less people in defending or it's getting harder to defend? Seems less heated.

Edit: I guess things have happened. Some of the feistier accounts are gone. And less whip has been spared towards people trolling on valve.

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There's also the part where some folks, especially indiedevs, slowly come to the realization that Epic isn't the french revolution of indiegames, but antoinette, let them eat curation.

I can think of at least two developers for whom that is the case, without wanting to shame any name.

 

[Dreamboum]

You cant fix that with discovery. If there are more than 2000 legit games releasing each year, discovery tools wont give you more visibility. There's just too much games.

The problem of the industry right now is one of visibility. And it wont be fixed with better tools. Not everyone can be a winner, that's the sad truth.

Nowadays because of accessible tools, everyone is making games. So you either need to decide who can sell games, which means you already picked the winners... Or you let the people decide but then you need to bring your A game.

Click to shrink...

Indie devs came with the issue that sales have unusually gone down sharply in what seems to be a change in algorithms so it seems that Valve are making changes that might make their lives harder than it should be.

But coming back to cuts, I do think it could help at least for indie games that manages to sell enough to have a bottom line.

 

[GhostTrick]

Indie devs came with the issue that sales have unusually gone down sharply in what seems to be a change in algorithms so it seems that Valve are making changes that might make their lives harder than it should be.

But coming back to cuts, I do think it could help at least for indie games that manages to sell enough to have a bottom line.

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That algorithm thing has been vastly overstated and fixed months ago.
When you look at the games of the people complaining, it's easy to see why they'd get less sales than others. As for traffic reducing... New games or more popular games are releasing every days. The market doesnt stop once they release their game.

Also, surviving the bottom line isnt a sustainable model and we both know it. Indies just need to realise that if they want to thrive in this market... They need to step up their game.

 

[Crayon]

I'm interacting with most posts and you're accusing me without evidence by screaming "but WHAT ABOUT SWEENEY" when I have stated several *times* why I am not defending Epic either and why I have issues with the store and their practices. The industry standard doesn't mean it should remain the case just because it is. Many companies are circumventing this cut or are even charging a mark-up for the consumers to eat this cost especially in the mobile space. Sweeney's wealth didn't come from EGS anyway, it came from Unreal Engine, which is a supposedly good engine that is apparently friendly for developers as opposed to Unity, & Fortnite (of which he needs to answer about the bad crunch the devs experiences on the daily).


Should I make a thread for every console company to lower their cut too so I can be believed? How many times must I say it? Please, tell me because it is becoming increasingly annoying at this point.

If companies are ready to eat the cost of international payment just to circumvent the 30% cut in mobile companies, then surely there is money to be made? Am I wrong?


So I don't see the issue with not making it a blanket 30% even for small devs then? Steam also needs to make their discovery features better for them.

Indies sells for 20, games from big publishers still sells for 40 with resellers, it doesn't push out smaller devs this way. Even then big pub are still strangling smaller devs with micro-transactions so it's always more than 40/60 anyway.

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I can simply ask "why" and stop the whole works, huh.

"Why" would valve lower the cut. A real stumper. We don't even know if they perceive a threat.

I sure don't want them to lower the cut. that will make games more expensive as we've seen. "Why" would I want that.

There there should be fairly straightforward answers here. But things are quite making sense are they? They sure are requiring a lot of words to get around aren't they?

 

[Deleted member 24907]

Literally made this face when I read the thread title

 

[Dreamboum]

I can simply ask "why" and stop the whole works, huh.

"Why" would valve lower the cut. A real stumper. We don't even know if they perceive a threat.

I sure don't want them to lower the cut. that will make games more expensive as we've seen. "Why" would I want that.

There there should be fairly straightforward answers here. But things are quite making sense are they? They sure are requiring a lot of words to get around aren't they?

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You're just being awfully sarcastic trying to find an easy answer for a problem that isn't. The main difference being that I'm not you, and I don't have the same needs as you as a consumer. I need to think about the whys before I make a purchase.

 

[Crayon]

You're just being awfully sarcastic trying to find an easy answer for a problem that isn't. The main difference being that I'm not you, and I don't have the same needs as you as a consumer. I need to think about the whys before I make a purchase.

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That will be enough from me, thank you. You obviously have your hands full here.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I still remember a time when most developers would have killed to give away JUST 30% of their total revenue to a distribution system.
Now many of them joined a market that is far less merciless (if surely more overcrowded) than it used to be and they think they have it the toughest.

From an open letter written by Darryl Still, international publishing director of 1C (King's Bounty series, Cryostasis, Men of War, Red Orchestra, etc.) in November 2010 for MCVUK.

What is more surprising is the reaction of retail now. I have read it described as the reaction of a small child who threw his toy away because he no longer wanted it, but started screaming as soon as another child picked it up to play with. The metaphor works perfectly, especially in the light of the excuse I heard on numerous occasions.

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I remember fondly the meeting in my office with a red-faced publisher who was explaining why their initial order from a major retailer for one of our new releases was just 30 units. At the time I had my browser open on the Steam product data page, which updates sales numbers every few minutes. "They have taken one unit for each of their top 30 stores" he told me. "There is just no demand from their customers". I glanced at my screen, hit refresh and advised him: "In the time it's taken you to tell me that there is no demand, Steam has sold 45 units".

Steam is selling decent numbers of our titles. They are really cool to work with, have a refreshing, knowledgeable developer mentality, and never bully or threaten their suppliers.

Since 1997, when 1C's gaming division was founded, the company worked on a model whereby a title developed and sold by 1C in Russia was then sub-licensed to our great publishing partners. As a generalisation, retail would pay these guys a maximum of 40 per cent of what they made. So on a £29.99 game the publisher would receive about £12 (and on a sub-licensed deal, we would then only get about £4.25 of that) – minus return, write down and consignment costs. When would we get that money? Well, payment would be by the end of the quarter. So, let's say £10 per unit sale goes to the publisher, £3 to the developer/sub-licensor, and it's in your bank five months after the customer has paid out £30.

Compare that to the digital model. On a £29.99 sale, the digital partner will pay the publisher – or in many cases direct to the developer – between 60 and 70 per cent, by the end of the month following the sale. Wow. To recap: on a sale over the counter today, we can have our £3 by the end of March, or on a digital sale, we can have £20 by Christmas. Remind me why we should choose to go with retail and decline to let Steam sell the game?

Unlike at retail, the dominant players in the digital market do not get, nor do they ever ask for, better terms than the other players.

So what else, apart from better support, better sales, no inventory, no returns and much better payment terms, have the Romans ever done for us?

Another advantage is the ability to boost sales with promotional prices – and you'll often see an additional sales upturn after returning to the full price. For example, if you run a game of the week promotion, you can sell maybe 20,000 units of your title in that period. You now have 20,000 new users enthusing about your game, which even when the title returns to full price, causes a very obvious knock on effect that can happily double your sales.

This creative working of pricing, promotions and catalogue is something I am convinced retail can learn and benefit from. It frustrates me greatly that once a game is six weeks old, it is written off and consigned to the bargain bins, never to rise again. We have a 10-year-old simulator title that still sells regularly on digital platforms.

Steam is here to stay. Retailers needs to communicate and work with publishers, rather than dictate and pontificate to ensure the same can be said for them.

Additionally, EA has just revealed staggering growth of their digital distribution revenues:

"A principal growth driver has been downloads for extra content, which includes microtransactions for free to play games," said Brown. "This would include Playfish, map packs for 360 and PS3 games."

Brown added that full-game downloads also made a significant contribution to the company's revenues, claiming that Battlefield Bad Company 2 had generated around $30 million in digital sales. $750 million of the company's current revenues are down to digital purchases - up from $430 million two years ago.

"What we're starting to see, especially for first person shooter titles like Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a higher propensity for people to purchase the PC client digitally," he explained. "This is an area where with our first person shooter games, our Sims franchise and others, we've been able to grow our digital business."

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[Nome]

If they're so willing to take sub-optimal deals, then why doesn't their storefront have regional pricing? Based on what you said it should be free revenue, so why don't they do it? Is it also unreasonable? I doubt it. Your argument that "unreasonable cut but it's free revenue" makes no sense if they don't apply that logic to everything.

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Did you lean back and mutter "checkmate" when you wrote this?

EGS is still working on a shopping cart, and you think their lack of a regional pricing feature is indicative of them not wanting to pursue that revenue stream?

 

[starpower]

 

[Zips]

Oh Tim.

Tim Tim Tim.

We've already established that publishers are greedy. They're companies. They like money.

The fact that they were so enticed by the pile of cash you and Epic gave them to be exclusive to the EGS is proof enough of that. And you expect anybody to believe these very same companies are going to willfully and permanently come out of the gate at a lower price point?

It's obvious he knows he's full of shit. He's not trying to convince consumers with it, he's trying to entice other studios and games.

 

[Deleted member 3294]

That algorithm thing has been vastly overstated and fixed months ago.
When you look at the games of the people complaining, it's easy to see why they'd get less sales than others. As for traffic reducing... New games or more popular games are releasing every days. The market doesnt stop once they release their game.

Also, surviving the bottom line isnt a sustainable model and we both know it. Indies just need to realise that if they want to thrive in this market... They need to step up their game.

Click to shrink...

I'm going to believe indie devs who actually have to deal with Steam's algorithms and my own experience with what I get recommended on there over whatever Valve claims.

It's possible for there to be too many games releasing on Steam and for Steam's discovery tools to be garbage. At least in my experience, I'm not convinced Steam recommends games to me based on stuff I've played. In my experience it feels like it mostly just recommends whatever's popular or from a big publisher while adding tags that the game has that other games i've played has as well. And that is if it can find tags at all, sometimes it will just say "Recommended because you play similar games" without it actually showing what games it's supposedly similar to.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of games never get recommended to people because their algorithm doesn't do much. If you do want to get recommended lesser known stuff, it looks like users themselves have to put in the work and follow curators, ignore games, keep going through those discovery queues etc. which I don't imagine most Steam users do. So lesser known stuff generally doesn't get surfaced to most people. At best developers can seemingly hope for that their game makes it to the "new and trending" list that most people don't look at cause they have to scroll down a bunch to see it.

And yeah, there's always going to be indie devs disappointed that their games aren't recommended to people regardless of how much work is done, but that doesn't mean Valve can't and shouldn't do better.

 

[Deleted member 25117]

Did you lean back and mutter "checkmate" when you wrote this?

EGS is still working on a shopping cart, and you think their lack of a regional pricing feature is indicative of them not wanting to pursue that revenue stream?

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No but maybe I should've with this type of response. You can't say "Well of course they wouldn't leave money of the table!" and "but they do it because they have to!" for one thing and then act like not tapping into an arguably massive market for the same reasons doesn't matter.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

How do you know they are not lol?

Only thing I'll give you here is the fees that they cover (which is a huge help for the customers), but can I see receipts that say those other minor features are worth the 30% cut (you know, because all the other storefronts have a need for maintenance/updates AND hardware investment...

Edit: and before anyone jumps down my throat, I know valve dabbles in some minor hardware stuff...

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I can't provide you any receipts if you've already dismissed the features as minor and inconsequential. They don't matter to you. You do not care. You've already made up your mind.

 

[spineduke]

The BL3 stories have been really telling

They have their lower cut, they have their financial deal - but they refuse to honor their previous voice actors so they can save some money.

So despite the better "resources to build a better game", the production teams aren't seeing any of that money.

Not surprised.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Oh Tim.

Tim Tim Tim.

We've already established that publishers are greedy. They're companies. They like money.

The fact that they were so enticed by the pile of cash you and Epic gave them to be exclusive to the EGS is proof enough of that. And you expect anybody to believe these very same companies are going to willfully and permanently come out of the gate at a lower price point?

It's obvious he knows he's full of shit. He's not trying to convince consumers with it, he's trying to entice other studios and games.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. I tried to say something similar earlier in the thread, but if EGS' modus operandi is "give more money to the publishers" then why in the world would publishers who flock there suddenly decide to give up any portion of that money?

 

[Crayon]

Exactly. I tried to say something similar earlier in the thread, but if EGS' modus operandi is "give more money to the publishers" then why in the world would publishers who flock there suddenly decide to give up any portion of that money?

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See that's a real stumper. if they wanted to give their customers lower prices on egs, there would be doing that.

Don't want to get your money, so you can give the customers a lower price, one more customer can already get a lower price at a key reseller with no money out of your pocket?

it doesn't make any sense that the prices would go lower. The whole reason publishers like this stuff is because they can fix prices. The steam key market results in fair prices, not fixed prices. They would all rather it be gone.

 

[ArnoldJRimmer]

I'm going to believe indie devs who actually have to deal with Steam's algorithms and my own experience with what I get recommended on there over whatever Valve claims.

It's possible for there to be too many games releasing on Steam and for Steam's discovery tools to be garbage. At least in my experience, I'm not convinced Steam recommends games to me based on stuff I've played. In my experience it feels like it mostly just recommends whatever's popular or from a big publisher while adding tags that the game has that other games i've played has as well. And that is if it can find tags at all, sometimes it will just say "Recommended because you play similar games" without it actually showing what games it's supposedly similar to.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of games never get recommended to people because their algorithm doesn't do much. If you do want to get recommended lesser known stuff, it looks like users themselves have to put in the work and follow curators, ignore games, keep going through those discovery queues etc. which I don't image most Steam users do. So lesser known stuff generally doesn't get surfaced to most people. At best developers can seemingly hope for that their game makes it to the "new and trending" list that most people don't look at cause they have to scroll down a bunch to see it.

And yeah, there's always going to be indie devs disappointed that their games aren't recommended to people regardless of how much work is done, but that doesn't mean Valve can't and shouldn't do better.

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This is in contrast to what exactly? Because NO ONE ELSE does any better, in fact, most big stores do a LOT worse. They simply decide who goes in and who stays out, and it's mostly based on publisher market share, or deals/money. Not on the quality of a game.

 

[clickKunst]

Steam provided a fantastic service when it was a monopoly. I do not believe for a second that Epic will match that quality if it dominates the market.

 

[Nome]

No but maybe I should've with this type of response. You can't say "Well of course they wouldn't leave money of the table!" and "but they do it because they have to!" for one thing and then act like not tapping into an arguably massive market for the same reasons doesn't matter.

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Since you're so sure of yourself, feel free to educate us on the ROI of catering to tier 3 regions and how that compares to other development and business efforts by Epic. Everything has a cost dude.

Better yet, why don't you explain why greedy ol' Epic trying to corner the PC market and put Steam out of business would ignore those markets according to your own internal logic?

 

[Deleted member 3294]

This is in contrast to what exactly? Because NO ONE ELSE does any better, in fact, most big stores do a LOT worse. They simply decide who goes in and who stays out, and it's mostly based on publisher market share, or deals/money. Not on the quality of a game.

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"No one else does better" just means everyone should do better.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Steam provided a fantastic service when it was a monopoly. I do not believe for a second that Epic will match that quality if it dominates the market.

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Being the only relevant player on the market does not mean you are a monopoly... People really need to stop using "monopoly" so flippantly.

 

[LewieP]

Being the only relevant player on the market does not mean you are a monopoly... People really need to stop using "monopoly" so flippantly.

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Yep. If Valve were in a monopoly position, Epic Store would not be able to exist.

 

[ArnoldJRimmer]

"No one else does better" just means everyone should do better.

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No one is even TRYING. only Valve is. And they do so because they believe a platform that is good for the consumer is good for developers in the long run. Epic doesn't believe that. It doesn't see consumers as their customer,s it sees developers as their customers. Well, the handful they allow in/money hat. Fuck everyone else.

 

[Shogun]

Since you're so sure of yourself, feel free to educate us on the ROI of catering to tier 3 regions and how that compares to other development and business efforts by Epic. Everything has a cost dude.

Better yet, why don't you explain why greedy ol' Epic trying to corner the PC market and put Steam out of business would ignore those markets according to your own internal logic?

Click to shrink...

Whilst you're here asking for receipts can I ask what game you are working on, what games you have worked on and if any of said games are currently locked to the Epic Store? Thanks.

 

[Nome]

Whilst you're here asking for receipts can I ask what game you are working on, what games you have worked on and if any of said games are currently locked to the Epic Store? Thanks.

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Just look at my profile.
No, I don't work on anything on EGS or Steam. I prefer Steam to EGS in general. I feel morally obligated to avoid Epic products for reasons I've detailed in other posts. I just can't handle misinformation and armchair business development on Era.

 

[Crayon]

Indeed, the word monopoly has been beaten like a rug.

...

Think about how stupid is. Trying to pay off developers one by one, just to railroad people in to pay more for an inferior version of the game and making a stupid login.

And now all you've managed to do is that someone to install your launcher right along steam? So they can have a bad experience and end up kicking themselves without waiting 6 months to buy the game for half price on steam?

We'll all see how ineffective the strong-arm tactics are when Google and Microsoft come in and make it a mosh pit. It'll be them and god knows who else fighting to wrap up 1/500th of steam's library for 6 months or a year. Yeah that sounds real productive.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Better yet, why don't you explain why greedy ol' Epic trying to corner the PC market and put Steam out of business would ignore those markets according to your own internal logic?

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Surely they will get there if it makes sense to their bottom line, but obviously those regions weren't a priority for launch. Maybe it won't make sense with their current cut structure and they will forever ignore those markets. That sure as hell does suck for anyone living there. Epic isn't about serving consumers, though, just publishers.

 

[ArnoldJRimmer]

Did you lean back and mutter "checkmate" when you wrote this?

EGS is still working on a shopping cart, and you think their lack of a regional pricing feature is indicative of them not wanting to pursue that revenue stream?

Click to shrink...

Surely they will get there if it makes sense to their bottom line, but obviously those regions weren't a priority for launch. Maybe it won't make sense with their current cut structure and they will forever ignore those markets. That sure as hell does suck for anyone living there. Epic isn't about serving consumers, though, just publishers.

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Didn't they come out and say exactly that? That their current cut won't cover some territories and their payment sources? I assume if they ever cover them, they will pass on the cost to the developers - which can be 15% or more in some territories.

 

[Shogun]

Just look at my profile.
No, I don't work on anything on EGS or Steam. I prefer Steam to EGS in general. I feel morally obligated to avoid Epic products for reasons I've detailed in other posts. I just can't handle misinformation and armchair business development on Era.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the response. Let's be fair here for a second as well, on the subject of misinformation I really do believe Tim Sweeney has been muddying the waters regarding both Steam and his own store recently. It's why I find the whole store so hard to accept, rather than build a customer base they are trying to force one (I know we can discuss about ways to compete ect). Then when a bit of heat comes his way he starts saying Epic wouldn't buy anymore exclusives if Valve lowered their cut which in turn would render their own store pointless.

 

[Deleted member 25117]

Since you're so sure of yourself, feel free to educate us on the ROI of catering to tier 3 regions and how that compares to other development and business efforts by Epic. Everything has a cost dude.

Better yet, why don't you explain why greedy ol' Epic trying to corner the PC market and put Steam out of business would ignore those markets according to your own internal logic?

Click to shrink...

That was my question to you, I'm not the one making those claims and it's not my job to share industry insider info either. I'm not going to answer my own questions to you lmao

 

[Nome]

That was my question to you, I'm not the one making those claims and it's not my job to share industry insider info either. I'm not going to answer my own questions to you lmao

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1. Possibly a poor ROI compared to other development priorities
2. They may actually be working on it, but it's going to take time

Any other questions?

EDIT: let me also add that you're using the words "free revenue". There is no free revenue, anywhere. You put in and you get out. Every option is weighed on ROI.

 

[Araujo]

Hey guys digital game sales will make games cheaper than physical

 

[Deleted member 42]

Whilst you're here asking for receipts can I ask what game you are working on, what games you have worked on and if any of said games are currently locked to the Epic Store? Thanks.

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That is a really weird question to ask and smacks like you think he's astroturfing

Hey guys digital game sales will make games cheaper than physical

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At this rate I'm just gonna say damn the man and buy everything physical

I'LL SAVE WALMART MYSELF

 

[Ganado]

People constantly bring up Steam being slow to add refunds.

As if the rest of the market is even at that level even now a few years later.

MS's is suppose to be here but MIA in 'Beta'.
Sony still doesn't have an equal one.
Origin is EA games Only
GoG is for technical issues only.
EGS is the only similar one, but had to be shamed into it and it doesn't cover DLC iirc.

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This is the worst part of that other guys response and you are right with this. Another thing is that Steam is fully automated. EGS isn't.

 

[Herbz]

Holy shit. So many people in this thread are pissed.

 

[Shogun]

That is a really weird question to ask and smacks like you think he's astroturfing

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Nahh. I've seen posters in the past say Nome had worked on something pretty big and something that lots had played so was curious, turns out it's League of Legends?. Guess it's a good job you still aren't mod.

 

[Deleted member 42]

Nahh. I've seen posters in the past say Nome had worked on something pretty big and something that lots had played so was curious.

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I, too, ask someone on the Internet a three part question out of curiosity instead of just, you know, asking where he worked

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Holy shit. So many people in this thread are pissed.

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There's a lot to be angry about when it comes to Epic's advances on PC gaming.

 

[Herbz]

There's a lot to be angry about when it comes to Epic's advances on PC gaming.

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Not a big deal, honestly.

 

[ArnoldJRimmer]

Not a big deal, honestly.

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For you maybe. A lot of people disagree.

 

[Nessus]

The same companies that claim they need live services, lootboxes, microtransactions, and other monetisation schemes because $60 already isn't enough for them to be profitable?

 

[Arthands]

Not a big deal, honestly.

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Is actually a big deal for consumers

 

[Shogun]

I, too, ask someone on the Internet a three part question out of curiosity instead of just, you know, asking where he worked

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I've taken note of your concern and in future will limit any question I have to one per post. Any further clarification that may be required can be obtained via PM. Cheers.

On topic - It's going to be interesting as Epic gain share and lock down more exclusives to see if Tim sticks to his many statements.

 

[Arthands]

Is it just me or has the argument for epic been deflating for a few weeks now? Like less people in defending or it's getting harder to defend? Seems less heated.

Edit: I guess things have happened. Some of the feistier accounts are gone. And less whip has been spared towards people trolling on valve.

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Think its because people who supported Epic Games Store are starting to see they have been hoodwinked so they are not defending EGS as much

 

[Nome]

Thanks for the response. Let's be fair here for a second as well, on the subject of misinformation I really do believe Tim Sweeney has been muddying the waters regarding both Steam and his own store recently. It's why I find the whole store so hard to accept, rather than build a customer base they are trying to force one (I know we can discuss about ways to compete ect). Then when a bit of heat comes his way he starts saying Epic wouldn't buy anymore exclusives if Valve lowered their cut which in turn would render their own store pointless.

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I don't mind getting credential-checked. Transparency is the main reason I opted to get verified anyway.
Anyway, I'm by no means the most qualified to talk about this sort of thing, but I figure the ones who actually are qualified aren't scouring Era looking for internet debates, lol.

My honest opinion is that Epic is data-driven right now, not data-informed. The former looks at data and makes their decisions purely on that. The latter looks at data and takes the human factor into account (see: https://hackernoon.com/why-you-should-be-data-informed-and-not-data-driven-76079d187989). A lot of their decisions are indeed anti-consumer and don't appeal to players, and their company values are OK with that. So it's totally fine to criticize that fact.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

My honest opinion is that Epic is data-driven right now, not data-informed. The former looks at data and makes their decisions purely on that. The latter looks at data and takes the human factor into account (see: https://hackernoon.com/why-you-should-be-data-informed-and-not-data-driven-76079d187989). A lot of their decisions are indeed anti-consumer and don't appeal to players, and their company values are OK with that. So it's totally fine to criticize that fact.

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That's actually a thing that occurred to me recently. EGS and Steam are basically operating off of the exact same dataset, thanks to the "turncoat" SteamSpy founder. And yet when Epic Games and Valve look at that data, they apparently see very different things, because the practical upshot of their respective policies and actions is so fundamentally different.