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How Does Epic Afford To Have These Prices On The Epic Game Store?

PS9

PS9

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,066
There's no way they can be making a profit here, right?

Immortals: Fenyx Rising - $30
Death Stranding - $20
Metro Exodus - $6
Disco Elysium - $14
Borderlands 3 - $9
Darksiders 3 - $5
The Outer Worlds - $20
Control Ultimate Edition - $14
Star Wars Squadrons - $14

And so many more. Is Epic just taking big losses or what?
 
tadaima

tadaima

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,843
Tokyo, Japan
Some companies spend billions on marketing. This is part of Epic's marketing strategy (conversion/acquisition, maybe also retention). Enjoy it while it lasts.
 
Ricelord

Ricelord

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,487
As long you are spending money on their store and not on a another, They are fine with taking a loss.

fake edit: plus they got fortnite, so as long that going strong they have money to burn.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,093
I imagine they decided that the short term lost is worth gaining a user base for their store.

They sure need a lot of convincing to do, what with the negative PR the store had when it first launched
 
Pein

Pein

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,259
NYC
Fortnite.

Gotta spend money, to make money. You have a whole library of games from them even of they're free or bought on sale and you'll probably consider buying regular priced games from them too.
 

Deleted member 15360

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,477
giphy.gif
 
TheTruth

TheTruth

Member
Jul 23, 2018
204
They have lots of money to cover it up and they need a customer base. Steam has lots of money too, but they already have the customers.
 
Ionic

Ionic

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,735
As far as we know if they sell a 25 dollar game with the 10 dollar coupon they'll still pay the developer the full 88 percent of 25 dollars which is 22 dollars. With the coupon that game would be 15 dollars so they just lose 7 dollars for that sale. In fact, for them to break even on a purchase using the 10 dollar coupon you would need to purchase an 84 dollar game should such a thing even exist. I wouldn't be surprised if so far they've lost money on 75 percent of the purchases ever made on the store. But that's where Fortnite comes in.

The real question is, if you're a developer with a 15 dollar game on sale, can you buy your own game for 5 dollars using the coupon which makes you 13 dollars after Epic's cut which leaves you with an 8 dollar profit. We need an enterprising dev on Epic to buy their game for everybody making themselves fabulously rich in the process!
 
Acidote

Acidote

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,987
Fortnite.

They're spending money through their nose to make people do their first purchase on the platform so they're less hesitant to do future purchases. They're investing in popping the bottle.

I think their publishing efforts will be more effective long term.
 
Cameron122

Cameron122

Rescued from SR388
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,289
Texas
Whenever my nephew buys fornite skins with my debit card epic gives away a game for free you're welcome
 
VariantX

VariantX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,915
Columbia, SC
Seriously, its almost 100% fortnite. its a race against time, they're trying to build a self sustaning user base before Fortnite and that cash flow eventually drops off a cliff sometime in the future. Honestly, I don't think its going to happen unless they have multiple exclusives of at least of moderate success. I don't see this happening if all they're going to do is make fortnite content instead of building more games to get people to have to engage with the store. Right now people just play fortnite, close the EGS frontend and then play everything else on steam because of the years of momentum it built up. No amount of timed exclusives is going to change that.
 
DeadlyVenom

DeadlyVenom

Member
Apr 3, 2018
2,806
Fortnite is subsidizing Epic's store which clearly runs at a deficit. However the 12% helps their case when they try to argue that 30% is too much to take of Fornite's money.
 
rare

rare

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,422
Fortnite having it's dedicated base of users willing to shell money for its cosmetics + big developers paying licensing fees to epic.
They can afford to take a loss in an effort to expand their userbase. The best way I feel I can describe to myself is that they're trying to mimic what steam sales used to be and try to show that "hey, things are cheaper on OUR store and devs get more of your money, use us!".
As a consumer, you should enjoy it. Despite Epic being shitty in a lot of things, them trying to entice you to use their store this way isn't imo.
 
spineduke

spineduke

Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
8,776
It's a sinking ship. As long as Fortnite is doing okay, they'll keep on going but the current state is not promising. The fact they're still throwing free games every week says it all.
 
Kadey

Kadey

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,672
Southeastern PA
At least they are using their money to benefit gamers rather than hand it out to streamers and doing various other things to throw money away which ultimately doesn't benefit anyone. And this coming from someone who doesn't care to use EGS. I'm 1000% a steam user only.
 
spineduke

spineduke

Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
8,776
Kadey said:
At least they are using their money to benefit gamers rather than hand it out to streamers and doing various other things to throw money away which ultimately doesn't benefit anyone. And this coming from someone who doesn't care to use EGS. I'm 1000% a steam user only.
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Don't really care about the giveaways but when they're publishing games (and not poaching stuff last minute) I think it's the best outcome.
 
Night Hunter

Night Hunter

Member
Dec 5, 2017
2,803
Well, they gave me a 10$ Coupon and it worked. Bought my first game there yesterday (probably won't buy another one for a long time though).
 
Haze

Haze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,828
Detroit, MI
That fortnite money baby.

I fucking hate epic and the EGS but I buy a game every time they drop a coupon smh. Doesn't help that all of those games were also exclusive.
 
eoinmoners

eoinmoners

Member
Oct 1, 2018
636
I live in Vietnam and recently tied my Steam account to my VN payment details and I'm pleasantly shocked at the prices! Disco Elysium was ā‚¬6 down from 11, brand new games launch (Cyberpunk for example) at ā‚¬30-35 max. I love that they respect local incomes. Not sure about Epic though, can't seem to do the same with my account at the mo.
 
Bear Patrol

Bear Patrol

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,046
Like everyone else said: they're not. Even their exclusive games seem to be selling more copies on Steam so I think a lot of the devs are just taking the free handouts. We'll see if it works out for them long term. In the meanwhile, I'm basically getting the free games and that's it. I don't want to pay money for a whole other library on a platform I barely use/care about.

eoinmoners said:
I live in Vietnam and recently tied my Steam account to my VN payment details and I'm pleasantly shocked at the prices! Disco Elysium was ā‚¬6 down from 11, brand new games launch (Cyberpunk for example) at ā‚¬30-35 max. I love that they respect local incomes. Not sure about Epic though, can't seem to do the same with my account at the mo.
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Yeah, Steam regional pricing is great! I was working in Hanoi for a few months earlier this year and I was shocked to discover that my entire wishlist of 240+ games would only cost me $700 or so to buy o.O

I still technically have my Vietnamese bank account and debit card, in case I can make it back next year lol
 
Dolce

Dolce

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,256
spineduke said:
It's a sinking ship. As long as Fortnite is doing okay, they'll keep on going but the current state is not promising. The fact they're still throwing free games every week says it all.
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I dunno, other stagnant storefronts like Origin and Ubisofts and stuff don't give out free stuff anywhere near as often. It only reminds me more of how often you'd get free Steam games years ago.
 

eathdemon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,690
I want to know how manny people are buying stuff on egs that isnt fortnite related? I have happily taken all those free games, but there hasnt been anything I cant wait for it to come to steam to buy tbh.
 

eathdemon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,690
Gravijah said:
I dunno, other stagnant storefronts like Origin and Ubisofts and stuff don't give out free stuff anywhere near as often. It only reminds me more of how often you'd get free Steam games years ago.
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epic is far more aggressive than steam ever was. it seems their solution to the fact people cant take their libraries with them is give them a new library.
 
Danielsan

Danielsan

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,688
The Netherlands
This is the sale that did it for me. They finally have me as a paying customer. I stopped giving a shit about launchers anyway, and steam's sales have been terrible for a whiile now.
 
OP
OP
PS9

PS9

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,066
eathdemon said:
I want to know how manny people are buying stuff on egs that isnt fortnite related? I have happily taken all those free games, but there hasnt been anything I cant wait for it to come to steam to buy tbh.
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Today I bought Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Star Wars: Squadrons, Man-eater and Control: Ultimate Edition.
 
Dolce

Dolce

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,256
eathdemon said:
epic is far more aggressive than steam ever was. it seems their solution to the fact people cant take their libraries with them is give them a new library.
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It's true, part of that I think comes from the fact that Steam had the entire place to itself, while Epic has to deal with Steam and such.
 
Alpheus

Alpheus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,670
You can afford a lot of things if enough kids spend their allowance money in your wildly popular game.
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,405
eathdemon said:
I want to know how manny people are buying stuff on egs that isnt fortnite related? I have happily taken all those free games, but there hasnt been anything I cant wait for it to come to steam to buy tbh.
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if the games are significantly cheaper on epic, why wouldn't I buy the games on there? Recently bought death stranding on Epic.
 
NightShift

NightShift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,058
Australia
They are 100% operating the EGS at a loss. They're trying to get as many people as possible to build up a sizable library so they stick around when the Fornite well goes dry and they stop offering free games, deep discounts and timed exclusives.

I know, it's weird to see a company thinking in the long term instead of the short term.
 
Animismus

Animismus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
340
I am thinking of buying a few more games with them, because of the coupons. I already got Death Stranding for roughly $10 and I am thinking of getting Disco Elysium and Control. I really don't care about where I get my games although I would prefer to have them all in one place like steam.
 
GhostTrick

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,385
NightShift said:
They are 100% operating the EGS at a loss. They're trying to get as many people as possible to build up a sizable library so they stick around when the Fornite well goes dry and they stop offering free games, deep discounts and timed exclusives.

I know, it's weird to see a company thinking in the long term instead of the short term.
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The way that store is designed, it makes you wonder if they thought about the long term indeed. Or maybe they truly think so much of the long term that they hope to have basic stuff in for 2030.
 
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