Epic Games Store: Is it Just Business?
Let’s talk about the Epic Game Store. They’re a mulit-million dollar company that is currently making big moves on the gaming community. These moves consist of having buying rights to sell games exclusively on their platform, sudden game buyouts, and pushing their Epic Games Launcher.
Dibs On Exclusive Platform Release
They’re going to gaming developers both big and small and are making some big deals that would make some of the games they’re dealing with exclusive to them in a sense. No not every game they’re dealing with is an EPIC game now. It’s more like the games are being made to be exclusive to their own launcher.
From indie games such as the Outer Wilds and Hades, to bigger titles such as Borderlands 3 and Vampire the Masquerade, the game company is makings some big deals in opposition to other game launchers like GOG and Steam it. Of course these games aren’t going to be exclusive for long, as it would seem that Epic wants to be the company that has the exclusive, and enticing deals through these games that will more than likely come onto their game launcher first.
That’s right, Epic wants a timed release for the games that they are currently supporting, meaning that they have first dibs on releasing the games. This means that Borderlands 3 and the Outer Wilds are coming out for the PC on a later date, a few months after the games releases. So while Borderlands 3 is being released on consoles and EGS on September 13, those who use sites like GOG or Steam are forced to wait at least a few months or so as they are to be released in 2020.
Dibs on Indie Titles?
So Epic Games is taking some major releases and putting them out on their launcher, yeah this does seem to spoil the release of games for PC players which is itself a big market. Well maybe players aren’t a fan of the bigger AAA Borderlands 3 title and probably want something small, something that appeals to a niche audience. Well this is where indie games come in. Epic has also been scouting out for other indie titles that suit them.
Let’s look at Outer Wilds, the game is developed by Mobius Digital and was brought timed-exclusively to the Epic Games Store back in back in May. This, at the time was something a bit controversial as buying out indie games for exclusivity seemed a bit dire for the original crowdfunders who were promised to get the game to release on all of the platforms promised. Well it would seem that the game itself is, indeed all it’s cracked up to be with no setbacks at all. It’s nice small-but packed universe that gives you every reason to explore the entire galaxy.
Hades is another game that is doing pretty good now on the Epic Games Store. It’s an isometric-styled action-roguelike in which you are trying to break out of the gates of Hell itself. That being said, the game is great, and the game being on Epic’s store doesn’t necessarily mean that the game should do bad.
Sometimes Without Warning
Although these two games aren’t having any problems with Epic’s exclusivity, people have caught on to the fact that Epic is doing this with many more titles. Many patrons, kickstarters, and cowdfunders are always going to have to ask whether or not the indie developers will ever accept any of what Epic is going to offer them. These promises can be hard to make as Epic supposedly has a really good deal and generally offers developers the support that they need.
Take Glumberland for example, they’re a small development team of two people, Programmer and artist, Rebecca Cordingley and Lead Programmer Ben Wasser. The game looks cute, small and more importantly, fun. It is literally the happiest game people will ever see and almost nothing could really make people angry about the game. Well that’s until Glumberland released a blog post seemingly out of nowhere announcing that the game is going to be an EGS exclusive itself and just told their followers and funders to more or less to just shut up.
Ever since then, the small developer has been having some clashes within their own fanbase, putting the team themselves in a bad light. I suppose developers would have to have the proper planning in order to make a huge reveal like this and not have anybody be understandably upset by the news. In fact for now, maybe up and coming developers should keep this information in mind if they have the possibility to be confronted by Epic. At the very least, they need to make a hard stance on Epic Store and do some research before deciding to whether or not to become an Exclusive for the company.
What About Steam?
Steam has been known to take some pretty large cuts from sales on their platform. That’s right, Valve takes around 30 percent of all revenue generated by the sales of the games, leaving around 70 percent for their creators. This is quite a big cut considering that the site houses many types of developers, both indie and AAA.
On the other hand let’s look at what cuts the EGS takes from their developers. According to Epic they will waive all Unreal royalty fees for sales generated through the store. This is something new as Epic took only a 5 percent royalty cut on all Unreal Engine sales in the past. Also in opposition to steam’s 30 percent, Epic will only take 12 percent of all game sales revenues in their store. This means that developers will get 88 percent of all of the sales at this point.
What should we do?
Well with all of the games coming out in the future and knowing that Epic definitely has the resources to back up the games they’re supporting. We probably shouldn’t worry about them buying games to this extent because well, it’s just business. Of course people are willing to work with them based on the deals they make to these developers. It’s basically just their business.
As for the developers themselves, they just need to be able to convey what’s going on to their fans properly. None of this blaming the audience nonsense. Sometimes developing games could use a bit more funding in order for the process of creating them to go smoothly.
For the timed exclusivity on their launcher, Steam and GOG users will just have to wait for the eventual release in the future. In the meantime they’ll release on consoles or the EGF.
Well, what do you guys think about the Epic Games Store? Do you think that Epic needs a bit more time in order for the launcher to work properly or is Epic focusing more on the business-side of things? Let us know in the comments.
For more news on other games that will be releasing on the Epic Games Store, check it out here.
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