It’s not a new topic that hardcore Steam users are annoyed by the fact that Epic Games Store is giving the digital distribution empire a run for his money. Epic’s approach is to make everyone (but Steam) happier by offering better deals.
Having launched in a few months ago Epic Games Store has managed to revolutionize the digital distribution market by offering a developers 88 percent revenue. Players are now getting limited time free games similar to what’s being done at Sony with PlayStation Plus, the difference is that Epic Games is not forcing a monthly payment to enjoy this deal, Epic isn’t even asking for a credit card, just a simple subscription to platform and a captcha is good enough to get you free games. To make the deal even better is not locked to any region in the world.
To make things even better Epic Games Store allows refunds, players can ask for a refund between the first 14 days of purchase if they game is under 2 hours of playtime.
This flexing of power and influence has of course made some people in the industry very anxious, and certain things hit the fan when an anticipated game along with its retail box was shipped around the globe just to end up having a sticker of Epic Games on top of a Steam logo. I’m talking about Metro Exodus situation of course.
To say that Steam is nervous it’s an understatement, Epic Games Store is offering 88 percent of revenue towards the developers, Steam is currently offering 70 percent. Steam had been vocal about this situation and in my opinion has even set a perfect storm for fanatic users to express they anger towards Epic Games Store, something that in my opinion is unfounded. I can be fanatic over a console, but towards a publisher it’s very hard to feel relatable if you’re not a developer. At the end of the day as a player I care the about the game, and the game will only be better if the developer is able to express it’s own ideas by being able to pick freely it’s business partner.
In James Paley’s article at cogconnected he starts his article by saying “Anyone who disrupts the status quo is going to catch a lot of flak, whatever their intentions may be” and I couldn’t agree more. Steam users don’t seem to stop expressing their anger towards Epic Games.
Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney has seen an opportunity to make of this unfortunately scenario useful to confirm Epic Games Store’s good intentions towards players and developers.
Ultimately, this is about making the industry a better place, starting with the terms available for developers. I understand gamers don’t see that. They don’t see the hardship of making a payroll and seeing the store suck out 30% of the revenue from it. It can be jarring to see the industry is changing in ways that are typically invisible to us as gamers.
The software business changes everyday, we are near a future where users will be taking a bigger role in the development of a game, Kickstarter campaigns can often determine how a game is made, for example Star Citizen. So by understanding this, we can see why Epic Games Store better deal towards developers make sense, in order to a publisher to stay relevant between an overcrowded business they had to offer something better. If Steam doesn’t man up about the situation and start offering better deals and keeps relying on fanatic crusades they will stop being relevant and if you ask my opinion, I would say that Steam is shooting itself in the foot. But this is just a guy’s opinion which team are you supporting? Feel free to dislike and leave your opinions on this article in the comment section below.
Source: – cogconnected
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