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How come the Epic store can give us free AAA games on a weekly basis when Sony and MS can barely give one two games a month?

Sentenza

Member
PS+ used to be great but then they made it mendatory so now they shit on people much like xbox gold.

Steam on PC is pretty much monopoly so they don't need to offer anything, stupid people either way will have to buy games in their store.

Epic is new player and tries to promote itself which is why they fund so many free games.

GOG does this once in while but they offer mostly classics.

lol if he doesn't know what he is doing then why so many steamretards are so angry about him ? They are angry because sweeney tactics work. Free games and exclusives is key to get people using their store.
I swear you are bordering into complete military grade autism at this point.

- PS+ being mandatory for multiplayer is bullshit, but to claim it used to be better for free games before the subscription model is at very least bizarre.
- Steam is not a monopoly, neither in strict terms nor loosely speaking; and people don't choose to buy on Steam because they are stupid, they do because they are not and all things being equal they'll pick the better option.
- Free games have been handed regularly in the last years on all services: Humble Store, GOG, Origin, Uplay and, guess what? Steam too. Epic is just way more aggressive than anyone else in this area. And they recently doubled down on the original plan, too.

it's amusing that the clueless fools like you think this is all about these scary "Steam fanboys" that make your nights uneasy, when in reality Epic is managing to piss people who were used to all sorts of store.
There's a certain amount of hallucinating morons who seem to be under the delusion that in this story Epic is supposed to be the plucky underdog, the scrappy brave little guy facing the cruel corporate giants and fighting his way to the top. But that's just because their misplaced impotent rage against the alleged "Steam monopoly" makes them blind of reality.

Once you try to remove Steam from the picture and watch what's left, on the other hand, it becomes even more transparent what other movie trope Epic actually incarnates here: it's the billionaire bully coming to town and trying to buy out or chase away half of its inhabitants, with the goal to realize his giant mall with parking lot.
In fact among all the stores in the PC space, Steam is the least likely to be heavily effect by Epic's cancerous expansion strategy. Guys like CDP with GOG will be challenged way more harshly.
 
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Fbh

Member
One is a new storefront trying to become one of the main launchers in an open platform like PC, while going directly against a well known market leader with a big user base. So they are investing millions into handing out free games in an attempt to get people to download and install the launcher as well as giving users a free library of games so they already have a level of attachment to the service.

The other 2 are well established services with millions of monthly paying users on closed platforms where they are literally the only option available while simultaneously being mandatory for users who want to play multiplayer stuff (except F2P stuff on Ps4)
 
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PS+ was really something different in PS3 times.

Now that everybody needs to be subscribed anyway, it's just some breadcrumbs for the poor most of the time.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
The Epic store has over 100 million users, and 40% of them don’t use Steam?

Where did you get this information? This is astonishing, if true - and pretty much negates most of the arguments I’m seeing above.

From Epic themselves - https://www.pcgamer.com/au/40-percent-of-epic-games-store-users-say-they-dont-have-steam/

It's actually 85 million my mistake but that was after 4 months and news in March, swear I read an updated number of 100 million but can't find it at the moment.


Just because they have a large amount of active users does not correlate to sales or any other meaningful figure.

Actually, Epic stated during GDC 2019 that only 5% of their userbase downloads their free games.

If only 5% can be bothered to download their free games, how many do you think are actively buying games?

Why do you care how many users download their free games or buy their games? But here's some stats we had on the very first game they offered and Metro outselling their steam launch 2.5.



"Epic has been promoting a free game every two weeks; the first one (Subnautica) was downloaded more than 4.5 million times, and the second game (Slime Rancher) is on course to beat that. It's certainly pulling in a decent number of players."


In terms of what are they closing in on Valve?

Users.


90% of which are fake or emails activated unknowingly.

So epic registers fake accounts themselves or people are signing up other peoples emails and hoping they activate them? I'm unsure how any of this makes sense. They have 250 million registered Fortnite accounts.
 
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The newest games they give out are indie games, not 60 dollar games. Last month PS+ gave us Darksiders III which released last fall. Epic is doing what they can to convince people it's worth using their store and if Borderlands 3 sales are any indicator it's working.
 

Mista

Banned
It’s part of their marketing and making a name for themselves among the other launchers. PS+ and Xbox Gold used to give lots of great games but now it’s hit or miss.
 

Neo_GAF

Banned
Iam on mac, half of the free games on epic/steam cant be used. Despite that i still buy the humble bundle/ get the games in the EGS.
SONY/MS started to not give a fuck anymore. Being companies starting trends now they simply stopped caring because they have their audience.

I have to admit, that thanks to too many games i barely check the acquired games from the stores/ps+/gwg.

The pile of shame is increasing each week, real life takes a toll on you, so when do you have the time to play through all of those?
 

DarkestHour

Banned
I actually don't see much difference between the Epic games and PS+/XBLG games. They're either old or Indies.

1. You don't have to pay ANYTHING for these games unlike Sony/Microsoft
2. These are weekly, not monthly

I dislike what Epic is doing for exclusivity but damn do I love the free games. It's even more awesome as a dad because my older son can play games and I don't have to spend a penny.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
One of them is using money to generate consumers.
The other one is using consumers to generate money.

Guess which is indefinitely sustainable?
 
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One of them is using money to generate consumers.
The other one is using consumers to generate money.

Guess which is indefinitely sustainable?
I don't think Epic will do this forever, obviously, or maybe they will be able to make enough money from games sales to keep doing it (long therm... but I doubt it.

However as of now, as a player I really appreciate what they are doing - if you want to give me something in order to get my future business I'm all for it.
Once you try to remove Steam from the picture and watch what's left, on the other hand, it becomes even more transparent what other movie trope Epic actually incarnates here: it's the billionaire bully coming to town and trying to buy out or chase away half of its inhabitants, with the goal to realize his giant mall with parking lot.
In fact among all the stores in the PC space, Steam is the least likely to be heavily effect by Epic's cancerous expansion strategy. Guys like CDP with GOG will be challenged way more harshly.
One is a new storefront trying to become one of the main launchers in an open platform like PC, while going directly against a well known market leader with a big user base.
Yes, and I think their strategy might just work, this is what happens when a market becomes stale, a new competitor that can disrupt it can jump in and force the changes that are necessary - this is very healthy.
I don't think the Sony and MS offerings are that bad considering 90+% of subscribers only pay because of the online.
I cut my PS+ subscription early after the PS4 was released because I figured that the monthly games were not interesting anymore, and I don't like recurring bills.
So epic registers fake accounts themselves or people are signing up other peoples emails and hoping they activate them? I'm unsure how any of this makes sense. They have 250 million registered Fortnite accounts.
From Epic themselves - https://www.pcgamer.com/au/40-percent-of-epic-games-store-users-say-they-dont-have-steam/

It's actually 85 million my mistake but that was after 4 months and news in March, swear I read an updated number of 100 million but can't find it at the moment.
These are interesting bits of information, I was just focusing on the games.
I dislike what Epic is doing for exclusivity but damn do I love the free games. It's even more awesome as a dad because my older son can play games and I don't have to spend a penny.
I see why people are annoyed by this, but given what they are trying to do it makes sense to have an "incentive" package for people to pay attention to their online store.
 

lukilladog

Member
Why do you care how many users download their free games or buy their games? But here's some stats we had on the very first game they offered and Metro outselling their steam launch 2.5.

Not this again, the game had a ton of preorders on steam and for some reason they had to drop the Epic exclusivity and go to the windows store, that´s not what you would expect to see from a succesful exclusivity deal.
 
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yurinka

Member
It's just marketing. They want to create a pool of users who aren't just Fortnite players. Instead of investing in paid ads, they pay devs to put there games for free. The more desperate you are for bringing players, the more valuable is the free stuff you give away. In this case it costs way less money to Epic than what should cost to MS to put brand new AAA games at launch in Gamepass.
 
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johntown

Banned
When a company like Epic has lots of extra money from Fortnite and Unreal Engine and they use none of it to improve their store that leaves plenty of money to give away games for free and pay millions for exclusivity deals to get all the bottom feeders and people who don't really care about their gaming experience to their store.
 

Generic

Member
Microsoft does have a $2 game pass. Sony is too comfortable to bother. Be ready to pay $60 for a game, slave.

- PS+ being mandatory for multiplayer is bullshit, but to claim it used to be better for free games before the subscription model is at very least bizarre.
They used to give 4 games a month though. They increased the price and reduced to 2 games.

When a company like Epic has lots of extra money from Fortnite and Unreal Engine and they use none of it to improve their store that leaves plenty of money to give away games for free and pay millions for exclusivity deals to get all the bottom feeders and people who don't really care about their gaming experience to their store.
What's a 'gaming experience'?
 
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Harlock

Member
You can bet.

cad12ee967fcbf1153a3155ac7232748.jpg
 
Why, how much did it sell on PC, exactly?

Wow, you really got me good here. "According to 2K, it's the highest-selling PC game in the publisher's history and broke preorder records with the Epic Games Store" - what exact numbers are required to qualify this as a success?
 

Fuz

Banned
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Graciaus

Member
Wow, you really got me good here. "According to 2K, it's the highest-selling PC game in the publisher's history and broke preorder records with the Epic Games Store" - what exact numbers are required to qualify this as a success?
That's actually not what they said though. You forgot the 5 day part which is important for the PR spin. The game sold in 5 million to stores not through to customers. 2k Games actually haven't released a lot of games if you look into it. Similar things were said about Mafia 3 when it came out. BL2 on Steam sold over 10 million over the years but it didn't have huge sales at first. The platform breakdown was also never mentioned to further hide sales.

Preorder does not equal a sale. The only competition is Metro which also under performed. But but but Metro did 2.5x. Also another PR spin with half truths. The game it is compared to is the original which sold poorly not the remake.

The parent company of 2k stock dropped almost 5% after these numbers were released. You can't spin half truths to investors.

If the game sold millions on PC Randy and Tim would never let everyone hear the end of it and how stupid we are.
 
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MMaRsu

Banned
Wow, you really got me good here. "According to 2K, it's the highest-selling PC game in the publisher's history and broke preorder records with the Epic Games Store" - what exact numbers are required to qualify this as a success?

Wow it broke preorder records on the epic store? 😂 so what? What other "big" game was on there before?

Highest selling in pc history within 5 days is what they said, not of all time.
 

Gargus

Banned
Because epics strategy isn't viable in the long term. It is epic throwing tons of money into attracting people to their store and once new signups level off they will stop.

They have fortnite money right now and unreal engine licensure so they can afford to just shovel cash into drawing people in. It's a short term solution and nothing more.
 
Oh man... the shareholders? Those people always do things that make sense.


Also not sure why people are trying to correct my language like I'm not quoting other sources...

 

xrnzaaas

Member
Epic really needs to fight for new customers - they have amazing free offerings.
Xbox needs to fight for new customers - they have great "free" offerings.
Sony could use new customers, but it's not desperate - they have meh "free" offerings.

Oh and Nintendo is still in the stage of learning what Internet is. ;)
 
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Epic really needs to fight for new customers - they have amazing free offerings.
Xbox needs to fight for new customers - they have great "free" offerings.
Sony could use new customers, but it's not desperate - they have meh "free" offerings.

Epic is the only one with free offerings, I've never given them a dime.
 
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