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How much longer is the Epic Games Store going to keep up this timed exclusivity business?

Celcius

°Temp. member
Epic has been doing this since December 2018 - pay money to have a game be a timed exclusive to their store, and then later it can be available on stores such as Steam, Origin, etc… At first even though I didn’t like it, it kinda made sense because they were a new store and they wanted to get people to start using them instead of the other more established players in the market.

However, it’s been years now. Everyone knows what the Epic Games Store is whether you love or hate them. How much longer are they going to keep doing this? I feel like everyone who wants to use the store is already using it. Is all the money they’re paying for this still worth it?

I also feel like it’s bad for the PC community because with some games (the latest being final fantasy 7 remake intergrade) it will be exclusive to consoles for a year and then it’s exclusive to the Epic Game Store for a year AFTER THAT and then it’s finally available everywhere else.

Does Epic plan to do this forever?
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
When Fortnite stops printing money

I’d just wish they take some of that money and invest it into there shit store so it was easy like steam to use. Gives MS a run for its money as worse store front.
 
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Pejo

Member
I'm more concerned about the silent bullshit they're doing with EOS (Epic Online Services). It's being added to even old games on Steam and is sometimes functioning as another layer of DRM, locking people out from being able to play even single player games offline. Also, it's been shown to be mining user data again just like the EGS client, in regards to your Steam account and friends list etc.

Shady as FUCK and not enough people even know about it.

*edit*

For people interested in learning more about this, here's a thread in the Steam community explaining it better than I could, and showing how to block their data miners.
 
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Graciaus

Member
Less deals are made and the ones that are most have even less time than before. It's a pr nightmare going egs. It'll probably still happen for awhile but eventually stop.
 

fatmarco

Member
Who in this industry doesn't do timed exclusive?I mean yeah it is shitty but why singling out the Epic game store, especially when there's a lot of other arguments to attack it.
Yeah, it's legitimately just because PC gamers preferred a monopoly with Steam. Not that timed exclusivity is great either but as a means to make PC gaming a competitive space, its not the worst thing either.

And again, having to deal with multiple launchers on one device is nothing compared to having to purchase two separate 500 dollar machines while also potentially having to pay for two separate subscriptions.

It is clearly more devastating to the consumer when a game is timed or fully exclusive on one console than it is when it occurs within the PC space.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Yeah, it's legitimately just because PC gamers preferred a monopoly with Steam. Not that timed exclusivity is great either but as a means to make PC gaming a competitive space, its not the worst thing either.

And again, having to deal with multiple launchers on one device is nothing compared to having to purchase two separate 500 dollar machines while also potentially having to pay for two separate subscriptions.

It is clearly more devastating to the consumer when a game is timed or fully exclusive on one console than it is when it occurs within the PC space.
Yeah I play on PC too and as long as the shortcut for the game launch the game (even if it has to autoconnect to whatever launcher it is attached to), I'm fine.I get access to games no matter their launcher ....But if the launcher is buggy or somehow doesn't let me play the game then yeah fuck it.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Its part of their base strategy.

I remember when they had just launched EGS they said they'd be doing the free games for an year as a way to get marketshare, yet they're still doing it to this day. My guess is that they didn't get the results they wanted and their response to it was just to keep at it in hopes the store will get where they want to eventually.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
As long as they are in the store business and as long as devs are willing to do it, same with sony and ms.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
For as long as they have the money to continue to make solid offers to devs. Which, I can't knock any dev accepting. Especially if it guarantees even the smallest amount of success.
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
I dont mind the store and app at all and they give good deals and coupons (and free games too, of course) so I have got a good library going on there including many paid games. I hope this continues, I guess.
 
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Damigos

Member
Exclusivity is part of the business. Good way to do it is to have studios to make games for you. Bad way to do it is to money hat it
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I'm more concerned about the silent bullshit they're doing with EOS (Epic Online Services). It's being added to even old games on Steam and is sometimes functioning as another layer of DRM, locking people out from being able to play even single player games offline. Also, it's been shown to be mining user data again just like the EGS client, in regards to your Steam account and friends list etc.

Shady as FUCK and not enough people even know about it.

*edit*

For people interested in learning more about this, here's a thread in the Steam community explaining it better than I could, and showing how to block their data miners.
Paranoid BS really..

Epic also uses EOS to yet again collect telemetry on player IP addresses, hardware, gaming sessions (among others) in yet another way of involving themselves in games that, in some cases, are neither made with Unreal or even released on EGS.

Oh wow, all online services get your IP address... and track how long you use their service and all kinds of things... do you think Steamworks doesn't? It's just the developers choosing to use a different tech... Epic isn't "involving themselves" in anything, developers are choosing a different backend for their services.

Who gives a shit.
 

Pejo

Member
Paranoid BS really..



Oh wow, all online services get your IP address... and track how long you use their service and all kinds of things... do you think Steamworks doesn't? It's just the developers choosing to use a different tech... Epic isn't "involving themselves" in anything, developers are choosing a different backend for their services.

Who gives a shit.
Cool. Let me just sit behind you and look over your shoulder while you surf the web then. No problem right?
 

MiguelItUp

Member
But are these users spending any money? Should be the real question.
Honestly I bet users are spending enough money on Fortnite that they're just fine. As ridiculous as that may sound. Aside from that, I can't help but assume majority of the users are just there grabbing free games, aside from a few users playing exclusives here and there.
 

reksveks

Member
Honestly I bet users are spending enough money on Fortnite that they're just fine. As ridiculous as that may sound. Aside from that, I can't help but assume majority of the users are just there grabbing free games, aside from a few users playing exclusives here and there.
There is a benefit to the OI from moving players from console to pc but don't think that's the plan.

Epic has enough other rev to keep making a loss on the store for a while.
 

reksveks

Member
Benefit of being the better service. I cant even think of a time where they even had any deals that blocked a game from being on another store.

Being a better service is irrelevant.

Publishers (especially at the publicly traded level) don't care about the service that Valve provide consumers. They primarily care about the potential sales and revenue.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
Benefit of being the better service. I cant even think of a time where they even had any deals that blocked a game from being on another store.
Exactly. Same. I think just looking at EGS and its functionality shows you where Epic's mindset really is. I mean, it's been 4 years and even the most basic of platform expectations are still completely absent.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Honestly I bet users are spending enough money on Fortnite that they're just fine. As ridiculous as that may sound. Aside from that, I can't help but assume majority of the users are just there grabbing free games, aside from a few users playing exclusives here and there.
There's 0 doubt fortnite still prints money (though i don't know if its popularity is stable, growing or declining). But yeah, the issue with just using number of accounts as metrics is because of these free games.

Their logic is that users with a large library on EGS should feel attached to the launcher (basically the logic that people remain on steam because of the library they've built), but i don't think that'll work when the vast majority of it wasn't something they had to pay for.
I myself had started collecting these free games when they initally launched, and had 0 issue purging the account alongside all the free games i had collected thus far (closed because i realized i wasn't gonna use it, and could just buy the games i wanted from these giveaways for cheap).
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The longer they keep giving out free games, the more likely people are to have a "larger" library of games on Epic than other places like Steam. I'm not sure if that works for them or not, but it seems to be the driving force.
 

Belthazar

Member
Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have been in the business for decades and still haven't stopped doing those deals so... Why would Epic stop?
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Being a better service is irrelevant.

Publishers (especially at the publicly traded level) don't care about the service that Valve provide consumers. They primarily care about the potential sales and revenue.
Middle-man business isn't that simple. Sure the publishers don't care, but they have to go where the players are at, and these players will seek better services. There are good reasons why EA and even MS started putting their games on Steam.

A good middle man is the one who can balance both parties interests properly. So far, in the world of PC stores, Valve seems to be the one doing it the best.
 

daffyduck

Member
Who in this industry doesn't do timed exclusive?I mean yeah it is shitty but why singling out the Epic game store, especially when there's a lot of other arguments to attack it.
This is one of the reasons I don't care for the Epic store, but as you say, not the only one. It just makes it easier to dislike it.

angry pitchfork GIF by South Park

crowd riot GIF
 
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reksveks

Member
Middle-man business isn't that simple. Sure the publishers don't care, but they have to go where the players are at, and these players will seek better services. There are good reasons why EA and even MS started putting their games on Steam.

A good middle man is the one who can balance both parties interests properly. So far, in the world of PC stores, Valve seems to be the one doing it the best.

When you are the size of Valve, business does become alot easier that was my first and only point. You don't have to worry so much about the publishers leaving you unless they are the big ones. Also to add, EA and MS coming to Valve isn't an argument that the service towards devs relative to the cost is good but you can't miss out the userbase.

We have a similar scenario playing out in the mobile space and e-commerce.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Cool. Let me just sit behind you and look over your shoulder while you surf the web then. No problem right?
That's not what EOS does.

EviLore knows how much time you spend on NeoGAF.. because you connect to NeoGAF... whenever you connect to ANYTHING online they get your IP address. EOS is only tracking your online activity like every other online service on the planet.

Paranoid and ignorant BS really. And I mean no offense by that, but people REALLY can't seem to get how online services work.. if they aren't tracking you and what you are doing on THAT service, that would be idiotic. You need to know those things to troubleshoot your service, improve your service, etc.
 
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Dream-Knife

Banned
They recently removed fall guys from Steam too (does anyone still play it though?).

EGS just needs to die and go away. They'll never get any of my money.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
When you are the size of Valve, business does become alot easier that was my first and only point. You don't have to worry so much about the publishers leaving you unless they are the big ones. Also to add, EA and MS coming to Valve isn't an argument that the service towards devs relative to the cost is good but you can't miss out the userbase.

We have a similar scenario playing out in the mobile space and e-commerce.
And my point is that valve can be this big in the first place because they still offer a good service when compared to other stores, gaining and, more importantly, retaining users that way.

MS is magnitudes bigger than Valve and owns the base OS for pretty much all home computers, yet their attempts at building digital pc stores always went under, and a big part of that is because their services are shit.
 

Fbh

Member
They'll stop when they give up on the Epic Games store or when Fortnite stops making them a ton of money. Or whenever major publishers decide whatever Epic is paying them isn't worth the bad PR.

Epic has build the entire value proposition of their store around timed exclusives and free games. Once those are gone the average user will have no reason to choose them over Steam.
So when they stop doing that stuff they might as well announce they have given up on Epic Games Store.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Whitney Houston GIF


Because your source apparently seems to be...?

My source is the link you posted. Even in their paranoid rambling they only managed to identify incredibly basic things all online services collect lol

Reminds me of the "OMG THEY TAKE MY IP ADDRESS" BS of the early 2000s... people not realizing literally every connection you make on the internet REQUIRES them knowing your IP address lol

But either way.. how about you show some actual receipts?

How exactly is some random person's rambling on Steam forums a "Receipt" for anything?
 
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reksveks

Member
my point is that valve can be this big in the first place because they still offer a good service when compared to other stores, gaining and, more importantly, retaining users that way.
Service to whom? Users? I don't disagree. To publishers, not sure but maybe. The work on Proton could/should count.

I also think Amazon offers a great service to consumers (enough to keep me buying and a prime user) but a shit and unavoidable one to sellers.

Again cause I keep having this topic (this isn't specifically for you)
- EGS is shit
- Users don't care about UX/UI as much as they should (GoG is still a fraction and a loss maker)
- Exclusive software and services have always been a great way to get users (imo the biggest factor alongside price)
- Monopolies are generally bad.
- EGS is shit.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
If it locks people out of a game due to connectivity issues, it might as well be.
There's nothing intrinsic to EOS that locks people out of games. That's the game's decision whether they are using Steamworks, EOS, their own custom online servers, etc.,etc. If a game breaks while offline the game breaks while offline.. regardless of the backend they use.
 

Pejo

Member
My source is the link you posted. Even in their paranoid rambling they only managed to identify incredibly basic things all online services collect lol

Reminds me of the "OMG THEY TAKE MY IP ADDRESS" BS of the early 2000s... people not realizing literally every connection you make on the internet REQUIRES them knowing your IP address lol

But either way.. how about you show some actual receipts?

How exactly is some random person's rambling on Steam forums a "Receipt" for anything?
Don't flip this on me. The burden of proof is on you for the claim you make. The topic I posted shows that they are transmitting data back to Epic's servers. Let's see YOUR proof that it's no big deal and just "basic things all online services collect lol"
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Don't flip this on me. The burden of proof is on you for the claim you make. The topic I posted shows that they are transmitting data back to Epic's servers. Let's see YOUR proof that it's no big deal and just "basic things all online services collect lol"
It's literally an online service... how exactly is an online service supposed to work... if you aren't, "transmitting data" to it?

Talk about proving my point. And LOL at the burden of proof being on me.. you linked to a steam forum post with zero real info in it.. it didn't even make any truly nefarious claims... certainly nothing backing up your claims in your post.
 
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