How long do you expect the Epic Game Store to last?

[ShadowAUS]

Yeah, I've read that and can understand that point of view, but for me, if a game maker wants to just be on Epic's store, that's their issue.

I am old enough to remember people absolutely losing their shit when steam came out. But now we should all bow down to Steam?...

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Oh for sure, I don't like EGS but I'm not going to dictate to devs what to do. I won't buy the game but plenty of others will and if they feel the tradeoffs are in their favour than they should take the deal Epic offers them. I don't "hate" EGS, I'm concerned about possible consequences to the pc gaming market but if EGS end up being good for gaming then I will happily eat my crow.

I also don't think people should be bowing down to Steam out of blind brand loyalty, corporate loyalty as a whole is stupid - but the fact is Steam is the best major market for consumers at the moment and have done numerous things over the years to build trust with the market as well as both the userbase on the consumer and dev side (Steamworks as well as projects like Proton). It will take more than EGS strongarming and making an ass of itself to build that kind of trust that they're not just trying to topple Steam to eliminate competition so they can form their own walled garden. The most important thing to me about PC gaming is the open nature and the competitive market, both which at the moment EGS seem to be opposed to, at least in the short term.

 

[Darryl M R]

They aren't going anywhere, and within some years they will roll out the features most people want. The current strategy of obtaining exclusive games will probably not last longer than the next console generation.

 

[zon]

I think it'll turn into something like Uplay or maybe even GOG in the end and co-exist with the other, smaller launchers/storefronts.

 

[Blackpuppy]

Oh for sure, I don't like EGS but I'm not going to dictate to devs what to do. I won't buy the game but plenty of others will and if they feel the tradeoffs are in their favour than they should take the deal Epic offers them. I don't "hate" EGS, I'm concerned about possible consequences to the pc gaming market but if EGS end up being good for gaming then I will happily eat my crow.

I also don't think people should be bowing down to Steam out of blind brand loyalty, corporate loyalty as a whole is stupid - but the fact is Steam is the best major market for consumers at the moment and have done numerous things over the years to build trust with the market as well as both the userbase on the consumer and dev side (Steamworks as well as projects like Proton). It will take more than EGS strongarming and making an ass of itself to build that kind of trust that they're not just trying to topple Steam to eliminate competition so they can form their own walled garden. The most important thing to me about PC gaming is the open nature and the competitive market, both which at the moment EGS seem to be opposed to, at least in the short term.

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I'm not a PC gamer so I am observing this as an outsider. But for me, the market will dictate whether or not it'll work.

 

[Thrill_house]

Lmao come on. I hate the shit epic has been pulling and I will not give them a red fucking cent but if you think their store is going away anytime soon then ive got news for you...

 

[Shalashaska]

I think it will hang around for awhile. Epic is buying their way into the market, and I do think it's going to work, at least somewhat. It's all a question of how well Epic manages to turn the user's who are showing up for the free games and the exclusives into long term paying customers.

 

[RivalGT]

More than our life time... so a really long time.

 

[ShadowAUS]

I'm not a PC gamer so I am observing this as an outsider. But for me, the market will dictate whether or not it'll work.

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Very true, there's a decent chance it will work out for Epic considering how important exclusives are but whether that will translate into positives for consumers or not who knows. Which is why I'm voicing my opinion and why despite some of my most anticipated games being EGS exclusives I can't in good conscience support them.

Though you have to remember for a lot of PC gamers (including me) the openness of the PC platform is why we're here, it's why I moved from console years ago. (Also why I mostly run Linux and use FOSS where possible.) That's why EGS is so anathema to some of us.

 

[hersheyfan]

They aren't going anywhere, and within some years they will roll out the features most people want. The current strategy of obtaining exclusive games will probably not last longer than the next console generation.

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The next console generation hasn't even begun yet.

The past few console generations have gone on for seven years.

You think Epic is going to keep investing money in keeping games exclusive to EGS for more than seven years? I seriously doubt they'll keep doing that beyond 2 years, max - what theyre doing is very expensive, and not sustainable at a 12 percent cut. If their sales volumes don't start picking up fast - say, in the months after Borderlands 3 launches, its going to be harder and harder to justify subsidizing dev costs left and right.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

So? I don't get the "sanctity" of the open PC store argument.

A publisher can do what they want with their game and as long as they're not FORCED to only distribute their game with the Epic store or Steam, there's nothing illegal nor immoral.

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They are being paid to keep their game off other services. Maybe not "immoral" and certainly not illegal, but definitely and aggressively anti-consumer.

I'm not a PC gamer so I am observing this as an outsider. But for me, the market will dictate whether or not it'll work.

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Of course... another one. We're inundated in hot "what's the big deal" takes from people who have no connection to PC gaming.

 

[Books]

About as long as the hated uplay and hated origin lasted.

 

[Mesoian]

Minimum? 5.

But it's not going anywhere.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

About as long as the hated uplay and hated origin lasted.

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They're both still going strong in terms of Ubisoft/EA exclusives. I don't mind them for those purposes, personally.

 

[Deleted member 25117]

Last in it's current form? 3 years before it's irrelevant or alternatively once the next big thing comes out. Fortnite has already been around for a while and the next thing is probably already on the horizon.

It'll probably never completely die but I'm really hoping I'm wrong. Platforms like it should have no place on PC.

 

[RionaaM]

I'm not a PC gamer so I am observing this as an outsider. But for me, the market will dictate whether or not it'll work.

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Given your posts in this thread, this much was obvious.

 

[Necromanti]

Define "last". They might change their strategy around here and there, but they aren't going to stop existing.

 

[Deleted member 21875]

It's not going anywhere. Epic have alot of cash to burn, and although I dislike their method of moneyhatting games to keep them off rival stores, in the end i'm sure it will work for them to a degree.

 

[Vyrance]

Itll carve out a niche like all other stores, but when they stop buying exclusivity I dont see them getting the vast majority of sales.

 

[Futaleufu]

3 years/Fortnite popularity

Simple Math:

World War Z sold ~250.000 units so far. Lets say average income was $25 (based on regional currency). Thats 6.25 million. They take a 12% cut. Thats 750k. They spent millions of dollars in moneyhatting: they are in red numbers. And this game was their "success history" posted on twitter. Whats the point of trying to build a store if you are never going to profit from it.

 

[Deleted member 10551]

Unfortunately Epic's going to stay around, and probably crowd out GOG. Epic has UE and Fortnite money to keep it afloat, so they don't have to make a profit, and can use that money to get the loss leaders needed to make people use their store. Valve earned their way into their position largely on the strength of the Orange Box and Portal, then being able to outmuscle their competitors years ago (Civ 5 was the game that cemented Steam as the monopoly)

Long term , EGS is about lowering the cut companies like Valve take, and getting the Fortnite kids into long-term EGS customers, the same way PC gamers of today became lifelong Steam customers.

The only way EGS gets shut out is if Valve went anticompetitive on EGS (stuff like saying a company that takes EGS money cannot be on Steam) , but that would open them up to an antitrust lawsuit.

 

[Resiverence]

Probably only as long as fortnite is alive. Unless they take a turn with their strategy they are doomed for failure the moment fortnite revenue stops flowing in since the exclusivity deals+low cut are most likely leading to them making very little on the store itself.

 

[Forsaken82]

I think EGS is more likely to become something akin to the Battle.net launcher where it houses mostly games Developed and Published by Epic, but it will definitely be around for a while as a digital marketplace.

But you are fooling yourself if you think the store is going to fade any time soon. Epic has at least one new IP they can release before the Fortnite demographic starts to find Epic irrelevant and until Fortnite becomes irrelevant their next project doesn't even matter.

 

[KDR_11k]

Define "last". They might change their strategy around here and there, but they aren't going to stop existing.

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I mean this mainly in a "how long do you get to download your purchases" sense.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

For as long as Fortnite is relevant.

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As long Fortine prints those Bison Dollars they will continue

 

[Blackpuppy]

They are being paid to keep their game off other services. Maybe not "immoral" and certainly not illegal, but definitely and aggressively anti-consumer.



Of course... another one. We're inundated in hot "what's the big deal" takes from people who have no connection to PC gaming.

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Given your posts in this thread, this much was obvious.

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yougotme.gif

Still doesn't change the fact that Epic and other publishers are free to do what they want on said free platform.

Again, the gamemakers are not FORCED to sell their game in the Epic Store, they CHOSE to.

 

[demondance]

Are you still bitter about that too? Maybe it wasn't profitable at the time.

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Thats the exact point i was making lol

If the store isn't profitable will they stick it out long term until they get it right? No, probably not.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

In like 2-3 years. Tencent is gonna open the coffers for exclusive deals but I imagine the population will cap, especially if Fortnite starts to slow down.

 

[Irrotational]

I wonder how many people who voted decades have been alive for many decades!? I've only been alive for 4 and have a pretty hazy memory of the first one but a LOT has changed since then.

In decades time the only thing I know for sure is that it will be vastly different from whatever I can imagine.

Games (in the most general sense) will still be around, assuming humans are still around...but other than that, who knows. It could be a post apocalyptic wasteland, a water world...or the Jetsons.

Companies can certainly last that long, assuming there is a civilisation to support them....but a specific instance of a digital storefront!? Doubt it...

 

[Allietraa]

I don't think the store will shut down any time remotely soon. But I could definitely see it slinking off into the background(like every other launcher aside from Steam) as soon as the exclusives stop. But totally shut down(to the point where you lose your EGS games)? Cant see it happening barring something like Epic shutting down entirely. Like 10 years after they stop buying exclusives? Sure, feasible. But they're not shutting it down in a year or two. Not after all the money they're burning to try to get it going.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

yougotme.gif

Still doesn't change the fact that Epic and other publishers are free to do what they want on said free platform.

Again, the gamemakers are not FORCED to sell their game in the Epic Store, they CHOSE to.

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Who are you arguing against? No one is making these claims.

 

[Darryl M R]

The next console generation hasn't even begun yet.

The past few console generations have gone on for seven years.

You think Epic is going to keep investing money in keeping games exclusive to EGS for more than seven years? I seriously doubt they'll keep doing that beyond 2 years, max - what theyre doing is very expensive, and not sustainable at a 12 percent cut. If their sales volumes don't start picking up fast - say, in the months after Borderlands 3 launches, its going to be harder and harder to justify subsidizing dev costs left and right.

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Yes, I fully believe EGS will keep on investing in exclusives for the next seven years. They will more than likely become more strategic on which games they target and will pick 1-2 games a year.

 

[Blackpuppy]

Who are you arguing against? No one is making these claims.

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I'm not saying people are making those claims, I'm just saying people are making a big deal out of nothing for the reasons I listed above.

If the PC space is as free as you say, Epic is free to pay for exclusives and the gamemaker is free to take that pile of cash. As long as they don't become a bone fide monopoly (and I stress BONE FIDE), I personally don't see the issue. Especially when your computer will run all the Steam and Epic Store games you want.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

I'm not saying people are making those claims, I'm just saying people are making a big deal out of nothing for the reasons I listed above.

If the PC space is as free as you say, Epic is free to pay for exclusives and the gamemaker is free to take that pile of cash. As long as they don't become a bone fide monopoly (and I stress BONE FIDE), I personally don't see the issue. Especially when your computer will run all the Steam and Epic Store games you want.

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Yeah, that's because you don't care and do not use the platform... There are plenty of reasons that have been cited to death in the dozens of EGS-related threads, but again, you don't care.

Surely you can understand how annoying it is to care about something and have someone with no investment in that thing pop in to tell you that your concerns do not matter and are not valid. I can't really see what you're trying to get out of this stance other than to get a rise out of people.

No one is saying that Epic is not allowed to do what they are doing. Just that the fucking suck for doing so.

Anyway, you seem to think that both Steam and EGS are just different launchers for the same executable and offer an experience that isn't different beyond clicking on a separate icon. If you did a modicum of research on the topic, you would quickly understand that that simply isn't the case for a lot of people.

 

[Mendrox]

I won't buy anything on it at all anytime soon or at all. I have enough with Origin, Uplay and Steam and don't need another god damn launcher and store. If publishers only put their games on this service then it's time for me to stop playing these games. It's disgusting how they money hat everything now.

 

[RestEerie]

If GoG can last this long, I expect egs to last much longer.

 

[Blackpuppy]

Yeah, that's because you don't care and do not use the platform... There are plenty of reasons that have been cited to death in the dozens of EGS-related threads, but again, you don't care.

Surely you can understand how annoying it is to care about something and have someone with no investment in that thing pop in to tell you that your concerns do not matter and are not valid. I can't really see what you're trying to get out of this stance other than to get a rise out of people.

No one is saying that Epic is not allowed to do what they are doing. Just that the fucking suck for doing so.

Anyway, you seem to think that both Steam and EGS are just different launchers for the same executable and offer an experience that isn't different beyond clicking on a separate icon. If you did a modicum of research on the topic, you would quickly understand that that simply isn't the case for a lot of people.

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No, I read this article:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DuU-bjOqiCsZgXtqN_F3eCdx2CKKOT8_/view

And while there are some valid points (no market in China for example), others feel like asking for the moon (immediate feature parity with other more established services, linux support) or simply philosophical musings (we're against closed gardens!).

Maybe the fact that Epic paying for a few exclusives is scummy, but if we put aside our anger and look at past examples, 3rd party exclusives are hardly a tide changer. Microsoft snagging 3rd party exclusives this generation didn't exactly set their HW sales on fire. I don't see people crying over Crackdown and Quantum Leap not being on PSN or Switch and TitanFall being an Xbox exclusive probably did more harm to the gamemaker's sales than had they also been on Playstation.

 

[Joe Spangle]

I expect the EGS to be offering customers in the PC space less choice, higher prices and less features for many years to come.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

No, I read this article:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DuU-bjOqiCsZgXtqN_F3eCdx2CKKOT8_/view

And while there are some valid points (no market in China for example), others feel like asking for the moon (immediate feature parity with other more established services, linux support) or simply philosophical musings (we're against closed gardens!).

Maybe the fact that Epic paying for a few exclusives is scummy, but if we put aside our anger and look at past examples, 3rd party exclusives are hardly a tide changer. Microsoft snagging 3rd party exclusives this generation didn't exactly set their HW sales on fire.

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Again, you have no investment, and you do not care. That has been made very clear at this point.

It would be cool if you could stop telling other people that their cares and concerns don't matter.

 

[Kthulhu]

Probably for a long time unless it fails.

 

[nded]

I expect it's here to stay, though I don't believe it'll achieve the level of market dominance Epic hopes for.

 

[Blackpuppy]

Again, you have no investment, and you do not care. That has been made very clear at this point.

It would be cool if you could stop telling other people that their cares and concerns don't matter.

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I'm simply trying to debate/give an outsider's perspective. A poor analogy, but if an anti-vaxer were to say "stop trying to tell us that our cares and concerns don't matter" would you just heel? Nah, you'd probably try to say, look at history, look at the charts, you're freaking out about nothing.

PS: I'm not saying you're a crazy anti-vaxer (hence the poor analogy).

 

[Forsaken82]

Thats the exact point i was making lol

If the store isn't profitable will they stick it out long term until they get it right? No, probably not.

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They will stick it out as long as PC continues to trend around a digital eco system. They will take the L in profits so long as they think that Digital is still the avenue to approach the market with. If they otherwise project that Digital is trending downwards and they aren't pulling in a profit, than yes. you'd probably be right, but I don't think any signs point to this.

 

[Firefly]

However long Fortnite will last after which Tim would come to back to his senses relatively and stop his war against Steam.

 

[Uraizen]

I mean this mainly in a "how long do you get to download your purchases" sense.

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Hopefully forever then so nobody gets screwed out of their purchases.

 

[MegaXZero]

I said 13, but only because in a few decades the overall environment for gaming will be much different.

 

[OldDirtyGamer]

As long as everyone else

 

[Baccus]

EGS is a god-tier corporate strategy that as an MBA got me actually in awe of how well idealized it is.

But they need to try their damndest to make it as much of a better reality as they can. And so far they haven't.

So if they manage to stick the landing it's gonna last forever (in corporate terms, meaning 1 and a half decades in a recognizable form more or less). If they don't, about how long a corporate restructuring takes (3-4-6 years).

 

[Deleted member 1635]

I'm simply trying to debate/give an outsider's perspective. A poor analogy, but if an anti-vaxer were to say "stop trying to tell us that our cares and concerns don't matter" would you just heel? Nah, you'd probably try to say, look at history, look at the charts, you're freaking out about nothing.

PS: I'm not saying you're a crazy anti-vaxer (hence the poor analogy).

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I don't think that even counts as an analogy... The only resemblance is the "outsider" aspect.

 

[Doskoi Panda]

about as long as tim sweeney can continue successfully lying to idiots

 

[Pyro]

Minimum of 5, but I expect it to be here to stay.