Epic Games Store - 88% split goes to devs

Yeah, some of those innovations or returned features didn’t even start with them. They don’t even have to be first to get a win, neither does Epic. I mean sure for people who see applications as a glorified ftp site and nothing more for games that works but Steam has an ecosystem that many people enjoy.

If Epic only wants the people who sees their site as a deposit of files to grab and leave, that’s fine. I just don’t think that approach is a Steam killer… and I question about much of a Steam competitor it will even be.

I might be getting colorblind because I did not notice the green at all. Only now that you pointed it out. And yeah those are developer-related features :)

In other news, just now from Lewie Proctor’s twitter:

Don’t want to just keep harping on about this, but if you want an example of why refunds and user reviews are so important, Ashen has been for sale on Epic store for days, with broken multiplayer. No mention of this whatsoever on the store page.

On a store like Steam, that wouldn’t happen. User reviews would warn players that online was broken, and you wouldn’t be surrendering one of your limited opportunities to get a refund by forking over your cash.

Hopefully they can fix the multiplayer soon, but who knows how long it will take. No kind of warning or disclaimer on the store page is hardly going to instil buyer confidence in a fledgling store.

I’m just glad I caught myself before I trashed the spreadsheet!

I see the green, it’s the bottom handful of the list. Why would Matchmaking be a developer feature?

By providing Matchmaking-centric code, it can reduce the development time required from the studio.

Hmm, interesting. It’s also a feature for customers. Maybe that’s why we see that option so prevalent in games now too, assuming this is like an Easy button for devs, short-cut.

Thank you. Anyway the Matching-making and down is green text thus the developer features. Easy to overlook. I would have made that text a different color since green is used on the right.

I wish. Nothing in software is an easy button, sadly. Even building a simple web app/page can yield surprisingly large headaches with scale.

I don’t mean literally there is no work. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t bring some benefit. I just meant they must be providing it to make the feature easier.

Network code is a pain where all your assumptions about how code is executed gets laughed at by physical limits. Matchmaking isn’t the hardest part, but, at least, it needs NAT traversal (blackish magic) and your filled friends list too.

Have to admit I’m bewildered why this topic is spawning post after post. Another storefront. Woo.

I think people like to debate various business models and designs that affect them. It’s kind of like console wars – not the kid stuff, but things like here on QT3 where people like to criticize the latest plan.

It doesn’t bother me but I’m still considering the mute button due to the volume. This is where a 2 week snooze option would be so handy in Discourse.

It’s not quite just “another storefront” - it is a pretty disruptive storefront that introduces some very unwanted console-like business practices into our open platform that is PC gaming, but that also introduces more friendly developer revenue split, and that is created by Epic and Tencent, which are behemoths of the industry.

I thought the discussion was interesting. On all sides.

I was having trouble getting my thoughts together, but I think they basically amount to this: we know that EA, Activision and Ubisoft are selfish assholes. They’ve proven it time and again. I avoid giving them money whenever I can. What we didn’t expect is for Indies to be assholes as well.

Indies who feel Valve doesn’t respect them could have banded together and negotiated with Valve. They could have gone to GOG. They could have created their own storefront, keeping close to 100%, while distributing Steam keys exclusively through that store. This would have shown consideration for their users, and understanding that we don’t want to encourage a proliferation of incompatible digital goods in the PC space. Instead, they went and joined yet another incompatible storefront with exclusivity, giving new life to the concept of exclusivity and incompatibility on the PC. It’s a dick move. As a result, I certainly will not treat these Indies favorably in the future. I don’t consider them any better than the asshole AAA publishers anymore.

edit eh, deleted response. Don’t wanna argue anymore.

I don’t think this is a fair assessment. Some developers/publishers are making business decisions. I don’t agree with them for reasons stated, and I question how hard they’ve really looked at the customer side of things and their most obvious competitors when they made said decisions but let’s be an asshole is not going to be a factor in that decision making process.

It’s pretty clear certain needs from a dev’s perspective is not being met by Valve/Steam. This might be one of the bigger pushes to address that regardless of the outcome but it’s not a screw you attempt at their customer base.

I don’t blame you. :)
I’ve been watching your gameplay video, and it looks great. Something I would like to play. But I will most likely wait until it gets to GOG, or until the Epic store is more ready for prime time.

I have no problem with dealing with another store. But I think Epic should have waited until they had more features in place before they launched.

That said, I wish you the best, and hope to be playing your game soon.

I’ll be there day one for the game (very, very few games would I say that for). Just make sure it’s 2019 and not 2020, okay?

No, they actually can’t.

You should really…just back away from this…because wow…take a walk maybe. Go outside. Take a breath.