Epic Games Store - 88% split goes to devs

I didn’t know about the 2018 one. Hopefully their staff learned something.

I’m actually tempted by those two games.

But no one can exploit market inefficiency forever. Eventually things will right themselves, and we (consumers) will end up being the ones having to pay, as always.

Huh? The fundamentals of the market are that there are too many devs making too many games. That’s a benefit to consumers and it’s not about to change, since devs don’t look at market signals but instead follow their dreams. Not a fan of Epic, but there’s a reason we’re showered by free games (here and on twitch), and there’s no reason that’s going to change.

EDIT: Also to say consumers always pay is… odd. Are consumers paying for the amazing convenience of amazon? Are we paying for Uber throwing money at us for cheap rides? The main sectors where we pay (in America, at least), are in education and medicine, where the free markets are not free, and may in fact be inadequate.

What? I am lost.

Are you suggesting the market can’t support multiple stores?

Oh for sure, it isn’t a useless feature. I missed it with the $10 off everything sale. It just isn’t a big deal for me. I care more about wishlists.

Yeah, I don’t see it as a must-have, but it’s a nice convenience feature. As their catalog grows, I think it would be a mistake not to add one especially if they run a big sale over the holidays.

Well, maybe not just consumers, but consumers and workers.

Especially true for us, as some of our favorite games have many different DLC offerings.

The holiday ‘pick up the latest batch of Paradox expansions’ would be super annoying without a cart.

Plus having a shopping cart will save Epic a lot of money in the long run in transaction fees. Banks charge transaction fees that are per transaction. So if you can sell your customers more stuff in less transactions, that stuff adds up to a lot over time.

I see DLCs as the biggest hurdle. I sometimes straight up don’t buy a game on GoG simple because I suspect that future (or current) DLCs will be cheaper on Steam or one of the many key sellers.

Now, if my purchase of a DLC was not locked to a particular platform, that would be awesome. If I get a game from GoG, and later can buy the DLCs from Steam or Epic, that would really open up the market.

In a similar vein, there is the issue of bundles that discount when you own prior games, but only for Steam. If I get Baldurs Gate 2 EE from GoG, I still would need to rebuy the damn thing on steam if the bundle goes on sale (assuming the bundle is cheaper then buying the games individually). And at least with steam, a fair number of bundles take into account if I already own one or more of the games.

But that is the lesser concern. The biggest concern is how I seem to be always locked into platform when it comes to DLCs. And this eapec pissed me off with Mass Effect!

Do consoles have this issue? I guess there is only one store, so it can’t be.

Does anyone know if the EGS friend list shows if people are in a game?

I’ve been watching my 30 friends listed on and off today, and I haven’t seen anyone playing anything. I mean that might be normal but I am sure someone is playing Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, but its just not showing up.

Reason I am asking is, when Borderlands 3 drops, how do you know who owns it and is playing? And or is looking for others to play with?

Well – yes. The video game market is now similar to the book market, the movie market, the app market etc: you either do really well, or you starve. That’s a function of the sheer number of competitors, the lack of barriers to entering the market (it’s easier than ever to make and publish a game), and the fact that devs don’t do it for the money. Don’t become game devs, kids.

I wonder what the stats are of people like me that have gotten almost every free game offered, never played any of them and never bought anything from EGS either haha.

They’re not going to expect every free game given or even every free account opened to lead to a sale right now. They’re use to conversion rates. The important thing is you have an account, so if you ever have an urge to buy all you have to do is click; you already have the account.

That fact that cloud saves are on a game by game basis is a bit weird. (no generic API written up for others to implement yet?)

Lets see! Also first off before voting, remember the Epic Game Store only opened on December 6, 2018. So none of this I played Fortnite or Unreal Tournament back in the day bs. ;)

Have you accepted the free games offered on the Epic Game Store?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

Have you bought a game on the Epic Game Store?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

Have you played a game from the Epic Game Store?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

Some is paying for their employees to eat, have a roof and health, and it certainly isn’t either of those entities.

Now, to be clear, it is as much apathy and I have played literally only about 15 hours of video games this year.

Largely driven by not having my PC and cross country moves.

I do expect it to pick up by years end. But it’ll still be under 100 hours for the year. Which is about average for me.

I’ve picked up most of the freebies, bought Hades during the $10-off sale, and played Hades and installed some other things.

With all that said, though, I don’t have a horse in this race. I primarily purchase PC games via bundles or the Humble Monthly, and if I’m buying something outside of those, it’s generally a very specific game I’m going to buy regardless of platform or whether I get a Steam key.

Very impressed by this dev who rejected Epic’s scummy tactics. This guy has my long-term support.

I’ve bought a few games;
Hades
Operencia
Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw

No issues with the store until, oddly, today; I’m trying to pick up my freebies and I’m getting a 404 error when trying to navigate to Hyper Light Drifter. Checked out some other games, and I’m getting the same error with some, yet other store pages open up fine. Seems rather weird.