Exclusive games are definitely desirable. If they get those, then the rest will follow, and they will have some games that aren’t exclusive, but are still sold there, occasionally dropping in some cash. They’ll also still make licensing revenue.
What will also help, again, is if they really pump that content creator\influencer program (in association with devs). The conversion when a streamer posts a “buy” link is actually surprisingly high. If the buy link is associated with the Epic Store, and a gamer doesn’t give a shit that it’s not Steam (which many of the younger ones will not), then they’ll get those purchases.
This depends on the developer and the game. I do not and will not create a new account for every indie developer out there just to ask a couple of basic questions from the community. Steam forums are easy to participate in. Don’t Starve, Magicka, Thea… these games typically don’t have issues with their Steam communities, not really. I’m not going to risk much on an indie game if I can’t see what’s going on with the game based on community interaction. I’m just… not.
No reviews is not good either. Reviews and forums are often how I judge a game’s status today, especially with EA so prevalent.
This is all good for developers, is it good for me, the consumer? They need to answer that question to beat steam. Otherwise they will be like Origin, with people forced to use it for exclusive titles.
Heck if the user experience is bad enough, I would think even charging 55$ instead of 60$ for a AAA release wouldn’t win me over. Steam just works, and it works well.
They only need one exclusive to get you to register for their store and hand over your credit card number. Fortnite did that for many people.
Once you pass that barrier, a lot of the friction is gone. Sure you’d prefer Steam, but if this other store beats it on price or has a loyalty program, why not buy there?
And yes, of course, all that presupposes that the user experience is comparable. If it’s painful to use it’s DOA.
Yeah, and I uninstalled it as soon as I decided to not play Fortnite. EA has my info too, I don’t use their store for much of anything. Same for Uplay. I don’t think you’re fully understanding the difference.
If they really go the way of exclusives to force people to join, then they will be the same assholes that EA/Actard are. Not really creating competition, but creating another monopoly instead.
As far as new stores are concerned, didn’t Twitch and Discord start selling games too recently?
That barrier is gone, assuming you bought anything on Fortnite. There’s nothing to miss.
They still need to get you to purchase from them over Steam, via discounts or loyalty programs, or whatever. Just that initial barrier to entry is gone.
Why do you think this matters? I’ve purchased stuff once from Origin like maybe 5-6 years ago… once, because they didn’t have the game somewhere else or it was cheap… that’s it. This a Steam competitor did not make. My participation in those stores is a forced experience, I do not shop those stores in anyway meaningful way like I do steam. Heck if I buy from other stores, it’s usually with the expectation I will get a Steam key.
Because it obviously does, in every marketplace, globally. Getting people to sign up and hand over their credit card in the first place is a huge hurdle.
Hah, that I can emphasize with. I will also create Epic account (maybe I already have it, I did download UT once) for their free games.
But as far as me actually buying games there instead of Steam?
No way - unless they force me by making it exclusive to their store. Which I loathe, but if they funded, say, Vampire Bloodlines 2, I would grudginly get over the loathing, just like I did with Forza Horizon 3 on Windows Store.
But having an account, giving them a credit card, does not make players want to use their store. This is not an unknown company. It’s not like I or probably most people have concerns about having an account with them or giving them our credit cards. They’ve been around forever. They’re not an unknown entity with grey market keys.
You seriously couldn’t have chosen less interesting offers as far as I am concerned :D
I dunno. They would have to offer something really amazing to entice me to shop there. These days for me it is either Steam, Steam retail, or PS4 retail/PSN.
I think you guys are forgetting that there are a whole bunch of sellers who are in the Steam ecosystem and thrive on providing cheap keys. There’s no way Epic gets away with beating GreenMan and Fanatical at their game by a dozen percentage points. The devs will be pushed to provide the same price on Steam. Which means all of this has nothing to do with the customers, just as the no review/no forums has nothing to do with customers. They’re basically saying, “Steam already does that so just go there for the info”. This is purely to try to get some devs onto their platform.
