Epic averages less than $5 per customer!

It's been dipping in popularity. That imposter game, fall guys, and the fact its off both mobile stores hurts it. Still doing ok I bet though

Yes more that $530 million is a Fortnight transactions.

mea culpa

Gazillion Vbucks

i explain
they give away cool blockbuster games and other, u as customer loggin to claim every game, why would u spend money if epic gives u every week free game?:D

Accepted what? Should I remind you who stands behind EGS? They have more than enough money to keep fighting.

Things seem pretty stable. If they aren't making money now*, the only option they have is to reduce the giveaways. Which shouldn't get too many complaints from anyone likely to buy from them.

*I don't have any data on how much they are paying for the games they are giving away. They could be getting a deal that's good enough for them to already be profiting.

I, also, got lots of free games, but ended up purchasing a couple of games. One cheap, and the other one discounted 10€ with a coupon.
They need to improve their UI, and get closer to Steam and GOG, but ... if they do, it could become a much better store to get games soon. ;-)

Realistically the only way for a new store to be more than a niche player in the online software, without being the only distributor online for a particular company, is to do something expensive like what Epic is doing, freebies and exclusives.

Some people think it's unfair, but it's really the only way to challenge Steam with any chance of success at all.

(ianal), but I'm pretty sure that Steam would be legally considered in a Monopoly position.

For 'clarification' purposes I should mention that legally, you don't have to own all or even most of the market to be a monopoly, and even if you are the only company in a market, that doesn't make you a monopoly either. It's a bit complicated and has conditions to determine if it's a monopoly. If you're curious, or just confused, go look it up, it's rather surprising.

If you just want to tell me I'm wrong, go talk to the lawyers that write the laws and also many of the articles on the subject, because unless you're one of those lawyers that deals with monopoly laws, you're arguing with the wrong person, and probably an idiot.
It would be like arguing with the postman that your phone bill in your mailbox is charging you the wrong amount... :D

I just wanted to head off that obvious line of b.s. that always seems to come up when you mention the discussions of experts in a field that some people don't like despite their lack of training in that field. To anyone not in that category, I hope you got a bit of a giggle over it ;)

Mostly that would be kids under 18 these days.
I don't know what's the demographic for Steam, but I bet it's something around 25-35 of age and male.

Younger people don't have money to buy games. And getting 100+ games for free easily makes EPIC as the main launcher for them. Considering popularity of Fortnite among kids... This might actually be a genius move by EPIC. Hardcore Steam usrs ( most here) aren't their target client anyway. Those who mostly use Steam and take up EPIC for a game or two is just a great bonus, but the kids is what keeps them going. Like an investment in the future... Where do you think all the fortnite kids are going to buy other games they like ? Why buy on Steam when you already have100+ games on EPIC

Why main any of the storefronts when the GOG client lets you manage them all in one place ?

I'm not fond of it, but a deal is a deal and when possible, I buy on Steam because I can usually get the cheapest deal. I will admit that the small drip of trading card value does push me to Steam, but i could disregard almost every other aspect of Steam like community hubs and the like.

Same here. I don't mind other launchers that much. I don't mind buying outside of Steam either if the other launcher has a better deal.
Only issue I have is to keep track of all my games.

I don't mind having multiple accounts across different stores. The GOG Galaxy client lets me manage them all in a single place, so I can keep track of my backlog easily enough.

I'll take Epic's free stuff. But I'm not going to even think about shopping there until they get a simple shopping cart.

Same here, I am perfectly fine with several launchers.

Yeah, and how much they spend on free games would be good too. I think I spent about $30 last year but haven't log in to play any of them yet haha

I have spent $110 since they opened. And all of it on games on sale plus a $10 off coupon, which together equals a better deal than anywhere else. As a result, I bought "bigger" games that I have actually played. I checked, and I have played all my Epic purchases except the most recent ones. That's a way better record than my Steam purchases.
But it can' last forever. Those coupons are just Epic straight-up subsidizing my purchase. I love it, and I will take advantage of it until it stops. I figure we have another two years. After that, Epic will be a heavily curated competitor to Steam. Heavily curated to the Shiniest - not always AAA, but the shiniest indie, too.

Eh, I feel like there's a bit of a double standard being applied. A big publisher like EA buys up a studio like Bioware and people grumble for a bit and then forget about it. Bayonetta 2 & 3 are Nintendo exclusives because they chose to fund Platinum Games making those games, and people just accept it. But Epic gives indie studios indie studios money and job security in exchange for releasing their game on Epic, and somehow this is a crime against gamers? Given that the client is free to anyone with a PC and an internet connection, it's the least exclusive "exclusivity" I've ever seen. It's the real life equivalent of the "top secret" plan in Blackadder that's limited to the English speaking world.

Obviously they want to attract people to their store, and they're doing so by giving away games and by throwing money at indie devs in exchange for those devs releasing their games on Epic. I'm not sure why Epic paying indie devs to release their games on Epic is so much worse than Valve hiring indie devs to release their games on Steam (like the Portal folks, Dota 2 - back when Valve was still in the business of making games). I would think that indie devs staying indie, rather than being bought up by a big publisher, would be a preferable thing - they get the job security and funding but retain full control over their game.

Didn't they say when they launched the store that the free games would only be for the first year ?

Because they sound like the major barrier to the Epic store becoming profitable.

the only reason they can keep this up is fortnite

Fortnite and China (Tencent).

they create freeloaders. who demand free games and see it as natural.

Hrm, that's given me a perspective I hadn't put much thought into until reading your comment. Thanks for that.

Taking your comment a bit further, I wonder if handing people free games all the time may devalue other games. If someone has 100+ free games already , they may be less likely to pay for games. I tend to purchase a lot of games, and even I'm hesitant to buy on EGS, thinking whatever game may be free soon.

We see this already on the bundle scene - there is a vast group of people who are absolutely unwilling to buy a game until it's either bundled or at an extreme discount.

This is all speculation sprinkled with personal experience, obviously.

So if you don't need more launchers why bother redeeming the free games? It seems like you'll never bother playing them.

it's been discussed several times.
I think, from a legal perspective, that Epic made a few mis-steps in this battle. I wish them the best of luck, but a better approach would be to lobby the government to turn Iphone & Android into common carriers. I.E. Apple & Android can charge a reasonable fee for the backbone/network, but must allow equal access to all. At least in the US, in the current political climate, there are a lot of politicians who would be receptive to that argument.
Think of it like the phone company or the electric grid, where customers can choose from different providers but everyone uses the same cables.

I doubt they are in the red. They still have money coming in from Fortnite on consoles and phones and also any other game they own like Rocket League. The $700 million in sales is only on the Epic Store sales which $265 million of that was from third-party sales. Also, all the v-bucks and battlepasses for their games are not purchased on the store but in-game so who knows if those numbers are even included in the $700 mil

A lot of people hate them but they aren't hurting for sales or money. Their user numbers keep going up too so it sounds like more and more people are using the launcher and store.