Epic Games Store Expected to Be Profitable by 2023

I use GOG Galaxy to launch Epic games. The experience is a lot better and takes down many of the arguments against Epic.

Up until a few months ago I would have thought that to be too optimistic, but now u think it's actually doable for them. Scoring the debut of a series like Kingdom Hearts on PC as a exclusive is a sign that they're swaying big publishers even when it comes to big releases. I know that they had specific exclusive games in demand before but having an entire franchise is another story.
They'll probably never dethrone Steam, especially when it comes to indies and communities, but they'll become the proper second option that many wanted to be and failed.

The Epic Store's biggest problem is its lack of features. It's like David vs Goliath except David picked a fight he doesn't understand. The whole "aimed at kids" thing is goofy, too, considering kids like social features and Epic has none.

They couldn't make money in 2020, when everyone was staying at home. I'm not optimistic.

hes more into war vs steam than his own business. Thats the outcome-big loses.

Fell sorry for ppl losing their free games and bought one when EGS will go down...and it will

Epic has all that TenCent and Chinese government money - it can stay low profit for a long time.

Maybe they'll add a shopping cart in 2023.

I personally don't use Epic Store, and it doesn't really matter what they are giving away, because I know I will never actually bring myself to log into the platform and play the games. I'm too used to Steam at this point.

While it would be positive for Steam to have competition, I don't see many problems with the platform as it is now, even if it is completely dominant, so it doesn't make much of a difference to me for now.

I am never going to use it anyway

i got some pretty sweet deals on the EGS, much better prices than Steam, at least for my resgion in SA.

To be honest EGS and Steam is same for me. I mean both of them are stores of some company and trying to make profit one way or another. I don't care the name, if i pay for something i look at "service" i receive. I'll use any store with better pricing, customer service, ui, optimization and a large library. Both of them have good local pricing (for me at least), at other things steam is far better. Therefore I use Steam and it seems i'll stick with it for a long time. Even though i hate sign in to bunch of launchers for games, hope GOG and EGS creates a good competition for Steam. Because it's better than monopoly. Monopoly destroys progression and that will hurt costumers at the end.

EGS don't have many distinctive features in my opinion. They tried exclusive and free games to pull people to their stores but exclusives build some anger towards them. GOG is expensive for me, but with non-DRM and old games that aren't on steam, it's more appealing than EGS. I bought few games on GOG but never buy something on EGS. If Epic wants to go big, they should have new ideas instead of trying to be like Steam.

They've already snagged a ton of attention after giving away a game or two a week for over a year.
Now they have an expanded user base, who are likely sharing the fact they're getting free games each week.

All they need to do now, is add in some more active social media and gameplay events.

That means no more high quality giveaways in 2023 I guess?

Let's hope It does, we need competition, just like AMD/Intel or Nvidia/AMD.

I think that... I don't care :-)
I have games in almost every major platforms used on PC. All these companies are profit-driven: they just want our money, no matter the image they want to show, they are there to sell products and make profit from that, dot. They don't care if you, me, or anyone else not owning shares, are happy, as long as we continue to shop.
In my opinion, Epic is just another actor in this market. While I'm not happy with the exclusives, I don't say no to the weekly freebie, And as a matter of fact, they didn't screw me yet by doing illegal things, unlike valve.
I just buy the games I want where I can get them for the better price. By the way, I've recently switched to Playnite as a "universal launcher": it lacks some integrations, but I'm quite happy with it for now.

there is always a chance for them to fix their client and offer what steam does , they got some good prices compare to steam imo

I hope all goes well for them. They have given us all a lot.
They should focus more on their client/storefront as of now.

And I think I finally grew up and realized business is not easy.. and if their exclusive deals got some folks butt-hurt.. wtr, life goes on.

At least they are focused on quality. Call me when they have also flooded their platform with 20.000 hentai puzzlers and shitty asset flips.. and masterworks like "Sex with Putin", and "Fuck your grandma simulator".

View attached image.

Are we sure that they will, now?

KEK

A few comments mentioning they like that EGS is curated.
Let's hope that once Epic becomes big games don't get "curated" too much to be in line with the dragon :)

their not trending towards being profitable. in 2022, they lose more money, then 2023, even more money.. Their bad business model isn't going to all of a sudden stop losing money.. Giving away free games to lure people in doesn't matter if those people aren't buying games,, Fortnite can only stay popular so long,, ask all those other games which got popular then died off..

Most people are ok with waiting to play the game on steam.. or buying it directly from Ubisoft.. Those coupons and free games, plus exclusivity are just going to get more costly..

Fortnite will last until the next big thing comes along..

Wouldn't be surprised. Steam had the clear lead, but they seem really determinee to make themselves worse.
They had a great library... they ruined it.
Inventory? Well I hope you use their mandatory smobile steamguard or it's "protected" against being worth a damn?
Guft storing? Nope, very difficult gifting rules.
But hey, we got a point shop, right? Yaaaaaaaay [/s]
I really don't understand how you can have such a lead and then do all in your power to close the gap, not by Epic changing at all but you lowerinv yourself constantly :/

The Epic CEO also added this to the "news" that Epic is losing huge amounts of money. I'm not surprised that this "victory dance" has some apple smell around it.

I wouldn't be surprised they turn a profit in a year or two.
You can even see people jumping the ship right here on SG forum. Imagine all the kids playing fortnite and not having a single game on steam. Why wouldn't they spend on epic. I myself will embrace the store only when it finally becomes good enough and adds all the features I love about steam.

Altough I have a feeling all these numbers are muddled up - they are possibly taking into consideration all active users (counting in EVERYONE who just logs on once a week to get the freebie and doesn't spend a thing on the actual store) so if it goes in the right direction it might take twice as long to start making money. they are quit right about "losing money" to earn some eventually. But it doesn't work for everyone though. So they are probably trying to look better then they are in hope for investors or striking another lucky formula with something similar as fortnite (or doing what tencent says they have to do, only to look good despite the actual situation). If that money dries out and they have not fixed the flaming turd the epic launcher is at this stage they might have a hard time actually turning profit.

You can definitely burn money for years before turning profit - but your product or service has to improve. Tesla for example burned money for near 20 years losing millions - but they did this by trying to constantly improve on their cars and coming up with Musks promised $20k electric car. As far as I see epic working it's just trying to blindlessly compete with everyone instead of improving the product they have (at least I don't think the improvements come at good enough rate for such a company which paints a bleak picture at where they have their priorities) ..

I'm not so sure about that "building audience from younger gamers" argument. Young gamers don't play only Fortnite, after all. They play other freebies like CS:go or even World of Tanks. Destiny 2. Or Minecraft (not freebie, but still). It's not like they are not aware of other markets. So I assume if they would like to buy some game in the future — they'll buy it where it will be cheaper. Most possible scenario: their favorite youtuber will point out on some hot-hot-super-popular-right-now-dont-miss-all-the-fun new game, and on a store where they can buy it with some discount. Like it was with Fall Guys and Among Us. Google Play store? No problem.
But yeah, I agree that thanks to Fortnite those young gamers are quite aware of Epic store existence and the fact that you can shop there, so they'll definitely consider it. (Also, if they are so young that their mom's credit card already linked — it's the simpler solution and for the young gamer, and for their mom.)

One person who I personally know and who plays Fortnite doesn't care about those weekly freebies at all, actually. So the argument "all my library is on epic" doesn't even exist for them. Even if they hoarded ~100 freebies on epic — I don't see it really matters because it's really not that significant for them as for conservative (haha) old gamers. As long as you can play a game you want to play..