Their parent company "Tencent" just took a big hit because of upcoming Chinese game regulations - I'm guessing this is why the free game budget is reduced.
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i thought you were kidding but i looked it up... Tencent, which is owned by the CCP holds 40% stock. while it's technically not the majority they basically own the company.
jesus
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Not really, as the Chinese regulation plans responsible for Tencent's dunking stock price were just recently revealed, while the budget and deals for these free games have been settled way back. So unless they own a time machine there is no way how these events could be connected.
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I still can't get over the braindead stance that steam is a monopoly, so their strategy is to buy exclusivity so that only they sell certain games.
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How else would you propose they compete? Sell for less than steam? That would be pretty hard, verging on impossible. I mean no matter where you look there will always be games that are only available for that platform, even some games are only for steam. I guess GOG is pretty unique in this.
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The way they pitched Epic before the launch. Would have had more success I think.
They where claiming that their platform fee (15% ?) was lower then valve (30% ?) and if put on Epic and they used the unreal engine that fee was waved as well. Not sure about the percentages though but they where said to be lower.
The thing mentioned alongside this was that games would be cheaper for the gamers since the publisher cut would be bigger so they could sell at a lower price point on Epic.
The only thing they didn't do was put in the agreement that a % of the saved money from the platform fee should go towards the buyers in the form of a lower price point for the games than that the publisher would ask on steam.
Of course the Publisher would keep all the saved money for themselves if not contractually forced to do so.
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That is not on Epic though, the publishers chose to sell at that price not the platform.
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True, but thats why I included this part: "The only thing they didn't do was put in the agreement that a % of the saved money from the platform fee should go towards the buyers in the form of a lower price point for the games than that the publisher would ask on steam."
So indirectly it is on them. They are a company they should have seen this coming from a mile away. Its bussines 101
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So you think it's on Epic that publishers and developers have the free will to choose their own prices and they choose to sell for more? It seems like you just want Epic to be the bad guy even though they have given the publishers and devs a free hand and every opportunity to lower their prices.
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Sell for less than steam?
Technically speaking - that would be easy and it would actually work. Steam eats 30% of game price (with big publishers that can be negotiated). EPIC takes less to lure publishers to their shop. In theory they could have some sort of agreement with them, idk stuff like day one discount. I suppose that with modern prices for games, some people who buy AAA titles would consider using EPIC instead of other stores for even small price difference.
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Except that steam is selling games at 95% off literally for pennies on the dollar. Even AAA titles are selling at 50% or more off. I'm no math wizard or financial expert but where exactly is the profit going to come from for selling lower than rock bottom? There's no profit in giving games away for free and obviously that wasn't working for Epic since steam is still king. No the answer lies in manipulation. Steam has achievements and trading cards and other B$. THIS is why steam is staying on top, not sales and giveaways.
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Whole community that have grown around the steam is holding other platforms back. That is true.
But... there is no problem with using steam forums and playing on epic xD They could get customers if they were sure that games are cheaper on day of release.. At least some. Full game cross platform compatibility would also help - but that's more on devs than epic or steam.
Also games sold at 95% are also given away for free. It's the end of life cycle for games - it doesn't apply to new games where publishers earn the most.
Some people just want to play games and not STEAM - meta game xD
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I don't like EPIC app. Compared to Steam, EPIC Store is trash. Not as easy to navigate, not as easy to find reviews, jump from game to game, find stuff, community forums and hubs, etc. It's just inferior.
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Technically they do sell less than steam during the events they have with their coupons (like right now you get 33% off on top of current discounts PLUS a 10% cashback after 2 weeks), reason why I have quite a few games bought on Epic instead of Steam. I don't care about steam extra fluff, as long as the game works and I can play it, I'm fine with it, especially if it is a lot cheaper elsewhere. That goes for Uplay, battlenet, ea app, etc.
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In general its good to have competition, because this means cheaper games for us (or even free in some cases). However nothing really matters much imo, because most people are already too invested in steam with huge libraries, to ever even consider other platform libraries. Plus steam has at this point more or less perfected the GUI and how easy it is to check out reviews/ratings/discussions etc for each game. I may take a free game from epic from time to time, but I have difficulty ever taking them seriously and buy games there, when I have already a library of over a thousand games in steam. Maybe its just me but it is what it is.
All in all, I kinda feel bad for all other platforms, cause no matter what they do, they will not be able to compete even if they are actually worth it eventually. Its one of those cases, where the "timing" proved to be king and the amassed player base has already chosen sides, and is hard for them to ever change because of how game libraries work. Its practically a monopoly, which can be bad in the future for us. Competition in general affects the consumer positively but it seems like they are fighting a losing battle.
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I would consider steam a monopoly tbh. while many people buy a game off GOG every now and then it's usually just because it's cheaper than steam / in a bundle. i hate epic with a passion and only ever take the odd free game too. Steam has almost 0 competitors and with their massive sales they probably won't for a long time
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You say most people, but I don't think that really is the case. Fortnite has over 200 million active users per month and I wager at least a considerable percentage of those players only play a few games so they might not even have a steam account. Steam stats just a few weeks ago told us that the majoroty of players play very few games. I think Epic is building a platform for the kids that grow up playing Fortnite mostly. Once those players grow out of Fortnite, they will have a bunch of alternatives on Epic, they don't need to go to another platform.
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If they did indeed claim they would become better than Steam, then yeah that's pretty funny. Having said that, I welcome the competition, even if they don't go about it in the most graceful and/or honorable way. Keeps GOG & Steam on their toes, even if just for a moment here and there.
Completely disagree with you about the games being trash, In the last month I've taken free copies of Deliver Us Mars, Art of Rally, and Ghostwire Tokyo. Grabbed a few nice looking indies as well. I've gotten 230 free games from them over the years, and no matter what anyone says, that right there is pretty awesome.
Steam is obviously infinitely better, and Valve doesn't owe us anything other than the great ecosystem they've provided. Having said that, I can't even remember the last time I got free card drops....
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I was talking about the recent, like a year or so, I also got some AAA titles in the past, I also got every single game they gave away in the previous year or two, so ye, I got at least 130-180 games on Epic that I don't even bother to look up, don't even remember anymore what I have. My point was that recently they rapidly changed, started giving Indie games, while some people appreciate Indie games, I don't, I like AAA titles like Call of Duty WW2, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V, Metro Exodus and many other very familiar and popular games.
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I don't? I collect their games since they've been giving away AAA titles, but recently they started giving away only Indie games or old titles... That was my point, they CHANGED for worse.
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2 things mate:
1 - no one said you have to take the games it is not law you have to have them so stop complaining
and
2 - why on earth would you think them giving away aaa+ games (which are better than indie games????) make them more successful if anything the more games they give for free the less people would need/want to buy so....
also what does - I hole they either shut down or succeed already - mean?/
also one last thing you mention putting people on your blacklist or white list based on what they say here correct? you do know that really only means something if you actually make giveaway
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Huh? I made a joke that if someone disagree that person can feel free to blacklist me, So there you go, blacklist me brother. I meant nothing bad in my topic, everyone is allowed to have a view on something.
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Originally Epic was only going to release a game each week for their first year, in order to draw attention.
Feels kinda ungrateful to complain about being offered something for free, when nearly none of them are gacca type games.
I for one have been surprised they've not been pushing free games and old DLC for the many gacca games out there such as Genshin Impact. As it would be a form of advertising/promotion for those games.
I dont like every game they've offered, and sometimes they are disappointing, but as they're free, i'm just happy to be surprised every few weeks or months with something i truly wanted to play
Today's game isnt that interesting, but it's cute, and seems to have an interesting spin on the over done growing-worm game mechanic.
In the end the free games are a gimmick to get people to at least visit their store. Same as Safeway does with it's $5 whole baked chicken it ran for years. Took a loss, but wanted to get people in the door who would likely more than make up for the loss with other purchases.
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I've always been against their exclusivity deals and I agree that they should've done more to work on user profiles and the platform but what you say isn't exactly fair either. Competition is always good and with the $10 coupons they did many of their games were much better prices you could get on steam, so you gotta give them credit for that, and they've already given you this december alone Fallout 3, Ghostwire Tokyo and the Outer Worlds, even if you ignore the indies you have more than enough to play for free this entire month alone. Also, them getting your attention shouldn't even be based on them giving you a constant flow a free games, rather a better deal than you get on steam imo. If they could consistently beat steam deals then it's not so bad of a deal, as then you're basically paying a premium just to stay on steam, which is up to you.
I guess it's also their fault for accustoming you to getting free games and eventually that was going to slow down(I think they weren't even planning to do it this year but they extended it). So now that it's slowing down, people are disappointed in not getting as many or as good free games anymore, but pretty sure they want to sell games, not give everything away for free. So their fault for getting you used to that, but this is something I said would happen about 2-3 years ago in some angry rant against their exclusivity deals.
TLDR they're free games. Have you complained about the free temporary to get games you get on steam or how far apart they are given away and that most of the times it's not even valve who does it? Probably not, but I understand your library is mostly on steam and you have some affection towards it. I also got a large library there so it's hard to switch, but I'll take what I can get on epic,gog,uplay whatever because you never know.
I mean you got 3 cool games for free that would probably run you around $17 at the lowest prices on grey markets to get on steam. Free. They took the entire loss on that for everyone and paid the devs, even if you didn't get the other indies.
PS: Still dislike them for their exclusivity deals and their ceo and that they're attached to tencent.
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The Fortnite well dried up. Or they milked the Fortnite cow to death. Whichever you prefer.
I saw this coming years ago as an alpha tester for their games. Their main problem is they are too short sighted. Epic has not developed or released another game since Fortnite. They killed promising games like Paragon and even the beloved Unreal project (along with the older games) because they believed their engine will reign supreme so they can license it forever while milking Fortnite at the same time.
They also lost focus trying to beat Valve / Steam instead of creating something unique like GOG / Ubisoft / EA and partnering with Steam. So they have nothing going for them now besides the free games and broken promises.
I really hope they had a plan B.
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I think it's still finding its footing. The free games are great but the limited features, and the lack of a community hold it back from truly competing with Steam. I wish they focused on fostering user interaction rather than depend solely on exclusivity deals.
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So did you miss the news that Epic had to lay off people? It would leave a pretty bad impression if they'd give away millions for some AAA freebie while people are losing their jobs.
Besides, the best free games usually are among their last mystery games. They also can't give away stuff like GTA every year, as there isn't a new GTA every year. And they can only give away games that publishers or devs are willing to give away. So yeah, there are plenty of factors you are totally ignorant of.
And last but not least, you are terribly entitled but I guess that's to be expected from most gamers.
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And last but not least, you are terribly entitled but I guess that's to be expected from most gamers.
This.
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Talking about bad impression regarding firings, few weeks ago Epic's CEO gave interview and when asked "why no Fortnite on Steam Deck" he answered "If we only had a few more developers"...
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I would be embarrassed, if I get stuff for free and still complain about it.
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They are just creating chaos in people's library, I would much more appreciate 1-3 games yearly that are AAA instead of so many Indie titles. I have full right to have an opinion, who are you to judge me on that? That is why I said, feel free to Blacklist me. TY.
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To each their own but to me that's a little petty unless none of the games are something you'd play ever, although that's also a bit weird since they've given pretty much every type of game. Weird flex moment.
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They cannot compete with Valve as Valve is already established as a platform any many people don't want to use more than one platform.
Also they lack a lot of features (that took Valve years to implement) and quality of life improvements on the platform (which also took Valve many years to get right)
I mean their current sale is way better than any of the recent Steam sales (with the additional 33% coupon) - objectively speaking.
Many AAA games 33% off the regular price it goes on sale, but people don't appreciate anything.
You don't like the free games they are giving away - it's okay, I think they still give good games from time to time and you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as the expression says.
They still have some exclusivity deals compared to Steam as well, if they only bothered to update their platform functionality I think they could compete on a higher level in the future.
Competition is a good thing for the end-user either way, so I don't see the reason you want EGS to "shut down", just uninstall it and be done with it.
Happy holidays
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Happy Holidays too, btw, it's not even installed, I just collect their games and if I ever download, I will just hide Indie titles, leaving only AAA ones visible to myself.
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As far as the exclusivity deal, it just makes me dislike EPIC. I am a huge, huge, huge LOTR Fan, and I can't play the new game Return to Moria because Epic got an exclusivity deal. No, I am not going to buy it on Epic. Their app sucks, it's not fun to navigate, harder to find things, it just sucks compared to Steam. So now I am simply going to wait a year+ until their exclusivity deal ends so I can grab LOTR Return to Moria on Steam.
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Both software sucks to be honest. There's nothing great about Steam. Most of the streamers I used to watch use Discord or Team Speak.
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I've played games on Epic with no issues. And I've claimed freebies on Epic with no issues. And they own one of the most successful games of all time. And one of the most successful game engines of all time. And they just beat Google in a huge antitrust (monopoly) court battle. It's not my venue of choice, but I'm not seeing what they have to be embarrassed about.
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Honestly I'm very disappointed in steam because someone delete many saves from my steam cloud, now I prefer playstation. I have nothing against epic games but ruskiparuski free games sometimes very annoying.
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The whole plan of luring users in with free games is not exactly sustainable long term so no wonder at some point they had to slow down and lower the budget for freebies, even then they're still doing a fine job with their selection tho, getting Art of Rally as one of the christmas freebies was worth the whole event as far as I'm concerned.
The real problem is that prices on Steam and GOG are still cheaper for many regions, so good luck competing in that front. And on the other side you have most bundles featuring Steam keys so that doesn't help them grow. And on top of that subscription services like Game Pass or EA Access take a big chunk of potential buyers.
Just the fact that they're holding their position despite having no specialty or unique characteristic to distinguish themselves from the competition is indication that they're not doing that badly, or at least not as badly as they could be doing. But I personally think their main weakness is that they don't have much of a catalogue of their own outside of live-service games, if you're not interested in stuff like Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys, etc., Epic doesn't have much to offer since they chose to bury all of their old big-name games like Unreal... the game that literally put them on the map but you can no longer buy anywhere.
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If you think a game is trash just because it's indie, that says more about you, than it does about Epic.
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I guess I deserved a blacklist here, do it. Thank You.
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I play maybe 1 in 10 of the free Epic Games. How many games has Steam given me for free? Zero. (Admittedly several developers do occasionally offer a Claim-It-Now Keep-It-Forever freebie, which I have claimed, but I have played none of them.) I don't ever buy games on Steam anymore. Third-party retailers (especially bundles) are always cheaper to an end-consumer like me. I have never purchased anything on Epic Games, but I have played a good amount of my ever-growing Epic library. All that to say, I wouldn't be embarrassed. As a consumer I am happy to receive 1 gem in every pile of 10 turds from Epic freebies.
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Well the layoffs are probably more embarassing. Giving away games is a good investment if a big portion of your userbase is kids that can't afford to buy games yet. Once they can it seems reasonable to expand the collection they already have opposed to starting over on Steam. But that's a big gamble and obviously the Epic store exclusives didn't pay off either. There's no reason to not compete with Steam, but GOG and Itch.io do it better because like Steam they do consider what's good for their customers.
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I honestly don't get why are people even mad at Epic..
And apparently there is a subreddit on Reddit called r/fuckepic. Lmao imagine having such a sad life to be subscribed to that subreddit and using your time this way..
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Well, I don't know anything about any subreddit, but I dislike Epic because their GUI is pretty bad, and they accused Steam of having a monopoly, and then go and get exclusivity deals. With franchises I actually love, like LOTR Return to Moria. In the end, all they accomplished was making me dislike them more. I'm just waiting the exclusivity deal out, until it's on Steam.
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I for one have been very happy with a lot of their free games:
- Cursed to Golf
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition
- Deliver Us Mars
- Tandem: A Tale of Shadows
They might be mostly indie titles, but, they're all fantastic games. As for sales, I bought 3 games from Epic in the recent weeks, two were exclusives, and the third one was a great deal, thanks to their rewards program and their 33% off coupon, they almost always beat Steam on price.
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Saying that non AAA games you don't like are trash and not worth taking for free is insulting to the developer who exchanged blood sweat and tear to made them. It's sad that the large amount of giving makes people not value them as they should be deserved.
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They claimed a few years back that they will become better than Steam with even more playerbase and now all they do is give us some games that are in most cases not even worth taking for free, with a few exceptions. They used to give AAA titles before and I thought they were on a good road to become very successful and respectful Gaming Platform, but it's Holidays and games they are giving to us make me feel like some beggar who takes their trash, something they managed to barely pay anything to devs since they are mostly unknown as are their games... Some games are so ridiculous that they are spitting on all the good games they gave in the past, this feels like they are going bankrupt or something... I hope they either shut down or succeed already, since to me it seems that after they figured what Valve did (Source2 release on CS) they gave up comleting with Valve because they know now that no one will ever be better than Valve with Steam. Your opinions on it? Blacklist & Whitelist are more than welcome. 🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤
Edit: Blacklist/Whitelist thing is here because people on S.Gifts have tendency to Blacklist people for anything written, so might as well at least say that I asked for it before it happens haha :) Just to clear the confusion.
So far 19 blacklists just from this thread, 1 whitelist, and yet I am the bad guy here? Cool. :) My goal is to reach 100, currently sitting at 74 blacklists.
Edit2: I apologize for this thread, I am not feeling well lately, seasonal depression and other underlying problems. I am closing this thread. Either way, thanks for Blacklists. It's easy to judge when you don't know someone's background.
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