Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Silentstorm]

Well, i do have fond memories of playing Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Jazz Jackrabbit, and Fortnite, like it or not, became a huge sucess and a main factor on why Battle Royales became so popular while bringing a lot of mainstream attention.

Still nothing i would say deserves a special award, and Epic Games Store so far is pretty much just Steam but less features and games that tries to hide that by giving free games.

Not really seeing the huge contribution...wait, yeah, the Unreal Engine, okay, that checks out, developers have been using different versions of that engine for quite a while now, okay, i accept the Unreal Engine being a big contribution, not sure about anything else.

 

[LESS T_T]

U Win: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-division-2-sold-10-times-as-many-copies-on-uplay-as-the-first-game/

The Division 2 sold 10 times as many copies on Uplay as the first game
PC accounted for 27 percent of Ubisoft's total net bookings last year, a major increase over the previous year.

Ubisoft reported record profitability in its full-year 2018-19 earnings report, with net bookings of more than €2.03 billion ($2.27 billion), in line with its target for the year of around €2.05 billion ($2.3 billion). The company showed particular strength on the PC, with net bookings up nearly 79 percent, accounting for 27 percent of the company's total for the year.

That figure is up from 18 percent in the previous year, and along with mobile is the only platform to increase its slice of the pie: The PS4 dropped from 42 percent to 36, the Xbox One slid from 23 percent to 20, the Nintendo Switch dropped a point from 7 to 6 percent, and the remainder—Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and Wii U—held steady at 2 percent. For the final quarter of Ubisoft's fiscal year, the PC actually beat out all other platforms, accounting for 36 percent of net bookings, ahead of the PS4 and Xbox One.

Somewhat surprisingly, The Division 2 fell short of Ubisoft's expectations on console, which Ubisoft attributed in its earnings call to "a more competitive environment than expected." On PC, however, its performance "was in line with the first Division's massive launch," and drove "a huge 10x increase in sales [over The Division 1] on Uplay."

That dramatic increase could be viewed as an indictment of Ubisoft's decision to shift its releases from Steam to the Epic Games Store, but it also reflects the success of Ubisoft's strategy, explained by CEO Yves Guillemot earlier this year, to draw attention to, and increase usage of, its own store. Being on the Epic Store "really helped to actually do more of our business on our own store," he said at the time, noting that Division 2 preorders on Uplay were six times higher than for Division 1.

Rainbow Six Siege continues to be a hit, with a 40 percent year-over-year increase in its player base, which has now surpassed 45 million. That's no doubt helping to power growth in overall esports viewership, which is also up 133 percent across YouTube and Twitch.

And for all the complaints we hear about microtransactions in games, "player recurrent investment"—sales of digital items, DLC, season passes, subscriptions, and advertising—continues to be a big money-maker: It's up more than 33 percent year over year to €644 million ($721 million), accounting for nearly 32 percent of total net bookings.

And on the less "numbers and dense verbiage" side of things, Ubisoft also teased three unannounced new triple-A games for the fourth quarter of its current fiscal year. Maybe we'll finally get that new Splinter Cell we've all been waiting for.

 

[Grauken]

What I read from this is, using Epic drove a lot of people to go directly to Uplay. Well played Ubisoft, well played

 

[Ismaul]

Being on the Epic Store "really helped to actually do more of our business on our own store," he said

 

[JarlFrank]

What I read from this is, using Epic drove a lot of people to go directly to Uplay. Well played Ubisoft, well played

That has been Ubi's plan all along.

 

[Edija]

They could've won if Grimoire was an Epic exclusive. All other efforts are futile now.

 

[Belegarsson]

Can't say I'm not impressed. They managed to have unreleased games on sale.

Too bad, they can shove these discount up their arrogant ass.

 

[Infinitron]

What I read from this is, using Epic drove a lot of people to go directly to Uplay. Well played Ubisoft, well played

That has been Ubi's plan all along.

Old narrative: Epic Games are malicious saboteurs who are killing PC gaming

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

I wonder if this will happen with the Microsoft Store too.

 

[Silentstorm]

They could've won if Grimoire was an Epic exclusive. All other efforts are futile now.

Damn, i wish i knew how to vote so i could put a "Funny" tag on this post, honestly, Epic wouldn't put a game like Grimoire at all, it's just too niche to be accepted, and the general consensus on the game isn't also perfect, Epic only wants games from popular Indie devs or games that already sold well like Axiom Verge.

 

[Ismaul]

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

Yup. The big publishers that Epic's courting are just taking Epic's bribe and pocketing Epic's 12% by selling on their own store, all thanks to Epic turning off gamers.

Next, when the bribes end, the publishers will just introduce timed exclusives on their own stores. People will have gotten used to buying from them direct thanks to Epic blocking the release from other stores. Who needs Epic?

 

[Don Peste]

So what are you buying in the Epic Mega Sale??

 

[J_C]

So what are you buying in the Epic Mega Sale??

 

[V_K]

Old narrative: Epic Games are malicious saboteurs who are killing PC gaming

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

I mean, it's video game publishers we're talking about, some of the most evil and reviled creatures in the universe.

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

So what are you buying in the Epic Mega Sale??

Those 10 euros worth of free epicbux can't be used for purchases under 10 euros. My credit card shall remain pristine.

 

[Rahdulan]

Being on the Epic Store "really helped to actually do more of our business on our own store," he said

Basically, people have correctly assumed that was Ubisoft's plan from the get-go. They don't care about Epic one bit.

 

[Mustawd]

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

That’s stupid. It’s the same thing Ubi does when it forces you to launch uplay via Steam.

Give me a break Infinitron.

 

[V_K]

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

That’s stupid. It’s the same thing Ubi does when it forces you to launch uplay via Steam.

Give me a break Infinitron.

Yes, but the players might still be inclined to buy a Ubi game on Steam to keep everything in one library. Epic exclusivity removes that incentive and drives the customers straight to Ubi store.

 

[Alienman]

Can't say I'm not impressed. They managed to have unreleased games on sale.

Too bad, they can shove these discount up their arrogant ass.

9 dollars for the game? wut

 

[Thane Solus]

on big publishers that have a big share margin, means 1-20 mils of diversity bucks, so of course they will go to epic while also promoting their store (i wouldnt let them if i was epic, but oh well). Its about ze money nothing else. The drones from Fortnite will generate some profits, while the other drones will jump to Epic because their favorite shit game from Ubisoft is there. No matter how ideological "right" some of you are and me as customer/gamer, we dont count. We are the 10%!

 

[fantadomat]

Can't say I'm not impressed. They managed to have unreleased games on sale.

Too bad, they can shove these discount up their arrogant ass.

9 dollars for the game? wut

Go on mate,go and sell your soul to the chink.

 

[Belegarsson]

Can't say I'm not impressed. They managed to have unreleased games on sale.

Too bad, they can shove these discount up their arrogant ass.

9 dollars for the game? wut

Paradox's games are very cheap in my country (Vietnam), all new grand strategy games are about $13, Age of Wonders Planetfall is $17, VTMB2 is $21 (yeah the Epic store version is cheaper than Steam ). But I don't think 2 dollars difference is worth installing that crap.

Now, if only GOG offered regional pricing for us, there will be a few games that I'd buy twice

 

[Drakron]

I think Ubi also did it when they noticed the backlash as a way to drive people into their store and not being seen as doing that, making Epic taking the blame for the whole thing as Epic bitten the bullet because they were hoping the title would drive customers to their store despite being fully aware of why Ubi was doing it in the first place.

This is why in Anno they did that wonderful BS of putting the game on Steam to push pre-order sales and then "remove" the game because Epic Store Exclusive and they did it because Anno is a smaller title and even if it was entirely obvious to everyone as being a niche title it drew less attention.

 

[JBro]

Old narrative: Epic Games are malicious saboteurs who are killing PC gaming

New narrative: Epic Games are deep-pocketed suckers who are being bilked by publishers who never intended to release their games on Steam in the first place

I wonder if this will happen with the Microsoft Store too.

Both of those things can be true.

 

[DalekFlay]

Uplay is a half-decent client finally, so not surprised people would choose it over the barely started Epic one. Also everyone who would play Division 2 has a Uplay account anyway from Division 1, since Steam is just a launcher for Uplay anyway. I don't think it's evidence that people would outright boycott a game only on the Epic Store, but we shall see how Borderlands 3 does.

I really thought the future was every publisher having their own Uplay/Origin, but Epic are throwing a wrench in that along with Bethesda running back to Steam, so I dunno.

 

[JBro]

Uplay still sucks and I'm still not using it. Steam or gtfo.