Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Multi-headed Cow]

2020 has come and went and still no fucking shopping cart

Buying more than one game at a time indicates you have too much free time and lowers your social credit score. Tim knows this and protects the gamers by not including a shopping cart, because Tim and Epic Games are on the side of the consumer!

 

[Perkel]

They will probably add it right after they will add Clippy as interactive help and login with AOL account, i heard they will be also switching their downloader for Khazza.

 

[deama]

It's Saturday and so far only decent game has been cities skylines.

 

[Fishy]

Shopping carts have been proven to reduce the conversion rate (% of intent to buy which converts into an actual purchase) because those extra steps between "adding to cart" and paying give the brain a lot of time to think things over. There's a reason why Amazon pushed the one-click shopping. The less steps involved, the more you sell, impulse purchase is not a myth.

 

[taxalot]

Gaming forums, where we argue that full-priced video games being given away for free are bad for you.

 

[V_K]

Yeah, it's almost like a kids forum where they argue that strangers giving away free candy are bad for you.

 

[Venser]

I support Epic Store cause Steam having full monopoly is bad.

 

[Lacrymas]

GOG exists, so Steam definitely doesn't have full monopoly. As for free games, hey, they are free, I can share the account with friends. Epic just doesn't offer anything else to make it worthwhile to spend actual money there. The free games are really quite amazing depending on context. Gaming is already probably the cheapest hobby there is, and this makes it so that gamers on an extremely tight budget can have access to non-shareware games without pirating. I'm not entirely sure what will happen to them when Epic inevitably bankrupts, though.

 

[Venser]

GOG exists, so Steam definitely doesn't have full monopoly. As for free games, hey, they are free, I can share the account with friends. Epic just doesn't offer anything else to make it worthwhile to spend actual money there. The free games are really quite amazing depending on context. Gaming is already probably the cheapest hobby there is, and this makes it so that gamers on an extremely tight budget can have access to non-shareware games without pirating. I'm not entirely sure what will happen to them when Epic inevitably bankrupts, though.

Well they did bring some console exclusives to PC and they financed a couple of game studios. Diabotical got released with Epic's help and they provided annual esports prize money as well. The price was their exclusivity but who knows if the game would even come out without it.

 

[Lacrymas]

Well they did bring some console exclusives to PC and they financed a couple of game studios. Diabotical did get released with Epic's help and they provided annual esports money as well. The price was their exclusivity but who knows if the game would even come out without it.

That's great, but where's the part where Epic actually makes money rather than giving it away?

 

[Venser]

That's great, but where's the part where Epic actually makes money rather than giving it away?

Fortnite.
They have to lose tons of money just to bring in customers and break the monopoly. Then they can start profiting from the store. Don't expect free games to go on forever. It's a common tactic, gog was doing it in the beginning too, just not at the same scale.

 

[Lacrymas]

GOG still give away free games regularly.

 

[Venser]

Not as regularly as they used to. I don't expect Epic to stop completely either.

 

[Belegarsson]

Shopping carts have been proven to reduce the conversion rate (% of intent to buy which converts into an actual purchase) because those extra steps between "adding to cart" and paying give the brain a lot of time to think things over. There's a reason why Amazon pushed the one-click shopping. The less steps involved, the more you sell, impulse purchase is not a myth.

Is it possible it's reverse for some people? Because I realized I impulse bought a lot of multiple things at once. The last time I bought something seperate was Death Stranding in August and Beautiful Desolation in Feb. For Steam I can put stuffs into the cart, turn it off and do something else, then next day coming back and those stuffs are still in the cart. For Epic, I can click purchase something to check out the price after coupon discount, then turn it off, then I completely forget about what I was going to buy.

Meanwhile I'm here debating whether I should buy The Pathless for 6 dollars. Honestly I found a platform having a built-in wallet system makes it easier to impulse buy rather than... the lack of shopping cart.

 

[Fishy]

Shopping carts have been proven to reduce the conversion rate (% of intent to buy which converts into an actual purchase) because those extra steps between "adding to cart" and paying give the brain a lot of time to think things over. There's a reason why Amazon pushed the one-click shopping. The less steps involved, the more you sell, impulse purchase is not a myth.

Is it possible it's reverse for some people? Because I realized I impulse bought a lot of multiple things at once. The last time I bought something seperate was Death Stranding in August and Beautiful Desolation in Feb. For Steam I can put stuffs into the cart, turn it off and do something else, then next day coming back and those stuffs are still in the cart. For Epic, I can click purchase something to check out the price after coupon discount, then turn it off, then I completely forget about what I was going to buy.

Meanwhile I'm here debating whether I should buy The Pathless for 6 dollars. Honestly I found a platform having a built-in wallet system makes it easier to impulse buy rather than... the lack of shopping cart.

Obviously it won't apply to everyone, but it's a clear behaviour observed from web analytics (where people click on the site, how long they spend on each screen, etc.). In your case, one could argue that it's not so much the shopping cart as the reminder. Note how for example Amazon prominently shows the stuff you looked at the last time: even if it's not in your cart, it's pushed in front of you to remind you that you were thinking about it. Ultimately, it's not a perfect science, but the dominant trend is clear: every step in the purchase process reduces your conversion rate, so reducing the number of steps is worth it, even if it costs you some other sales.

That's why in the case of Epic, I'm convinced that's the only reason for the lack of cart/multibuy feature. They could have that implemented overnight if they wanted to, it's not exactly rocket science.

 

[Don Peste]

What currency is that? Denarii?

 

[deama]

Defense grid... wow..... amazing deal.......

 

[Lacrymas]

What currency is that? Denarii?

Vietnamese dong?

 

[Kev Inkline]

Observe that this was leaked on 18th of Dec, and it has the two following (19th and 20th) free games right.

 

[LESS T_T]

That's why in the case of Epic, I'm convinced that's the only reason for the lack of cart/multibuy feature. They could have that implemented overnight if they wanted to, it's not exactly rocket science.

Especially considering that Unreal Marketplace (which has exactly the same purchase UI with EGS) had shopping cart for years.

 

[karoliner]

The long dark is cool. Alien and metro are okay too. The rest can go suck it.

 

[Dexter]

Meanwhile I'm here debating whether I should buy The Pathless for 6 dollars. Honestly I found a platform having a built-in wallet system makes it easier to impulse buy rather than... the lack of shopping cart.

I usually buy in Bulk, this includes Amazon and physical products too, less parcels are less hassle, going through the ordering process several times would also be annoying:

 

[GrainWetski]

Gaming forums, where we argue that full-priced video games being given away for free are bad for you.

What full-priced games are they giving away for free? They're currently giving away Defense Grid, a 2008 game regularly sold for just above 1€ and given away for free before. It's without the DLC like with the other old, and also previously given away for free on other places, Cities Skylines.

Turns out, they don't actually get much out of it so it's old games without DLC. Very generous and kind of them. Praise Timothy and Epic for saving PC gaming for the big bad Steam.

Well they did bring some console exclusives to PC and they financed a couple of game studios. Diabotical got released with Epic's help and they provided annual esports prize money as well. The price was their exclusivity but who knows if the game would even come out without it.

Akshually, at least some of those games were in the process of being ported and Epic just bought exclusivity.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yes, their model seems to be giving away the base game and expecting you to buy DLC.

 

[moraes]

Discount + coupon makes their sales superior to Steam, at least in Brazil.