Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[NJClaw]

Though Epic Games is giving away games for Christmas, not everything that seems free truly is. Either by lousy design, stealthy data collection, or a combination of the two, the Epic Games Launcher appears to be continuously running some sort of relatively demanding process in the background.

It's almost like some thing someone said a week ago when retards were going around yelling "Free Gaymes!" excitedly.

Wow, you must be some kind of genius. I'm sure that people who took those games for free were absolutely certain that Epic Games was gifting them out of goodwill. Those people definitely weren't willing to pay with their data instead of their money.

Can you try to explain why getting free games in exchange for your data and your presence on their platform is a bad idea, while giving your data to Steam absolutely for free is perfectly fine?

 

[Frank Capicoli]

I just wait for exclusives to hit Steam and/or GoG because I don't care about day one purchasing.

Most games are so buggy at release these days that waiting a year is usually a blessing.

Besides, they usually slap a large discount on them to tempt Steam users to buy them.

Win/Win.

Waiting on Epic! exclusivity to end helped me dodge a bullet on both Ashen and The Outer Worlds.

 

[Tacgnol]

Though Epic Games is giving away games for Christmas, not everything that seems free truly is. Either by lousy design, stealthy data collection, or a combination of the two, the Epic Games Launcher appears to be continuously running some sort of relatively demanding process in the background.

It's almost like some thing someone said a week ago when retards were going around yelling "Free Gaymes!" excitedly.

Wow, you must be some kind of genius. I'm sure that people who took those games for free were absolutely certain that Epic Games was gifting them out of goodwill. Those people definitely weren't willing to pay with their data instead of their money.

Can you try to explain why getting free games in exchange for your data and your presence on their platform is a bad idea, while giving your data to Steam absolutely for free is perfectly fine?

Valve isn't owned by Tencent.

 

[JarlFrank]

Though Epic Games is giving away games for Christmas, not everything that seems free truly is. Either by lousy design, stealthy data collection, or a combination of the two, the Epic Games Launcher appears to be continuously running some sort of relatively demanding process in the background.

It's almost like some thing someone said a week ago when retards were going around yelling "Free Gaymes!" excitedly.

Wow, you must be some kind of genius. I'm sure that people who took those games for free were absolutely certain that Epic Games was gifting them out of goodwill. Those people definitely weren't willing to pay with their data instead of their money.

Can you try to explain why getting free games in exchange for your data and your presence on their platform is a bad idea, while giving your data to Steam absolutely for free is perfectly fine?

Valve isn't owned by Tencent.

Also Valve's launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources and sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server.

 

[Tacgnol]

Though Epic Games is giving away games for Christmas, not everything that seems free truly is. Either by lousy design, stealthy data collection, or a combination of the two, the Epic Games Launcher appears to be continuously running some sort of relatively demanding process in the background.

It's almost like some thing someone said a week ago when retards were going around yelling "Free Gaymes!" excitedly.

Wow, you must be some kind of genius. I'm sure that people who took those games for free were absolutely certain that Epic Games was gifting them out of goodwill. Those people definitely weren't willing to pay with their data instead of their money.

Can you try to explain why getting free games in exchange for your data and your presence on their platform is a bad idea, while giving your data to Steam absolutely for free is perfectly fine?

Valve isn't owned by Tencent.

Also Valve's launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources and sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server.

Knowing how shady Kung Pao Tim and Sergei are, my money is on cryptominer + data gathering. CPU usage "bug" my ass.

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those damn meddling kids and their task manager.

 

[NJClaw]

Though Epic Games is giving away games for Christmas, not everything that seems free truly is. Either by lousy design, stealthy data collection, or a combination of the two, the Epic Games Launcher appears to be continuously running some sort of relatively demanding process in the background.

It's almost like some thing someone said a week ago when retards were going around yelling "Free Gaymes!" excitedly.

Wow, you must be some kind of genius. I'm sure that people who took those games for free were absolutely certain that Epic Games was gifting them out of goodwill. Those people definitely weren't willing to pay with their data instead of their money.

Can you try to explain why getting free games in exchange for your data and your presence on their platform is a bad idea, while giving your data to Steam absolutely for free is perfectly fine?

Valve isn't owned by Tencent.

Also Valve's launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources and sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server.

And the Epic Games launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources, or sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server either, since I'm able to use my fingers to close the program as soon as I launch the game.

 

[Duralux for Durabux]

Also Valve's launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources and sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server.

America GOOD, China BAD.

 

[JarlFrank]

And the Epic Games launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources, or sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server either, since I'm able to use my fingers to close the program as soon as I launch the game.

The program shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

 

[markec]

Some two months ago my graphic card died and while waiting for replacement I used my integrated graphics. With it I easily browsed net, watched movies, played some old games on GoG and Steam, Epic Store launcher on the other hand was pretty much unusable.

 

[DalekFlay]

America GOOD, China BAD.

Let's wait and see how America looks in 5 years or so.

 

[Reinhardt]

America GOOD, China BAD.

Let's wait and see how America looks in 5 years or so.

Nigger, you voted for Biden. It's your fault.

 

[Duralux for Durabux]

Nigger, you voted for Biden. It's your fault.

White hat or hat White?

 

[karoliner]

The official PRC store is giving away STAR WARS Battlefront II.

 

[Malamert]

The official PRC store is giving away STAR WARS Battlefront II.

Oh, it's the 2017 garbage. Thought for a second that it was the good stuff, the real deal, the classic one. What a shame.

 

[DalekFlay]

Oh, it's the 2017 garbage. Thought for a second that it was the good stuff, the real deal, the classic one. What a shame.

That one's been on sale for like $1 a hundred times on GOG and Steam, so not sure how exciting that would be.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Also Valve's launcher isn't datamining my computer, hogging my resources and sending suspiciously high amounts of data to their server.

America GOOD, China BAD.

Epic(and any other company remotely related to China) are bad for the same reason Google, Facebook, etc., are bad.
The difference between US and Chinese corporations is that all US corporations aren't inherently being controlled by the state, but most(nearly all) of the big ones are. Whereas in China, all businesses are de facto owned by the state(this was the conclusion Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board came to FYI.) Another major difference is that while China is a one-party state that holds all power, USA is not so. e.g., see Apple refusing to unlock a dead terrorist's iphone at the behest of the FBI(something that would never happen in PRC) despite regularly working with other parts of the government to help infringe upon the rights of US citizens. A one-party state is far more dangerous than one that has competing powers, even if you dislike all of the competing powers.
I'm sorry if you have trouble understanding this.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Epic Game Store's 2020 Year in Review:

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/epic-games-store-2020-year-in-review

Epic Games Store 2020 Year in Review
1.28.2021
Happy New Year and Welcome to 2021!
We’re only a few weeks into the New Year and what better way to kick things off than to confirm that weekly free games are going to continue on the Epic Games Store in 2021! It’s been an incredible year of growth for us on many levels so we’re excited to share details about 2020.
As we look back at 2020 on the Epic Games Store, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of our partners who helped us bring joy to so many gamers around the world over the past year. Adapting to constantly changing challenges is no easy feat and we're grateful for this community of developers, publishers, players and creators.

Thanks to this community, the Epic Games Store saw historic growth in engagement across the board. There are now over 160 million Epic Games Store PC users. Daily active users are up 192% to 31.3 million daily active players, with a peak CCU 13 million concurrent players this year (up from 7M in 2019). Monthly active users in December rose from 32 million in 2019 to 56 million.
This surge in player growth has also led to an increase in purchasing and play time! In 2020, PC customers on the Epic Games Store spent over $700M of which third party games represented 37% at $265M. Last year, the Epic Games Store community played 70% more hours with a total playtime of 5.70 billion hours in 2020 compared to 3.35 billion hours in 2019.

We're making strides to offer more titles on the store by onboarding more developers and introducing their titles to the Epic Games ecosystem. The Epic Games Store grew from 190 games in 2019 to 471 in 2020. We released 103 weekly free games which were a big part of the titles that made their way to the store. In 2021, we’re going to rapidly expand the catalog of new titles available on the Epic Games Store even further by providing developers with self-publishing tools for the EGS Platform and we’ll be releasing details on those specific plans soon.

Check out more year-end results:

Shipped Store Features in 2020
Wishlisting was a major feature initially released in February 2020 and continued to see incremental improvements throughout the year. We followed with the release of Mod Support which continues to incorporate more mod-supported titles on the Epic Games Store. We also shipped numerous Storefront visual improvements in 2020, including changes to the Discover and Browse options, as well as an updated Carousel in December 2020.

We’ve also added:

• Open Critic Reviews
• Self-Service Refunds
• 19 new Currencies
• Direct Carrier Billing in numerous countries
• Offline Sign-In
• Launcher performance improvements (Big help for Mac)
• Improved browsing for Add-On content
• Early Access Messaging
• Price-Based Filters

There have been substantial infrastructure changes that have not been in plain view for our PC customers to see. One such change is toward our Epic Games Store developer publishing tools. Continuing to improve our publishing tools has provided the opportunity to bring more games to the Epic Games Store in 2020 and as we march toward complete self-publishing tools, we expect to see even more new titles published. Disclaimer: Yes, we’ve mentioned self-publishing tools three times now because it’s just that important! More Games. More Options. More Fun.

What’s coming in 2021?
Much of the development work this year is centered on opening the store to developers that want to publish titles on the store. We want a smooth, seamless experience for developers looking to bring their titles to the Epic Games Store. This unlocks the ability for Epic Games Store customers to purchase the games they want, when they want while developers enjoy a much fairer revenue share split.

We’re improving existing features like Wishlists and Achievements in 2021. There’s a major priority to release more community-oriented features that provide a more personalized experience.

Here’s a quick glance at features we’re working on:

• Wishlist Improvements
• Social Overhaul
• Achievements
• Player Profiles
• 

You can stay up to date on features coming to the Epic Games Store by bookmarking and checking out the official Trello.

To the Epic Games PC community and developers, we thank you for continuing to support the Epic Games Store, we wish you all the very best! We’ll have a number of surprises coming in the year in addition to major game releases so buckle up for a fun time!

 

[V_K]

Hmm, interesting. Steam numbers for the same period:

Total hours played on Steam games skyrocketed by over 50 percent, from 20.8 billion in 2019 to around 31.3 billion. The platform pulled in a horde of new players as well. Each month, an average of 2.6 million people bought a Steam game for the first time. Valve says Steam hit new highs on other fronts, including monthly active users (120.4 million), daily players (62.6 million), peak concurrent users (24.8 million) and game purchases (21.4 percent more than 2019).

So roughly twice the amount of Epic's reported monthly, daily and concurrent active players - but 6 times the amount of hours played.
And there's no 2020 numbers, but Steam's revenue in 2017 was reported to be 4.3 bn., so also 6 times that of Epic - or 16 times if we consider only "third party games".
Is it just me or Epic's active user numbers smell fishy?

 

[Konjad]

Hmm, interesting. Steam numbers for the same period:

Total hours played on Steam games skyrocketed by over 50 percent, from 20.8 billion in 2019 to around 31.3 billion. The platform pulled in a horde of new players as well. Each month, an average of 2.6 million people bought a Steam game for the first time. Valve says Steam hit new highs on other fronts, including monthly active users (120.4 million), daily players (62.6 million), peak concurrent users (24.8 million) and game purchases (21.4 percent more than 2019).

So roughly twice the amount of Epic's reported monthly, daily and concurrent active players - but 6 times the amount of hours played.
And there's no 2020 numbers, but Steam's revenue in 2017 was reported to be 4.3 bn., so also 6 times that of Epic - or 16 times if we consider only "third party games".
Is it just me or Epic's active user numbers smell fishy?

Probably just a large amount of Epic's "users" just log often to add free games to their account, and that's it, mostly don't even bother to play them.

 

[karoliner]

That's literally what i do.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Hmm, interesting. Steam numbers for the same period:

Total hours played on Steam games skyrocketed by over 50 percent, from 20.8 billion in 2019 to around 31.3 billion. The platform pulled in a horde of new players as well. Each month, an average of 2.6 million people bought a Steam game for the first time. Valve says Steam hit new highs on other fronts, including monthly active users (120.4 million), daily players (62.6 million), peak concurrent users (24.8 million) and game purchases (21.4 percent more than 2019).

So roughly twice the amount of Epic's reported monthly, daily and concurrent active players - but 6 times the amount of hours played.
And there's no 2020 numbers, but Steam's revenue in 2017 was reported to be 4.3 bn., so also 6 times that of Epic - or 16 times if we consider only "third party games".
Is it just me or Epic's active user numbers smell fishy?

i remind you how they got their accounts numbers: no email validation required, buy lists of email addresses, register an account themselves.
every thing they do or just say is way beyond "fishy". don't trust them, epichina is asshoe.

 

[Dexter]

You just know there's an easier/shorter way of saying "We have had absolutely no growth as our Excl000sive buying spree sputtered to a halt and our bribes didn't incentivize enough people to actually buy anything."

Epic Games today offered an update on the growth of the Epic Games Store. Launched in December of 2018, the store to-date has racked up $680 million in spending from 108 million PC customers.

While much of that total can be accounted for by Epic's own hit Fortnite, the company noted that $251 million has been spent by players on third-party PC games.

Also infographics.

This surge in player growth has also led to an increase in purchasing and play time! In 2020, PC customers on the Epic Games Store spent over $700M of which third party games represented 37% at $265M.

Check out more year-end results:

 

[DalekFlay]

You just know there's an easier/shorter way of saying "We have had absolutely no growth as our Excl000sive buying spree sputtered to a halt and our bribes didn't incentivize enough people to actually buy anything."

I think there's been enough evidence that people buy there when they have to. Hitman 3 for example, last week. The problem is Epic are offering absolutely zero reason to buy anything else there.

 

[JBro]

I think there's been enough evidence that people buy there when they have to. Hitman 3 for example

I doubt even that. Hitman 3's console sales are carrying it. Same with Borderlands 3 back when it came out.

 

[DalekFlay]

I doubt even that. Hitman 3's console sales are carrying it. Same with Borderlands 3 back when it came out.

Citation needed. There's been plenty of developer comments about selling well there. I know you think they're lying, because it gives you good feels, but I doubt it. Exclusives have always worked with video games, it's why there's more than one console. The trick is turning those exclusives into repeat customers, and I don't see any way in which they're doing that.