Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[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.

 

[LESS T_T]

I wouldn't be surprised if their infinite $10 coupons are more effective allure than exclusivity itself.

 

[Dexter]

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.

We about know what the Maximum Sales volume for a Third-party game is, Borderlands 3 was the most popular game released on the "Epic Games Store" and apparently broke 2 million, everything else including Metro: Exodus and HITMAN 3 is probably lingering around or below the 1 million mark:

https://wccftech.com/borderlands-3-sold-an-estimated-two-million-copies-on-epic-games-store/

This is the number for a moderately successful Indie game on Steam. Even something like Crusader Kings III probably beats that in number and even Early Access games like "Baldur's Gate 3" can do those numbers. Aside from Fortnite there is no other "Breakout Hit" on the Epic Games Store. There is nothing like Destiny 2, Playerunknown Battlegrounds, Cyberpunk 2077, GTA V, Among Us, Fall Guys, Monster Hunter: World, Rainbow Six: Siege, Doom Eternal etc. on there.

Chances are there also cannot be without immense growth first, which seems to not be happening. So if you have a game like that and take the EGS money you are essentially crippling your Launch and very important Year1 where it can become a Breakout Hit or Streaming Sensation or whatever for thirty pieces of silver, dooming your game to be a million Seller at best and maybe get some people interested after the "Excl000sive" period is over. If you lack any confidence in your product being successful maybe it's worth it, otherwise it's very stupid.

The most popular third-party game on EGS sold less than Valve's VR-only game.

 

[fantadomat]

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.

We about know what the Maximum Sales volume for a Third-party game is, Borderlands 3 was the most popular game released on the "Epic Games Store" and apparently broke 2 million, everything else including Metro: Exodus and HITMAN 3 is probably lingering around or below the 1 million mark:

https://wccftech.com/borderlands-3-sold-an-estimated-two-million-copies-on-epic-games-store/

This is the number for a moderately successful Indie game on Steam. Even something like Crusader Kings III probably beats that in number and even Early Access games like "Baldur's Gate 3" can do those numbers. Aside from Fortnite there is no other "Breakout Hit" on the Epic Games Store. There is nothing like Destiny 2, Playerunknown Battlegrounds, Cyberpunk 2077, GTA V, Among Us, Fall Guys, Monster Hunter: World, Rainbow Six: Siege, Doom Eternal etc. on there.

Chances are there also cannot be without immense growth first, which seems to not be happening. So if you have a game like that and take the EGS money you are essentially crippling your Launch and very important Year1 where it can become a Breakout Hit or Streaming Sensation or whatever for thirty pieces of silver, dooming your game to be a million Seller at best and maybe get some people interested after the "Excl000sive" period is over. If you lack any confidence in your product being successful maybe it's worth it, otherwise it's very stupid.

The most popular third-party game on EGS sold less than Valve's VR-only game.

Four years later and we finally agree on something.

Yeah those sells look pretty shit for a high budged generic games. Even games in a niche genre like RPG beat those numbers. They must be at quite the loss from all the shitty bribes and the compensation money they gave for underselling.

Also lol at how pathetic outer worlds sold. I totally had forgot about the goose game beating it in sales .

 

[DalekFlay]

...

"Estimated with Microsoft API data" means what exactly? Honest question.

 

[Tacgnol]

Also lol at how pathetic outer worlds sold. I totally had forgot about the goose game beating it in sales .

I'd forgotten how meme'd that Goose Game had gotten. It was the only thing on Reddit frontpage for like three weeks at the time.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

till their Fortnite money runs out,

you underestimate just how much money they have

 

[V_K]

till their Fortnite money runs out,

you underestimate just how much money they have

They have three expensive court cases running, which aren't a slam dunk (to put it generously) and will go on for years - all the while locked out of iOS market. That'll drain them a lot faster than paid exclusives.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

till their Fortnite money runs out,

you underestimate just how much money they have

They have three expensive court cases running, which aren't a slam dunk (to put it generously) and will go on for years - all the while locked out of iOS market. That'll drain them a lot faster than paid exclusives.

Next you nerds are going to convince yourselves that EA will be dead any day now.

 

[V_K]

till their Fortnite money runs out,

you underestimate just how much money they have

They have three expensive court cases running, which aren't a slam dunk (to put it generously) and will go on for years - all the while locked out of iOS market. That'll drain them a lot faster than paid exclusives.

Next you nerds are going to convince yourselves that EA will be dead any day now.

Not dead, but they did crawl back to Steam eventually after trying and failing to make Origin a thing. And they had a lot more first-party content to attract userbase.

 

[Perkel]

I predicted that the Epic Store will likely stick around for a long while,

I doubt they even spend on whole store thing a month out of their Fornite profits.

 

[Reinhardt]

I doubt they spent more than some curry for lone pajeet. Their store still looks like shit.

 

[lycanwarrior]

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.

They had noticeably fewer exclusives in 2020 vs 2019 as well as less high-profile ones.

I think Borderlands 3 in 2019 was nearly half of all third-party sales.

So much of their 3rd-party sales is still driven by exclusives but somewhat less so than before.

I'd be OK with EPIC doing away with the free games to allocate more resources to improving the store myself.

But even if EPIC were to compete with Steam via store features instead of their current strategy (free games + exclusives), it is by no means certain that it would have been more successful. In fact, it would likely been LESS due to known phenomena of "network effects" and first-mover advantage.

 

[commie]

I wouldn't be surprised if their infinite $10 coupons are more effective allure than exclusivity itself.

They were for me. I only get Ubishit stuff from there as with the discounts and the coupons, there games actually drop to bargain bin tier, and better pricing than anywhere else by far. Ubisoft games run off their own launcher anyway regardless of where you get them, so it doesn't matter to me if I buy from Epic or not. Also the freebies are often things I was wishlisting on Steam for ages. I DGAF about cheevos or other integration though store front itself sucks ass unless you know already what you're after. I did check the roadmap and if they actually implement shit like achievements, that crap alone will make the store a lot more attractive to a multitude of "but does it have achievements?" retards.

 

[commie]

till their Fortnite money runs out,

you underestimate just how much money they have

They have three expensive court cases running, which aren't a slam dunk (to put it generously) and will go on for years - all the while locked out of iOS market. That'll drain them a lot faster than paid exclusives.

Next you nerds are going to convince yourselves that EA will be dead any day now.

#trusttheplan

 

[V_K]

But even if EPIC were to compete with Steam via store features instead of their current strategy (free games + exclusives), it is by no means certain that it would have been more successful. In fact, it would likely been LESS due to known phenomena of "network effects" and first-mover advantage.

Which is exactly why the whole venture is so dumb. The market simply doesn't need another games store, especially not one that can't be bothered to even try distinguishing itself from competition.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Which is exactly why the whole venture is so dumb. The market simply doesn't need another games store, especially not one that can't be bothered to even try distinguishing itself from competition.

Opening another digital store has something of going to where the puck is, not where it's going to.

You could almost think that Sweeney's assault on the app stores' cut (from Steam to Apple) is an act of charity by him - because it will cost Epic more than they will gain.

 

[lycanwarrior]

But even if EPIC were to compete with Steam via store features instead of their current strategy (free games + exclusives), it is by no means certain that it would have been more successful. In fact, it would likely been LESS due to known phenomena of "network effects" and first-mover advantage.

Which is exactly why the whole venture is so dumb. The market simply doesn't need another games store, especially not one that can't be bothered to even try distinguishing itself from competition.

Perhaps. I always thought PC gaming market was more a niche but maybe that has changed in recent times.

 

[Infinitron]

Spoiler