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Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
15,778
Worked for me. I downloaded the client for a free game or two, can't even remember which, and then since I already had it installed figured I'd pick up a game I was interested in. Hasn't kept me as a long term customer but I'm sure they at least turned a profit on me.
 

cvv

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
18,913
Location
Kingdom of Bohemia
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
I always grab the tree game every week, but I haven't been tempted to buy anything from them yet.
I bought a couple of games but only when they were ridiculously cheap. I mean I bought Rogue Trader: Voidfarer Edition for 30 bucks on release. Three zero. On Steam it's still 100 bucks. Their deals are even more bonkers than Gaben's.

And for every such purchase you get credits so you can "buy" some games for free, got my Darkest Dungeon 2 that way.
 

The Decline

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
8,083
Location
Everywhere
The Epic Games Store exclusivity panic is over: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...the-free-games-program-has-been-just-magical/

Many of Epic's exclusivity deals were 'not good investments,' says Tim Sweeney, but the free games program 'has been just magical'​

The most cost-effective way to get new users on the Epic Games Store has been the free games, not the exclusives.

Epic has been giving away games on the Epic Games Store since it launched at the end of 2018, enticing Steam users to install its launcher with freebies as big as Grand Theft Auto 5 and Civilization 6. More than 580 million free games were claimed just last year.

Giving away half-a-billion game copies a year is not a cheap thing to do. Epic only pays a fraction of each game's list price per copy given away, but it adds up. Thanks to documents that came out during Epic's legal fight with Apple, we learned that the company spent $11.6 million on free games in just the first nine months of the program. Epic has been giving away games for six years now.

However, responding to a question about Epic's free game strategy on a call with press earlier this week, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said that it's been a "very economical" user acquisition program, with the bonus that the budget goes to game developers—a group that it's in a game store's interest to see thrive—rather than toward Facebook or Google ads.

"Giving away free games seems counterintuitive as a strategy, but companies spend money to acquire users into games," said Sweeney. "For about a quarter of the price that it costs to acquire users through Facebook ads or Google Search Ads, we can pay a game developer a lot of money for the right to distribute their game to our users, and we can bring in new users to the Epic Games Store at a very economical rate.

"And you might think that this would hurt the sales prospects of games on the Epic Game Store, but developers who give away free games actually see an upsurge in the sale of their paid games on the store, just because their free game raises awareness. And it's so much that often developers, when they're about to launch a new game, come with us wanting to work closely on a timed release of a free game, just to drive user awareness of their next game. That's been an awesome thing. And it's been by far the most cost effective aspect of the Epic Games Store."

Epic's other big method for attracting new Epic Games Store users has been to strike exclusivity deals with publishers like Ubisoft. It's been an unpopular strategy, and hasn't gone as swimmingly.

"We spent a lot of money on exclusives," said Sweeney. "A few of them worked extremely well. A lot of them were not good investments, but the free games program has been just magical."

Back in 2021, we learned that Epic was likely to lose over $300 million on just the exclusivity deals made up to that point. Epic seems to have slowed down on pursuing exclusivity deals, although it hasn't dropped the strategy.

Epic Games Store exclusivity now also applies to games Epic is funding through the publishing division it started in 2020. The first of those Epic-published games to release was Remedy's Alan Wake 2, which hasn't made a profit yet.

The free games, though: that's a hit. If you want to see what Epic is giving away right now, and every game it's given away in the past, we're keeping track in our Epic Games Store free games list.

I.E. Their Chink masters are pleased with how many idiots willingly gave them personal information.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
18,685
Pathfinder: Wrath

I.E. Their Chink masters are pleased with how many idiots willingly gave them personal information.
Maybe American idiots at best. Epic can't afford to break European privacy laws so if you are in Europe your private information hasn't been leaked by Epic (it has most likely been leaked by Facebook instead).
 

abija

Prophet
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
3,276
You give too much credit to EU. All the things you see in media are just reminders some pockets haven't been "lined" in a while.
I can't remember anything "pro consumer: they did that actually had a positive effect for the consumers. GDPR for example is one of the most abject scams out there.
 

abija

Prophet
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
3,276
Their fines are handouts, not designed to punish. They wouldn't fine Epic something they can't afford to pay.
 

Ryzer

Arcane
Joined
May 1, 2020
Messages
7,492
Steam isn't any better than Epic, it's the same shitty store but on a more popular level without any offered game. Both spyware: former CIA, latter China. Both stores only give temporary access to games.
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
1,876,702
Location
Glass Fields, Ruins of Old Iran
I think Sweeney is telling the truth here, the free games are a pretty cheap investment compared to exclusivity deals and the other big, actual problem.

https://www.gamesradar.com/platform...royale-being-blocked-from-iphone-4-years-ago/

As Fortnite returns to mobile, Tim Sweeney says Epic Games "probably lost over a billion dollars of revenue" as a result of the battle royale being blocked from iPhone 4 years ago​


The Epic Games Store arrives on mobile in certain territories with Fall Guys, Rocket League Sideswipe, and Fortnite

It's cute that people think claiming a free copy of RAWMEN Food Fighter is going to make a dent in his finances, but it really doesn't.
 

ferratilis

Arcane
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2,849
Pej7FG1.png
 

Tehdagah

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
10,207

Epic Will Offer Free Games on Its Mobile Store​


The Epic Games Store is most well-known for offering free games every week. PC gamers have continued to grab freebies for years, and Epic's getting ready to gift the same privilege to mobile gamers. During it's Unreal Fest event at Seattle earlier this week, Epic Games confirmed plans to start giving away third-party games on its mobile store for free, with the first title being ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/epic-will-offer-free-games-on-its-mobile-store/ar-AA1rE8uq

AA1rEjNS.img
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
18,685
Pathfinder: Wrath
It's free because you are the product.
Epic wishes I were the product. Their store is infamous for siphoning resources and getting almost nothing back. Because of Europe's strict privacy laws, Epic can't sell my data to China. Maybe if you are American. Just enjoy the free shit they give out every week, it's fine.
 

rumSaint

Educated
Patron
Joined
Sep 1, 2023
Messages
169
Location
Poland
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
The fact they refuse to make and dropped support for Unreal Tournament mean they are DEAD to me. They can shove their Tencent infected shop up their asses.

It's funny how they were giving genuinely good games early, then started to buy interesting studios, but nothing good came from Epic anyways.
 

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