Epic Games CEO says it’s time for Valve to look back, not just forward…
The Verge interviewed Tim Sweeney and there were several topics of discussion. One of the topics was whether the Epic Games Store is more than just a game store, i.e. should it be treated more like a general app store. This was the answer from the Epic Games boss: “The Epic Games Store is not a game store, right? It’s the store that Epic Games runs. So we already have a lot of non-games in there. We’ve got the Brave web browser, we’ve got a number of software development tools, including Unreal Engine, and there’s more coming, including some other great development tools and productivity tools. We’ll host any kind of application that anybody wants. I think the gaming market is something that we’re uniquely close to, and so I think we’ll probably be able to forge closer partnerships and opportunities in gaming, but we’ll be open to everybody on Android just like we are on PC.”
The Epic Games Store was unveiled at The Game Awards five years ago to provide an alternative to Steam’s near-monopoly, where developers could sell at a higher margin (Steam, Google Play Store, and Apple App Store all generally operate at 30%; Epic Games Store takes 12%, and if you sell games made with Unreal Engine through EGS, you don’t have to pay the 5% fee). They often offer free games (usually one major or two minor ones per week, at the end of the year it’s daily, but we’ll come back to that), and it’s common to have exclusivity agreements with developers.
“We’ve gotten so much traction with Fortnite in so many different ways, and with the Epic Games Store, right, we’re going to continue to invest heavily here. The Epic Games Store is the untold success story in the background. Since it launched in 2018, we now have 80 million monthly active users. Steam has 120 million, so we’re catching up fast,” added Sweeney, who says they use a different model than Steam (“a ridiculously aggressive, pursuit model,” 11 on a scale of 10), so expect more exclusive titles. But Sweeney also praised Valve because he likes the Steam Deck: “If only we had a few more programmers. It’s the Linux problem. I love the Steam Deck hardware. Valve has done an amazing job with it; I wish they would get to tens of millions of users, then it would actually make sense to support it.
Billbil-kun, who previously leaked the PlayStation Plus Essential games, wrote that the Epic Games Store will be running a holiday giveaway again this year. The first game is Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (the free-to-play game with The Witch Queen, Beyond Light, and Shadowkeep expansions), which has been confirmed to be available for free on EGS as of yesterday afternoon. What is not yet official, however, is that 17 games will be given away for free on Sweeney’s digital platform, with 15 games being given away by the Epic Games Store between 2020 and 2022 at the end of the year, and 12 in 2019. The question is, how many of these will be re-releases?
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