Tim Sweeney’s digital platform may be undergoing a change that would take the Epic Games Store in a slightly different direction than Steam.

Steam does not have a subscription service. No, we’re not talking about the monthly subscription systems offered by external third parties (e.g. Ubisoft+, EA Play, etc…), but something that is run directly by Valve. Subscription-based systems are growing and more and more game publishers are offering them, but Sony has the three tiers of PlayStation Plus (Essential, Extra, Premium) and Microsoft has the Xbox Game Pass (Core, Basic, Ultimate), which is also divided into three tiers.

PlayStation Now (now part of PlayStation Plus) was one of the first Subscription-as-a-Service (SaaS) products, and Microsoft responded a few years later. Epic Games may soon join the growing family, if the leak on Reddit is true. Tim Sweeney plans to offer monthly and annual subscriptions, and discounts would be offered along with the subscription. EA Play could be one of the services included in the bundle, and time-limited demos could reportedly be implemented. While Fortnite, Epic Games’ flagship game, already has a subscription system, the company has not commented on its plans for EGS.

Just a week after Ubisoft changed Ubisoft+, the French company now has two levels of service (Ubisoft+ Classics is $8/month and Ubisoft+ Premium is $18/month). The premium level allows you to play the latest games as soon as they are released, while the cheaper subscription allows you to play older games (like Rainbow Six Siege). You can either follow this pricing strategy with Epic Games or go the Xbox Game Pass route.

In September, Epic Games laid off 870 employees, about 16% of its workforce, sold most of SuperAwesome, and got rid of Bandcamp altogether. The reasoning? Cost cutting, and they don’t want to change the core focus of Epic Games…

Source: GameRant