Tim Sweeney on EGS' Impact

A lengthy series of tweets from Tim Sweeney looks to address some of the concerns gamers have expressed over Epic Games Store exclusives and other issues:
This question gets to the core of Epic’s strategy for competing with dominant storefronts. We believe exclusives are the only strategy that will change the 70/30 status quo at a large enough scale to permanently affect the whole game industry.

For example, after years of great work by independent stores (excluding big publishers like EA-Activision-Ubi), none seem to have reached 5% of Steam’s scale. Nearly all have more features than Epic; and the ability to discount games is limited by various external pressures.

This leads to the strategy of exclusives which, though unpopular with dedicated Steam gamers, do work, as established by the major publisher storefronts and by the key Epic Games store releases compared to their former Steam revenue projections and their actual console sales.

In judging whether a disruptive move like this is reasonable in gaming, I suggest considering two questions: Is the solution proportionate to the problem it addresses, and are gamers likely benefit from the end goal if it’s ultimately achieved?

The 30% store tax usually exceeds the entire profits of the developer who built the game that’s sold. This is a disastrous situation for developers and publishers alike, so I believe the strategy of exclusives is proportionate to the problem.

If the Epic strategy either succeeds in building a second major storefront for PC games with an 88/12 revenue split, or even just leads other stores to significantly improve their terms, the result will be a major wave of reinvestment in game development and a lowering of costs.

Will the resulting 18% increase in developer and publisher revenue benefit gamers? Such gains are generally split among (1) reinvestment, (2) profit, and (3) price reduction. The more games are competing with each other, the more likely the proceeds are to go to (1) and (3).

So I believe this approach passes the test of ultimately benefitting gamers after game storefronts have rebalanced and developers have reinvested more of their fruits of their labor into creation rather than taxation.

Of course, there are LOTS of challenges along the way, and Epic is fully committed to solving all problems that arise for gamers are for our partners as the Epic Games store grows.
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Re: Tim Sweeney on EGS' Impact
Jul 1, 2019, 11:04
Re: Tim Sweeney on EGS' Impact Jul 1, 2019, 11:04
Jul 1, 2019, 11:04
 
Creston wrote on Jul 1, 2019, 10:54:
Beamer wrote on Jun 28, 2019, 17:48:
Yeah, I know, I said that's one issue.
But you CAN buy EGS keys on Humble Bundle. It's a live feature, but it requires the publisher to work with these stores to provide keys. It isn't Epic holding them back. Borderlands 3 is for preorder on GMG right now. And here it is on the Humble Store. Most of the other games they carry are available on multiple platforms, but not listed on GMG for any (including Steam.)

I was not aware they've been opening up key sales through other stores, which has been one of my big problems with EGS. If they can get a backup solution going the whole thing will be far more palatable for me.

I assume that, when this is solved for and publishers put EGS keys on these sites, it'll all be gravy and there will be no complaints. But from what I understand, neither publishers nor GMG are rushing for this, because it requires a site overhaul on GMG to let people pick which DRM they want, and the demand is currently so low that they're not interested in building it out. Similarly, publishers provide Steam keys to GMG, but aren't super excited to also create a process for EGS keys, since again, far less demand.

Yeah that makes sense.

I mean, I'm not saying it's perfect, or happening in a reasonable manner, just that those angry or fearful shouldn't be angry or fearful.

Those that are irked or annoyed, sure, reasonable. I get that I'm reacting to the worst reactions, but it feels like so many gaming sites aren't "well, this sucks" but more "fuck those greedy assholes, they're going to ruin the game I want to play that isn't even announced yet, I hope they all get nuked!" Getting to something better (i.e., a two-store system in this case) often requires a period of adjustment where things are briefly worse. If Epic truly makes this brief, that's awesome. I think we're still in that window, and appreciate that they're so clear with their roadmap.

But since we're on it, if they're throwing cash around, why not pay GMG to become an EGS key vendor?
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