The Epic Games Store has certainly not been a stranger to controversy in its attempt to become relevant, increase its user base, and potentially displace other platforms where consumers buy their games. Despite the often-negative stories we may be hearing about the platform, the Epic Game Store will surely succeed in the long run because it has the potential to improve upon its current design, it treats developers well, and offers its users a number of free titles.
Epic Games Will Succeed Because They Support Developers In A Number Of Ways
While Epic Games has been catching some flak to signing developers to exclusivity arrangements, it has come to light that in doing so, the developers are receiving a far larger share of the revenue split as compared to what they might have received from Steam.
No matter the size of a developer, be they large or small, profits must be a consideration of their overall plan. One can roll their eyes and spout naïve, idealistic declarations that a real developer should not be in it for the money, but for the passion of creating a game. This is wonderfully unreal, and as fantastic as it would be if that could be true for all developers, it has little room in the reality of developing video games. The industry is business oriented, where any edge can be helpful to ensure a studio survives, and Epic Games offers that edge to the developers it brings aboard. Steam has been around for many years now and shows no signs of changing its revenue sharing.
For those smaller developers, Epic Games may be offering far more than only a greater share of the revenue splitting. Recently, developer Glumberland announced that they had taken an exclusive deal with Epic Games, and that doing so have netted them some initial cash that in turn was used to ensure the game was released exactly as envisioned, without compromise. In that case, taking Epic Games’ funds struck a balance between business interests and a desire to create the best game possible.
Epic Games Is Building A Userbase By Giving Games Away For Free
The entire reason we use a platform, be it Epic Games or Steam, is to play games. There truly is little reason outside of that, and so when Epic Games commits to giving away free games every week for the duration of 2019, consumers will notice. Without spending a penny, one can have a steadily growing library of quality titles that grows week after week that include such titles as Abzu, Celeste, Inside, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, For Honor, Alan Wake, and many, many more. When was the last time Steam did anything like that?
New Features Will Be Added With Time
Many users lament using the Epic Games Store purely because it lacks the same features available on Steam. While this is true, we must also recall that Steam began its life in an entirely different form. The platform has undergone so many changes that looking back one is hard pressed to believe they are one and the same.
To that point, Epic Games has laid out a roadmap of features it will be rolling out in order to better serve consumers who prefer Steam. While changes are not coming as quickly as some would like, the process is certainly advancing, and in the long run, few will remember their issues with the old platform.
While it may not currently be perfect, the overall work of Epic Games is beneficial to consumers and developers alike. In the end, is that not exactly what all platforms should strive to do? We may eventually see Steam do something similar, but it will likely take a little more rattling of the cage to see them react in any meaningful way.
Source: Epicgames.com