Epic Games Store Plays the Game
Steam’s rival gives its users a free game every two weeks
ONE OF THE BIGGEST controversies of 2019 so far has been the Epic Games Store— and more specifically, EGS paying for timed exclusives. Formerly the home of Fortnite and Unreal Tournament, EGS is now looking to take on Steam. And after procuring Metro Exodus in February, EGS has added several more high-profile games to its list of timed exclusives: Borderlands3 ,The Outer Worlds, Control, and Vampire the Masquerade— Bloodlines2. Needless to say, there are more than a few unhappy gamers.
I understand why people are upset. Steam is convenient, it works well, we have Steam friends lists, it supports cloud saves, you can easily transfer files between PCs, and more. But I also fully support Epic’s choice to compete, especially when it’s doing so not only with timed exclusives, but also by giving away free games every two weeks, reinvesting $200 million into game developers, “no strings attached,” and perhaps most importantly by taking 12 percent commission compared to Steam’s 30 percent. (Steam has added a tiered commission structure, where it reduces its cut to 25 or 20 percent for games that reach $10 million and $50 million in sales, respectively.)
Steam is good but it’s certainly not perfect, and EGS is a lot like Steam was back when it first launched. But just like Valve used Half-Life2 as a means of boosting Steam into the stratosphere, Epic is now attempting the same thing via Fortnite. Plus, I’m already used to having half a dozen game launchers, and as far as privacy goes, I’m far more concerned with my smartphone than with anything that Epic might learn from my gaming habits.
Epic has a lot to work on, and it has a roadmap for EGS updates already laid out. Is Steam’s dominance finally starting to falter? We won’t know for certain for at least a couple of years.