At the end of last year, Epic Games the company behind Fortnite announced the launch of Epic Games Store a place where you can search for new games and buy them. One of the first things Epic announced about their store was the revenue split, which allowed developers to keep 88% of the sales.
With Epic having the attention of developers from Indies to big companies the battlefield was set and was made clear by the company after comparing the revenue split with Steam, that they don’t just want to be another launcher but they want to be THE launcher.
Companies history
Steam was first launched in September of 2003 and it’s been developed by Valve Corporation the company behind Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Over the years Steam managed to become the main platform for gamers to buy their games. With 15 years of experience, Valve has implemented a lot of famous features in its client, like the automated update system for games, the ability to invite or join a friends game from Steams friend list, a mobile app to buy games and chat with your friends and many more.
With that being said who is the “Fortnite company”?
Epic Games was first launched under the name Potomac Computer Systems in 1991 by Tim Sweeney and was renamed Epic MegaGames until 1999 which then got the name that we know today.
Epic Games is the developer of Unreal Engine, without a doubt one of the best game engines that power’s games like Fortnite, Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and many more. Unreal Engine also became free to use in 2015 becoming available to even more developers!
Epic Games is also the developer of Unreal Tournament, one of the main competitors of Quake back in the days. A titled known and loved by millions.
Due to Fortnite a lot of people know Epic Games only for this game and know nothing about the companies history and its experience in the gaming industry.
Epic Games Store vs Steam
Epic Games Store has changed since it’s first launched and still being developed to able to compete with Steam. Fortnite’s success, fuels the development of the store and updates are happening extremely fast with new features implemented into the store each month.
But at its current state how does Epic Games Store compares to Steam?
Let’s begin with the storefronts. It’s clear that Epic is going for a more minimalistic approach and promotes simplicity.
To greet you the first thing that you see is the free games that the store offers. Every two weeks the store offers a new title and Epic has announced that this promotion will certainly run for the rest of 2019.
In the latest updates, Search functionality has been added to the store. However, there is no category selection or any other way to short the games. You can currently have to scroll all the way down to see the available titles that they have.
On the other hand, Steam has more information and selections. You got the top bar that immediately offers you the capability to search for more specific genres, titles etc. And a featured banner with the latest hot game that is out or coming out.
The Home page has also games that you might like based on games that you have played and or have on your wish-list. Also if scrolling is your thing, Steam allows you to infinite scroll down and see more and more titles. Something that comes in handy, taking under consideration how many titles Steam has.
Continuing the minimalistic approach when you open the games page you are greeted with a big banner that can either be the games trailer or cover art and also the price.
As you scroll you can also see a small description of the game, screenshots and videos, social links of the developer and the system requirements as well as the ESRB rating of the game.
While Steam offers you a more detailed approach making clear if the games are in early access, what the game is, its genre, a list with the recent updates to see the games development progress and what modes the games supports.
All the above information are really important and they are missing from the Epic’s Store. Currently, the only way to learn more about the game is by visiting the developer’s page.
Steam also offers user reviews that even if it’s struggling to manage them properly is still a very important aspect of its store. Although that is something that Epic announced on their roadmap that will come to the store in the next 4–6 months. But the review system will be optional and the developers will choose if they want to enable it or disable it.
How does Epic Games is planning to compete with the already establish Steam?
The current strategy is through exclusive titles that will only be available for purchase through Epic Games Store. Some of those exclusives will be for a certain time for example Metro Exodus will become available to Steam in 2020 a year after it’s initial release.
Another strategy that Epic uses is free games promotion. And in GDC they also announced that Ubisoft games will become available to their store and they will also use the free games promotion for Ubisoft’s products.
Since Epic Games is developer-friendly they announced that through the support-a-creator program developers will be able to give affiliate links to influencers to use when they promote the game and take a cut out of each sale. Something that we have currently encountered mainly through Amazonthat owns Twitch and this feature was heavily implemented in the streaming platform.
Last but not least Epic is using Fortnite’s popularity to attract developers. As they state on their website.
“Reach Players: Connect with millions of Fortnite players who are already in the Epic Games ecosystem.”
Developers vs Users
As I mentioned above Epic seems to be developer-friendly, with the revenue split that is better than Steams, a free game engine to develop your game, helping developers with developing and promoting their game. It’s no wonder why developers are turning to the Epic Games Store and making deals for exclusives and more.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have the users, and the current state of the store is definitely not user-friendly, although the roadmap that Epic made public seems promising. Users are still not trusting Epic enough to become their main platform. Steam is been around for ages and has earned customers loyalty, something that Epic struggles to do, as long as it’s known as the “Fortnite company”
The roadmap seems to be focusing on adding more functionality to the store for better user experience and for better communication between developers and customers.
“The War” — (Opinion)
After the announcement of Epics store, a war has erupted at social media dividing people between the two stores. Hardcore Steam fans are labeling the exclusives as an unacceptable move from Epics side and that they are trying to force people to come to their store, instead of giving them a choice.
What people seem to miss out is that Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft has their own launchers too, forcing you to have multiple applications, but it seems that as long as the launcher is company exclusive, it’s tolerable. But not when it comes to a gaming hub. Uplay ( Ubisoft’s launcher ) if you buy a game via Steam is also forcing you to open their launcher!
Also, GOG and Itch.io the only launchers coming close to something similar as Steam have a very specific title choice which is currently not making them a competitor. For so long there was no actual competitor to Steam, something that enabled Valve to pretty much does whatever they want, with no one forcing their hand besides the community, in case of a big mistake.
Epic Games has managed even in this early stage to establish themselves as a Steam competitor and bring PC exclusives like Beyond Two Souls, Detroit Become Human and Heavy Rain that probably otherwise we would never get on PC. Showing the importance of having competition.
What’s next?
For Steam, we are expecting a UI overhaul that Valve finally showed at this year GDC. And I am also expecting from Valve to start more aggressive marketing now that they have a competitor.
For Epic Games, the future seems promising and if we take under consideration their roadmap the next 6 months will be crucial for the development of their store as well as the promotion. Epic also announced that they will not continue the exclusives tactic forever but it’s crucial in order to gain an audience in the early stage. Something that is also worth mentioning is that their store currently has more unreleased titles than the ones you can actually play right now.
Conclusion
For me picking a side, can only make you lose what the other side has to offer. As a customer being able to take all the advantages both stores provide me with, seems like the best tactic. Steam will continue to have my loyalty as an established launcher with a huge player base but Epic Games Store will also have my attention especially for Indie titles that I would like to give an extra buck to the developers.
Which side are you on and why? I would like to hear your opinions especially if you don’t agree with some or all of my points.
Resources :
Epic Games Store Roadmap – Trello
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