Epic Games have now officially announced their own store, which is certainly going to be one to keep an eye on.
I've been saying it for a while, especially after being privately shown screenshots of their newer launcher that Epic would be doing their own store. I was right on the money—for once.
Soon we'll launch the Epic Games store, and begin a long journey to advance the cause of all developers. The store will launch with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac, then it will open up more broadly to other games and to Android and other open platforms throughout 2019.
Emphasis mine, because that could indicate Epic finally moving towards properly supporting Linux. I mean, apart from Windows, Mac and Android - what other open platforms are left that would be worth it? Linux. Apple have a very locked-down platform on mobile, so I would be doubtful of it going there. Same with the consoles, they're locked down.
The interesting thing here, is that Epic quite rightly have a massive pull in the industry. Fornite, only available through their launcher is the number 1 game in the world right now. Everyone knows what it is and so it's going to give Epic Games a good chance to be a very big store.
Not only that, their revenue share is 88% for developers, which is massive compared to most (better than Steam's). On top of that, if you're using Unreal Engine for your game Epic will even cover the 5% engine royalty in their cut. Although, to be clear, they state their store will be open to any game engine.
This is going to be a massive kick up Valve's backside to do better at everything. I'm all for it, competition is healthy even if I do groan at times at "yet another launcher". Epic have been doing good work with their community, so hopefully we will be able to get in on this next year. Heck, if Fortnite came to Linux—my son and I would be over the moon with joy. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself there…
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I really hope they support Linux as with the low % take they could really hoover up the indies where the extra revenue they would see would be keenly felt. And the lack of a Linux version of the storefront could be detrimental to us in the longterm.
Time to start tweeting EPIC lobbying for a commitment to a Linux version of the storefront.
Time to start tweeting EPIC lobbying for a commitment to a Linux version of the storefront.
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morgancoxuk 4 Dec 2018
Maybe they are planning to support Hurd...
11 Likes, Who?
Yeah...
"...PC and Mac..."
...sounds so not Linux at all :(
Last edited by Boldos on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:50 pm UTC
"...PC and Mac..."
...sounds so not Linux at all :(
Last edited by Boldos on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:50 pm UTC
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I'm surprised they didn't mention Linux explicitly. With Tim Sweeney constantly complaining about MS lock-in, you would have expected him to put Linux front and center in the store announcement. I don't care about launchers, but let's hope the store will have DRM-free options.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:40 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:40 pm UTC
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People will really piss off for having such a huge number of stores in order to have their games. All this stupidity will just benefit console gaming in the end...
5 Likes, Who?
People will really piss off for having such a huge number of stores in order to have their games. All this stupidity will just benefit console gaming in the end...
Number of stores is not a problem (or do you prefer oligopoly?), as long as they won't start pushing the sick exclusives approach.
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People will really piss off for having such a huge number of stores in order to have their games. All this stupidity will just benefit console gaming in the end...
Number of stores is not a problem (or do you prefer oligopoly?), as long as they won't start pushing the sick exclusives approach.
Each company now has a store, and you're almost forced to have it installed in order to play the game. The problem is that you can't have anymore a standalone installation and that will piss off a lot of people, believe me.
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That 12% is something they had to do if they wanted to stand any kind of chance since they can't offer a customer base of a few hundred million people. Question remains what they will do for that. Steam is a whole lot more than just a store and it remains to be seen how effective they will be in the competition.
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Each company now has a store, and you're almost forced to have it installed in order to play the game. The problem is that you can't have anymore a standalone installation and that will piss off a lot of people, believe me.
I personally don't "install stores" :) I buy only DRM-free games, so yes that mean standalone installation.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:44 pm UTC
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Each company now has a store, and you're almost forced to have it installed in order to play the game. The problem is that you can't have anymore a standalone installation and that will piss off a lot of people, believe me.
I personally don't "install stores" :) I buy only DRM-free games, so yes that mean standalone installation.
Yes, but even GoG now force you to have their if you want to play on multiplayer some games. Not to mention the bad support that GoG has give to Linux gaming...
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They will push the exclusives approach. With more and more competing stores, they will each need something to set themselves apart from the competition. Enter exclusives. It happened with streaming services, it will happen here too. It's been happening in console gaming for years
From what I've heard, exclusives are dying out in consoles space. It makes zero sense for developers to limit their reach. I.e. as a developer you want to sell in all stores to reach more users. At least for independent developers, who aren't controlled by the store itself.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 Dec 2018 at 3:46 pm UTC
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From what I've heard, exclusives are dying out in consoles space. It makes zero sense for developers to limit their reach. I.e. as a developer you want to sell in all stores to reach more users. At least for independent developers, who aren't controlled by the store itself.Third party exclusives are dying, but not first party which are increasing.
On PC Fortnite can be considered as an Epic Store exclusive.
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Third party exclusives are dying, but not first party which are increasing.
On PC Fortnite can be considered as an Epic Store exclusive.
I don't care about first party ones most of the time, since they are by big publishers who push DRM. And as you said, third party exclusives aren't a thing and such developers are also more likely to release DRM-free and for Linux.
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until EPIC Games bring fortnite to Linux Im not supporting them, i know they dont like windows but they dont act like they they love the platform
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Kimyrielle 4 Dec 2018
More competition is a good thing. What the world however does NOT need is the kind of competition-less fragmentation where competitors open "stores" that more or less are meant for their own products, which they then refuse to sell anywhere else. Like...Origin. A true competitor for Steam would be a good thing, but we really don't need yet another DRM platform disguised as a store.
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Schattenspiegel 4 Dec 2018
Yet another launcher/store.
Given the design of their webpage it will probably be a pretty annoying one as well.
Let them present a finished product and have a decent selection of titles(that better not be exclusive to their store) available and one may think about it otherwise... who cares.
Given the design of their webpage it will probably be a pretty annoying one as well.
Let them present a finished product and have a decent selection of titles(that better not be exclusive to their store) available and one may think about it otherwise... who cares.
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Arehandoro 4 Dec 2018
First was individual installers due to each game coming in its own physical medium.
Then Steam came and for long time was the only one centralised platform to have it all.
After that, more centralised platforms appeared here and there to some extent.
Now there are quite a few platforms and the trend seems to llok at more in the future.
At the end it will be the same like before but without the physical medium.
Life's a circle.
Then Steam came and for long time was the only one centralised platform to have it all.
After that, more centralised platforms appeared here and there to some extent.
Now there are quite a few platforms and the trend seems to llok at more in the future.
At the end it will be the same like before but without the physical medium.
Life's a circle.
5 Likes, Who?
People will really piss off for having such a huge number of stores in order to have their games. All this stupidity will just benefit console gaming in the end...
Number of stores is not a problem (or do you prefer oligopoly?), as long as they won't start pushing the sick exclusives approach.
Number of stores isn't a problem, but number of store clients is. In an ideal world you would be able to use a single FOSS client to install and update all your games (plus install mods, connect to multiplayer, achievements and other social features, etc) regardless on who you buy it from. But we are far from that reality. Buying a game on GOG often means missing out on mods only available on Steam, for example. Buying from some stores means terrible DRM and launchers. And so on.
Also, if the stores are filled with exclusives, the competition is severely limited - you can't choose who you want to buy each game from, just what games you want (which is competition between developers, and shouldn't be the competition between the stores...).
Regarding this new Epic store... this company has a single product so far, which isn't available on Linux. I would not call this promising for us.
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walther von stolzing 4 Dec 2018
Regarding this new Epic store... this company has a single product so far, which isn't available on Linux. I would not call this promising for us.
Nah, Jazz Jackrabbit Collection is available on Linux -- and DRM-free to boot.
The sequel isn't though.
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I think people need to look outside the bubble for a moment. Look at what happened with Steam, we didn't think it was really coming and it eventually did. At that time, Valve also had nothing on Linux.
Why are people instantly counting Epic out, when the situation is the same? Like I said in the article, there's no other "open" platform left - it's got to be Linux.
Why are people instantly counting Epic out, when the situation is the same? Like I said in the article, there's no other "open" platform left - it's got to be Linux.
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