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.
Quoting: GuestThey 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 December 2018 at 3:46 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlFrom 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.
Quoting: SpykerThird 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.
Kimyrielle Dec 4, 2018
Schattenspiegel Dec 4, 2018
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.
Arehandoro Dec 4, 2018
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.
Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: x_wingPeople 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.
wvstolzing Dec 4, 2018
Quoting: eldakingRegarding 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.
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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