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: GuestUh.....FreeBSD!
Hmm....give me time, I'm sure I can think of something else.
RedoxOS?
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2018 at 4:40 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestThe Atari thing? :)Quoting: liamdaweI 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.
Ouya!
Uh.....FreeBSD!
Hmm....give me time, I'm sure I can think of something else.
Mohandevir Dec 4, 2018
Quoting: Guest... at the very least Valve have been investing in areas that do benefit GNU/Linux...
Do Epic ever contributed to some open source projects? I don't know the answer to this question but could it be the reason why we are so skeptical about Epic going Linux?
Still, I may be wrong, but Valve started contributing after the initial Linux announcement. Something similar may still apply to Epic. Let's wait and see.
Speculation and wishful thinking is what all of this boils down to. "Other open platforms" is too vague. Until Epic mentions Linux specifically, this is a non-story.
orochi_kyo Dec 4, 2018
Also to be competency of Steam you have to be more than just a store. Its easy to live on the UK or the US and pretend that these stores are competency for Steam since you receive support from these stores. You behave like elitist first world kids who got all the attention, but what for third world consumers like me?
Steam offers me games on MY currency and also give me servers to download near to my country. Which other stores does this? None.
Its easy for Liam and other people here to pretend Epic would be some kind of competency for Steam, you had your prices on dollars, euros or pounds but the rest of the world remain obscure for these stores, while Steam is selling games to penguins on fish currency.
Sorry for sound like a Valve pawn but after the promises of Origin becoming a competency for Steam, well, I dont expect nothing special anymore.
Also Valve just need to release Left 4 Dead 3 with open world elements, costumes and hats and say goodbye to Fortnite.
Quoting: ShmerlI'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.Except there's this tweet which is basically a big fat "Nope".
Quoting: MohandevirDo Epic ever contributed to some open source projects? I don't know the answer to this question but could it be the reason why we are so skeptical about Epic going Linux?
They look involved in the Vulkan and OpenXR working groups. Not sure if they ever actually contributed to FOSS code.
Quoting: YoRHa-2BQuoting: ShmerlI'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.Except there's this tweet which is basically a big fat "Nope".
That was a while ago, and he also later posted about Linux in a more positive way. See here.
Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2018 at 4:58 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: 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.
No indie have ever been part of the exclusive game. They don't have the mass appeal. What we talk about here are the big 3rd party publishers. The AAA league. Ubisoft, Rockstar, Bethesta, Capcom, Electronic Arts and the likes.
And Spyker is right, the battle for the exclusives are as hard as ever, only they use 1st party devs for that. That's why they (Microsoft, Sony, etc) purchase developers all the time.
Last edited by Beamboom on 4 December 2018 at 5:13 pm UTC
Always people discussing about DRM and steam being DRM, there are lots of games on steam that are DRM free, that is the developer choice.
I see good thing from EPIC opening there own store, even from EA and UBI, competition moves the market, but while there is none of them on linux no support from me.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me