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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It does however sound like they have nothing like CEG. It seems like a "You want DRM? You supply DRM" attitude. If they stick to that it is an advantage over Steam.
Or not. The Steam DRM is not particularly invasive. The "other" drm that might be chosen instead could be a lot worse.
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qptain Nemo 7 Dec 2018
The Steam DRM is completely optional.
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walther von stolzing 7 Dec 2018
I took a look ... and ... is that all the user interface that they have? It might work on a mobile phone, but on a large screen it looks ridiculous.
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It looks like Supergiant's next game Hades will have an Early Access release on the Epic Store. I don't see any mention of it on Steam yet. Let the exclusives begin...
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walther von stolzing 7 Dec 2018
It looks like Supergiant's next game Hades will have an Early Access release on the Epic Store. I don't see any mention of it on Steam yet. Let the exclusives begin...
Likewise for the formerly PS exclusive 'Journey'.
Having seen the video by Matthewmatosis, I'm really intrigued by that one.
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NeptNutz like...
Article like...
New shop like...
You shouldn't have linked the article, now they know...!
[Good read, witten January 2018]
So You Want To Compete With Steam
https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-steam/
Many good points are addressed, and strictly within the PC space.
Article like...
Straight up bribe players to use your system
New shop like...
Epic Games store and our partners team up to give you a free game every two weeks
You shouldn't have linked the article, now they know...!
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Comandante Ñoñardo 7 Dec 2018
The epic store was heavily advertised at The Game Awards, with some exclusive games like Satisfactory....
But again, it will be a fail if they don't implement regional prices in local currencies with local payment methods and multiple operative systems..
But again, it will be a fail if they don't implement regional prices in local currencies with local payment methods and multiple operative systems..
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It does however sound like they have nothing like CEG. It seems like a "You want DRM? You supply DRM" attitude. If they stick to that it is an advantage over Steam.
Or not. The Steam DRM is not particularly invasive. The "other" drm that might be chosen instead could be a lot worse.
Yes but Steam allows DRM-Free, CEG, 3rd party DRM and CEG + 3rd party DRM. So the "other" DRM might well already me lot worse already on Steam. Two of those options seem to have no equivalent on the Epic Store. So there are seemingly fewer DRM options in the Epic Store. It might not mean all that much in the final analysis.
Edit:
If my understanding is correct there is no DRM that can't be used on the Epic store but can be used on Steam, but there is one piece of DRM that can be used on Steam but not the Epic Store, namely CEG(alone or together with other kinds of DRM). On the other hand Epic is not offering developers any DRM solution of their own. So so far they are passive in the DRM game. Valve is actively helping developers to use DRM, by developing and maintaining the CEG form of (admittedly mild) DRM and offering it to developers and publishers to use.
Now if Valve banned 3rd party DRM that would be a different story. But Valve does both, it provides its own DRM AND allows 3rd party DRM and even both. Epic only allows 3rd party DRM.
Last edited by Kristian on 7 Dec 2018 at 3:52 pm UTC
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Yes Fortnite is the hot thing at the moment but what is in a half year? See PUBG, it was a hot thing before Fortnite and now?that is one of the reasons why they are trying to get marketshare when Fortnite is still hot, actually its not just online games that have this effect, most of the sales of AAA games happens in the first 2 months after launch (i would say 80%), still valve managed to capitalize on their own games to increase the steam user base.
online games tend to have an larger life time than AAA games.
PUBG was literally an game made by noobs that managed to become popular because they got lucky, fortnite is made by an big studio that not only has an good track record of sucessfull games but make the FUCKING engine that powers pubg and their own games, its far from lucky and the sucess should last more, as Riot sucess did.
You forget thats the 5% is the license costs, if you use the UE4. If you want sell in the Epic Store you must pay 12% not 5%. If you use the Source Engine you must pay how much?source engine? its fucking DEAD.
https://www.polygon.com/2015/3/3/8145273/valve-source-2-announcement-free-developers
come on, what game was made on it beside valve own games?
and even valve is not relying only on it, they also have an plan B with Unity.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/valve-developing-three-full-length-vr-games/
source may have PBR materials for things like metal, but what if you want to simulate grass, hair, fire etc?
Unity is used by over 1 million of persons and they develop add'ons for it, Unreal was almost an industry standard (in the trile A games) and was open sourced, what source 2 has to compete?
people will not use an bad engine to make their games just to cut the 5% tax.
also even if you are an triple A, 12% is less than what valve is charging , and triple A's are already leaving steam anyway
on unreal you pay 35% in case you publish on steam if you arent an triple A, and 12% on epic store.
on Source 2 you pay 0, but you still will pay 12% on epicstore and 30% on steam, but you will be using an inferior engine.
Edit: But you get a big service and support from Valve. And than the many download Server. In germany we have 4 or 5 server from Valve. How many will Epic have? And many many more.we dont know.
Maybe in 10 years is Epic as a distributor interesting and great to be competitive for Valve. But if you sell exclusive only in a very new Store thats have only one Game, than you are as a Dev/Publisher an idiot.EA and ubisoft is an idiot then, they are making more profit than most of the other companies despite being an idiot, if being an idiot makes then rich, they will be happy idiots.
they also publish on gaming consoles, but that could happen to other studios too, on pc be epicstore only on console publish as they would anyway.
Steam was in the beginning the same, i think. But we have now U.Play and Origin, too. On Origin you get only EA Games, but i don´t know it realy.what? what game are you talking about?
Let me see: In the Windows World we hve now 4 Stores from Big Companies: Steam, Origin, U-Play and Windows Store. And next Epic-Client.
The Windows Store is the best exemple: All DX12 Microsoft Games in the Windows Store you can´t buy in other Stores like Steam, Origin, U-Play or Epic-Client/Launcher/Store
quantum break? its on steam already.
cuphead? not only its on steam, people were able to run it on linux already.
killer instinct? steam.
super lucky tale? steam.
sunset overdrive? steam.
literally, what the fuck are you talking about? games at windows store are temporaly exclusives at best.
If you are a Gamer on Windows you don`t care in what Shop you get your Games and how many Clients you have installed.yes WE will not migrate to epic store unless they support us, but for the developers, why should they care with us?
So it is with the majority of consumers.
But for us Linux gamers, every new game source with Linux support is important and positive, but why should a dev / publisher who also sells Linux ports from his games sell only at Epic?
feral will care, aspy and virtual programing.
square enix dont give a fuck about us, yes seling the licence to port the game to linux to feral makes then profit, 1% at best, but now you are asking then to pay 20~30% of their income for valve instead of 12% to epic, so they can increase their sales by seling 1% more?
WTF?
literally, you think developers will give up using Unreal because it costs then 5% against Source that costs nothing, but you also think they will not sell their games only on epicstore because they also want to sell to us to increase their profits by 1% ?
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LinuxGamesTV 9 Dec 2018
...
What to hell you are talking?
1. All games you are list are not Windows Store Exclusive. I talk from Universal Windows Apps (Games) and this are Windows 10 / XBOX Exclusive. Can you buy "Sea of Thieves" as exemple outside from the Windows store? No!
2. the Unreal Engine is not open source software!
3. i never sayed thats Devs will not use the Unreal Engine, but don't make Games Epic Store Exyclusive! I never talked about the UE4. Read my post again.
I talked ONLY about the Shop!
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 9 Dec 2018 at 1:13 am UTC
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Well they released the store the same day as Season 7 for Fortnite.
Since they apparently had around 80Million people play last month over the course of the month.
Fortnite is pretty much now their Store advertising tool and releasing it at the start of a new season lots of people are going to see it!
Also starting next week a game in the epic store will be available to play for free during a 2 week period.
Then a different game goes on a free 2 week period after the last game, the first game is subnautica.
So fortnite free advertising and try a game for 2 weeks for free to see if you want to buy it.
Since they apparently had around 80Million people play last month over the course of the month.
Fortnite is pretty much now their Store advertising tool and releasing it at the start of a new season lots of people are going to see it!
Also starting next week a game in the epic store will be available to play for free during a 2 week period.
Then a different game goes on a free 2 week period after the last game, the first game is subnautica.
So fortnite free advertising and try a game for 2 weeks for free to see if you want to buy it.
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y
1)when quantum break relased on xbox, it was an xbox exclusive, then they tried to 1port to windows but to make it an windows store exclusive then they launched it on steam.
sea of thievs is not avaliable for steam? so what? there is no evidence that it will never be.
and AFAIK there are already some UWP titles on steam, there is nothing that prevent UWP from being distributed on other stores.
2)the entire Unreal Engine source code is available on our GitHub page
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue4-on-github
its not FREE Software, but it IS open source, its not royalite free but it IS open source.
3)as i said many devs are already leaving steam in favor of their own stores on pc.
if its cheaper to publish on epic store than run their own store, and cheaper to run their own store than publish on steam, they will have an big incentive to do so.
...
What to hell you are talking?
1. All games you are list are not Windows Store Exclusive. I talk from Universal Windows Apps (Games) and this are Windows 10 / XBOX Exclusive. Can you buy "Sea of Thieves" as exemple outside from the Windows store? No!
2. the Unreal Engine is not open source software!
3. i never sayed thats Devs will not use the Unreal Engine, but don't make Games Epic Store Exyclusive! I never talked about the UE4. Read my post again.
I talked ONLY about the Shop!
1)when quantum break relased on xbox, it was an xbox exclusive, then they tried to 1port to windows but to make it an windows store exclusive then they launched it on steam.
sea of thievs is not avaliable for steam? so what? there is no evidence that it will never be.
and AFAIK there are already some UWP titles on steam, there is nothing that prevent UWP from being distributed on other stores.
2)the entire Unreal Engine source code is available on our GitHub page
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue4-on-github
its not FREE Software, but it IS open source, its not royalite free but it IS open source.
3)as i said many devs are already leaving steam in favor of their own stores on pc.
if its cheaper to publish on epic store than run their own store, and cheaper to run their own store than publish on steam, they will have an big incentive to do so.
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"2)the entire Unreal Engine source code is available on our GitHub page
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue4-on-github
its not FREE Software, but it IS open source, its not royalite free but it IS open source."
Not according to the Open Source Definition: https://opensource.org/osd-annotated
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue4-on-github
its not FREE Software, but it IS open source, its not royalite free but it IS open source."
Not according to the Open Source Definition: https://opensource.org/osd-annotated
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Not according to the Open Source Definition: https://opensource.org/osd-annotatedStill open source, though.
The term "open source" can mean more than one thing. For example intelligence agencies use the term to mean something entirely different. But in the software industry, abuses of the term notwithstanding, "open source" refers to the movement in the late 90s for making "free software" more palpable to business that led to Netscape's source being opened. That movement created that definition. They get to define their term. Unreal Engine 4 is not open source.
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LinuxGamesTV 9 Dec 2018
Souce Code on Github don't say that it is open source. To get the Souce you must register you on Epic Games and on Git Hub. It is a closed hub.
Git Hub != Open Source warranty.
Did you ever read your links? Read the "UNREAL® ENGINE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT" https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/eula and you will see: the UE is not open source software. But you have the rigts to put you content under the BSD License, MIT License, Microsoft Public License, or Apache License but not under GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser GPL (LGPL):
"(ii) Non-Compatible Licenses
You may not combine, Distribute, or otherwise use the Licensed Technology with any code or other content which is covered by a license that would directly or indirectly require that all or part of the Licensed Technology be governed under any terms other than those of this Agreement (“Non-Compatible License”). Code or content under the following licenses, for example, are prohibited: GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser GPL (LGPL) (unless you are merely dynamically linking a shared library), or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Code or content under the following licenses, for example, are allowed: BSD License, MIT License, Microsoft Public License, or Apache License. You may not sublicense the Licensed Technology under a Non-Compatible License."
If the UE4 was realy open source you don't have a "UNREAL® ENGINE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT", you have only a open source license and you can get easy the source code, without any registration on git hub or a commercial site.
I used Git Hub for a Game Mod, too. Did that mean the Mod is open source because you can get it for free but not from Git Hub because you don't have access on the Hub?
No!
I'm out now.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 9 Dec 2018 at 2:38 pm UTC
Git Hub != Open Source warranty.
Did you ever read your links? Read the "UNREAL® ENGINE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT" https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/eula and you will see: the UE is not open source software. But you have the rigts to put you content under the BSD License, MIT License, Microsoft Public License, or Apache License but not under GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser GPL (LGPL):
"(ii) Non-Compatible Licenses
You may not combine, Distribute, or otherwise use the Licensed Technology with any code or other content which is covered by a license that would directly or indirectly require that all or part of the Licensed Technology be governed under any terms other than those of this Agreement (“Non-Compatible License”). Code or content under the following licenses, for example, are prohibited: GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser GPL (LGPL) (unless you are merely dynamically linking a shared library), or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Code or content under the following licenses, for example, are allowed: BSD License, MIT License, Microsoft Public License, or Apache License. You may not sublicense the Licensed Technology under a Non-Compatible License."
If the UE4 was realy open source you don't have a "UNREAL® ENGINE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT", you have only a open source license and you can get easy the source code, without any registration on git hub or a commercial site.
I used Git Hub for a Game Mod, too. Did that mean the Mod is open source because you can get it for free but not from Git Hub because you don't have access on the Hub?
No!
I'm out now.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 9 Dec 2018 at 2:38 pm UTC
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So the store is out. Does anyone know if they provide any DRM-free options in GOG / itch.io style? I.e. downloadable packages that don't require any client?
I was asking around, and no one seems to know.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 Dec 2018 at 7:26 pm UTC
I was asking around, and no one seems to know.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 Dec 2018 at 7:26 pm UTC
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So the store is out. Does anyone know if they provide any DRM-free options in GOG / itch.io style? I.e. downloadable packages that don't require any client?
I was asking around, and no one seems to know.
Do they actually sell anything right now? When they opened, everything was on "coming soon". That said, I seriously doubt you'll be able to do anything without the Epic Launcher.
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Do they actually sell anything right now? When they opened, everything was on "coming soon". That said, I seriously doubt you'll be able to do anything without the Epic Launcher.
Why not? If they claimed they don't enforce any DRM themselves, nothing stops them from providing DRM-free packages as long as developers that sell through them aren't DRM proponents. I don't expect them to be like GOG, but they can be at least like Humble and sell some games DRM-free.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 Dec 2018 at 10:12 pm UTC
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I don't see the point of non-PC-players not seeing a new PC games store.
Fortnite isn't on Google Play, BTW.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/10/17675054/google-play-store-android-fortnite-battle-royale
Fortnite isn't on Google Play, BTW.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/10/17675054/google-play-store-android-fortnite-battle-royale
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Comandante Ñoñardo 12 Dec 2018
More competence is coming from [ROBOTCACHE](https://www.robotcache.com/), the digital distribution store that allow You to re-sell your games.
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