Epic Games have announced their new Epic First Run program, to entice more developers to release on their store exclusively and give developers a boost. With this we can expect to see many more developers opt to go Epic exclusive.
The Epic First Run program will give developers 100% of the revenue, so Epic Games will not take a cut from sales on the Epic Games Store for the first 6 exclusive months. It's opt-in for developers and does not prevent them from selling it directly and selling it using keys via the likes of Green Man Gaming, Humble Store and other stores that sell keys. Naturally, this rules out Steam and GOG, which is largely the point of it to get more people to shop on the Epic Store and not Steam.
After the 6 month exclusive period is up, developers can then release elsewhere and the revenue split goes back to 88% for developers and 12% to Epic Games.
Epic also mention that they now have over 68 million monthly active users with over 230 million players. To help get word out, developers who opt into the Epic First Run program will get "new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections" along with features in "elevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable".
See Epic's announcement here.
What do you think to this news?
On Linux and Steam Deck, you can use the likes of the Heroic Games Launcher to really simplify getting games from Epic since they still do not officially support either with the Epic Store.
In related news Denuvo are rolling out some special protection for Unreal Engine games.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Arehandoro Aug 24, 2023
rustigsmed Aug 24, 2023
pleasereadthemanual Aug 24, 2023
Quoting: whizseI just claim them using the website.It's the website I find to be a chore! Coming from Australia, the website takes a minute to load up and redirect. Once I get to the sign in screen, I need to fill out two screens of "Which of these is a dolphin?" hcaptcha to prove I'm a human. Then I go back to the incredibly slow website to claim the game, which is another 4 screens. Usually about 20 seconds or more between them. Oh, and now I need to click on the dog before I can claim it, twice.
This was my experience claiming the current free game on EGS 10 minutes ago. Heroic Launcher isn't any better, but at least the client is less heavy than the official client when you're trying to launch the game and has more useful features.
Additionally, I've looked and looked but I can't seem to find any way to view my library on the website. I see lots of poor design choices. Steam isn't great either but at least you can find what you're looking for fairly quickly and the website isn't glacial.
Quoting: whizseMost of the freebies I have been interested in have been free of DRM and doesn't require the client. I just exfiltrate them using legendary and run them with Wine/Proton as I see fit.Oh, right! I didn't know that. I assumed they were encumbered by DRM as they don't give you an obvious way to extract the game files. That's a good thing!
This is in contrast to installing the entire [bleeping] Steam client and having to run it every time I want to play the one single game I need Steam to play. I tried ditching Steam long ago, but there's always some exclusive that forces you into Valve's ecosystem.
Ultimately, a Steam exclusive sucks as much as an Epic exclusive, because Epic's stance on Linux is abysmal and I don't like supporting them because of it; on the other hand, I hate feeding Valve's monopoly machine. Both of them means I won't be able to get it on GOG or directly from the developer (DRM free or not), at least for quite a while, or even ever. A sigh from me.
Last edited by ridge on 24 August 2023 at 3:23 pm UTC
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualIt's the website I find to be a chore! Coming from Australia, the website takes a minute to load up and redirect. Once I get to the sign in screen, I need to fill out two screens of "Which of these is a dolphin?" hcaptcha to prove I'm a human. Then I go back to the incredibly slow website to claim the game, which is another 4 screens. Usually about 20 seconds or more between them. Oh, and now I need to click on the dog before I can claim it, twice.Ouch! Sound like your experience with the site is on par with my experience with the client. I can only assume they are now running Denuvo with Emscripten on the storefront.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualOh, right! I didn't know that. I assumed they were encumbered by DRM as they don't give you an obvious way to extract the game files. That's a good thing!There's sometimes some magic launch parameters needed. Usually involving -EpicPortal It does differ between games, but is documented on pcgamingwiki.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI struggle to find a single positive thing to say about EGSIt seems that Sweeney isn't a murderer although he is named like one. There's your positive thing.
TheRiddick Aug 25, 2023
I don't believe its hard to do considering several open-source projects have done these things already and often its work done by tiny teams on casual basis!
They should also bring community features including a modding support in their app.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 25 August 2023 at 5:14 am UTC
Quoting: ridgeUltimately, a Steam exclusive sucks as much as an Epic exclusive.
I never heard about Steam doing exclusives, it's on developer/distributor to decide where they want to sell. In case of Epic they are forcing the developers/distributors to not sell anywhere else.
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