Epic Games reduce their cut for Unreal Engine games for same-day Epic Store launches

QuoteEpic Games reduce their cut for Unreal Engine games for same-day Epic Store launches

I'm pretty sure that is illegal and that other companies have been litigated against for this kind of thing.

Quoting: pb

Quoting: EhvisSo basically Epic is still trying to please the publishers instead of the customers while the latter is the only potential source of income.

They've been this way from the start and it's taken them nowhere so far.

( I think of Monty Python's Cheese Shop skit )

( https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A )

They call themselves a Game Store despite not having customers/gamers to buy stuff

Not much of a game marketplace is it?

Quoting: ElectricPrism

QuoteEpic Games reduce their cut for Unreal Engine games for same-day Epic Store launches

I'm pretty sure that is illegal and that other companies have been litigated against for this kind of thing.

You'd have to show that Unreal Engine had a dominant market position in game engines, and that they were using that to unfairly tie the Epic Games Store. It's a feasible argument, but not a slam dunk.

Quoting: KithopI'll echo the sentiment here though: good news for publishers, but they're doing *nothing* for consumers, so why should we care?

Their plan is to starve Steam users of games, so you should probably care. There's definitely no reason to welcome it, of course.

It's a nice deal for publishers, but I don't care much about Epic.

itch.io is the store that really does right by developers and publishers without sacrificing the experience for players. They have a Linux client, but that doesn't even matter because every game (?) can be played without a launcher. They let publishers choose what cut they want to give itch; as far as cutting them out completely. They have all these great options for creating a store page and they've added crazy features over the years.

GOG is the store that does right by players by trying to give players as much extra as they can and ensuring DRM-free games, but publishers tend to be lazy about updating their games, and they'll offer any extra goodies on Steam anyway, so they can't get anywhere. They don't have a Linux client, but you don't need one anyway. They're nice. I like them. They have a cool mission.

Epic doesn't serve Linux players at all and requires them to work around their client. It's never a fun experience visiting their site, and I have such little trust in them. Unlike GOG, they're creating exclusives on the PC platform, which harms player choice. They're also working against Linux by not enabling their Anti-Cheat games like Fortnite for Proton, but at least they've made EAC compatible. They do free games, which is nice, and I've heard quite a few games are DRM-free, but I can't say much else good about them.

Steam is obviously favoured by Linux players due to how much effort Valve puts into the Linux experience. But a lot of the games are DRM-encumbered, which is no good. They also require you to use a launcher. But they've helped bring some noteworthy visual novels to Linux by virtue of being a popular place to publish for Japanese publishers, so I let it slide. They've got room for improvement, but Steam is a generally good experience.

DLsite is my favourite game store. DMM is my least-favourite, even below Epic.

Epic is so bad at selling games they even gave up selling their own games.

Quoting: SchattenspiegelWait, that Freeware site is actually selling games?
Cool, never noticed. Once I played through the 450 or so Windows only titles they gave me for free, that I did not have time to touch, yet, I might give it a try. Do they offer proton integration, controller remapping and native Linux support for the games they actually sell like other stores do?

The only thing that they did offer at the time was coupons that made games cheaper but that's still not enough to get people to care about buying game on their store. Also, their launcher sucks anyways and even though I've gotten it setup on the Steam Deck, I only use it when I feel like it, which is rare. I only collect their free games they offer every Thursday and that's about it.

Meanwhile in Steam-Land: Yet another Steam Deck Verified game gets unplayable.

It's funny to see how Epic Games apparently puts it all into their platform while Valve just waits & hopes for the best.

Must be very hard for you guys to see the "enemy" do exactly what you expect from Valve.

Everybody thinks this is good for publishers.
I claim they're wrong.
What Epic is doing here is probably "tying" in the legal sense and at least bundling in the informal sense.
Specifically they're tying their store to their engine to their payment provider.
This would probably be anti-competitative if they had any market cloud.
This is as good for publishers as the Windows api is Valve, IE api's are for web developers and Apple "integration" is for Apple customers.
It creates a walled garden that is fun, while it lasts...

Edit:
It's a standard market practice.
Which is really frustrating for the European commision and the DOJ, because it's more often than not also illegal.

It actually surprises me Epic does it.
Epic has a fat track record of winning large anti-trust cases, so I would expect them to have been warned of by their legal team.


Last edited by LoudTechie on 2 October 2024 at 9:33 am UTC