[Mirabilis]

Epic apparently offered Sony $200M for first-party PlayStation exclusives

Microsoft has been less receptive to the Epic Games Store, and Nintendo was seemingly a non-starter.

www.pcgamer.com

A new trial exhibit—which was apparently released accidentally—shows that Epic offered Sony a $200 million advance to get first-party PlayStation games on the Epic Games Store exclusively.

Kind of fascinating that Epic was basically prepared to stump up that much moolah for presumably timed exclusivity on their upcoming PC releases and Sony basically passed in favour of going with Steam still. I suspect that they maybe released ready set heroes and Predator: Hunting grounds to assess the uptick on EGS and then noped out when the numbers came back.

I also wonder how long Tim Sweeney is going to continue to believe that the route to success with EGS is to keep giving away free games and buying exclusivity versus do the necessary and build a feature-rich client that actively competes with Steam.

 

[strange headache]

Honestly, I think the $200 million are kinda cheap considering how much PlayStation first-party exclusives rake in. Sony is probably banking on Steam for its superior market penetration and larger user numbers.

EGS is still running at a loss, has basically no functionality and most importantly no community interaction. Apart from indie devs and smaller publishers who are more easily bought, I don't think Sweeney has a whole lot to offer.

 

[Kadayi]

Honestly, I think the $200 million are kinda cheap considering how much PlayStation first-party exclusives rake in. Sony is probably banking on Steam for its superior market penetration and larger user numbers.

EGS is still running at a loss, has basically no functionality and most importantly no community interaction. Apart from indie devs and smaller publishers who are more easily bought, I don't think Sweeney has a whole lot to offer.

On point Strange.

I legit don't get why a couple of years in with matters clearly not going the way Sweeney envisioned that instead of chasing after exclusivity he hasn't put more money and resources into building a better client and user experience.

Trello

Organize anything, together. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, know what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.

trello.com

I mean JFC. Shopping cart still not in active development. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I suspect the hard truth is, EGS probably can't operate at 12% and be a feature rich experience akin to Steam and the whole 12% thing was only ever a lure to get people in to the point where they can up the operational costs to something like 20% (which seems a bit more sensible).

I also suspect that the free giveaways may have irrevocably damaged many of the EGS user bases perceptions of game brand value. After all if you're happy to wait for a title to go on sale, you're also probably happy to wait for it to be given away for free as well

 

[Test]

got almost no epic hate in my blood. love their engine, limited rake and complete freedom and transparency on so many levels that it makes companies like valve look bad. the launcher is less than two years old compared to steam's 18 year dreck which accounts for a sizable somewhat stable network of games advanced by their overture of fortnite dosh.

 

[strange headache]

I suspect the hard truth is, EGS probably can't operate at 12% and be a feature rich experience akin to Steam and the whole 12% thing was only ever a lure to get people in to the point where they can up the operational costs to something like 20% (which seems a bit more sensible).

Sweeney's hide is burning as he needs to turn EGS into a profitable store in the near future. They have deep pockets due to Fortnite and their Unreal engine, but they can't run their store at a loss forever.

I don't think their 12% cut is viable, there's a reason Microsoft shied away from doing the same on their own Xbox store.

 

[Test]

don't think he needs forever, he could run at a loss for the next 5 maybe 10 or more years no prob

projected loss is already half what it was

 

[Mista]

I believe this is old since we already have them in Steam

This is interesting

Looks like Phil and Gabe are best buds

 

[Zefah]

On point Strange.

I legit don't get why a couple of years in with matters clearly not going the way Sweeney envisioned that instead of chasing after exclusivity he hasn't put more money and resources into building a better client and user experience.

Trello

Organize anything, together. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, know what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.

trello.com

I mean JFC. Shopping cart still not in active development. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I suspect the hard truth is, EGS probably can't operate at 12% and be a feature rich experience akin to Steam and the whole 12% thing was only ever a lure to get people in to the point where they can up the operational costs to something like 20% (which seems a bit more sensible).

I also suspect that the free giveaways may have irrevocably damaged many of the EGS user bases perceptions of game brand value. After all if you're happy to wait for a title to go on sale, you're also probably happy to wait for it to be given away for free as well

It's preposterous how little work has been done on the EGS client. I pop in every once in a while to claim a free game, but it's still a complete mess. They have so many talented devs at Epic and obviously an insane amount of money to spend yet it feels like they are completely neglecting any kind of work to improve the user experience in favor of moneyhatting timed exclusivity to force people into their garden. No thanks.

got almost no epic hate in my blood. love their engine, limited rake and complete freedom and transparency on so many levels that it makes companies like valve look bad. the launcher is less than two years old compared to steam's 18 year dreck which accounts for a sizable somewhat stable network of games advanced by their overture of fortnite dosh.

The fact that Steam's client is so damn good despite being 18 years old shows just how much work they are putting into it. Usually software that has been running uninterrupted for 18 years turns into a goddamn mess, but Steam has mostly avoided that in my opinion.

 

[Kadayi]

It's preposterous how little work has been done on the EGS client. I pop in every once in a while to claim a free game, but it's still a complete mess. They have so many talented devs at Epic and obviously an insane amount of money to spend yet it feels like they are completely neglecting any kind of work to improve the user experience in favor of moneyhatting timed exclusivity to force people into their garden. No thanks.

Yeah it beggars belief. When they first announced it I thought the pinching games from Steam thing was kind of cheeky, but at the same time I was prepared to give EGS a shot, but I was kind of shocked at how dismal the client was. It made Uplay look classy, and that was saying something tbh. That we are two years in and it's improved marginally is bewildering. Sure I get it that a lot of ppl are loving the free games, but personally ...if I want a game....I either buy it when it launches or I'll pick it up in a sale. I'm hard pressed think of anything EGS has given away that I felt the need to suddenly get in on. I dare say in some respects that's a reflection of having a extensive backlog though.

The fact that Steam's client is so damn good despite being 18 years old shows just how much work they are putting into it. Usually software that has been running uninterrupted for 18 years turns into a goddamn mess, but Steam has mostly avoided that in my opinion.

Many gripes with Valve on the development front (HL2:EP3 already ffs), but the emphasis on Steam has always been on the user experience. When the service first launched PC gaming was in the dumpster fire situation of rampant piracy coupled with getting majorly edged out of the retail space by both MS and Sony with XBox and PlayStation dominating shelf space. Aside from the strategy and Sim market, PC gaming was pretty much on life support, and Steam was the necessary injection required to keep it going and demonstrate to both publishers and developers alike that there was still money in the PC space.

That Steam has stayed as dominant as it is in large part comes down to the simple fact that none of the big players (including EGS) has attempted to match it in terms of feature-set. They've always half assed it, and then wondered why People don't jump fully on board with their clients.

 

[strange headache]

That Steam has stayed as dominant as it is in large part comes down to the simple fact that none of the big players (including EGS) has attempted to match it in terms of feature-set. They've always half assed it, and then wondered why People don't jump fully on board with their clients.

I think the community is what's driving the platform. Word of mouth is what is driving a lot of game sales and while the steam forums are often a cesspool, they keep users engaged. Also I like reading Steam user reviews, while not perfect, they often give you the god the bad and the ugly at a quick glance.

 

[Test]

i get the feeling this case is bigger than people think, that it's holding up large parts of the industry due to a hard and consequential flop

 

[strange headache]

Looks like Phil and Gabe are best buds

By the way, why is a Steam game pass not a thing yet?

 

[Mista]

By the way, why is a Steam game pass not a thing yet?

It'll be soon

 

[Zefah]

I don't think a GamePass type of thing would make sense for Steam. It would actively encourage against buying games.

 

[strange headache]

I don't think a GamePass type of thing would make sense for Steam. It would actively encourage against buying games.

Doesn't seem to be hurting Xbox though. I mean they have 120 million monthly active users, imagine a fraction of them paying 15 bucks a month for an all you can game buffet.

 

[Mista]

I don't think a GamePass type of thing would make sense for Steam. It would actively encourage against buying games.

Then they shouldn't have allowed EA Play on the platform

 

[teezzy]

Tim Sweeney?

More like Tim's Weenie

Amirite or amirite

EGS stinks

 

[Zefah]

Doesn't seem to be hurting Xbox though. I mean they have 120 million monthly active users, imagine a fraction of them paying 15 bucks a month for an all you can game buffet.

Xbox is all about getting you locked into their ecosystem. I also don't think they are actually turning a profit on GamePass, but I don't know for sure.

Then they shouldn't have allowed EA Play on the platform

I don't know the specifics of that one, but I imagine adding it was a requirement from EA to return to Steam and I'm sure they worked out some kind of revenue share deal. Either way, when presented with the choice of having no EA games on Steam vs. having them but also accepting EA Play, I think it's clear which would be better for Steam.

 

[Kadayi]

As I've been recuperating I've been watching the dailies from Hoeg Law on the Apple/Epic Court case.

Quite fascinating really in terms of how cowboy Epic are. They added indie developer store Itch.io to EGS as a downloadable app but didn't think to ponder how that reflects on themselves given there's a lot of NSFW content on that store and Apple really haul them over the coals about it.

The reality is to this whole lawsuit though, is it's going probably drag on for months if not years (and inevitable go to numerous appeals). But the details are quite interesting. One point he did bring up which I hadn't cottoned onto was that on the list that @Mista posted the other day of the Free Games Epic had paid for on EGS, they were able to determine how many new player sign ups each game generated for them, as well as the applicable cost per user.

What remains of Edith Finch costing a mere $0.88 per new user
Whilst Celeste was a wallet hitting $12.00 per new user

Small potatoes in the grand scheme of things with the average price being $2.37 overall per new user, but still of the 104 million downloads of those free games, they only increased the EGS user base by around 4 Million accounts.

 

[Arc]

To me, the Nintendo stuff is the most interesting, even if they didn't actually pursue it. I would have loved to have seen Nintendo's stance on it, even if that stance would have been likely predictable.

Part of me loves Nintendo's exclusives staying right where they are, as well as helping Nintendo to remain a major player in gaming, with all the joy they bring. Part of me really wants to see what Super Mario Odyssey looks like at 4K and 120 FPS, with any graphical upgrades.