Epic is the second largest online store by revenue, so you are objectively wrong by a wide margin. Users are spending a lot of money on the platform. Much of it goes to their flagship games like Fortnite. Similarly to how much of Steam’s revenue comes from their flagship games like Counter-Strike.
Does it? Lets envision the minimum viable product for a game store. You have a very basic web interface and you download games or installers from it. Something like itch.io, or similar to GOG. Is using Epic’s launcher better than just downloading the installers from a browser? I’d argue not, given the hastle of creating a new account, installing the launcher with all its spyware and using it, rather than the bare minimum of just downloading an installer, running it, and then running the game directly.
I support DRM free games too but I think you’re making a large assumption here that most people prefer that to one-click launcher install/updates/management.
Look at how other platforms have eaten into Steam’s control most successfully without resorting to anything too shady. Humble Bundle and Fanatical offer unique bundles with better deals. Itch.io works more closely with devs, esspecially smaller devs. GOG cut out a niche by specifically seeking out old games to licence or fix themselves, as well as by ensuring everything is DRM free.
I have seen no evidence of either Itch nor GOG eating Steam’s lunch. Quite the opposite. Steam continues to grow fast, while GOG is barely breaking even. I can’t find the financials for itch.io so I don’t know how well they’re doing.
Just to be clear, I would love for Epic to invest more into their launcher. I’m merely putting my product manager hat on and accepting that that is unlikely because the business case is bad.
And you think Epic implementing some or all of these would encourage Steam users to switch? Why would they? Steam already offers all of that.
Let’s remember they are already the second largest games store. Okay, let’s assume they try to compete with Steam on features. What do you think it would take to get users to switch?
I think the vast majority of users only use launchers to launch games. For that purpose, it does that perfectly fine. I suspect that even if Epic invested billions into bringing their store up to feature parity with Steam, users still wouldn’t switch. They’d need to be leaps and bounds better, and that’s hard to comprehend in terms of features and cost. I think they’re making the smart move sticking to their wheelhouse.
That gives me a little hope but who hired them and allowed that writing to remain in the game? Are they fired too?
I agree. The decision to a) task said writers with the project, and b) allow said writing to make it into the game is unforgivable. Players will put up with almost anything with a Dragon Age title, but not bad writing. Any management with that level of incompetence will do it again.
I was lucky to snag a PNY 5080 but this looks like the tightest launch since the 3080. Maybe worse. Supply chain analysis suggests we’re going to see a lot more stock in the coming months so no one should feel left out.
I appreciate that, but unless you can automate it through an iPhone app, I’m not interested. My life is complicated enough and I want my music access to be seamless.
I love my Plex library. I use YouTube Music because I think it’s more convenient and fair for the price. It’s one service for basically all music. Movies and shows, on the other hand, is an absolute cluster fuck. I’m perfectly happy to pay for good content, but I’m not okay with paying for 10 services where the content keeps shifting and disappearing and being retroactively edited so as not to offend “modern audiences.”
Valve turned me from gaming pirate to VERY solid customer. Spotify turned me from music pirate to customer. I am patiently waiting for the visual media industry to pull their heads out of their asses.
I don’t think feature parity would entice anyone across. It would need to be much better than Steam to entice migration, and it’s hard to conceive how much work and money that would require.