Zak Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 It's fair to say Steam is the number one PC gaming service in the world and has been for a very long time. Easy access to your library, offers, community. It has it all. Epic is trying to challenge their dominance but the question is, can they? In August Epic will have A Total War Saga: Troy free for 24 hours and will keep the game as an exclusive for a year. Steam won't get the latest Total War title until 2021. A coup for Epic and evidence of their serious intention to rival Steam. But is it enough? Can Epic beat Steam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycrab Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) Right now Epic is throwing a lot of Fortnite and Unreal Engine licensing money mucsle at the service in order to catch up to Steam. The problem is money flows faster than progress. Epic is still light years behind in terms of functionality and they know it. No proper drive managment, no sharing, hell hey don't even have a friggin shopping cart and it's been well over a year since it launched. It's smart that they are throwing their money around for giveaways and exclusives, but that is NOT going to keep them in competition forever. The service and storefront needs big improvements. Edited July 27, 2020 by Crazycrab Withywarlock 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagger Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 I'm enjoying the Epic Sore. I'm enjoying it's game deals and I'm enjoying the cycle of free games, but none of that changes the fact @Crazycrabis correct, the money they're throwing at the exclusive games deals, that only serve to piss people off, isn't enough. They need the social features, the community features, user review features. Even the game download display is faulty and the progress percentages doesn't actually line up with how much has been downloaded. It's been 18 months and progress has been mad on feature updates, but it's not enough. PC gaming needs a service to end the monopoly that is Steam because has its own set of problems. I want EGS to be it and I think it can be, but they have to get their act together. Crazycrab 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KuroInDistress Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Until they develop their feature set to closely match (or surpass steam) I don't see it happening. Friends, Gifting, Community are all integral parts of steam that Epic doesn't seem to be going towards. I also don't like the fact that Tencent has a major share in their company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane99 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 All these free games have to come back and hurt Epic at some point. They can't keep offering free games in the hopes people will jump to their platform. Steam still has more features and a longer history. Plus I heard Epic isn't very trustworthy with their platform as there has been privacy concerns raised before. It's possible it could one day overtake Steam, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Considering they are giving away a lot of new titles for free. And fortnite and SMITE is camped over there I think slowly they are trying to take AAA titles on their own stores. And maybe steam will remain medium level store with most of the indie games published. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zak Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 On 7/28/2020 at 12:02 AM, Shagger said: They need the social features, the community features, user review features. A lot of people are unhappy that Steam has gone in the direction of social etc. Its a gaming platform after all and it seems they just want to add more bloat with each update. Trading cards? Who's interested? Groups? They just replicate Discord servers - badly. I don't want Steam for anything other than a gaming platform. Epic it seems is just a gaming platform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagger Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 1 minute ago, Zak said: A lot of people are unhappy that Steam has gone in the direction of social etc. Its a gaming platform after all and it seems they just want to add more bloat with each update. Trading cards? Who's interested? Groups? They just replicate Discord servers - badly. I don't want Steam for anything other than a gaming platform. Epic it seems is just a gaming platform. Fair point. Honestly, I don't find much in the groups and trading cards that useful either, but I do think Epic should at least add user reviews and ratings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 I think the problem is steam cares a lot for the new indie devs which is something I have not noticed about the EPIC. And most of the A level titles are on steam often be it SMITE and others. If we consider that for getting attention from streamers and gamers, then possible that EPIC may have +1 on that and slowly may capture more market as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagger Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, skyfire said: I think the problem is steam cares a lot for the new indie devs which is something I have not noticed about the EPIC. And most of the A level titles are on steam often be it SMITE and others. If we consider that for getting attention from streamers and gamers, then possible that EPIC may have +1 on that and slowly may capture more market as well. I have to disagree. What Steam has is an open door policy where anyone can publish software on the platform without having to deal with a publisher and representatives of a certain gaming platform and so on, but that open door policy that Steam stubbornly stands by, with little if any validation process, has caused more problems that it's solved. Steam gets flooded with asset flips, achievement vaults, games made to abuse the trading card systems, copies of other games, game that are simply terrible and low brow trash that's so ignorantly or even deliberately offensive that anyone else would be embarrassed to sell it. There's even evidence that some "games" sold on steam are a front for money laundering and fund organized crime. In this flood of absolute tonk, it's almost impossible for a good indie game to get noticed and become successful. If steam actually cared about genuine, talented, passionate indie devs and the games they create, they wouldn't allow them get drowned out on Steam the way they do. Epic may not have as much of these indie developers selling games on their store as Steam do, but the ones that are there get a much better deal. Pay a smaller cut and their games are better promoted on the store. Even consoles have become a more attractive place for indies, especially Nintendo with the Switch, because they're validated and people buying can trust in their quality that much more. The problem with indies on Epic is not the Epic store and how they treat indies, its gamers. People give indie devs a hard time for accepting deals with Epic and it's not fair. A big, AAA publisher or major multiplat' game going to EGS as an exclusive, I understand that frustration, but people should not give small, indie devs a hard time for making a deal with Epic for a better share of the money and for their game to be sold on a store where it won't get pushed to the background by a load of asset flips. Edited August 19, 2020 by Shagger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycrab Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, skyfire said: I think the problem is steam cares a lot for the new indie devs which is something I have not noticed about the EPIC. And most of the A level titles are on steam often be it SMITE and others. If we consider that for getting attention from streamers and gamers, then possible that EPIC may have +1 on that and slowly may capture more market as well. Are you kidding! Steam is a good damn free for all, the wild west! Literally anybody can pay the $100 or whatever entrance fee and start selling software on Steam. This (unsurprisingly) results in a lot of issues with asset flippers an con artists that only get addressed when enough people shine a light on it. Not to mention they take a bigger cut than Epic do and there is practically zero quality control. Edited August 19, 2020 by Crazycrab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Chinese brands are getting pretty aggressive lately, considering EPIC is in fight with steam, it is also against Google Play store and Apple too. It seems by using the youth they are trying to capture the markets of other nations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARx182 Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 Epic Games have offered some good deals, some really good games for free such as GTA V but I don't see them challenging Steam in the near future. Steam run the online gaming store monopoly at the moment and it's just too difficult to knock them off their perch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m76 Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 I'm not doing business with the Epic store, period. They are using bully tactics, and they are trampling over consumer interests in order to challenge steam. I'm all for challenging steam, Fair market competition is good. But epic is not using the free market to offer a better service. Instead of paying for exclusivity deals they should actually finance game developers, if they are a force for good as they say. But of course it's all bs, they don't care about developers or gamers, just want a seat at the table. But instead of earning that seat they are trying to get it by brute force. It gained them some market share. But at the same time it creates division, it restricts the reach of some games. So it is clearly not good for gaming in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demon_skeith Posted September 7, 2020 Share Posted September 7, 2020 Give them another year or two, add more features and maybe offer even better deals. Steam will fall to second before long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
