Are game launchers becoming a race to the bottom?
Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
11–20 of 239 posts
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#12Are game launchers becoming a race to the bottom?
No. Ubisoft already tried and even gave out a bunch of games for free. Didn’t work.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally agree with this, although I worry about too many stores having exclusives. Steam doesn't have many exclusives, but Blizzard games are only on their launcher; new EA games are only on Origin; Bethesda looks to be exploring this route by having Fallout 76 only on their launcher. I fear having to keep a separate launcher for every major publisher in the future.
I don't know if that's really a problem. When a AAA title that I want to play comes out, I will buy it regardless of what launcher it comes through. I'll download the installer straight from their site if that's what they want to do. I think having something like Steam is great primarily for discovery and ratings.
Well, from a consumer's prospective, there's no compelling reason to spread out one's purchases (if the option exists to get them all in one place.) Having to download a separate launcher for each game isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it's certainly not convenient either.
Imagine having to manage all your phone's apps through different stores, launchers, and website downloads. Sure, you can. But it's not as seamless as having all your apps in one place.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally agree with this, although I worry about too many stores having exclusives. Steam doesn't have many exclusives, but Blizzard games are only on their launcher; new EA games are only on Origin; Bethesda looks to be exploring this route by having Fallout 76 only on their launcher. I fear having to keep a separate launcher for every major publisher in the future.
I don't know if that's really a problem. When a AAA title that I want to play comes out, I will buy it regardless of what launcher it comes through. I'll download the installer straight from their site if that's what they want to do. I think having something like Steam is great primarily for discovery and ratings.
Each launcher comes with a fixed cost of some sort - one more process checking for and downloading updates, sending analytics to yet another company, and potentially adding an attack vector. I think it's sensible to be reluctant to install software which shouldn't be necessary.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#15No matter how much I like Steam, breaking their monoculture would be objectively good.
There's already quite a few contenders, like GOG, Origin
GOG offers only DRM free games, so you remain with 2 big ones Steam and Origin, more competition will be better for all, more money to the actual developers.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if that's really a problem. When a AAA title that I want to play comes out, I will buy it regardless of what launcher it comes through. I'll download the installer straight from their site if that's what they want to do. I think having something like Steam is great primarily for discovery and ratings.
I'd be game with the multiple storefronts if the library aspect were decoupled. If I bought Sea of Thieves in Microsoft Store and I bought Destiny 2 in Battle.NET, having a launcher that was able to download and install both of them with little configuration beyond linking to the MS Store/Battle.net accounts (not quite Movies Anywhere in that your library moves between services, but the launcher has discoverability a…
Discord Library is an attempt to launch all games from a single application. You can also configure steam to be able to launch non-steam exes.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#17Obviously there's a non-zero cost for developers to publish thru multiple stores, so it makes sense to try to incentivize them with a greater share of revenue. It would be interesting if they tried to leverage the popularity of Fortnite to also do this on Android.
Just wait until digital distribution services catch up to console levels of bullshit and start licencing exclusives or "exclusive for X months after launch" for bigger titles.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#18If they pair this with a 10% discount on games to the consumer they can attract both devs and consumers.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#19Pulling from what I said in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18600248
I guess this explains Valve improving the revenue share a bit on Steam recently.
Also, at first I wasn't thinking this would be much of anything (yet another storefront), but the kicker per the article is that those developing in Unreal Engine would not pay a percentage for the use of Unreal Engine (~5%) on top of the store cut (~12%). That would probably be huge for developers so I could see this one actually taking off.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally agree with this, although I worry about too many stores having exclusives. Steam doesn't have many exclusives, but Blizzard games are only on their launcher; new EA games are only on Origin; Bethesda looks to be exploring this route by having Fallout 76 only on their launcher. I fear having to keep a separate launcher for every major publisher in the future.
I don't know if that's really a problem. When a AAA title that I want to play comes out, I will buy it regardless of what launcher it comes through. I'll download the installer straight from their site if that's what they want to do. I think having something like Steam is great primarily for discovery and ratings.
Maybe it's not a problem for you but it certainly is for others. Personally, I don't want to have to install a client (DRM) just to be able to download a game. Thus, I stick with stores like GOG instead and don't play anything that is limited to Steam and the like.