Once upon a time, valve used to develop games.
Then it became big and realised where the money is, and stopped developing games.
Epic is currently developing games. Will they get big and stop? If they did, they still have Unreal. Steam has nothing other than the store.
Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
121–130 of 239 posts
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#122One of the things Steam's 30% cut subsidizes is the generation of unlimited free license keys for developers to do with what they please. So, for instance, if I am an independent developer, I can sell my game on Steam. Say I sell 5,000 copies. I can then turn around and generate 25,000 keys gratis, and sell those on my website (paying maybe a 5-8% fee to my payment processor, but otherwise taking everything). Those k…
I've heard rumors from people I trust that they are going to crack down even further on keys, possibly to the point of making it so you can't resell elsewhere.
This may not be a bad thing, though. (As long as they're doing it with discretion.)
A comment by 'vatueil' in this thread hinted at an important point: Steam is currently battling the massive library of half-baked 'crapware' that snuck onto the platform for the _sole purpose_ of being sold off as cheap keys in bulk. It's really more of a scam than anything.
Valve has a reputation to uphold, and it's no wonder they want to put this practice to and end.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#123Once upon a time, valve used to develop games. Then it became big and realised where the money is, and stopped developing games. Epic is currently developing games. Will they get big and stop? If they did, they still have Unreal. Steam has nothing other than the store.
Valve has several extremely profitable games, such as DotA2.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#124I think eventually Steam will be replaced by some system built on open distributed systems such as torrents/webtorrents and cryptocurrency. At least that would make sense.. theoretically the cut that the distribution platform takes could be zero. So developers have a lot to gain from such a system.
> theoretically the cut that the distribution platform takes could be zero. Then there is no reason for a distributed system to remain cohesive. Each node in the system takes some responsibilities for hosting, bandwidth, etc. Without giving the distributors a cut, no one will want to distribute. Likewise, not everyone who buys your game on the network will want to use there space and bandwidth for distribution. For a…
You're basically arguing that the concept of torrents isn't workable. It's been proven.
To me the tricky part is licensing but I think technologies like Ethereum could handle that.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#125I wish Valve had pushed harder to compete with Origin, but this looks like the end of its complete dominance. Once EA demonstrated that anybody could hack together a launcher, it's become a free for all. As a consumer it's been a worse and worse experience since increasingly small companies felt the need to replace steam with technically inferior solutions. But this is different-now we get a competitor which is willi…
I like Steam, but I have no problem using other game stores such as Origin as well. If others stores want to co-exist with Steam, why not? Many people have Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, Hulu..
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#126I'd be more excited for this much needed competition if it weren't a company that survives by taking advantage of children's naivety of money and natural impulses to sell virtual outfits and animations at sickening prices. App store cuts are ridiculously high, but at least they're not taking candy directly from babies.
Fortnite has actually helped my son understand the concept of saving money (V-Bucks, the in-app currency). He has started asking himself, "Do I really want this? Or should I save my V-Bucks for something I know I'll love."
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ... margin wasn't the problem because 30% of nothing is nothing, and his issue is no one discovering his games. Doesn't that make the 30% all the more problematic? If you have to bring eyes to your Steam page anyway, you might as well just sell direct. From Grey Alien, "In the past I have felt positive about Steam, but these discovery changes and the recent revenue share changes that are only relevant to hugely suc…
I can say with confidence that I am much more willing to drop $5 on a game via Steam than . Aside from the obvious "is this a scam" aspects, Steam means that I will have the game even when the dev goes under in 5 years, that my save states will be backed up, and that at least some of the reviews might not be faked. That 30% might be painful, but at the same time Steam provides a LOT of utility to the buyer.
How is the Epic launcher 'a random third party site' ? Especially someone that already has Fortnite or has heard of it enough to know its maker is not going to be a credit card skimmer.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#128I wish Valve had pushed harder to compete with Origin, but this looks like the end of its complete dominance. Once EA demonstrated that anybody could hack together a launcher, it's become a free for all. As a consumer it's been a worse and worse experience since increasingly small companies felt the need to replace steam with technically inferior solutions. But this is different-now we get a competitor which is willi…
I've found as a consumer that its gotten much better. Steam's customer support is absolutely atrocious and hugely anti-consumer whereas both Origin and Battle.net have great customer support. I hope this competition drives Steam to be better.
I've found Steam support to be great on the occasions i've had to use it (refunds etc - pretty much no questions asked).
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#129Once upon a time, valve used to develop games. Then it became big and realised where the money is, and stopped developing games. Epic is currently developing games. Will they get big and stop? If they did, they still have Unreal. Steam has nothing other than the store.
Epic has been relying a lot on their engine sales to sustain game dev.
Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue
#130I'd be more excited for this much needed competition if it weren't a company that survives by taking advantage of children's naivety of money and natural impulses to sell virtual outfits and animations at sickening prices. App store cuts are ridiculously high, but at least they're not taking candy directly from babies.
I'm not a fan of Fortnite but that is extremely disingenuous. In your interpretation, parents are completely absolved from responsibility and apparently children have free access to credit cards that can't legally even be issued to them. Want to know the responsible answer to "mommy can I buy a Fortnite skin"? It's "no". Simple as that. Same as it was when the question was "dad can I buy this Harry Potter poster" or…
I say no, every time. However, I don't want to be the all-controlling parent that dictates what can purchased with gift cards. I try to demonstrate what's being given up, what's gotten in return (nothing but a few bit flips in a database in this case) and break down why he wants whatever thing it is. After a few years of Roblox and now Fortnite, I can see the wheels starting to turn on their own and I think he's forgone quite a few purchases of his own will.