Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue • Hacker News Board

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#161

Post by nottorp » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

moate wrote: post #142

nottorp wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Fortnite is free to play crap, so like 0.1% of those 75 million actually paid something?

Fortnite is making hundreds of millions of dollars a month{1}. IDK what "free to play crap" is, but if it can pull in over a billion a year I think most companies would be happy to have it on their ledger. 1- https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-g...

It's simple. 99.9% of the users play without paying a dime, and the game has to cater to the "whales" that spend thousands.

That's fine when you peddle digital hats, but if they want to open a store, they want paying customers in it don't they? Most actual games they'd want to sell need to be paid for upfront... and I don't see the average Fortnite (or any other free to play abomination) player doing that.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#162

Post by all2 » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #124

all2 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> You're basically arguing that the concept of torrents isn't workable. It's been proven.

Everyone has incentives with torrents. You can interact with the content you distribute.

But if I'm torrenting a game - and haven't purchased it - and I'm unable to play the thing, I have no incentive to keep it on my computer and distribute it to others. It is literally a waste of my energy and bandwidth.

/edit - punctuation!

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#163

Post by nottorp » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 9:56 PM UTC

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #80

nottorp wrote: post #73

Are they cross platform, or Windows only?

Unreal Engine & Epic Launcher, and most (all?) epic games are at least macOS + Windows. I hope & assume their store will be as well

I think it's safe to believe it when you see it, not assume.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#164

Post by josephv » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #53

jamp897 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They let Valve know in advance I’m sure, it’s a small industry and the polite thing to do with friends.

Absolutely, especially since they already work together. I don't think there is anything wrong with this, but it made me think, when does it cross the line into collusion or price fixing?

Other articles on hn mention correctly that right now in technology monopolies are the norm and anti-trust is dead (maybe a little dramatization there).

The 30% cut from distribution platforms is arbitrary, not based on cost, but rather implicit collusion based on what apple can extract from their flock.

I'd say this Epic launcher is a great exception to this and I hope it sticks.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#165

Post by notafraudster » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

opencl wrote: post #71

notafraudster wrote: post #38

One 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…

The keys are not unlimited. They cracked down on this quite a while ago. You have to submit a request for keys which Valve may or may not approve, and they will definitely not approve a request for 25K keys on a game you have sold 5K copies of.

Most of the reporting suggesting this was coming from spam games that sold literally <10 copies on Steam and requested 100k copies for Russian penny bundles. If that foreshadows further cracking down, then fair enough, but as-is it's fair to say that any legitimate commercial request by a developer would be approved.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#166

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:45 PM UTC

laythea wrote: post #116

Reedx wrote: post #34

Official announcement - https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-... "Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%." "From Epic’s 12% store fee, we’ll have a profitable business we’ll grow and reinvest in for years to come!" This is gr…

"...if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%." So there is a bias in the Epic store towards Unreal titles then, contrary to what I just read.

No bias. If you sell a Unity game, the fee to Epic is 12%. If you sell an Unreal Game, the fee would have been 12% for the store plus 5% for engine royalties for a total of 17%, which would strongly dis-incentivize developers from using Epic's own engine. Epic is simply waiving that 5% engine royalty so that its store is game-engine-agnostic.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#167

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:47 PM UTC

billfruit wrote: post #55

I keep repeating this: two things Steam does right are effortless no-questions-asked refunds, localized prices in many regions of the world, so that people in poorer countries pay affordable prices. I do think that Steam is only going to grow bigger, because most of the growth in game sales are going to come from China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Africa, Mexico, Brazil etc than US and Europe. But most othe…

[deleted]

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#168

Post by chii » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #166

laythea wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%." So there is a bias in the Epic store towards Unreal titles then, contrary to what I just read.

No bias. If you sell a Unity game, the fee to Epic is 12%. If you sell an Unreal Game, the fee would have been 12% for the store plus 5% for engine royalties for a total of 17%, which would strongly dis-incentivize developers from using Epic's own engine. Epic is simply waiving that 5% engine royalty so that its store is game-engine-agnostic.

You forgot to mention the Unity cut in your sum.

Epic is certainly not making the store engine neutral. It costs less to use unreal than unity.

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#169

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:38 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #161

moate wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortnite is making hundreds of millions of dollars a month{1}. IDK what "free to play crap" is, but if it can pull in over a billion a year I think most companies would be happy to have it on their ledger. 1- https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-g...

It's simple. 99.9% of the users play without paying a dime, and the game has to cater to the "whales" that spend thousands. That's fine when you peddle digital hats, but if they want to open a store, they want paying customers in it don't they? Most actual games they'd want to sell need to be paid for upfront... and I don't see the average Fortnite (or any other free to play abomination) player doing that.

[deleted]

Re: Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue

#170

Post by a13n » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:41 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #161

moate wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortnite is making hundreds of millions of dollars a month{1}. IDK what "free to play crap" is, but if it can pull in over a billion a year I think most companies would be happy to have it on their ledger. 1- https://www.recode.net/2018/6/26/17502072/fortnite-revenue-g...

It's simple. 99.9% of the users play without paying a dime, and the game has to cater to the "whales" that spend thousands. That's fine when you peddle digital hats, but if they want to open a store, they want paying customers in it don't they? Most actual games they'd want to sell need to be paid for upfront... and I don't see the average Fortnite (or any other free to play abomination) player doing that.

Yeah, you'd think, but this survey of 1,000 players said 68.8% had spent money on in-game purchases.

Maybe they somehow managed to target just the 0.1% of players who spend money (according to you), but it seems highly unlikely that the numbers are that low.

https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite/