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Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

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Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#281
post #198
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly when their business depends on running Windows games on top of Proton. Independence of paying Windows licenses or Microsoft store taxes, sure.

The point is that Proton puts them in a win win position. If Windows stays popular, they're fine. If Windows tanks, they're fine.

If Windows tanks their fountain runs dry.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#282
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly when their business depends on running Windows games on top of Proton. Independence of paying Windows licenses or Microsoft store taxes, sure.

I believe they have proved that very few games are actually Windows games. The few remaining are mostly those which require Windows kernel drivers to run or connect to online services.

Really, where are those Linux builds?

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#283
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because games is simply not a particularly profitable industry. There's a reason why Valve moved on from making games to being a digital landlord.

It absolutely is a profitable industry, maybe not as profitable as todays greedy shareholders would like it to be. Just look at the CD Projekt that releases 1 game per 10 years and still makes a fortune through Netflix colabs and selling merch.

I agree with your sentiment, but I also don't know if CD Projekt is a great example because its not their original IP. I am sure the games saw a boast in sales from awareness given by the TV show. But I am assuming Andrzej Sapkowski is probably the one who gets most of the money from licensing from Netflix. Although I will say, I don't 100% know all the details for the Netflix deals. And due to lawsuits and what not, exactly what Andrzej has the ability to sell rights to isn't very easy to find out with quick searches.

Edit: Ah, maybe CD Projekt does own the rights completely? They may have bought the right completely from Andrzej? So Andrzej may not have been the primary party selling the rights? Or maybe not? Andrzej may have retained film/tv rights and not sold those to CD Projekt.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#284
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still funny to me that they would rather burn 9 figures in cash on these silly deals to try and 'trap' gamers on their platform instead of just... I don't know... making a better platform? The reason nobody competes with Steam is simply the sheer number of integration and platform features that make it easy to buy, play and share games with my friends. It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your pl…

> It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your platform. Just make it a nice experience. I feel like this is good advice, and should still be a pillar of building a business: prioritize customer satisfaction, and your happy customers will become repeat customers. But I don't think it's enough. Epic tried to launch a store in 2018, 15 years after the launch of Steam. That's 15 years of customers buying th…

15 years is not some insane gap that you can't get around. The biggest issue is that the EGS is just an inferior experience compared to steam, that's simply it.

If Epic games really wanted to start eating away at steams market share, they would do one thing. Make EGS not shitty for the user

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#285
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I broadly agree, though it does seem like Minecraft has some plot armor here. I think people are still buying and playing Minecraft a lot. I like Minecraft, I play it occasionally, but I guess it's a game that has much more staying power than average. I though my grievances with Epic are primarily because we never got Jazz Jackrabbit 3.

Time for them to pivot to their strength: ZZT

I haven't thought about ZZT for many many years, and didn't realize it was a Tim Sweeney joint. Thank you very much for the intense hit of nostalgia!

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#286
post #191
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly when their business depends on running Windows games on top of Proton. Independence of paying Windows licenses or Microsoft store taxes, sure.

Because of Oracle v Google, supporting applications running in the Win32 userspace isn't necessarily leaving yourself open to threats of Microsoft meddling. There's tons and tons of older software that people still want to run that might never be ported to Linux. And that's fine, because there's no problem with building compatibility layers to make it work. Microsoft can't do anything about that.

Sure, if the goal is like doing retrogaming with Windows games as if it was WinUAE.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#288
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is full of street performers, some manage to strike a deal with a label, and tour the world once. Afterwards depends on how they manage to keep surfing the success wave. Basically.

Fortnite is exactly the guy who tour the world once and twice and thrice.

Indeed, pity are all the others that haven't.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> similar fees No? Epic charges 12% (with the first $1m free) vs. Valve’s frankly extortionate (i.e. industry standard) 30%.

Steam will also provide publishers with free activation keys that they can sell direct to customer without the 30% charge.

If you are a large game, they will not provide you an appreciable portion of your sales as keys. Sales made this way also likely hurt your organic distribution.

Re: value propositions: Steam's 30% reduces to 25% after $10M made, and 20% after $50M.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't losing money on Fortnite, they're losing money on vanity projects like the Epic Game Store where they spend tens of millions of dollars for exclusivity deals with developers, and give away free games to try to poach Steam users with an otherwise inferior product. Unfortunately it is their employees that are paying the price of leadership making it rain with their overflowing coffers they couldn't help but…

In my experience, the Epic Games Store downloads faster, installs more efficiently, and launches games faster than Steam. The social features I actually use (i.e., add a friend, join them in a game) work fine. I'm not aware of any features Steam has that EGS lacks that I actually use frequently (Valve's VR, streaming tech, and Proton are great, but I don't use those frequently). It's not just me, many indie game deve…

EGS doesn't even have a Linux version.

Steam is always going to be my first choice because Linux support is better. If I buy on Steam I know it's going to work.

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