Has anyone changed their mind about the Epic store, after all the free games?

I ditched the launcher the day Epic screwed over Unreal Tournament Alpha development. Free games doesn't really entice me due to the fact that my play time is limited anyways and if I wanted to support the devs of a particular game I'm interested in I'd rather buy (support with wallet).

Steam has all the convenience features I need and feels less intrusive to me. I also have Origin/GOG/Battle.net etc for specific games, but where possible I've tried to migrate specific games from those stores to Steam. But each to their own I guess.
 
It would be nice to launch all games from 1 launcher... Generally, I've found the download and install times for games on the Epic launcher are faster and more reliable, I think they have better servers tbh. They are also much less fussy about users installing games on multiple PCs from the same account, which was a problem from the beginning with Valve and Steam's DRM.
 
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Free games whats not to like

I still remember the hate valve got when steam turned up I was not a happy bunny and not alone in that
 
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/epic-spe...-games-in-the-first-nine-months-of-giveaways/
only about 7% of EGS users who have acquired at least one free game have also made a purchase through the storefront
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I've basically just added a bunch of free games (when I remember to check it, I've missed out on quite a few) without buying anything. I think I've only actually played one game on it though because my son wanted to (some Jurassic World game). Most of the big name titles I already had but would like to play Borderlands 3 one day.

I think they need to amend their model, I get the idea of a loss leader to try and get people using their platform but the issue is a lot of people are just building a collection without engaging and more importantly spending.
Maybe they could change it so users who have already claimed a free game can only claim a free game if you've made a purchase in the last month, or have hit a certain threshold or whatever. I think there must be a massive diminishing return from giving people more free games, I mean the first game sure, that's a way of getting people onto the platform that might otherwise be ignoring it. But if people have got 10 free games and haven't bought anything is free game #11 really going to tip them over the edge?

I agree with the OP that having different launchers isn't a concern to me, I mean it's no worse than having to spend ages digging out a physical game and then finding that disc 4 of 5 won't read properly. Honestly, loading up another launcher, maybe downloading an update for it etc is a classic first world problem. Sure in a perfect world I wouldn't have my games spread across Steam, Origin, uPlay, EGS, GMG, Microsoft Store, GOG and probably one or two other niche platforms but it's not the end of the world. I would say probably the biggest problem it causes is sometimes I forget what games I have on what platform, see a game I want on sale on platform X but then have to go and check if I have it already on another platform before buying (or worse I forget and buy it again!).
 
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I have spent £14 on the store, two games, both heavily discounted or with a discount code, since my first free game (Subnautica in 2018).
 
My take is still the same as the situation is still really the same. It's still not as good as a platform as the other offerings so outside of the free games, I don't buy from it if I have the same choice elsewhere. I did buy one game on there as it was cheaper on epic than elsewhere but that's it.
 
I've not bothered with it, yet another launcher etc. I don't mind a publisher/developer based one for only their own games. It's difficult to trust they'll stick around and your content will be available beyond their commitment to it.

I also don't like the exclusive part of it. Only game I want from the platform is THPS 1+2 but I'm hoping that'll come to Steam or similar.

I guess with Epic it comes to trust, they will no doubt sell on the platform or look to be bought into when there's a large enough established user base. In the world of user data that alone must be worth a lot of money, I don't trust the won't misuse the platform in the future and I can get all the games I want bar one via the platforms I already use so why would I want to put my personal details and money into another place just for that?
 
Dup said:
, I don't trust the won't misuse the platform in the future and I can get all the games I want bar one via the platforms I already use so why would I want to put my personal details and money into another place just for that?
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Why did you start to trust other platforms like Valve's Steam platform? A lot of people trust it just because it's older and has more users. If you are worried about your payment details, just use Paypal, same as any other online purchase you don't have reason to trust completely.

What would count as misusing the platform?
 
This is true. Why is a platform Tencent own a large percentage of any less trustworthy than one they don't.. wait nevermind; answered my own question.
 
One thing I've noticed recently, is Epic seems to be trying to steal Microsoft's thunder by giving away titles offered via Gamepass for free (like Alien: Isolation, Surviving Mars). Or, maybe its just coincidence.

Epic are also doing sales on Starwars (EA) games right now, while XB gamepass includes many Starwars games as part of the deal.
 
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g67575 said:
Why did you start to trust other platforms like Valve's Steam platform? A lot of people trust it just because it's older and has more users. If you are worried about your payment details, just use Paypal, same as any other online purchase you don't have reason to trust completely.

What would count as misusing the platform?
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Steam was the first and I didn't buy into it for a long while (I was at uni at the time). I think my first Steam purchase was the orange box which was huge value but there was nothing else like it.

EA Store/Origin was the only place to get their titles digitally up until very recently. You couldn't get them cheaper anywhere else and as a BF fan it was a no-brainer. I haven't used that in a couple of years at least though, given the option I would buy elsewhere but if I'm forced into their launcher anyway then they hold their own exclusives and there's not much I can do.

The main abuse being holding exclusives titles and hiking the price. If by building their userbase with free titles gives them a big enoguh market share they could abuse that into offering higher priced games you canb't get anywhere else (which is ever increasing when quality of new game launches is genrally low these days). Not as relevant in the gaming industry I accept but heavy self-advertising around an already paid for product (Like Amazon Prime for instance) is a big no-no for me, I know what I want, I wand to figuratively take my game off the shelf and play it, not have barriers put in the way.

The simple answer for me personally is that if I don't need to sign up and sign my personal details away, I won't. Epic offers no value for me aside from one game I feel I'm missing out on, but a whole new launcher for one game I feel is overpriced seems daft when I can just wait. I agree we need competition and decent prices, I don't agree with platform exclusives and monopolising digital media. I would prefer we had cdkey sites competing and instead of Steam/Origin/Epic etc we just redeem those via the publishers app that doesn't serve primarily as a marketing platform.
 
g67575 said:
Here's an example of the nuts price differences between Steam and EGS:
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/sid-meiers-civilization-vi--platinum-edition-upgrade
$5 in some regions

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12218/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VI__Platinum_Edition/
£102 in the UK on Steam

It's a pack that includes most of the expansions + DLC for Civ 6.
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They're the same price:o you're comparing the cost of the upgrade on epic with the full platinum edition on steam. Its £102 on both.
 
$5 in some regions for the platinum upgrade for Civ 6. They gave the base game away for free a while ago on EGS.

Steam doesn't have an upgrade option (because reasons), but the game with the platinum edition included costs ~£100 in the UK.

Actually, I noticed the main reason for the price difference, is that Civ 6 on it's own is £50 on Steam! So about half the cost of the platinum edition is down to this.

Tbh, the DLC situation with Civ 6 is a bit of a mess, even the platinum edition doesn't include all DLC, you need the season pass as well (which is expensive on both platforms) to get all content.

I'm not so sure I like the different traits offered by factions in Civ 6 anyway, they seem bland and weak compared to previous games, this is an attempt to keep things balanced and multiplayer friendly I think.
 
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The problem with the Epic store, as with pretty much everyone else except Steam is that none of the others have a Linux client or any interested in supporting the Linux community. Yes, Linux users are a small, but growing, minority but Valve does pander to us and is actively trying to make more of their games work on Linux so they get more sales. Makes perfect sense to me which is why they, and other storefronts who sell Steam keys, get my business and Epic doesn't.
 
Infidelus said:
The problem with the Epic store, as with pretty much everyone else except Steam is that none of the others have a Linux client or any interested in supporting the Linux community. Yes, Linux users are a small, but growing, minority but Valve does pander to us and is actively trying to make more of their games work on Linux so they get more sales. Makes perfect sense to me which is why they, and other storefronts who sell Steam keys, get my business and Epic doesn't.
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What is stopping you from running a dual boot with Windows? all the good stuff is on Windows.
 
Did Windows for 20 years. Not interested in Microsoft's spyware (Windows 10). I did briefly dual boot, but got bored of having to reboot just to play certain games. Most of what I play works on Linux via Steam/Lutris etc and there's an increasing amount of games with native Linux support. Basically if it doesn't work on Linux I just don't buy/play it. Protondb gives me a good guide as to whether a game I'm considering will work on Linux. If they say Borked, I save my money :)
 
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