Epic Games Store now open!

[Paul_cz]

Yip. My two boys are fervent Fortnite players. We pay the £10 a month for each of them to get "free" skins and vbucks each month plus the battle pass for each season is included. However, we occasionally buy them vbucks as a reward or if they beg so much I give in. Almost all of any money they receive for birthdays, Xmas, etc. usually gets spent on vbucks too. I would estimate that they have spent close to £300 each over the past two years on Fortnite. As a matter of principal, I have an issue spending real currency on fake currency but they don't want anything else, they're not interested in toys and the like. Times have changed I guess...

This is insane.

 

[Tombstone]

Yip. My two boys are fervent Fortnite players. We pay the £10 a month for each of them to get "free" skins and vbucks each month plus the battle pass for each season is included. However, we occasionally buy them vbucks as a reward or if they beg so much I give in. Almost all of any money they receive for birthdays, Xmas, etc. usually gets spent on vbucks too. I would estimate that they have spent close to £300 each over the past two years on Fortnite. As a matter of principal, I have an issue spending real currency on fake currency but they don't want anything else, they're not interested in toys and the like. Times have changed I guess...

All I wanted as a kid was Tin Can Alley and some Scalextrix bits, times have indeed changed

 

[atomic7431]

All I wanted as a kid was Tin Can Alley and some Scalextrix bits, times have indeed changed

I remember tin can Alley also was something i wanted as a kid, brings back memories

 

[StrongSad]

Yip. My two boys are fervent Fortnite players. We pay the £10 a month for each of them to get "free" skins and vbucks each month plus the battle pass for each season is included. However, we occasionally buy them vbucks as a reward or if they beg so much I give in. Almost all of any money they receive for birthdays, Xmas, etc. usually gets spent on vbucks too. I would estimate that they have spent close to £300 each over the past two years on Fortnite. As a matter of principal, I have an issue spending real currency on fake currency but they don't want anything else, they're not interested in toys and the like. Times have changed I guess...

That is really interesting.
Do your boys have anything tangible outside of their gaming world? Bikes, skateboards, scooters or Footballs? or do they spend most of their free time gaming?

 

[robgmun]

People sign up for the free games which cost them. That’s it, people then go elsewhere to buy their games. Many will also wait for the timed exclusives to leave before picking them up.

The last 12 months has been a very interesting time for free games due to the pandemic. Epics bi-weekly giveaways, Playstations Stay at home initiative, and various extraordinarily good deals from CDKeys and website of the like, i think i amassed at least 100 games that have been either completely free (more than half) or cost £1-3 quid.

 

[heartburnron]

That is really interesting.
Do your boys have anything tangible outside of their gaming world? Bikes, skateboards, scooters or Footballs? or do they spend most of their free time gaming?

Yeah they have all the stuff you mention and will still go outside to play with their friends when the weather is ok. It seems kids now just don't have the same interest in toys. I bought them the Millennium Falcon toy a few years back for Xmas, something I would have died for as a kid, but I ended up playing with it more than they did! I've took them to Smyths Toy Store with Xmas / Birthday money and they didn't see anything they wanted, coming out with nothing. It seems odd compared to when we were kids but then the "skins" they buy on Fortnite are their action figures now. They are playing online, talking with their friends, even playing hide and seek games in Creative mode. So they're still "playing" and using their imagination it's just all done digitally now.

 

[Malevolence]

All I wanted as a kid was Tin Can Alley and some Scalextrix bits, times have indeed changed

Meccano, Big Trak and TCR stuff here.

 

[Frubeling]

This is insane.

£300 on something you get enjoyment out of for multiple hours a day, every day for years isn't very much money at all

 

[Paul_cz]

£300 on something you get enjoyment out of for multiple hours a day, every day for years isn't very much money at all

To me it is insane when it is something as vapid, meaningless and valueless as V-bucks for god damn skins in a skinnerboxy multiplayer.

 

[Moothead2]

To me it is insane when it is something as vapid, meaningless and valueless as V-bucks for god damn skins in a skinnerboxy multiplayer.

Same here, then again I'm not a kid in 2021 and the most I've spent on a skin was like 25p in Steam store credit I had from selling cards .

 

[Moothead2]

Unfortunately everywhere will have exclusives. I don't particularly like it but Steam did the same with Half Life and forcing you to use Steam to download HL2. If Epic want to do it to promote there store then there's little we can do other than boycott it if you don't agree with it. Sony do it on the PS5 and the only ones who don't really do it are CD Projekt Red but it does happen everywhere else.


M.

The Half Life 2 comparison isn't very good imo, it's their game. People don't seem to have much issue with Rockstar requiring their launcher for GTA V or Epic requiring EGS for Fortnite, it's the 3rd party 'exclusives' people have issue with, especially when their store seems to lack even the most basic of functions years after release.

 

[Frubeling]

To me it is insane when it is something as vapid, meaningless and valueless as V-bucks for god damn skins in a skinnerboxy multiplayer.

Same viewpoint could be applied to any game though. It's not hard to put it in the perspective of having paid what you think your long term enjoyment has been worth

 

[Ranked1_of_1]

Yip. My two boys are fervent Fortnite players. We pay the £10 a month for each of them to get "free" skins and vbucks each month plus the battle pass for each season is included. However, we occasionally buy them vbucks as a reward or if they beg so much I give in. Almost all of any money they receive for birthdays, Xmas, etc. usually gets spent on vbucks too. I would estimate that they have spent close to £300 each over the past two years on Fortnite. As a matter of principal, I have an issue spending real currency on fake currency but they don't want anything else, they're not interested in toys and the like. Times have changed I guess...

My son is exactly the same as this. I have tried talking to him and explaining that the skins are not really worth the money, but they are to him. Some of it I think is peer pressure and also watching streamers\youtubers that throw money around on skins like it is nothing. He doesnt want or ask for anything else though. We pay the £10 a month subscription because I told him that other than that I wouldnt get him any other vBucks though the month. His grandparents still get him some every so often as well.

To me it is insane when it is something as vapid, meaningless and valueless as V-bucks for god damn skins in a skinnerboxy multiplayer.

Value and meaning are personal things though. To some people the fact that us adults play video games is insane and meaningless.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Kids are absolutely hooked on microtransactions now. £300 over 2 years is nothing compared to the amounts I've seen parents give their kids for FIFA points. For a mode in which all your money goes down the drain each year as cards don't carry over.

 

[m4cc45]

The Half Life 2 comparison isn't very good imo, it's their game. People don't seem to have much issue with Rockstar requiring their launcher for GTA V or Epic requiring EGS for Fortnite, it's the 3rd party 'exclusives' people have issue with, especially when their store seems to lack even the most basic of functions years after release.

In my opinion it's the same thing. I only use Epic as a games launcher so I'm not sure what more you really want from it. Steam, even after over a decade, you can't do basic things like change the font size and the interface does look old. I'm not having a go at Steam I have over 300 games on there, but it's nice to have a choice. If a company pays to market a game, exclusively, then it's purely a business decision and a hope to drive traffic to a new online store. I think deals like this will disappear over time it's just a marketing trick - same with the game giveaways. It wouldn't stop me buying the game if I wanted it though.



M.

 

[NZXT30]

I remember myself as a little lad I would spend my allowance on utter crap, same for all my friends. As long as kids understand the money they spend on skins comes out of their allowance and once it runs out there is no more I don't see a problem with it.

 

[james.miller]

In my opinion it's the same thing. I only use Epic as a games launcher so I'm not sure what more you really want from it. Steam, even after over a decade, you can't do basic things like change the font size and the interface does look old. I'm not having a go at Steam I have over 300 games on there, but it's nice to have a choice. If a company pays to market a game, exclusively, then it's purely a business decision and a hope to drive traffic to a new online store. I think deals like this will disappear over time it's just a marketing trick - same with the game giveaways. It wouldn't stop me buying the game if I wanted it though.



M.

When Valve did it, there werent any alternatives. You had to install their platform to play their game. all fine. It's a completely different landscape these days. Now you have Epic buying exclusives out from under the feet of other platforms. I cant remember what game it was now but there was one example where people had preordered the game on steam on for Epic to pay enough to have the game pulled from steam before it was even released. It's an entirely different level of customer-screwing.

Thankfully, we seem to be heading in to an era of cross-platform releasing and I am ALL for that. Back when Mass Effect 3 was released, i couldnt buy it on steam because EA wanted it as an exclusive and they then fleeced their customers because of that. I had the first two games on steam already, i wasnt about to pay EA through the nose for it. Now, EA Play can be accessed on steam or Gamepass and that is BRILLIANT, IMO. Lots more of that please. The more stores these games are released on, the less exclusivity-tax the publishers can get away with.

 

[StrongSad]

Yeah they have all the stuff you mention and will still go outside to play with their friends when the weather is ok. It seems kids now just don't have the same interest in toys. I bought them the Millennium Falcon toy a few years back for Xmas, something I would have died for as a kid, but I ended up playing with it more than they did! I've took them to Smyths Toy Store with Xmas / Birthday money and they didn't see anything they wanted, coming out with nothing. It seems odd compared to when we were kids but then the "skins" they buy on Fortnite are their action figures now. They are playing online, talking with their friends, even playing hide and seek games in Creative mode. So they're still "playing" and using their imagination it's just all done digitally now.

Cheers for the explanation. I guess it is a generation thing now. My children grew up with PC's first off and those sort of multiplayer games were not a thing. Also by far the majority of their interests were outside and having one of each they were completely separate. (other than PC games) But the skins, virtual currency loot boxes model has never sat well with me because it is virtual as it can be taken away/lost forever at the whim of a company. Then again I look at Panini football stickers as a lad and there is not much difference at the end of the day.

 

[uncle_rufus]

In my opinion it's the same thing. I only use Epic as a games launcher so I'm not sure what more you really want from it. Steam, even after over a decade, you can't do basic things like change the font size and the interface does look old. I'm not having a go at Steam I have over 300 games on there, but it's nice to have a choice. If a company pays to market a game, exclusively, then it's purely a business decision and a hope to drive traffic to a new online store. I think deals like this will disappear over time it's just a marketing trick - same with the game giveaways. It wouldn't stop me buying the game if I wanted it though.

"it's nice to have a choice"

Well that choice is what Epic are choosing to take away from you, and if they get there way over time more and more "choice" will be removed for you

 

[Frubeling]

I cant remember what game it was now but there was one example where people had preordered the game on steam on for Epic to pay enough to have the game pulled from steam before it was even released. It's an entirely different level of customer-screwing.

That was Phoenix Point
I got it refunded when they made that announcement. I have no issue with the EGS, but I don't like being outright lied to.
Funnily enough I still got the game and all the other backer perks despite refunding