Epic Games exclusives don't bother nine out of 10 PC gamers in US

Epic Games Store is well on its way to becoming one of the leaders on the market as both the recently revealed revenue numbers and analysts' projections of consumer behaviour suggest. In fact, nine out of 10 US gamers didn't mind another launcher to access the exclusive content.

[BlackIceJoe]

I guess the nine out of ten that say that work for Epic, because no gamer would honestly say that.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

How come?

[TK-66]

We should actually point out that what the article is claiming and what Superdata study says do not 100% line up. The author (and Superdata) have had to make a small leap to connect this to EGS. Their question in the study was "would you be willing to download a launcher to play a game you're anticipating?" and 9 out of 10 answered yes. That does not mean 9 out of 10 gamers dont care about EGS exclusives.

You can dislike the idea of EGS buying timed exclusives and still purchase the game on that platform. I find it quite laughable that even Superdata couldn't distinguish between those two positions.

"What's more, it's exceeding expectations as it raked in $680 million in revenue . It is unclear what the profits were or whether it was profitable at all but since this is the first year where the platform aggressively wrestled with Steam, it's hard to call it shabby."

I mean considering that EGS is having to pay for games to make their way to the platform we can potentially call it shabby. It's been a year now and games have begun making their way to Steam. Hades (one of the EGS launch titles) has over 8000 reviews on Steam and currently 2500 players in-game currently. Thats a lot considering the game arrived on the client a year later.

[Takwin]

I am a gamer and I have NO problem with Epic exclusives, Sony Exclusives, or Nintendo exclusives. I have no problem with all the launchers. I think a game like Tarkov having its own launcher is fine.

I support Epic when it benefits me. And I have claimed every one of the 73 free games over the last year, made a few purchases (not on Fortnite, actual games), and am glad Steam has real competition that GOG didn't offer with its size and uPlay and Origin didn't offer due to what they do.

So your statement is factually wrong. I have been gaming for almost 40 years, and I do not work for Epic, lol.

[Aeery]

"I support Epic when it benefits me."

And this is the problem with our society.

GG

ps 9/10 ?! Out of 100 ? 1000 ? 1000000 ?

[RazzerRedux]

"And this is the problem with our society."

And so you only buy or support products and services when it is to the benefit of all mankind?

[KaaF]

No, it just means 9/10 are not annoying loud dumb steam fanboys, you are just a loud minority.

[MadLad]

I have multiple launchers. I don't use EPIC's because I don't like their tactics of buying out exclusives; specially on games like indies that used Kickstarter for funding.

I would like to see how this makes me a Steam fanboy.

[KaaF]

@TheRealTedCruz Then don't use Steam either, it also bought indie exclusives when it was starting out but steam fanboys conveniently forget/ignore that. Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[MadLad]

You haven't explained my fanboyism yet. Anyway, I started PC gaming in 2012. It is now 2020. You link me to a largely disliked video; of which I was aware of when it first released, because people in a rather small circle (according to its less than 700 views as of today) as this big gotcha moment but, again, you're defending what people find as an anti-consumer business practice in 2020, because it was done, seemingly on a smaller scale even, back when I was 12.

Insert me into that time period, I'd be saying the same thing for Steam; refusing to use the launcher until said practice ended. Instead we're here in 2020. EPIC is the only company I'm aware of using these practices, and doing so brazenly, and has promised to continue this through the coming years.

You didn't make much of a point here.

[TK-66]

@KaaF

Or do whats right and just dont buy 3rd party games that are paid to be kept exclusives to one client over another? You don't have to boycott EVERYTHING on EGS because of paid exclusives. Just the games they pay for to show you don't support that practice. Was that too difficult for you? Or do we need you to link another channel with 2 subscribers?

[ecchiless]

@therealtedcruz

do u have games made with unreal?

edit; are you only hating the store or anything epic related?

[Orionsangel]

Exactly, there's too many gamers who are loyal to a single brand. Why? What do they get out of that?

[MadLad]

@ecchiless

Notice how I mentioned the practice used by the EPIC store. Not the engine. Not their games. The business practice used by the store.

There lies your answer.

[Fluttershy77]

I think it bothers 9 out of 10 n4g gamers

[Rude-ro]

It’s “nine out of 10”... because of reasons.
Surely removes any validity when the writing is as such about said topic... no?

[NeoGamer232]

On PC, you just need the store software to get the games and stores are free to download by anyone. So it doesn't matter whether it is Epic, Steam, Windows store, etc. You can still run the store and games on the same hardware.

On console you only have one store and that is the console vendor's store. It would be nice if console vendors would be more like PC!

[CaptainCook]

I've spent £100s purchasing games on the Epic Store. It's only those biased fanboys who don't like competitions.

[Seafort]

Epic is not competition to anyone. They buy a game's exclusivity to only sell on their store. They are competing with themselves, no one else.

Epic doesn't like competition or they wouldn't tie down any game to only selling on their store and just compete for people's custom by lowering the prices or making a much better store than anyone else.

They didn't do that. They used their Fortnite money to buy off developers and publishers and didn't put any hard work to establish themselves at all.

It took years for Valve to build up their trusted reputation and develop their store to what it is today. Epic is just trying to skip all the hard work and buy notoriety for short term gain.

That is not a store that will last as eventually the money will run out and all they'll have is people on their store for the free stuff and will leave at a moments notice. I know many people that have just got the Epic launcher to get all the free games but not buy a single one. That bought community will collapse under it's own inadequacies and greed.

Watch this space.

[Orionsangel]

Why not? Competition is a good thing. Why should Steam be the only game in town?

[rainslacker]

I've seen quite a few gamers say it doesn't bother them.

[Flewid638]

Control was amazing. It had game of the year nominations. How would staying away from it for this reason be the lesser gaming thing to do?

[IcedOmega13]

I've got too much money and too many titles on steam to switch now

[RazzerRedux]

Why would you have to switch?

[Double_O_Revan]

Because apparently you're only allowed to have 1 Launcher installed on your PC. You MUST choose!!

People are silly.

[Unspoken]

Yeah that is odd people believe they have to get rid of the rest of their games library.

[Teflon02]

ppl don't get that people don't want 40 launchers on their PC. That separates all the games they own. But also ppl aren't even that against it. As the epic launcher always existed. BUT the problem is the practices. People don't like that they're playing to force you to use the launcher. I want steam achievements on the games I play. Games that I don't have on steam barely get played because I only make Steam auto open on launch as it's not necessary to boot your pc to 40 launchers. I had the Epic launcher before it was a store but I'm against it now because what they're doing. As is the same with others. People just like to pretend like they don't get it. It's a big inconvenience to the players.

[RazzerRedux]

@Teflon02

The "40 launchers" is just a huge exaggeration. If you don't want to use a launcher then just use Windows explorer. You can create a shortcut and launch it from wherever you want. I guess I'll never understand how that is some huge inconvenience. Either way, none of this requires you to "switch" entirely to Epic, which is what I was asking about.

If you want to stick to Steam for its features, achievements, or whatever then that is completely understandable. If you don't want to use Epic because of their "practices" fine......you do you.

"People just like to pretend like they don't get it."

lol.....get what? That you don't have to "switch"? There is nothing to get. You just don't have to.

"It's a big inconvenience to players like me."

Fixed. You speak only for yourself.

[rainslacker]

40 launchers? Maybe if you get a lot of porn games...in which case, they're probably back door trojan software, and not really launchers.

I mean, I could list the number of relevant launchers that most serious gamers would likely need to have on their hard drive on one hand. Steam, Origin and Uplay(although Origin is on Steam now isn't it?), Battle.Net(if you're into Blizzard games, and EGS. Maybe add some others if you're into a niche game or VR or something.

Seriously, how many launchers do people already have if one more is becoming too much?

I like a clean desk top probably more than the average person, but even at work, where I have all the big launchers for work purposes, I can keep them all neat and tidy in the corner of my screen. Since I only play one game at a time, it's never become a problem for me.

At home, the games I play regularly(which are few on PC), I just have a direct link to the game. I have more direct links to games on my desktop than I do store launchers.

[yoshatabi]

It's just a launcher. Why does it matter so much?

[Father__Merrin]

It's mainly Internet nerds whom this bothers. Great to see epic doing well with their latest figures, by Xmas 2020 EGS will be huge

[tontontam0]

yup the majority does not even know that there are people who hates epic and why they hate th epic store.

[MadLad]

So we should follow the opinions of the uninformed. This would have no disastrous consequences in other aspects of day to day life.

Speaking of uninformed, as was pointed out by someone already, if you were to actually read about this poll, the question was presented as "would you download a launcher to play a game you were excited for". Doesn't take anything else into consideration.

[MadLad]

Dude. You're not even a PC gamer. You come into the comments section of every article that promotes EPIC store in any way, purely because you know it's a salty conversation amongst PC gamers and like to run your mouth on the subject.

[RazzerRedux]

No problems here. I'm enjoying getting the free games.

[phoenixwing]

The messenger alone as a free game did more for me than a review section on steam so im happy

[Spenok]

It's never bothered me, and I'll never understand the petty reasons it bothers others.

[yoshatabi]

Same. It's just a launcher

[ocelot07]

I have no issue with EPIC. If it's a issue having a few launches for people. Why not download the new GOG Galaxy launcher? Sure you need to still have EPIC and Steam and Uplay installed but they can be hidden from the desktop. Open up GOG link the other launches. You can then launch and download your games from the one launcher.

[SegaGamer]

Yep, this is exactly what I did. My main issue with Epic's store in the past was having my games spread out over multiple launchers, GOG takes care of this problem entirely. It's still slightly annoying that I need to have multiple launchers installed on my pc and I need to have a load of different accounts and passwords, but it's a minor annoyance at best.

I launch every game through GOG Galaxy now. Having your games, friends and achievements in one place is everything I wanted.

[ocelot07]

Exactly you can even add your PSN and XBL account to it. Yer it's annoying having different emails and passwords. But once they are linked you don't have to sign into them anymore unless you wipe your PC or something.

[rainslacker]

Doesn't steam allow you to launch non-steam games as well? Think you only need the other launcher to buy the games if you use it...assuming you don't use a web based store front. Unless I'm mistaken.

[ocelot07]

That is correct but Steam does not allow you to see timed played on for example your Uplay games or see your friends list for Uplay where GOG Galaxy does.

[rainslacker]

Ah. I don't use these launchers much myself. I have EGS and Steam at the moment at home. Steam because I have some games on there, and EGS because I'm taking advantage of the free games while they last. I have a lot at work, but I keep them all on my desktop, because I tend to want to launch right from the desktop for development purposes during that phase of production.

[Endyo]

The fact that they're all eventually coming to Steam (they've already started with Hades) and PC gamers are already used to waiting on games, I suppose it makes it less of an issue.

[tombfan]

It's just the people that write in the articles thinking that they are majority :)

[jjb1981]

I don't "hate" EGS, I just much rather use Steam. I have a built-up friends list on there and many games have steam workshop functionality. I love all the seasonal things that they do with their store and have been used to opening their launcher for over 10 years now. Steam doesn't make me dislike EGS. It's what EA did with Origin that has me not wanting another launcher. Ever since Origin has been around, they have made minimal updates to their platform. I own several games there but it feels so dull and bland when I open it. Ubisoft is the same way. They only make these storefronts to peddle their wares to gain 100% profit. It makes sense from a business perspective but then it makes me buy the game on console because even MS and Sony have community features on their platforms. EGS has a huge advantage because they sell third-party games. They need to upgrade and add features to their store because they are not competition for Steam in terms of functionality. I only log into EGS to play Save the World once in a while and get a free game that I'll probably never play. I have a weird relationship with EGS where I'll browse the store, especially during a sale and buy nothing. I can wait out a timed PC exclusive but for multiplats I'll get the console version if it's available.

[NiteX]

This sounds incredibly shill.

[MadLad]

It wasn't even a proper poll. The question asked was "would you download a launcher to play a game you were excited for". Completely disengenuous without any other context involved.

It's like asking a guy if he would date a 10/10 female, but not bringing up they have multiple stds, and used to be a dude. Believe it or not, that extra bit of information may have an affect on the choice.

[Elwenil]

Epic can burn in hel.

[RazzerRedux]

Companies can go to hell?

[Ddog45]

Asked 10 people today(people who actually game on pc). 2 out of 10 said they don't care, that's what i would of guessed. Epic is a fail to me and easily avoidable. Wanted Metro Exodus, waited and got it free on gamepass, wanted borderlands 3 still waiting but having no problem just playing witcher 3 again and lots of backlog games. Hated exclusives in consoles and already hated all these launchers in pc and adding 1 more poor functioning one that tries to force you to use it...NO THANKS!

[Fraggle1987]

Why would anyone care. You can still play the game easily on epic store.

[MadLad]

As someone who uses GoG, Uplay, and a number of other launchers/sites, I don't get why people find it hard throwing another one into the mix. It's a crap store. There's no denying that, but it mostly functions. It's harder It's actually find and buy games than simply launch them after the fact.

My issue is their business practice, and after seemingly having this conversation to a gross amount of times since the EPIC launch, I don't understand why people don't understand this is a business practice topic, and a usability topic, and then still a topic of how many launchers do you want to juggle. I really don't understand those who only want one storefront but, all the same, it gets annoying that so many people want to boil down the issue to just that.

[RazzerRedux]

Seriously? I don't see what they have done that is so horrible and hasn't been done by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and on. What am I missing?

[Bart-Simpson]

Most people aren't bothered by anything, they just accept everything. Just look at the amount of denuvo "protected" games. https://iscracked.info/all_...

[Cobra951]

I know. It's a small minority of the other 10% who are making all the ugly noise.

[Orionsangel]

Competition is a good thing.

[TheColbertinator]

EGS isn't bad but there is nothing amazing about it either. Free games are nice but most of those games never interested me in the first place. The lack of a community and workshop features also don't convince me as to why I should ever use it instead of Steam.

[rainslacker]

It's a store front that launches games. It's neither bad or good. It doesn't have a lot of secondary features that the Steam store front/launcher has, but otherwise, it does the job well enough.

I can see why people may have problems with the business practices of Epic. but I can also see why publishers and some devs would decide to accept Epic's terms, or a payout, to launch their game there exclusively for a while.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Who funded this study? Epic Games?

[Edgelordsupreme]

It was the mysterious and sinister THEY.

[Cmoney007]

Answering questions about Epic games:

1. Will a game run on the launcher? Yes

2. Can you find free games on there? Yes

3. Will people be apologists for EGS? Yes

4. Is it worth buying games on EGS? The only reason that people bought Borderlands 3 on there is because they didn’t want to wait a year.

5. Would I spend money on EGS? If EGS decided to stop their exclusive BS on games, then I would spend money on there.

6. How many more years will it be until Epic adds a lot of basic features that we have seen in other game launchers? The fact that the launcher has been out since 2015 and is still missing basic features is embarrassing.

However you feel about Epic, it is still a pretty shitty launcher that could be so much better. Steam and GOG are much better choices to use. I only use Epic to download some free games.

[Rachel_Alucard]

I wouldn't care about downloading a new launcher either, but I don't benefit from this "competition" as you call it. What their competition is about is the developer and publisher and I just don't benefit from that. How do I benefit from a creator getting financial security? If they need the Epic store just to survive it wouldn't matter what they did, after it ends they'll just fall off. Also at least 3 studios have shut down even after doing the deal. Even after that much needed "hand picked" curation they advertised, you still have a ton of absolute garbage on the store. These games aren't even getting any attention beyond that launch window whatsoever. I haven't heard anyone talk about World War Z, Borderlands 3, etc since they launched. Player retention is nowhere to be found on that thing. Also this https://puu.sh/F0gJ9/9c142e...

I also don't like dealing with a man who rap battles with an angry 15 year old Twitter and responds like a dickish child to everyone so that also doesn't look appealing to me. Also Randy Pitchford supporting it blindly is an instant red flag to anyone alive on earth.

[Pyrofire95]

Yeah I don't give a Fark.

[jeromeface]

Ask any console players if exclusive games are a good thing and you're likely to get a negative answer. The same applies to launchers. Most people like all their library in one place, its common sense. I think the poll is full of crap.