The Digital Distribution Platform War Continues
Since its debut, the Epic Games Store has been making a lot of waves. Buying exclusive titles has caused many releases to miss Steam. A dispute arose between supporters and opponents of this practice, fueled by Richard Geldreich, a former Valve employee,
Epic Games' digital distribution platform launched less than half a year ago. At first, it tried to encourage players by offering them free games every two weeks. However, it quickly moved on to more offensive actions, starting to buy more exclusive titles. This often happened just before their release, as in the case of the infamous launch of Metro Exodus, where the decision was made so late that the boxes from the Aurora edition had only a sticker covering the Steam logo. Despite the announcement that the situation will not happen again, less than three weeks before the release, it was announced that Anno 1800 will launch only on Uplay and Epic Games Store. The policy has both supporters and opponents. The first group includes Richard Geldreich, a former employee of Valve. He said that Steam had destroyed the gaming market and Tim Sweeney's digital distribution platform was trying to save it.
Former Valve employee expressed his opinion via Twitter. In response to the accusation that Epic Games kills games, he stated that Steam "imposed a 30% tax on an entire industry," and that "Epic is fixing this for all gamers". He admitted, however, that the Valve initiative was a tempting alternative to publishers in the early stages because it offered a 20% lower revenue share than the then dominant box editions. Interestingly, according to recent reports, Valve's actual revenue share is reduced by key sales in third-party stores.
According to Geldreich's predictions, Steam's future doesn't look very bright. If Valve chooses not to reduce the publisher's revenue share, it could lose its leading position in the digital distribution segment. This would turn upside down the familiar reality of the community.
Of course, despite the clear support for Epic Games, Richard Geldreich also drew attention to the state in which the platform debuted. He criticized the lack of the most basic functions at launch.
The community can only wait for the direction in which the two platforms will go. Tim Sweeney announced that he has no intention of surrendering temporary exclusivity. Epic Games Store will also get many new features, such as a review system. Steam is to introduce a new layout.
