After a year on the market, Epic Games Store has made a big impact
posted Friday Dec 6, 2019 by Scott Ertz
When Epic announced its Epic Games Store, there was a lot of concern about what it might do to the industry. Epic is not exactly known for being a great company, despite having built one of the world's most popular games. The company decided to take a different approach towards its store, focusing on the publishers rather than the customers. They did this by offering only a 12 percent fee, compared with the Microsoft Store's 20 percent, or Steam's 30 percent. This move has attracted a lot of developers, especially smaller developers, for whom that additional 18 percent revenue could be essential.
As the Epic Games Store has grown in popularity, for both publishers and gamers, it has had more of an effect than we expected, especially on its biggest competitor: Steam. Over the years, Valve has seemed to have a level of confidence that can often cause a company to lose its place in the industry. Steve Ballmer's confidence in the market domination of Windows Mobile in 2007 (they were the largest smartphone platform at the time) is the reason the Surface Phone Duo runs Android.
However, Valve saw the challenge and responded. The company has promised a Steam redesign for years and has never delivered on it. However, this year, the company has begun implementing those changes, starting with a big update to the game library. This UI has not aged well, especially as libraries have grown over the past 15 years to an unwieldy size. The updated UI has made it easier to find what you're looking for in your library, including new sorting options, better game details, and even a wider screen (no more bezels).
Based on Valve's development process, without a big push internally, these changes would never have happened, and we all know it. Without the new challenger in the marketplace, that internal push would never have been made, so the existence of the Epic Games Store has had a positive impact across the industry.
