Monday, August 9th 2021
Epic Games Store Keeps Losing Money, Expected Unprofitable Until 2027, Even with a Massive $500 Million Investment Behind It
Epic Games Store, one of the many products of the Epic Games company, is the current number one contender of Steam game store, which used to be Valve's monopoly in the gaming market. Having another contender is nice and competition is always welcome, however, it doesn't seem like running a games store is a cheap venture. In the recent legal dispute between Apple and Epic in California state, we have discovered some interesting details about Epic Games Store (EGS) and its financial background. According to the documents appearing in the court, EGS is not considered profitable until 2027, at least.
Apple has told the court that "Epic lost around $181 million on EGS in 2019. Epic is projected to lose around $273 million on EGS in 2020. Indeed, Epic committed $444 million in minimum guarantees for 2020 alone, while projecting, even with 'significant' growth, only $401 million in revenue for that year. Epic acknowledges that trend will continue in the immediate future: Epic projects to lose around $139 million in 2021." This information shows that Epic has sunk a lot of cash in the store, however, the company expects EGS to become profitable at some point, where the original investment will be returned.
Source:
via PC Gamer
Apple has told the court that "Epic lost around $181 million on EGS in 2019. Epic is projected to lose around $273 million on EGS in 2020. Indeed, Epic committed $444 million in minimum guarantees for 2020 alone, while projecting, even with 'significant' growth, only $401 million in revenue for that year. Epic acknowledges that trend will continue in the immediate future: Epic projects to lose around $139 million in 2021." This information shows that Epic has sunk a lot of cash in the store, however, the company expects EGS to become profitable at some point, where the original investment will be returned.
172 Comments on Epic Games Store Keeps Losing Money, Expected Unprofitable Until 2027, Even with a Massive $500 Million Investment Behind It
In any case, the last phone I (actually) used was an old Nokia running Symbian. I have no desire to deal with these contemporary tracking devices. I still have some of them unfortunately because for some occasions not having any phone at all is far more suspicious than having one bereft of any personal data. Anyways, last time I tried Android felt just as shit as iOS; I wasn't even able to update an app without fucking signing in to Google. That's when I decided to put it away again since I don't care, in any case.
I don't like Steam since they broke the crap out of the UI nearly 2 years ago. For almost a year I kept trying it and I kept having issues so I just said F'em. I haven't purchased anything off Steam since then because of it. Which means I don't bother with other game key sites since a lot of them are just Steam keys.....in fact I can't remember the name of the other game key sites anymore. I keep Steam installed because I do chat with a few folks on it and I do play a couple of games off of it from time to time, but I won't support them anymore with any kind of purchase.
GoG - I've probably purchased a couple dozen games over the past 2 years on GoG. No issues with downloading from their site or galaxy. I like I can just click the .exe and a game runs without any launcher needing to load up. It's just my go to for game purchases now.
If Ubisoft has a game I'm interested in, I pick it up on their Uplay.
I don't use Origin - I still have it because they used to offer free games, should the moment strike me to install one of the free games I got off it. But last time I logged into Origin was 3+ years ago. I haven't purchased an EA game for years. Honestly, I think Crysis 2 or maybe ME3 (physical copy games) was the last EA game I got because that required Origin to link the game.
EGS - I've grabbed some free games that I've always wanted to play, but I have yet to play them. I forget that EGS has free games every week and I'm sure I've missed a handful of other games I would have been interested in. I haven't purchased anything off EGS and I don't really ever see myself doing so.
Amazon - I don't think they have any kind of launcher, but I have purchased 3 or 4 digital games off them 9-10 years ago. Downloaded the games and they ran without any kind of launcher requirement....I know one of them specifically was Spore, which is an okay game.
Honestly, the most recent gaming I've been doing is from my old physical games. I spent a handful of days creating .iso copies from the discs, finding out work arounds to get some of these games to run on Windows 10 (a few games just won't work), tracking down all the game patches I have burned on DVDs and getting them going. Right now I'm hopping between Diablo and Diablo 2 and slowly making my way through Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Doing all this made me remember how much I actually miss this kind of interaction for getting a game running - installing from a disc, finding a spot to download patches or finding "fixes" to get the game working correctly on your system.
sad they have bad management and maketing decision
going after valve or apple was a very bad idea and now they shoot themself in the foot
clearly started with fortnite overhyped game and i am happy now it gone the drain
I know I'm contributing to this loss, as I've not purchased a single item, but have about 2 dozen games in my library...
But either way, if a game is on there I want and not elsewhere, I’m going to get it, and have, because none of us is guarranteed tomorrow. As I get older it is much more obvious that waiting to enjoy something till later just on principle is not the smart play. So yeah, I’m going to play now what I can, even if it means Epic’s store.
Seems you're right about downloads cancelling when the launcher is quit though. I checked, and I also get prompted when quitting the launcher. Don't think I've ever come across that - I don't generally reboot my PC often, and don't see a reason to close launchers other than that, so I guess that explains that.Nope. To use developer tools on an iPhone you need to be a registered developer, which is non-trivial. On Android, you can download an .apk file for a competing app store from the web, and will be prompted to disable the relevant security features when trying to install it if you haven't already done so (and can then re-enable them with no issues). That's a world of difference. Also, kind of weird of you to speak as if you're an authority on the nature of smartphones (i.e. declaring that they aren't general-purpose computers) when you freely admit to refuse any association with them and haven't used one for years? Doesn't that speak to a certain lack of familiarity with the topic at hand?
Also, not being able to update an app without signing in to Google is ... kind of obvious when the default app store (i.e. package manager) is Google's. They require an account to use the app store. If that's a problem, find an alternative app store that provides the same apps, and use that.
I have tried some before, and they were all kinda lacking (either completely missing apps or providing versions out of date). And good luck trying to download .apks by themselves.
Anyways, just because I don't use phones doesn't mean that I am completely ignorant as to what's happening over there, and imho it's not pretty.
As for the developer tools, I can definitely recall the incident in which fuckbook was (ab)using them to sniff on people's data - but wasn't that them abusing their developer license? There was something about it, as it was definitely circumvening the AppStore as their 'app' would never have cleared the oversight.
In any case, I disagree with the notion of shit like app stores in general (one of the reasons amongst many why I disagree with the entire phone ecosystem) - even the last bastion of freedom, the PC seems to be falling at long last - see Windows 10, or more on point here - Steam and the EGS.
One of the reasons why I haven't bought a game from anywhere but GOG in a good while now, they do not force a shitty launcher or anything on me. But I digress.
As for your last sentence: are you at all considering the context of user adoption and the force of habit? If Steam has a hundred million user install base and Epic has zero, what real competition do you have if Epic just walks up and says "hey, we sell some of the same stuff you do"? That's not how the world works. Exclusivity deals are a perfectly viable and above-board method for bringing new users on board. In this case, the main "argument" against this seen from most users is an irrational and vaguely expressed hatred towards Epic of the audacity of making something not be available on Steam! How dare they? *gasp*
Seriously, if we want to break Steam's de facto monopoly - which is still going strong, and which does absolutely nothing to benefit gamers - then we need powerful actors with fat wallets to fight them. That's the only way, unless you want the FTC to step in and split up Valve. Which would also be perfectly fine IMO, even if it would be a legal mess like no other.Well, sure, you're entirely welcome and entitled to your opinions. But when those opinions are factually wrong, and you are corrected on that, it stands to reason to maybe take a step back from that stance? Smartphones are general-purpose computers, and the only instance in which they aren't is if their OS vendors go to great lengths to lock them down in order to force business through their portals.
As for "good luck downloading .apks by themselves" - that really isn't hard. Here's the Amazon App store in .apk form: link. You can install that on any Android phone by enabling installing apps from third party sources. And you can then (or with any other third party app store, of which there are quite a few) install and update any number of apps without needing a google account. I never said that downloading individual application .apks was a viable solution, though there are sites offering that too if that's what you want. That of course means no auto-updates or anything like that.
Regarding your second paragraph: what are you talking about? You brought up developer tools as an option for sideloading apps on iOS. I showed why it's not equivalent to doing so on Android. Whether or not someone has abused said tools for some other purpose is entirely irrelevant. You still need a developer account to enable them on iOS, and you still don't on Android.
And again, you're entirely entitled to not liking app stores and stuff like that, but I really don't see how that has any relevance whatsoever to whether smartphones are general-purpose computers or not. If anything, what you're arguing for is that OEMs have no right to lock down their devices to a single app store - which is precisely my point.
"We are very happy to announce the launch of Darwinia on Steam. Introversion has teamed up with Valve to release Darwinia on their online games distribution platform making it available to millions of new gamers. As part of the launch and Steam's exclusivity, we will no longer be offering Darwinia as a download option from our site, although it will still be possible to purchase shipped boxed copies. At Valve's request we will also be removing the demo from our site for about a month." - Original Nov 15th, 2005 announcement that's still up on Introversions own website.
^ It may have been for a month instead of a year, but for some of the first batch of 3rd party games that came to Steam in 2005, Valve did actually demand that those 3rd party publishers not sell digital versions of their own games anywhere else but Steam (even direct sales on their own website) and on top of that, even take down their own free playable demos from their own websites for a period.