Monday, November 29th 2021
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls For Unified Digital Games Store
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney recently spoke at the Coalition for App Fairness conference in Seoul where he called for a unified digital store for game platforms. Sweeney stated that Epic Games had already begun working with publishers and service providers to create this vision of a unified store where customers could be confident that their purchases would work across all platforms. The system described by Sweeney would be a radical departure from existing ecosystems such as Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Nintendo, and Epic where digital purchases are often limited to an individual companies platform.
This new system would allow games purchased from any ecosystem to be fully playable on all supported platforms without requiring multiple purchases. The success of this vision is entirely dependent on game studios signing up to the program which will likely be a hard sell given the expected fall in sales. While there are limited options currently exist for cross-buy games the movie industry has implemented a similar program with Movies Anywhere which boasts large studios such as Disney, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.
Source:
Bloomberg
This new system would allow games purchased from any ecosystem to be fully playable on all supported platforms without requiring multiple purchases. The success of this vision is entirely dependent on game studios signing up to the program which will likely be a hard sell given the expected fall in sales. While there are limited options currently exist for cross-buy games the movie industry has implemented a similar program with Movies Anywhere which boasts large studios such as Disney, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.
Tim SweeneyWhat the world really needs now is a single store that works with all platforms
119 Comments on Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls For Unified Digital Games Store
Pick one ;) And like you say, watch those ratings but I have honestly yet to encounter a problem with most of the stores here. One 'used' key, ever, and that was promptly fixed by a replacement after a single email. Cant say any big 3 publisher has that kind of support... nor Steam...
But this has zero relation to key shops I think. Resellers always exist and EGS is sorely lacking in promotion options outside the store. Unified platform is not going to go without a myriad of ways to buy in, and, its likely to work on license level because nobody wants to repurchase all their stuff. So if Sweeney wants to succeed, he is going to have to get all the goodwill ergo free EGS games alongside it. And then the others cant stay behind.
Note that even without EGS it was raining free content. Vanilla games on heavy discount for 2-10 eur a pop when expansions get released... there is a lot that EGS is just doing but isnt much different from the promotions publishers already had.
Either way. If you want to serve the market, be the servant. Otherwise people are simply going to give it the middle finger. Look at the goodwill Steam has developed over time. Its for good reasons - no nonsense gaming platform with rich feature set. The only deals that are sustainable, are those that are 'win-win'. Sweeney knows this as well as Gabe even if the method is different - the bottom line is you either get great features or you get loads of free games
Tell me again customers aint winning?!
They do and its way worse. You are now not just tied to a launcher... you are locked to an ecosystem with controlled (read non competitive!!) pricing structure and content on offer while on PC you can choose freely - want one launcher or ten, its your choice depending on what you want to play. You pay to use online. You need the right firmware to play content. You are always handshaking with authentication servers. The same games will demand always online. All games will force updates on you just as they do on PC.
You are tied even to the hardware - console fails and your stuff is straight up inaccessible, while Steam/etc. Accounts work irrespective of the hardware, now or ten years ago or ten years in the future. You cant play legacy on consoles either. I could go on...
The gist is, if you are advanced user enough, the PC wins on every single front. And if you think it doesnt, youre either lazy or not in the know. Console is fast food, PC is the real restaurant where the bread isnt plastic. All it takes is a bit more effort, for a much bigger and healthier menu. Even if you have to keep track of twenty pages of it ;)Yep... the market is vibrant, games are more diverse than ever, there is more content than ever, and all your old stuff still works on todays hardware, while I'm even still playing todays stuff on a GPU from 5 years ago. Its gaming heaven and still we whine and whine on and on.
About how many launchers we have to keep up with, even if we did choose each and every one ourselves when we bought products.
About not owning games, even if there is an extensive library on GOG.com - and on top of that, we have ALWAYS just owned the licenses to use software, and as long as you buy your games that still applies.
About customizing stuff, even if we could and have always customized our desktops since 1990. What used to be a screen full of shortcuts is now a screen with five launchers.
Troubleshooting games is often taking you longer than it takes for a dev to push out a hotfix. And if he doesn't most if anything just works by clicking 'Install'. You're not even pointing at a folder because everything is done for you.
Hard life I know. And then you even have to download all that free stuff you get because the competition is better than it ever was because of the internet.
Spoiled brats.
The system he wants is for the game to work on all platforms. No matter where its been bought. If you buy the game through steam, it works on epic. The game is the same, usually, on all platforms.
I can get behind the idea, but I think this might be the most uphill of battles ever.
A solution could be to just pay the dev or publisher directly and then be able to play the game wherever you want. It would be nice if I could just buy the game and be able to play it on playstation or xbox or pc. Of course we'd never get playstation exclusives on xbox. When talking PC games its tied to a specific launcher nowadays. I don't just own a PC game, I own a game through steam or origin.
Good ol' Games.
GoG
Change my mind.
bettereven worser now that drm and anti cheats with kernel access became acceptable for some reason :kookoo:10% hit is BS, proof?
Open Steam's settings, go to the Interface tab and uncheck "Notify me about additions or changes to my games, new releases, and upcoming releases". Youre welcome, and you can do this on pretty much any launcher.
Pretty much everything else you listed has a workaround, your just lazy to do it.
I agree, it would be great for us, but it's basically a fantasy or there is an ulterior motive.
Right now if someone buys a PC game off the microsoft store, they automatically get a copy for xbox with their Play Anywhere policy (oh, look Microsoft is already doing something similar). Now hypothetically speaking say this person also own a PS4/5, does MS take a hit and Sony gets a kickback? Would Sony even agree in the first place because their trading a sale for some residuals. Say the customer doesn't own a Sony console does Microsoft take the hit and Sony get a kickback anyway? If no, what happens if the customer purchases a Sony console in the near future?
I understand that he and many others wants to do away with the walled gardens now but then when they were being built those same parties that are unhappy with the current were happily whoring themselves out.
However as others pointed out his fairy tale scenario has Epic running this store as a monopoly.
I believe Microsoft are already adopting multi platform for Windows/Xbox.
Steam already do for Windows/Linux.
Not sure what Sony are doing, they tend to be more anti consumer though so wouldnt be surprised if they keep to separate licenses.
We unlikely to see a shared ownership under competing consoles.
I feel similar about DRM.
I just don't buy.
I just don't play.
Life goes on yet I committed no crime, just stood my ethical ground.
As for Sweeny's. Latest market grab attempt F him , he's not out for my best interest but his own.