Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls For Unified Digital Games Store

[Uskompuf]

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.

What the world really needs now is a single store that works with all platforms

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[bug]

Preferably one that exclusively uses Steamworks, right?

 

[Selaya]

 

[bug]

This meme is so old, it talks about IM standards

 

[Timelessest]

Let me get the bullshit translator: Epic games store should be the only gaming store available for all platforms.

 

[GerKNG]

he wants "freedom" for players.
pays 150 million dollars to make games at least time exclusive on epic to take away the freedom of choice.

now he wants to fight against the evil monopoly from apple, google and steam.
starts to work on a single platform for every platform on the world.

tim sweeney is a complete joke.

 

[bug]

he wants "freedom" for players.
pays 150 million dollars to make games at least time exclusive on epic to take away the freedom of choice.

now he wants to fight against the evil monopoly from apple, google and steam.
starts to work on a single platform for every platform on the world.

tim sweeney is a complete joke.

What he's talking about has been obvious from the beginning.
And yet everybody built their store into a walled garden. They thought it was smart to corral in players. And now they face extinction since publishers built their own stores, denying others their 30% cut (at least upon launch date, which is what counts). Store operators might pull a miracle and somehow unite, but they'll never get big publishers back.

If I had to guess, I'd say Tim is playing the hero/good samaritan card to draw some sympathy.

 

[trsttte]

This meme is so old, it talks about IM standards

It's not a meme, it's XKCD - a famous webcomic about romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (and yes, I got triggered by hearing a xkcd being referred as if it were just a common meme )

he wants "freedom" for players.
pays 150 million dollars to make games at least time exclusive on epic to take away the freedom of choice.

now he wants to fight against the evil monopoly from apple, google and steam.
starts to work on a single platform for every platform on the world.

tim sweeney is a complete joke.

I mean, the idea is great but it's motives are of course very misguided. And as bug said, it comes way too late, now that every publisher has it's own store front we'll be stuck with multiple different stupid launchers

The closest thing i've seen to a solution is GoG galaxy and even then it's far from perfect and only works on pc (for obvious reasons, consoles are closed and their economics are just different).

 

[mechtech]

I thought GoG was supposed to do this, or wanted to??

 

[trsttte]

I think what could solve the problem is if publishers united to form an interest group (like hdmi or usb) where they define a common drm scheme that is compatible across store fronts/launchers, not that hard to do but there's no advantages for them - if they keep you tied to their own launcher you're more likely to spend money with them again - so why would they bother!?

 

[Crackong]

EPIC ?

Nope

 

[bug]

It's not a meme, it's XKCD - a famous webcomic about romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (and yes, I got triggered by hearing a xkcd being referred as if it were just a common meme )

I know it's xkcd (I've liked to it more times than i care to remember). But this one in particular one has been quoted so much, it definitely turned into a meme

I think what could solve the problem is if publishers united to form an interest group (like hdmi or usb) where they define a common drm scheme that is compatible across store fronts/launchers, not that hard to do but there's no advantages for them - if they keep you tied to their own launcher you're more likely to spend money with them again - so why would they bother!?

Not going to happen. Publishers' entire business model is built on the assumption they will sell you a game as many times as they can. If they can sell it to you once for PC, once for PS and once more for Nintendo, that's what they'll do.
That will only change when they'll steer gaming towards mobile gaming and their p2w model.

 

[looniam]

I thought GoG was supposed to do this, or wanted to??

if you're thinking about what i have in mind, it was little more than a gamer launcher (to rule them all). it was great to see my games in every library but having to still use those launchers - which half always seem to need an update - it got to be an added hassle.

 

[bug]

if you're thinking about what i have in mind, it was little more than a gamer launcher (to rule them all). it was great to see my games in every library but having to still use those launchers - which half always seem to need an update - it got to be an added hassle.

The launcher was always optional. I have always launched my games directly. But yes, you had to look in the game's folder, the shortcut placed on the desktop by default went through the launcher iirc.

However, even in the absence of DRM, cross platform is hard to achieve because games implement Steamworks and the like.

 

[isvelte]

Okay now im confused, isnt the point of doing epic game store is so that Steam will be more competitive on its dev cut? And competition in general? Now he wants a unified store?

 

[bug]

Okay now im confused, isnt the point of doing epic game store is so that Steam will be more competitive on its dev cut? And competition in general? Now he wants a unified store?

You're so cute. Epic Store is about "we're late to the party and desperately need you to shop with us. despite no competitive advantage whatsoever".

 

[Solaris17]

What the world really needs now is a single store that works with all platforms

Your right:

steam_latest.deb

steam.DMG

SteamSetup.exe

 

[nguyen]

Your right:

steam_latest.deb

steam.DMG

SteamSetup.exe

Jup, Tim knows every gamer wants a single store front, just not his...

 

[isvelte]

You're so cute. Epic Store is about "we're late to the party and desperately need you to shop with us. despite no competitive advantage whatsoever".

Free games, sometimes better regional pricing than steam (main reason for me), making some console exclusive possible for throwing money at them(KH), and 12% dev cut sounds like a competitive advantage to me.

 

[INSTG8R]

I thought GoG was supposed to do this, or wanted to??

GoG Galaxy is great for it. I just never think to use it…

 

[Raven Rampkin]

The irony of a "Steam Sets New Concurrent User Record" heading being right under this article and poll. Mind you this is coming from a GoG fancase (even after the 2077 fiasco).

Let me get the bullshit translator: Epic games store should be the only gaming store available for all platforms.

^^^

 

[Totally]

I thought GoG was supposed to do this, or wanted to??

Yes, that's why it's drm free. That's what is making Sweeney the prime candidate for comedian of the year. GoG has been doing this forever and no one thaat matters ever cared. But because he flaps his lips a few times people are supposed to be like "oh no, we need to do sumthin' "

 

[watzupken]

I may be wrong, but from what I observed, EPIC's actions vs their lofty goal of "freedom for gamers" kind of contradict one another. The timed exclusive itself is not freedom for gamer because it requires gamers to use a specific platform. Based on this "unified digital game store", he is also starting to target the console makers. I guess he don't dare to sue them at this point in case everyone shuts them out.

 

[R0H1T]

he wants "freedom" for players.
pays 150 million dollars to make games at least time exclusive on epic to take away the freedom of choice.

now he wants to fight against the evil monopoly from apple, google and steam.
starts to work on a single platform for every platform on the world.

tim sweeney is a complete joke.

Hey if anything he's consistent in his absolute BS stand & hypocrite statements.

 

[qubit]

Sounds like a utopian ideal so I can't see it happening with all the vested interests involved. This is a purely commercial arena which no one needs for the basics of life such as healthcare etc.

Personally, I find the Steam platform far and away the best for updates and overall functionality, so I wouldn't want to be forced onto some inferior one just because it was "industry standard". Never mind, never gonna happen.