At the opening event of the Unreal Fest in Seattle, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, addressed the recent commercial failures of ambitious, citing a "generational change" in the gaming landscape as part of the reason for their failures. Epic Games seemingly wants to address this shift in gamer priorities by relying more on in-game social features, although there was also a strong emphasis on getting indie game developers to sign on to use the Unreal Engine and the Epic Games Store.

In the same presentation, Epic Games announced a new collaboration between the Epic Games Store and Unreal Engine that should make it easier and more affordable for small development teams to market and publish their games to Epic Games and other storefronts. The new launch program, called Launch Everywhere with Epic, reduces Epic's revenue cut for any games developed with Unreal Engine and published on the Epic Games Store before or at the same time as any other platforms. Epic also announced new "indie spaces" for indie developers to share knowledge and make industry connections.

Following the recent block of the Activision-Blizzard merger with Microsoft by the UK regulatory body, Microsoft is partnering with cloud gaming services to bring extra assurance to regulators that the merger will not harm any segment. Today, Microsoft's Vice Chain and President, Brad Smith, published a Tweet that highlighted the latest deal with Nware, a Spanish company providing cloud PCs to gamers that can stream games from Steam, EGS, and Ubisoft Connect accounts. The Tweet noted that "Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement to stream PC games built by Xbox on its platform, as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes. While it's still early for the emerging cloud segment in gaming, this new partnership combined with our other recent commitments will make more popular games available on more cloud game streaming services than they are today."

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.

The ongoing Epic Games vs. Apple dispute over Fortnite on the App Store platform has sprung up some surprising facts. Apparently, Epic has spent a massive $1 billion since September 2019, getting game studios to launch their titles exclusively on the Epic Games Store (EGS). It This sledgehammer fashion of taking market-share away from Steam rides almost entirely on investor money, and the firm's next $1 billion funding round is already underway. Epic aims to have as many as 52 exclusives on its storefront in 2021. The meteoric rise of EGS dates back to late 2018, when it gave away fairly new AAA games for free, a move that cost it $11 million, but generated a large number of new sign-ups to the platform. From here, the store rode on offering game studios a greater revenue share of games sold than Steam does, and additional incentives for exclusives.

CD Projekt RED today issued an apology to gamers for a buggy release of Cyberpunk 2077, a game that the studio treated as its magnum opus. The open-letter apology addressed to gamers at large, and signed by CDPR higher-ups; in particular expressed regret to gamers on older-generation game consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Cyberpunk 2077 looks and plays terrible on these older consoles, despite the studio charging the same $60 for the title. Game assets such as textures are of the lowest possible resolution, as is the geometry, draw-distance, and even crowds and character models. In particular, CDPR acknowledged the fact that before launch, the studio hadn't shown footage of how the game plays on these older consoles, which deprived gamers of making more informed choices.

As a token of apology, CDPR offered gamers on these older consoles full refunds on their games purchased on Xbox or PSN. Those with physical copies of the game may return it to their retailers for refunds. CDPR set up an e-mail support service for those facing difficulties in getting refunds. For those who decide to give CDPR a chance at redemption; the studio promised a major game patch slated for January 2021, and a follow-up second-patch in February. The PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 is getting regular updates through all the platforms it's sold on (GOG, Steam, and EGS).

Another week, another interesting free game being driven upon us by the EPIC Games Store. This time, it's Ubisoft's 345th entry in the Assassin's Creed series: Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Set in 1868 London, smack in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, this is considered to be the title that straightened out the franchise after the ill-received Assassin's Creed Unity, with an overall 76 score in Metacritic.

Also available for free is Faeria, a collectible-card game from developers Abrakam, which has a very respectable 81 score in Metacritic and an average 7.6 user score, putting it ahead of Syndicate in both metrics. Gameplay is often compared to a mix of Catan (with its hex-based, living board) and Heartstone (due to the collectible 300+ cards the game has to offer). It has single-player and PVP modes to scratch your particular craving at the moment, so it might be an interesting (and free) addition to your library.