Epic Games Store is what PC gamers need

For years, the PC gaming market has been dominated by Valve's Steam. All games, independent games at AAA, have been forced to publish their titles via this service in order to meet an audience. There are some exceptions, like Uplayoft Uplay and EA's Origin, but everyone can place their titles in the Steam service. Today, more and more companies have started to create their own markets, but the one that is most known is Epic Games Store. Many PC gamers have been very critical of the market, but most of them are unjustified and are pure speculation. This is a good thing to do for PC gaming because it allows for more competition and better support for developers. The Epic service may not be the best accessibility platform, but it will force Steam to react and start innovating to improve its platform.

Controversy

So what is it? Epic Games launched its own market in December 2018 to the surprise and shock. Some have wondered if this could go along with the Steam conglomerate or it would simply act from another offer to choose. Quickly, the service proved that he was going to become a major competitor. This, however, has not been as well understood by the PC community. Players quickly attacked the editor and claimed many false statements, such as the existence of unfair competition and even Chinese spyware. These can be scandalous, but they still resonate with many and have caused many negative opinions online.

First, they are just wild rumors and claims that deserve nothing. Epic Games Store is not a Chinese spyware that tries to steal personal data from players. I think it's incredibly ignorant and incorrect. Since Tencent, a Chinese company, holds a 40% stake in Epic Games, she says she is forcing Epic Games to do something she does not want to do. The Epic Games manager even went out to demystify this and said he had "no contribution" in their activities. This is just an illogical argument that tries to scare users away.

The most urgent problem that worries players is the possibility that it is spyware. A Reddit thread titled "Epic Game Store, Spyware, Tracking, and You!" Drew attention to a few issues. The store primarily creates a file called "tracking.js" on users' computers. Epic's vice president of engineering, however, said it was simply a matter of tracking revenue shared between content creators and game elements. Another factor is that the customer creates a local copy of the data. Steam without authorization. General Manager Tim Sweeney took note of this and said he was going to fix the problem but was only sent to Epic if a list of Steam friends was imported. He said later:

"When analyzing the results, it is important to distinguish the normal from the abnormal. […] and to separate technical analysis from incendiary rhetoric, such as the alienated claim that we are a Chinese spy band. "

What is more important to note are the other companies / properties in which Tencent has an interest, which are: Battlefields of PlayerUnknown, League of Legends, Clash Royale, Discord, Ubisoft, Activision-Blizzard and many others. So why would Epic Games Store try to attack user data when it could have been done much sooner? It is a way of thinking so imperfect and without merit. Epic Games Store is not a ploy designed to steal personal data, nor a forced invasion. All the concerns have been magnified to the point of hypocrisy and downplaying Epic's chances of becoming a real competitor, but being a worthy competitor is a good thing, especially for PC gaming.

Competition is good

Controversy aside, having someone who is willing to challenge Valve's strong hold on the market is a fantastic thing. Competition drives each of the players to make a product much better than it would have the monopoly. What would Nintendo be without Sega, PlayStation without Microsoft or even Call of Duty without Battlefield? These have led to the addition of new features and upgrades to make their products more appealing to a wider audience. Valve's Steam and Epic's Game Store are just the latest to come true.

For a chance, Epic did some things to stand out. They announced that every two weeks, free games would be available to all users, similar to Gold's Gold Xbox games or even Twitch Prime's monthly programming. These titles included What's left of Edith Finch, The Jackbox Party Pack, Super Meat Boy, and much more. Even with this, there is not much to keep users invested through the best user interface of Steam.

Steam remains a product of superior quality, thanks to years of innovation and development. Epic Games just does not have the same features to be a stronger option, at least for now. For example, Steam can record progress in the cloud, create multiple profiles, share accounts with family and friends, stream them to different devices, and allow users to write their own reviews and participate in dedicated forums. Yet even with that, Epic is still able to stay afloat. How

Developers deserve better

Epic really stands out with its exclusive timed acquisitions. Major titles such as Exodus Metro, Super Meat Boy Forever, Outdoor Worlds, and now Borderlands 3 have decided to become available exclusively on Epic Games Store for one year. The developers have trusted a new platform for some major releases and for good reasons. The main problem for the developers is that Steam imposes a 30% reduction on their revenue only to sell their game on the platform, while Epic only takes 12%. In addition to that, Epic has also offered offers to secure these large budget versions exclusively. This is a bold move that has provoked a hostile reaction.

The players are not very fond of this recent development and have criticized the online company for this, along with the above-mentioned take on "Chinese spyware". Steam users have begun "bombing" other titles released by a developer after learning that their next game would not be offered on the platform. Borderlands 2. Doing this simply adds to why Epic is more attractive to developers and does not show why the company should listen to disgruntled fans when they choose to act childishly.

Recently, Valve also came in and said the game would now change from the Steam version to the Epic service only:

"We think the decision to delete[[[[Metro Exodus] is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long presale period. We apologize to Steam customers who expected it to be available for sale until the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and we had little of time to inform everyone.

This statement alone shows that they do not care about changing their practice of taking an unnecessarily large reduction of developers. It also shows that their community is just reacting as they have been.

Another aspect of this is that many have quickly claimed this as an act of anti-consumerism by eliminating choices and therefore against capitalism. Even notable members of the community shared similar sentiments, such as Youtuber Boogie2988. First of all, those who claim that it hurts capitalism obviously do not know what they are talking about, but I must ask, however, how is this anti-consumer doing? Just because you have to download another client rather than have everything in one place? It would be nice to everything is in one place, but all platforms have their own markets. Console players must purchase completely new systems to play an exclusive game that they enjoy. That's hundreds of dollars compared to computer users who just have to download free software that's easy to click and exit. Why all the moans and moans about it? It's far from being anti-consumer and actually better for the consumer because it will force Steam to change behavior or face a new competitor.

Players who are unhappy that the Epic Games Store receives exclusive versions at a specific time must understand that, A) these have only been in place for one year and will arrive at a later date, and B) here is what looks like the competition. If Steam had a monopoly on the personal computer market, it would become what the cable and electricity companies do without anyone preventing it. They could make ill-advised decisions or increase the amount of their payments because no one is there to stop them, as they have been doing to developers for years. The only difference was that it only hurt their wallet and not yours. More choices help to deter this practice from becoming a regular practice. Epic Games Store is not a meticulously planned Chinese takeover to steal your private data, nor a threat to American capitalism. It's just another option that can help the PC market grow and become a healthier environment for everyone. This not only allows this area of ​​the game to thrive, but also allows developers to earn more money to fund bigger and better titles that we would all like to play. In the end, is not that what we all want to see?