Effectively the Epic Games Store is the Bloomberg of digital distribution: A player that entered an already existing space with an arrogant elitist stance looking down on the consumers (voters in Bloomberg’s case). Where instead of competing organically, both just lobbed huge sums of money around to buy a position in the space. Each month for a while came with more exclusive titles being announced for the Epic Games Store with one of them being Genesis Alpha One.
A first-person shooter where players are tasked with commanding and designing a ship as they explore the galaxy looking for a new home for humanity. All the while taking DNA and producing human clones by splicing in the genetic material to make them stronger. Though the game was advertised as coming to Steam the developers took an Epic contract with a year-long exclusivity. This contract was signed before the store came out before sales were middling at best, and despite the devs backstabbing their customers they never trashed them or belittled them for not being okay with the decision.
When these exclusives were announced I had a simple stance: Do not purchase it on Epic. Let Epic pay for the early access or post-launch polishing phase of development. For your patience in a year, you’ll have a game that you’ll know exactly what it is. That will launch polished, complete, and likely sporting additional content at a discounted price.
On February 25th, 2020, Genesis Alpha Ane Deluxe Edition is scheduled to launch on steam following a year-long exclusivity and it proves this point in spades. As the game will launch with a visual overhaul, additional features scattered throughout the game, and more weapons. Along with the artbook, soundtrack and first expansion bundled with the game at a discounted price.
Another example occurred earlier this month with the launch of Metro Exodus on steam. At launch, the game came with a 40% discount sale, but even now consumers can pick up the much more polished experience with the season pass for the same price as the base game at launch.
As long as Epic is willing to pull mediocre products from Steam or pay for the early access periods, and slash polishing periods for games, there is little reason to adopt anything from their storefront.
Sweeney and Bloomberg have an almost ironic palpable symmetry between them. Where the latter now regrets the corrupt constitutionally violating policies he implemented in New York City, the former now regrets a year of financing anti-consumer and often political companies. During which Epic only managed to pull in $251 million in third-party sales from 108 consumers. Rendering the average amount spend per account of $2.33.
Now Sweeney has seen the light and wants politics out of gaming. He talks about how the consumer comes needs to come first again all while continuing to save them money by poaching mediocrity from Steam.
