Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Русский
Türkçe
Svenska
Chinese
MagyarCheckMag | Epic Games Store's "untold success story" is anything but that
Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney recently let on in an interview with The Verge that the Epic Games Store has reached 80 million monthly active users against Steam's 120 million, claiming that it is "catching Steam fast" and calling it "the untold success story" of the PC gaming market. But, not to rob him of his moment in the sun after besting Google in court, it might just be the case that his own boasts about his own company might be a little rose-tinted.
First off – MAUs themselves aren't a great metric to measure this alleged success with. Sure, in a like-for-like comparison, having more users logging in at least once a month is going to be better, but any comparison involving EGS isn't going to be like-for-like in this metric, as there are a few big factors that really skew this in Epic's favour.
Fortnite is, of course, the elephant in the room. An elephant pulling in around a million daily players alone (triple that after November's OG update!) that requires an Epic account is certainly going to skew numbers higher, and a great deal of those players won't even be using the PC client, much less buying any other games from EGS
Then there's the often-touted game giveaways; free titles provided to players, and often popular, well-received ones too. Certainly enough incentive to open up a browser or client, and click through a few hoops to log in and claim the game – and boost Tim Sweeney's MAU figure.
Steam, the incumbent, has neither of these factors pumping up the numbers in its favour.
Then there's the other side of the "MAUs don't mean everything" equation: profitability. After all, while game giveaways have been well-received, the ultimate goal of the EGS is presumably not to ensure everyone in the world gets to experience Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, but to actually make money. According to Epic's own numbers... it hasn't been very good at that.
All the way back in 2021, data pulled out of its court cases pointed out that the EGS wasn't profitable, and was only expecting to reach that point by 2023. Yet, as of this year, that still isn't the case. And, even if it were to turn an operating profit tomorrow, it still has a giant pit of burnt money that it needs to recoup to start making an actual return overall; one that was to the tune of nearly a third of a billion dollars in minimum guarantee payments made to developers in return for their exclusivity, and that Epic had to hand over regardless of sales not meeting its expectations.
Even aside from the now-discontinued minimum guarantees, as a whole the store isn't exactly in the healthiest of shapes. The most recent Year In Review article by it pointed out that the overall amount spent by players in the store actually saw a slight decline from 2021 to 2022, with an 18% uptick in the amount spent on third-party games. But those third-party games make a slim revenue share for Epic, so more money made from those (and less from first-party games, which it gets every penny of) means a sharp drop in money made by Epic from the store overall. In a perfect world, more money spent on third-party titles would be great; but this isn't a perfect world, it's in a world where Epic shed a sixth of its entire workforce to cut costs, and it's a world where EGS still not pulling its weight after five years is a little worrying.
Maybe the Epic Games Store really is an untold success. Maybe the 2023 Year In review will post record numbers that chase Gabe Newell all the way back to the workshop to get back to work on the Steam Deck 2 (though the Deck OLED on Amazon is still no slouch!).
But personally, I'll believe it's a success when I see it – not just the financials, but the community features, reviews, gifting, and a launcher that isn't so sluggish that Digital Foundry's Alex Battaglia puts together a video lampooning it.
Hmm... I wonder why? (turn on audio) https://t.co/aDAf0ss7Go pic.twitter.com/34Mx4P82vu
— Alexander Battaglia (@Dachsjaeger) November 7, 2023
Well? Show me the money, Tim.
Source(s)
