Growing pains over at Epic?

 I'll make a profit one day, mark my words. Or my name isn't J.R.Steamrip-off

Here we are again. Pawing over the legal hang-ups of Apple versus Epic; a grudge match where no one's the underdog and everyone is a loser. In one corner you have the Apple-lites who are ever eager to maintain their stifling dominance over the phone economy and on the other hand you have Epic who are eager to go to bat for the sake of making more money whilst pretending they care about making everyone else a big buck too. Honestly, I have to say that I was surprised at Epic for picking a fight with Apple, a subjectively bigger entity, wondering what could possibly be the incentive. They wanted a bigger cut? I mean that tracks but there has to be a deeper reason why that bigger cut was so important to them. Why now? Was it just because they were starting to get big now and wanted to flex their spending muscles? Maybe- or maybe it had something to do with the figures that Apple has recently splayed all the Internet about how, after 2 years of life, the Epic game store is still operating at a loss. (That discovery act- it'll get ya everytime!)

Yes, the Epic Store which has been Epic's pass into pre-eminency hasn't been without its costs and tribulations. Say what you will about Steam, but it has served as a pretty huge deterrent for any small-time PC game retailer to get a foothold in the market, because why would anyone favour what you have to offer over what Steam can. After their flash success with Fortnite, Epic knew that the gravy train couldn't last forever and that their best bet would be to leverage the Fortnite success into something even more sustainable, thus I think it makes absolute sense for them to sink that runaway hit's fortunes into launching the Epic Store. The only problem being that with the loyalty of Steam customers and GOG customers, bigger plays than usual would be required to stick that foothold into the slamming door of the industry. Thus came the exclusives, the advertising and the plethora of free games shoved down everyone's throat, desperate to gain an audience. And you know what, it's working. Plenty of start-ups try the 'sink-money-in-and-it'll-eventually-work' stratagem to pathetic returns. (Just look at Quibi) But to think that Epic have managed to get themselves on everyone's lips in the space of two years is impressive; and yet in the eyes of Apple, who probably mostly care about making Epic look desperate, the opinion seems to be 'close but no cigar' and that's what they want everyone to think too.

To be clear, I'm no fan of Epic. In fact I hate their practises. Exclusivity culture is the death of accessibility and, as Playstation have handily proved with their recent death-sentence for legacy infrastructure, game preservation. But I hate Apple just as much, so anything they try to feed me is instantly going to cause suspicion out of me. And, although this is to a much lesser extent, some part of likes the fact that Steam has not just an alternative, but a direct competitor coming for their throat with policies that seem designed to be direct digs at Valve's old guard baby. Higher cuts go to developers who publish on the Epic Store, exclusivity deals are designed to cover any potential development losses and soften release risks for smaller studios, and Epic specifically go out of the way to flaunt the fact that their store front actually has a moderation system so that trash waste doesn't accidentally end up on their shelves. (Steam is pretty much 90% 'floating junk-town' at this point) But none of that is going to be enough to make Epic profitable, and until they go to work on the fundamentals there's literally no way they'll make it to the heights Steam is at. (And you just know that's what they're aiming for)

Right off the bat there are the quality of life features in order to bring this service up to some sort of parity to Steam, which after two whole years is still lacking! I know the excuse off by heart now: "But Steam had years to get where it is today, yada yada iteration, yada yada give us time". It's all just deflections and smokescreens. Steam had no major competitors at launch (barring, I guess, Battle.net) so it had time to learn the sorts of ideas and tools that people want out of a launcher, they learnt alongside the console platforms and thus their development went somewhat in tandem. Epic is coming after that great learning journey, but that don't mean they have to start at square one! "Only a fool learns from his own mistakes- I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others", listen to Von Bismarck; my dude Otto had his head on straight! Or does Epic want us to believe that we should just wait 20 years for the Epic store front to be where Steam is at now? (Meanwhile Steam is 20 years onwards in improvements.) At least they've finally put in some achievements. That's a step. (But it ain't nearly the whole cake)

Then there are the missing community features, and this is the stuff I don't really count as 'quality of life' because at heart they are distinct from what's needed to run a successful launcher. Having customer reviews adorn titles so that people can read the voice of others to inform their decisions, a trusted-reviewer section; things of that nature. If Epic are serious they need to start getting on this so that their platform can go beyond just being a place where people game and become a place that people return to in order to hang out, or share mods. In that vein, what about an integrated forum with the launcher so such activities can occur without having to tab off onto other windows? I don't think I'm asking for the world here but it would go a long way to transforming what's on offer.

Also, and this is a big personal one; Epic need to make it easier to buy games from them. The system they have right now is the bare minimum basic, but again; no prizes for hitting the bare quota. Right now you can buy games by entering your credit card info onto Epic, fair enough; but literally every other major online retailer has alternatives. Vouchers, codes, just anything else to let more people in. (Not everyone has the ability to throw around credit card details on frivolous gaming expenses.) And I know this isn't a matter of Epic lacking the scale to accommodate for such a system, because you can literally buy Fortnite V-bucks codes off of any store corner. Literally just do that but for your storefront. That way people won't turn around and go "Yeah, but it's less of a hassle to buy off of Steam."

And whilst we're out here making suggestions, I might as well go and say something that I'll hate myself for saying; but the free games and all- I think they should probably tune that down a little. Don't get me wrong, I love free things and the selection of games that Epic Games has offered is insane; (I've taken advantage of almost everyone) but this is one of their biggest source of costs for the platform. Now I'm not saying be rid of the program; it's a great way to establish the superiority of your content over Steam's (Again; thank you basic content moderation principals) but I've got to wonder how many people aren't even sticking around to actually buy something because of the genuinely great products that are being handed out like candy. In fact, some of the times they don't even do the bare minimum and ensure the game they're offering has unincluded DLC so they don't lose out totally. That's something Xbox and Playstation figured out years ago, man, get with the age!

But finally and most importantly, I have a plea that stems from the financial and the moral argument; STOP with the exclusives! My god, it's sickening to see the single way they win over interest is by spending millions on exclusives instead of, I don't know, making a decent platform? And again, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have exclusivity for games that they fund, I think it's a disservice to do so but in that case it's their game, they can do what they want. But nicking games out of the mouths of other platforms purely so that you can lure customers your way like some creepy white van stalker? That's a bad look, Epic. It makes people not want to root for you, or see the good beneath your flaws, because you're so insistent on becoming some toxic slug on the community rather than a pillar of it. And, calling back to those figures Apple flaunted, it sure is straining on the ol' coffers, ain't it? 

Despite everything we say and what Apple says, I'm sure Epic will keep doing exactly what they're doing and getting the best they can out of it. Epic are positive that they're experiencing the growing pains that any new entity has in the tech world; years of unprofitability. (Remember Twitter only turned a profit in 2018) And maybe they're right, who knows what sort of figures that Epic is holding behind those walls, but maybe they're blowing smoke out their rear ends and pretending everything is fine while the office burns down. (It sure wouldn't be the first time in this industry) All I can is regardless of marking black in the ledgers; Epic will never become the Steam disruptor it wants to be without rising to that task in a bigger way then they're doing right now, and waiting to do it a decade down the line isn't exactly going to cut it with me. (Early impressions tend to stick- you know) I want to like Epic, I just wrote a blog about a classic game of theirs that I truly adore, but the guys have got to meet me, and the rest of the gaming public, half way at the absolute least.

Edit: Scrap all of that; Epic just got a group investment of a billion dollars. They'll be fine.