A lot has been said about the Epic Games Store and the fact that Epic Games has securing timed-exclusive titles for its digital store. And while the majority of PC gamers are really annoying by this exclusivity deals, a former Valve developer claimed that Steam’s 30% cut was unsustainable and that Epic Games is fixing it.
In a series of tweets, Richard Geldreich claimed that Steam was killing PC gaming with its 30% tax; a tax that was basically unsustainable. Still, this 30% cut made Valve a lot of money and also distorted the entire company (which could explain why Valve has not released any big PC game in the past few years).
Steam was killing PC gaming. It was a 30% tax on an entire industry. It was unsustainable. You have no idea how profitable Steam was for Valve. It was a virtual printing press. It distorted the entire company. Epic is fixing this for all gamers.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 5, 2019
So Steam was first – so what? At the time, Steam’s 30% revshare looked good compared to the 50% revshare from retail. Now – it’s ridiculus and oppressive to game developers. Valve became abusive to its partners and employees. It took them for granted.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 5, 2019
Geldreich also predicts that Epic Games will most likely keep signing deal for a year or even more.
I think gamers are going to remain mad for a long time, as these exclusives won’t stop anytime soon. Could last 1 year or more. Steam will be for indy/2nd tier/shovelware/porn, Epic and other launchers for AAA. This seems to be where the market is heading at the moment.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 8, 2019
Last but not least, Geldreich agreed that the Epic Games Store currently lacks a lot of features, something that a lot of gamers criticized Epic Games for. And while Tim Sweeney’s company has been sniping multiple deals lately, it really needs to step up its game and add as many features as possible.
I think they hear gamers loud and clear on that. They really should have added more features to EGS before launching.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 8, 2019
I think what’s likely is that Sweeney will push his team to add features to EGS until it’s somewhat at parity vs. Steam’s key features. The exclusive backlash will only cost them a few percent of sales (maybe 5-10%?)
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 8, 2019
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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