2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a ‘license’) to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but platforms like GOG and Humble Bundle often provide the actual DRM free software which can be installedd independently of their platform and license.
Steam and Epic are not like that. Steam typically requires us to use its launcher to play games, as they are tied to our Steam accounts. Epic sometimes actually allows one to directly access the game files. Of course, the level of DRM can vary depending on the specific game and developer.
Worth noting that Steam does not enforce the use of its DRM. Like Epic, its up to developers to add it.
As for installing games after the services ends, I’d be curious to know if any have specified what happens to game licences at that point. Obviously, if the licence is revoked, continuing to play it is piracy, but if these services close, are the licences revoked? I couldn’t find anything matching in the Steam or GOG terms of service.
It has to be 100% on purpose to make you get the launcher. I tried to check out my EA games, and a forum post said they used to have it on the web, but not anymore.
I think the vast majority of users only use launchers to launch games. For that purpose, it does that perfectly fine. I suspect that even if Epic invested billions into bringing their store up to feature parity with Steam, users still wouldn’t switch. They’d need to be leaps and bounds better, and that’s hard to comprehend in terms of features and cost. I think they’re making the smart move sticking to their wheelhouse.
I think the vast majority of users only use launchers to launch games. For that purpose, it does that perfectly fine.
Does it? Lets envision the minimum viable product for a game store. You have a very basic web interface and you download games or installers from it. Something like itch.io, or similar to GOG. Is using Epic’s launcher better than just downloading the installers from a browser? I’d argue not, given the hastle of creating a new account, installing the launcher with all its spyware and using it, rather than the bare minimum of just downloading an installer, running it, and then running the game directly.
I suspect that even if Epic invested billions into bringing their store up to feature parity with Steam, users still wouldn’t switch. They’d need to be leaps and bounds better, and that’s hard to comprehend in terms of features and cost.
Look at how other platforms have eaten into Steam’s control most successfully without resorting to anything too shady. Humble Bundle and Fanatical offer unique bundles with better deals. Itch.io works more closely with devs, esspecially smaller devs. GOG cut out a niche by specifically seeking out old games to licence or fix themselves, as well as by ensuring everything is DRM free.
None of these had even a fraction of the funding Epic did. Imagine if Epic spent their early years trying to replicate these practices rather than paying to remove stuff off other platforms. Instead of spending millions on exclusivity deals, they offered customers things like weekly discount bundles, a designated DRM free section on their store, or maybe a community games section with less moderation, meant for quick-and-easy publishing for new devs.
If that isn’t enough, and they aren’t busy spending ten or hundreds of millions on pissing off their potential customers, then they could also look at loyalty programs, better sales, or even just straight-up marketing for their platform and the games on it. Epic isn’t a small company and their store has been a major investment.
All of that is just easy, obvious stuff off the top of my head, none of which even affects the launcher. Implement even half of it, (without burning the bridge with your customers first) and I’m confident you’ll have a very strong competitor to Steam.
Does it? Lets envision the minimum viable product for a game store. You have a very basic web interface and you download games or installers from it. Something like itch.io, or similar to GOG. Is using Epic’s launcher better than just downloading the installers from a browser? I’d argue not, given the hastle of creating a new account, installing the launcher with all its spyware and using it, rather than the bare minimum of just downloading an installer, running it, and then running the game directly.
I support DRM free games too but I think you’re making a large assumption here that most people prefer that to one-click launcher install/updates/management.
Look at how other platforms have eaten into Steam’s control most successfully without resorting to anything too shady. Humble Bundle and Fanatical offer unique bundles with better deals. Itch.io works more closely with devs, esspecially smaller devs. GOG cut out a niche by specifically seeking out old games to licence or fix themselves, as well as by ensuring everything is DRM free.
I have seen no evidence of either Itch nor GOG eating Steam’s lunch. Quite the opposite. Steam continues to grow fast, while GOG is barely breaking even. I can’t find the financials for itch.io so I don’t know how well they’re doing.
Just to be clear, I would love for Epic to invest more into their launcher. I’m merely putting my product manager hat on and accepting that that is unlikely because the business case is bad.
Hard disagree on every point. Majority of their “user base” just get the free games but spend the money on steam or gog. That will never change unless the store itself becomes worth spending money on.
Epic is the second largest online store by revenue, so you are objectively wrong by a wide margin. Users are spending a lot of money on the platform. Much of it goes to their flagship games like Fortnite. Similarly to how much of Steam’s revenue comes from their flagship games like Counter-Strike.
Let’s remember they are already the second largest games store. Okay, let’s assume they try to compete with Steam on features. What do you think it would take to get users to switch?
When the majority of “user base” is there for free games then being second largest store doesn’t mean anything. They already said they are operating on a loss so that further invalidates it.
That said, the last time I used their launcher was a couple years ago when I was still using windows so these points are based solely on my experience back then. They didn’t even have chat option or removed at some point so there was no way to directly message or call a friend from the launcher which means I couldn’t even ask if anyone wanna play. Library GUI was shit, missing so many filter and highlight features of steam. No user review and no I don’t consider the so called game journalist reviews as actual reviews. The store suggestions was also very lacking compared to what steam offers. No workshop support like steam, no community pages, guides etc. Regional pricing was same as steam but they offer more cut to the devs which is nice but I as an user get insanely low value buying on epic than steam. The entire launcher experience was nothing but annoying at every point when Steam is at least usable and had a lot of features that makes it worth using despite all their issues. All this time, they focused on getting exclusives and developers but didn’t give 2 fucks about user experience so let’s see them fix that. Although I vehemently hate epic for a lot of things so I don’t see myself ever buying from them but I don’t see how an average user would care about any of that.
I’m saying that if they want to compete with another company they need a compelling offer, one that at least has feature parity on the big ticket items. Yes, you would then need to work to attract people, but a bare bones store front like they have is a huge roadblock. People feeling like making the switch means they lose things is not a way to encourage adoption.
I don’t think feature parity would entice anyone across. It would need to be much better than Steam to entice migration, and it’s hard to conceive how much work and money that would require.
I don’t think anything about the launcher would have to change for them to get my money. Hell, one of the reasons I like GOG is because I don’t need to use their launcher.
I get into one of the Epic giveaway games sometimes but the launcher always feels like an obstacle rather than an asset. It’s not software I enjoy using.
Pressing “Launch” is the same whether you’re in Epic or Steam. I have like 40 games on epic and I’ve paid them exactly $0. In the same time I spent quite a bit on Steam. It’s hard to see what value Epic is getting out of me from this.
Here’s an argument for Epic: Their international pricing is WAY better than Steam’s. By what I gather, Epic is the go-to for many who live in low-income countries.
On the other side, their app still lags behind Steam by miles. For whatever unknown reason.
I’m in a small Caribbean island, the steam price has always been the same price as the US price, which is very expensive compared to the average salary on the island.
So basically no regional pricing for us in the Caribbean.
On the other hand the epic store does have regional pricing for us more in line with the average salary which make the games 50% cheaper than steam.
Here is the steam price for Rimworld
Here is the Epic Game price for Rimworld
I checked other games and it’s similar.
Edit: I wish I was wrong because I’m only playing in Linux so I would really prefer buying games from Steam but now I’m seriously considering buying the games from the Epic Store, it sucks.
The goal is very simple, it’s to get you to use Epic. The reason people buy their games on Steam is because people effectively have Steam start on boot. It’s the default because “all” your games are there. You use gog or EA app or Ubisoft connect only if there’s something that’s not on Steam and you boot them up specifically to that one game.
So if you’re Epic and you want to compete with Steam how do you do that? You grow the user’s library to make sure they start up Epic instead of Steam and you get them in the habit of logging in. Both are accomplished by giving our free games.
It’s probably not effective on the old timers who have 100+ games on Steam, but people like me are not the target audience. It’s aimed at younger people who don’t have a huge steam library and can’t really afford to buy a lot of games.
Tldr: Epic is giving away free games to become the default store for the next generation of gamers.
A lot of the free games also have DLC for sale. If you play the free game and enjoy it, odds are that it is cheaper to get the DLC on epic instead of buying the game and dlc on steam. No idea how often that works out for epic, but it’s one way they could make money back from free games.
I got Surviving Mars for free on Epic and really liked it, but I instead spent more money to buy the full game & all the DLC from Steam just on general principle lol.
I got civ6 for free from epic, played it for a while and decided I wanted the dlc, it was cheaper to buy the full game on steam plus all the dlc than to buy just 1 dlc from epic.
Same. I grab most of the free games every week, but for actual purchases I still use Steam. If I’m going to spend money on a game then it has to count achievements on my Steam profile.
Funnily enough it made me just find ways to deal with all of them comfortably. In the end I buy from GOG or Steam or Itch. And still have hundreds of games on Epic and some even on Ubisoft’s and EA’s launchers.
Don’t forget you can always backup and store all your games, the EULA companies make you sign don’t substitute the laws: if they are selling you stuff, if the use the word “buy”… they either owe you a product or they are lying.
Yeah, I’ve basically stopped caring about the free games at this point. I mean I have a very full library of games there but most I already own on steam of gog and I haven’t played any of them, even the ones during the recent holidays.
Gotta think the vast majority go unplayed. Early on I was claiming them now and again, and the Subnautica giveaway was an absolute steal. Definitely something I had on my mental patient gamer list anyway.
That title makes it seem like they have made 600 million separate games free and not that they have had 600 million users claiming games they have given away free.
Pretty sure it’s a fixed amount to the publisher/devs for unlimited licenses during the free period, but varies by popularity of the game, according to documents from the lawsuit against Apple
I feel like they have some sweet deals with publishers that only when people download a game for the first time does the license get activated. Or you just have an IOU license. Just a speculation tho.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
No Let’s Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates.
(Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources.
If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
And they can take them away in a second
They took rocket league off steam. Well actually it’s on there, but the servers will not connect via Linux
To be fair, the same is true of Steam, even with purchased games. We don’t own anything but a licence.
https://www.thegamer.com/steam-digital-game-ownership-licence-disclaimer/
Conclusion: GOG > Steam/Epic
How much do they pay you?
https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog
Correct me if I’m wrong, but platforms like GOG and Humble Bundle often provide the actual DRM free software which can be installedd independently of their platform and license.
Steam and Epic are not like that. Steam typically requires us to use its launcher to play games, as they are tied to our Steam accounts. Epic sometimes actually allows one to directly access the game files. Of course, the level of DRM can vary depending on the specific game and developer.
deleted by creator
Worth noting that Steam does not enforce the use of its DRM. Like Epic, its up to developers to add it.
As for installing games after the services ends, I’d be curious to know if any have specified what happens to game licences at that point. Obviously, if the licence is revoked, continuing to play it is piracy, but if these services close, are the licences revoked? I couldn’t find anything matching in the Steam or GOG terms of service.
Okay, but any significant plans to make the launcher or store itself worth using?
Wondering the same… just last week i found out you cannot view your library in the web browser, only your transactions. Even after all this time.
It has to be 100% on purpose to make you get the launcher. I tried to check out my EA games, and a forum post said they used to have it on the web, but not anymore.
I think the vast majority of users only use launchers to launch games. For that purpose, it does that perfectly fine. I suspect that even if Epic invested billions into bringing their store up to feature parity with Steam, users still wouldn’t switch. They’d need to be leaps and bounds better, and that’s hard to comprehend in terms of features and cost. I think they’re making the smart move sticking to their wheelhouse.
Does it? Lets envision the minimum viable product for a game store. You have a very basic web interface and you download games or installers from it. Something like itch.io, or similar to GOG. Is using Epic’s launcher better than just downloading the installers from a browser? I’d argue not, given the hastle of creating a new account, installing the launcher with all its spyware and using it, rather than the bare minimum of just downloading an installer, running it, and then running the game directly.
Look at how other platforms have eaten into Steam’s control most successfully without resorting to anything too shady. Humble Bundle and Fanatical offer unique bundles with better deals. Itch.io works more closely with devs, esspecially smaller devs. GOG cut out a niche by specifically seeking out old games to licence or fix themselves, as well as by ensuring everything is DRM free.
None of these had even a fraction of the funding Epic did. Imagine if Epic spent their early years trying to replicate these practices rather than paying to remove stuff off other platforms. Instead of spending millions on exclusivity deals, they offered customers things like weekly discount bundles, a designated DRM free section on their store, or maybe a community games section with less moderation, meant for quick-and-easy publishing for new devs.
If that isn’t enough, and they aren’t busy spending ten or hundreds of millions on pissing off their potential customers, then they could also look at loyalty programs, better sales, or even just straight-up marketing for their platform and the games on it. Epic isn’t a small company and their store has been a major investment.
All of that is just easy, obvious stuff off the top of my head, none of which even affects the launcher. Implement even half of it, (without burning the bridge with your customers first) and I’m confident you’ll have a very strong competitor to Steam.
I support DRM free games too but I think you’re making a large assumption here that most people prefer that to one-click launcher install/updates/management.
I have seen no evidence of either Itch nor GOG eating Steam’s lunch. Quite the opposite. Steam continues to grow fast, while GOG is barely breaking even. I can’t find the financials for itch.io so I don’t know how well they’re doing.
Just to be clear, I would love for Epic to invest more into their launcher. I’m merely putting my product manager hat on and accepting that that is unlikely because the business case is bad.
Hard disagree on every point. Majority of their “user base” just get the free games but spend the money on steam or gog. That will never change unless the store itself becomes worth spending money on.
Epic is the second largest online store by revenue, so you are objectively wrong by a wide margin. Users are spending a lot of money on the platform. Much of it goes to their flagship games like Fortnite. Similarly to how much of Steam’s revenue comes from their flagship games like Counter-Strike.
Let’s remember they are already the second largest games store. Okay, let’s assume they try to compete with Steam on features. What do you think it would take to get users to switch?
When the majority of “user base” is there for free games then being second largest store doesn’t mean anything. They already said they are operating on a loss so that further invalidates it.
That said, the last time I used their launcher was a couple years ago when I was still using windows so these points are based solely on my experience back then. They didn’t even have chat option or removed at some point so there was no way to directly message or call a friend from the launcher which means I couldn’t even ask if anyone wanna play. Library GUI was shit, missing so many filter and highlight features of steam. No user review and no I don’t consider the so called game journalist reviews as actual reviews. The store suggestions was also very lacking compared to what steam offers. No workshop support like steam, no community pages, guides etc. Regional pricing was same as steam but they offer more cut to the devs which is nice but I as an user get insanely low value buying on epic than steam. The entire launcher experience was nothing but annoying at every point when Steam is at least usable and had a lot of features that makes it worth using despite all their issues. All this time, they focused on getting exclusives and developers but didn’t give 2 fucks about user experience so let’s see them fix that. Although I vehemently hate epic for a lot of things so I don’t see myself ever buying from them but I don’t see how an average user would care about any of that.
A few that come to mind
And you think Epic implementing some or all of these would encourage Steam users to switch? Why would they? Steam already offers all of that.
I’m saying that if they want to compete with another company they need a compelling offer, one that at least has feature parity on the big ticket items. Yes, you would then need to work to attract people, but a bare bones store front like they have is a huge roadblock. People feeling like making the switch means they lose things is not a way to encourage adoption.
I don’t think feature parity would entice anyone across. It would need to be much better than Steam to entice migration, and it’s hard to conceive how much work and money that would require.
I don’t think anything about the launcher would have to change for them to get my money. Hell, one of the reasons I like GOG is because I don’t need to use their launcher.
But the average user who will be the majority doesn’t really care about DRM and well happily use their launcher if they find it useful
Free games are pure marketing. Don’t confuse it.
They can take them away at their whim.
Their sole purpose is to get you used to using Epic over other services.
I get into one of the Epic giveaway games sometimes but the launcher always feels like an obstacle rather than an asset. It’s not software I enjoy using.
Use Heroic
And try launching games directly because it might be drm free
Pressing “Launch” is the same whether you’re in Epic or Steam. I have like 40 games on epic and I’ve paid them exactly $0. In the same time I spent quite a bit on Steam. It’s hard to see what value Epic is getting out of me from this.
Here’s an argument for Epic: Their international pricing is WAY better than Steam’s. By what I gather, Epic is the go-to for many who live in low-income countries.
On the other side, their app still lags behind Steam by miles. For whatever unknown reason.
I never realized it before but you’re right, in my country the games are 50% cheaper on the Epic Store than they are in Steam!
Exact same regional pricing in my country, no idea what you guys are talking about
I’m in a small Caribbean island, the steam price has always been the same price as the US price, which is very expensive compared to the average salary on the island.
So basically no regional pricing for us in the Caribbean.
On the other hand the epic store does have regional pricing for us more in line with the average salary which make the games 50% cheaper than steam.
Here is the steam price for Rimworld
Here is the Epic Game price for Rimworld
I checked other games and it’s similar.
Edit: I wish I was wrong because I’m only playing in Linux so I would really prefer buying games from Steam but now I’m seriously considering buying the games from the Epic Store, it sucks.
Because it’s not just about you. Even if just 1% of people decide “Huh, I wonder what else is on there”, hell even .01%, it’s a win for them.
It’s not about big gains, it’s about attrition.
The goal is very simple, it’s to get you to use Epic. The reason people buy their games on Steam is because people effectively have Steam start on boot. It’s the default because “all” your games are there. You use gog or EA app or Ubisoft connect only if there’s something that’s not on Steam and you boot them up specifically to that one game.
So if you’re Epic and you want to compete with Steam how do you do that? You grow the user’s library to make sure they start up Epic instead of Steam and you get them in the habit of logging in. Both are accomplished by giving our free games.
It’s probably not effective on the old timers who have 100+ games on Steam, but people like me are not the target audience. It’s aimed at younger people who don’t have a huge steam library and can’t really afford to buy a lot of games.
Tldr: Epic is giving away free games to become the default store for the next generation of gamers.
A lot of the free games also have DLC for sale. If you play the free game and enjoy it, odds are that it is cheaper to get the DLC on epic instead of buying the game and dlc on steam. No idea how often that works out for epic, but it’s one way they could make money back from free games.
I got Surviving Mars for free on Epic and really liked it, but I instead spent more money to buy the full game & all the DLC from Steam just on general principle lol.
I got civ6 for free from epic, played it for a while and decided I wanted the dlc, it was cheaper to buy the full game on steam plus all the dlc than to buy just 1 dlc from epic.
Same. I grab most of the free games every week, but for actual purchases I still use Steam. If I’m going to spend money on a game then it has to count achievements on my Steam profile.
The value is getting you not to use competitors.
Funnily enough it made me just find ways to deal with all of them comfortably. In the end I buy from GOG or Steam or Itch. And still have hundreds of games on Epic and some even on Ubisoft’s and EA’s launchers.
Don’t forget you can always backup and store all your games, the EULA companies make you sign don’t substitute the laws: if they are selling you stuff, if the use the word “buy”… they either owe you a product or they are lying.
i did my part. got about 40 of them last year.
epic freebies from 2024 played: 0
epic freebies from 2024 installed: 0
the only freebie of theirs i have installed right now is one of the CIVs.
Yeah, any game I deem worthy to play, is worthy of my money anyway, so I would rather buy them on Steam/GOG.
I have some free games on Epic, but havent even had the launcher installed for like 7 years.
Yeah, I’ve basically stopped caring about the free games at this point. I mean I have a very full library of games there but most I already own on steam of gog and I haven’t played any of them, even the ones during the recent holidays.
Right. At this point it feels a little like time wasted on collecting free games that never get played.
Steam is for paying for games that never get played. Most of us have hefty libraries.
the asset store is where you want to get every freebie.
There’s a reason you can still only checkout with a single game at a time despite the asset store having a fully functional shopping cart from day 1.
EGS has had an “add to cart” button for a while now…
Gotta think the vast majority go unplayed. Early on I was claiming them now and again, and the Subnautica giveaway was an absolute steal. Definitely something I had on my mental patient gamer list anyway.
Civ 6 was the biggest one for me. I missed GTA V though
And yet they couldn’t find the pocket change to keep the Unreal Tournament master servers up and games listed.
I only grab it if theres no demo on steam. If i like it i then buy on steam.
That title makes it seem like they have made 600 million separate games free and not that they have had 600 million users claiming games they have given away free.
I suspect the contract means that they only actually pay for those that are played
Pretty sure it’s a fixed amount to the publisher/devs for unlimited licenses during the free period, but varies by popularity of the game, according to documents from the lawsuit against Apple
I feel like they have some sweet deals with publishers that only when people download a game for the first time does the license get activated. Or you just have an IOU license. Just a speculation tho.
No need to speculate, the details were leaked a while back
Ah, thanks! It seems like they just buy out the game, and they can give out unlimited licenses.
Interesting link, thank you!