Some interesting tidbits about the Epic Game Store's performance in
2021 (straight from the horse's mouth):

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/epic-games-store-2021-year-in-review

The Epic Games Store made more 21% revenue in 2021 over 2020; about
$840 million. Note this is revenue, not profit, so costs and taxes and
all that have to be deducted from that number. In comparison, Steam
made over $4 billion USD in 2017* (and presumably is making much more
these days, what with all the pandemic spending). Notably missing is
any indication about how much profit Epic made from EGS (hint: that
means they didn't make any).

Only about 36% of this money was made on third-party sales, however,
with the bulk of the revenue coming from Epic's own properties (read:
Fortnite and hats for Fortnite ;-). However, this is an increase of
12% more third-party sales than in 2020, which indicates that Epic
Game Store is diversifying.

The store now boasts over 900 games, almost double what was available
in 2020. In comparison, Steam has over 30,000 games in their library,
but that's actually more of a downside than benefit; the sheer glut of
available titles makes it harder for customers to find new games AND
for developers to market their titles.

Epic gave away 89 games in 2021 that - if you paid full price for each
- would set you back $2,120. Over 765 million free games were claimed.
Here's some completely worthless math: if we average the price of all
the games given away ($2120 / 89 games) and then multiply that average
by the total claimed games, the total would suggest Epic gave away
more than $18 billion USD worth of games.

Now, obviously this math is worthless - for one thing, I'm sure a few
games (like Control and Grand Theft Auto 5) skewed the that average up
a lot, and of course Epic didn't pay cost for any of those games
either. Still, it gives you an idea of the magnitude of Epic's
generosity... and how much money Fortnite must be bringing in to fund
it. While the $18 billion USD value is excessive, we are almost
certainly still talking about billions of dollars of free games.

Epic's peak concurrent users was 13.2 million (Steam was almost double
this at 24.5 million in 2020, but I believe this record has since been
broken numerous times). Epic has a total of 194 million users, up by
34million; only a 20% increase. Steam has more than 1 billion.

Not mentioned is how that $300 million USD made by third-party games
was broken down; was it all mostly made by one or two games, or did
Epic's game store benefit smaller publishers (50% of Steam's revenue
comes from only 100 games). One of Epic's boasts about their platform
is how much better (read: profitable) it is for developers, but if 90%
of the third-party revenue goes to only five or six games, then even
Epic's vaunted "minimum revenue guarantee" aren't worth much if they
can't bring in actual customers. Still, I think that if Epic had good
news in this area, they'd be crowing about it, so their silence in
this area itself is probably informative.

Note my comparisons to Steam are just that - comparisons - and should
not be taken as me saying "Steam is better, nyah!" Frankly, I think
it's rather impressive that Epic managed to reach half of Steam's
concurrent user counter so quickly (even if it does include Fortnite
users and people who only go online for the freebies). However you
slice it, that's some impressive growth.

On the other hand, were I deciding where to publish my games, I'm not
sure the other numbers really make all that convincing a case to go
exclusive with Epic. Their growth is slowing and they aren't making a
conclusive case that you can get more sales per customer on their
platform (in fact, by doubling the number of games on EGS, it's only
made it that much harder to get people to look at your game). Steam,
of course, has a similar problem (except magnitudes larger), but with
such a vast audience (and 50-70% of PC game sales), even a smaller
percentage on Steam doubtlessly dwarfs anything Epic can offer.

Anyway, an interesting look at some of Epic's metrics. I enjoy being
an occasional glimpse behind the curtain.

Most importantly though:

[Epic] confirm[s] that weekly Free Games will continue in 2022.

So no worries there. ;-)

---------------
* all Steam facts taken from here:
https://comparecamp.com/steam-statistics. Most are a few years out of
date, but I was too lazy to look for anything more recent, and,
anyway, they were 'good enough' for these comparisons.

Some interesting figures but one thing I'd like to know is how much some
of the individual titles cost Epic especially when it comes to the 'big
hitters', just for interest.

I don't use Epic but I do have Amazon Games. Oh the twenty or so games
I've claimed the majority I'd never have paid for but there are several
titles I would have paid for if they were in the right price bracket (£5
or so).

Epic is not really generous...
They give games away to bind customers, but buying timed exclusives
is a moral no go for me. Thats also the main reason why I have not
bought a single game in their store so far, not one.

On Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:23:16 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>Some interesting tidbits about the Epic Game Store's performance in
>2021 (straight from the horse's mouth):
>
>https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/epic-games-store-2021-year-in-review
>
>
>The Epic Games Store made more 21% revenue in 2021 over 2020; about
>$840 million. Note this is revenue, not profit, so costs and taxes and
>all that have to be deducted from that number. In comparison, Steam
>made over $4 billion USD in 2017* (and presumably is making much more
>these days, what with all the pandemic spending). Notably missing is
>any indication about how much profit Epic made from EGS (hint: that
>means they didn't make any).
>
I don't like to determine success by size, so the Valve comparison is
perhaps unhelpful, but yikes. You take Fortnite revenue out and maybe
that's a fail. When they IPO - and at that rate they won't - they won't
be able to hide the P&L sheet.

Anecdotally, I have a few purchased games on Origin, a few on Ubi
Connect, ridiculous amounts on Steam, a large number on GoG, and none on
Epic or Twitch/Prime Games.

Steam got me in the door by offering Team Fortress 2 for free. No other
service has done that. I sought GoG, Origin, and Ubi out before they
offered free games.

I was ready to transition off of CD/Box games when TF2 was offered,
though. Now digital distribution is my primary way to purchase games.

One measurement I do know is only purchased games matter.

I wonder if I'm typical?

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On 1/29/2022 5:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:23:16 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>> Some interesting tidbits about the Epic Game Store's performance in
>> 2021 (straight from the horse's mouth):
>>
>> https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/epic-games-store-2021-year-in-review
>>
>>
>> The Epic Games Store made more 21% revenue in 2021 over 2020; about
>> $840 million. Note this is revenue, not profit, so costs and taxes and
>> all that have to be deducted from that number. In comparison, Steam
>> made over $4 billion USD in 2017* (and presumably is making much more
>> these days, what with all the pandemic spending). Notably missing is
>> any indication about how much profit Epic made from EGS (hint: that
>> means they didn't make any).
>>
> I don't like to determine success by size, so the Valve comparison is
> perhaps unhelpful, but yikes. You take Fortnite revenue out and maybe
> that's a fail. When they IPO - and at that rate they won't - they won't
> be able to hide the P&L sheet.
>
> Anecdotally, I have a few purchased games on Origin, a few on Ubi
> Connect, ridiculous amounts on Steam, a large number on GoG, and none on
> Epic or Twitch/Prime Games.
>
> Steam got me in the door by offering Team Fortress 2 for free. No other
> service has done that. I sought GoG, Origin, and Ubi out before they
> offered free games.
>
> I was ready to transition off of CD/Box games when TF2 was offered,
> though. Now digital distribution is my primary way to purchase games.
>
> One measurement I do know is only purchased games matter.
>
> I wonder if I'm typical?
>
I only buy from GOG and Steam, preferentially from GOG, but I also don't
buy many games. Probably around the one a year level and that may be
"at most" level.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2022 09:49:53 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>Some interesting figures but one thing I'd like to know is how much some
>of the individual titles cost Epic especially when it comes to the 'big
>hitters', just for interest.

Unfortunately - but not surprisingly - this isn't the sort of
information Epic publically shares. However, it is unlikely that Epic
is paying very much. I don't think Epic is going to Take Two
Entertainment and saying, "we'll give you $30 bucks for every free
copy of GTA5 claimed on Epic". At most they might be offering a few
hundred thousand dollars for the privilege of hosting a give-away, and
probably a lot less in most cases. Of course, when you give away
hundreds of games, that number adds up, but it's a far cry from the
farcical $18 billion sum I calculated.

Remember, these freebies benefit the publishers as much as (if not
more than) they do Epic. These give-aways are advertising, and come
with a lot of benefits. Once gamers own the game, they're much more
likely to buy DLC, they're more likely to talk about the game and
attract other customers, and they create a community that gives the
game added longevity (this is especially important to games with a
multiplayer component).

>I don't use Epic but I do have Amazon Games. Oh the twenty or so games
>I've claimed the majority I'd never have paid for but there are several
>titles I would have paid for if they were in the right price bracket (£5
>or so).

Same price bracket I'm falling into for a lot of my games. Given the
size of my library, the diminishing value of new games, and how many
free games are available, my new 'max' is around $20 USD and it would
have to be an exceptional game for me to pay that much.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2022 07:25:55 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>On Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:23:16 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>>The Epic Games Store made more 21% revenue in 2021 over 2020; about
>>$840 million. Note this is revenue, not profit, so costs and taxes and
>>all that have to be deducted from that number. In comparison, Steam
>>made over $4 billion USD in 2017* (and presumably is making much more
>>these days, what with all the pandemic spending). Notably missing is
>>any indication about how much profit Epic made from EGS (hint: that
>>means they didn't make any).

>I don't like to determine success by size, so the Valve comparison is
>perhaps unhelpful, but yikes. You take Fortnite revenue out and maybe
>that's a fail. When they IPO - and at that rate they won't - they won't
>be able to hide the P&L sheet.

I agree; I wasn't trying to make a judgment based about either service
based on the numbers, but when you are talking about millions of users
and billions of dollars, it's sort of hard to understand what it all
means. Sure, 194 million users is a lot from a personal perspective...
but is it a lot from a business perspective? The only way to tell is
to compare it to its competitors. Steam's numbers are just the easiest
to find (largely because Valve, which dominates the market, sees
advantage in announcing them to the world at large; the others
recognize that their smaller player counts would only frighten off
potential partners).

Mostly I added the Steam comparisons to indicate how quickly Epic has
grown; it's only a few years old and it is a serious competitor to
Valve's service. It is reportedly larger than GOG, and is almost
certainly larger than Origin, UPlay, and Battlenet (it's likely
smaller than Twitch, though, which has 140 million /active/ monthly
users, and probably at least three or four times that many user
accounts).

Epic has stated they don't expect the game store to reach
profitability until 2024*, about six years after it began. This is not
an unexpected turn of events; Epic went into this knowing EGS would be
a loss-leader for years. But they know that to succeed they needed
several things: a store people want to buy from, a dedicated customer
base, and products that they want. They're still working on the former
(EGS is shy on a lot of features that makes Steam so useful, and some
of Epic's own actions have made it much less attractive to gamers).

They're working hard on the last by trying to make Epic Game Store
attractive to publishers by offering features they like (lower fees,
guaranteed revenue, fewer competing products, no annoying user reviews
that distract from the publisher's marketing).

The constant stream of freebies not only draw in new customers, but
help ensure they might stay around (one of Steam's big draws is that
it's the primary 'library' for pretty much every PC gamer; if they
have a game, it's much more likely to be on Steam than anywhere else).
By giving away so many games, Epic undercuts this advantage. It is
quite likely that the average gamer now has more games on Epic than
they do on Steam (although their Steam library probably has more games
they actually play).

But, yes, all this effort by Epic is almost entirely funded by
Fortnite's success (and venture capital funding and cash inflows from
Tencent). If Fortnite were to suddenly become unpopular and all the
kiddies abandoned it overnight, it is quite possible that Epic would
have to give up on EGS entirely (although, if they're only two years
from expected profitability, they might be able to limp onward to some
sort of success. Epic was much more vulnerable in 2020). But the fact
that their cash outflow into EGS is unbalanced compared to their
income isn't really that shocking because the stakeholders are betting
big that - once EGS becomes a profitable storefront - they will make
back those losses big time. Established digital retail has extremely
high margins and low costs.

-----------------------
* https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-05-04-epic-expects-epic-games-store-to-be-profitable-by-2024