It alleges that Tencent "have very heavy ties to the Chinese government," and ties that allegation to various technical processes carried out by the Epic Games Store application.Įpic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to Twitter to respond directly. The most prominent post surfaced by Google accusing the Epic Games Store of spying on users is from Reddit. And thus, because Chinese company Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games, the Epic Games Store has been labelled "spyware" by some fans. In addition to all the previously mentioned companies, Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games. To put it mildly, Tencent is one of the biggest stakeholders in the video game industry. It's also an investor in Activision ("Call of Duty") and Ubisoft ("Assassin's Creed"), among others. It's the majority stakeholder in "League of Legends" studio Riot Games, and the majority stakeholder in "Clash of Clans" studio Supercell. Tencent is a major Chinese company, and it has several major investments in the video game market. What happened next was foreshadowing a coming trend: so-called "review bombing."įILE PHOTO: WeChat mascots are displayed inside Tencent office in Guangzhou. We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know." We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period. The developer and publisher have assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam. "Sales of 'Metro Exodus' have been discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store. Then Valve issued a statement on the game's preorder page (emphasis ours): And some of those folks were pretty upset to hear that the game could only be accessed on PC through a totally different storefront. Many others had played the previous two games through Steam. Just two weeks ahead of the game's February 15 launch date, Epic Games announced "Metro Exodus" would be an Epic Games Store exclusive - it would arrive on Steam one year later.īut the game's Steam store page was already live, and some people had already pre-ordered. The first major issue surrounded a game named "Metro Exodus" - the third game in the "Metro" series of first-person shooters set in a post-apocalyptic Russia. To be clear, no one is upset about Epic Games offering a larger cut of sales to game makers. And that is extremely attractive to game makers - so attractive, in fact, that Steam altered its revenue split shortly after the Epic Games Store launched.Īt the same time, it's attracting very many of "Fortnite's" millions of PC players: Anyone who has an Epic Games account to play "Fortnite" already has an Epic Games Store account, too. The most foundational way that Epic Games is taking on Steam is by taking a far smaller, 12% cut from anyone selling games on its storefront. It has far fewer features than Steam, far fewer games in its library, and - crucially - a much higher profit margin for anyone selling games. ![]() Steam is the entrenched leader, and the Epic Games Store is the new upstart. ![]() Traditionally, that cut has been about 30%. All your games, all your friends, all in one place.įor game makers, Steam is the largest PC gaming marketplace in the world - it offers massive exposure and a cohesive platform.Īnd for Valve, Steam is a tremendously profitable venture - for every dollar spent on Steam, Valve gets a cut. It's where you buy games that are then updated and managed by Steam - it offers order to the chaotic, balanced world of PC gaming. Most importantly for the hundreds of millions of Steam users, the service is a digital library. The heavyweight in the PC gaming world is Valve's Steam service, a digital storefront and gaming platform that acts like a virtual console: It has friends list services, and achievements, and many other rich features people expect from services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. The Epic Games Store (admittedly on a Mac).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |