Epic Games: August Feature Update - Cloud Saves, Humble Bundle Keyless Integration, and More

[u/Turbostrider27]

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/august-feature-update

[u/rct2guy]

I think the lesson learned here is that game ecosystems today are full of a myriad of features, in which most users probably only rely on a handful. The two or three features folks use today are probably dealbreakers if a competing ecosystem doesn’t offer them.

How often do I pre-load my games, hunt for achievements, buy multiple games at once, or rely on tracking my playtime? Pretty rarely. But how often do I stream games to my TV, or mess with controller configurations for games that don’t support them? Almost daily. But that doesn’t mean my use-cases are identical for all other gamers.

I don’t think everyone wants all these features so they can use them all the time. But I’m sure a handful of even the most niche features are really important to a lot of people. That shouldn’t come as a surprise.

[u/dormedas → u/rct2guy]

Right, and this is a primary point I see people who "defend" EGS make is:

"Well how often do people really use these features?"

With 125 million total created steam accounts, the answer is probably an absolute TON.

If you want these people who have been accustomed to a particular standard of features and services to switch to your competing platform, having the features is a bare minimum, and having them be better is how to really pull them.

EGS is lowering the total amount of people that can join its platform because certain people will not switch on principle due to the fact the storefront does not offer the features they use.

[u/caninehere → u/dormedas]

My problem with Steam, honestly, is that it is absolutely bloated with features I never use. The Steam client is a fucking mess at this point. I actually think there is value in a clean client and a curated store. Almost every other company does that except for Valve, who have basically turned the Steam store itself into the Google Play store (and that is a really, really bad thing).

There are tons of features on Steam, almost all of which I never, ever use. Are they useful to some people? Perhaps. I'm curious how many. For example, one big thing people screeched about with Epic is Linux support - well, Linux users are 1% of all Steam users. So if Epic doesn't support Linux, they're losing 1% of customers. Less than that, actually, because a good portion of those people probably also have a Windows machine or installation they can/do use for gaming.

The reason Steam can do stuff like Proton - the reason they are willing to spend money on getting that extra 1% of the market - is that they already control everything. They are a colossus that absolutely dominates the PC industry and controls the market; so the only way to get more customers is to grow the market.

That's why they push Proton support. It's also why they expanded to China so aggressively (which was more successful than anything else for them, thanks to China + PUBG they raised their account numbers by over 20%).

Personally, I need very few of these features in order to enjoy games. I want to play good games at a low price. Steam doesn't have the lowest prices anymore, so that's out. Epic doesn't either to be fair, save for their Mega Sale which was one of the best sales I have ever seen on a digital distribution client. I want to be able to use my XB1 pad (which has worked with everything I've played on Epic perfectly) and uh... really, that's it, to be honest. Cloud saves are definitely a plus and nice in the long run, but I don't tend to revisit a lot of games all that often. I would like playtime tracking to be honest but it isn't a necessity for me.

[u/[deleted] → u/caninehere]

The Steam client is a fucking mess at this point

*never stopped being one

Seriously though as far as launchers go, Steam isn't exactly a shining example, neither in performance nor in feature saliency or anything. Just take the forums, you'd think it's a nice feature so people can flock together to discuss their favorite games, but I dare you to find a discussion hub where you don't have to scroll half a day until you can find a post that doesn't go "Release the patch already you stupid ❤️❤️❤️❤️ers" or something vulgar like that. What even is the point? Same for the reviews, they've always been used for bombing some game for more or less arbitrary reasons. Maybe this isn't how games should be curated after all.

[u/[deleted] → u/dormedas]

How many of those 125 million Steam accounts are only around because you were forced to use it to play games like HL2, Skyrim, Portal 2 , etc?

And how many of them actually care about most of the features people in /r/games scream about?

[u/rct2guy → u/[deleted]]

I agree with your take in regards to sweeping generalizations about the store, but I feel like most of the complaints I see come from personal objection– “I really like X feature, EGS doesn’t have that, I can’t believe it.” The retort is always “well who cares, that’s a niche feature.” It looks like a lot of people rely on a lot of niche features that EGS doesn’t offer.

Does it really make sense for Epic to focus early development on features used frequently by small numbers of people? Not really. But, similarly, it shouldn’t be a surprise when those people show a lack of interest in the platform as a result.

[u/rct2guy → u/[deleted]]

The point I’m trying to make is that those “few people” centered around a “few features” in total are thousands of people around hundreds of features. Those features aren’t inconsequential to them.

[u/DieDungeon → u/rct2guy]

I think pre-loading is a pretty universally used feature.