Epic Games’ controversial PC gaming store has angered a lot of players. From its slew of exclusives, to rumours that the Epic Game Store poses a security threat to its users, there’s a lot of people who are seriously unhappy about the store.
In an interview with EDGE magazine, Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney opened up about the controversy, but is adamant that the Epic Store is what the gaming industry needs right now.
“[Buying exclusives] is an absolutely necessary step in gaining traction for a new store. Since Steam launched there have been many, many attempts to launch new independent storefronts. Not a single one has gained any significant market share compared to Steam, and I think you can directly attribute that to them not having a lineup containing a significant number of new, major exclusive titles,” said Sweeney.
Discussing the pros of the Epic Store, including the fact you don’t need new hardware to run it, and saying it works together with Steam, Origin and Battle.net, Sweeney went into more detail about the controversy surrounding exclusivity.
“It’s not an attempt to monopolise the sales of these games. We’ve started working with Humble Bundle; developers of exclusive games on the Epic Store are now also able to sell their games through the Humble Store, and we don’t receive any of that revenue,” said Sweeney.
“It’s another way of building up the ecosystem. I’m quite convinced that if we didn’t take these steps, we’d be the nice guys who fail, just like all the others.”
Right now, the Epic Store offers the best revenue share for developers, and offers two free games a month for its users.
Interestingly, Sweeney agrees with the main bugbear of the Epic Store – having to go somewhere else for your games.
“It’s always annoying when you have to go to a new place to get a thing. I unsubscribed from Netflix twice when their selection changed unexpectedly.”
Love it or hate it, the Epic Store isn’t going anywhere anytime soon…
Featured Image Credit: Epic Games