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Epic Games have now officially announced their own store, which is certainly going to be one to keep an eye on.

I've been saying it for a while, especially after being privately shown screenshots of their newer launcher that Epic would be doing their own store. I was right on the money—for once.

Soon we'll launch the Epic Games store, and begin a long journey to advance the cause of all developers. The store will launch with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac, then it will open up more broadly to other games and to Android and other open platforms throughout 2019. 

Emphasis mine, because that could indicate Epic finally moving towards properly supporting Linux. I mean, apart from Windows, Mac and Android - what other open platforms are left that would be worth it? Linux. Apple have a very locked-down platform on mobile, so I would be doubtful of it going there. Same with the consoles, they're locked down.

The interesting thing here, is that Epic quite rightly have a massive pull in the industry. Fornite, only available through their launcher is the number 1 game in the world right now. Everyone knows what it is and so it's going to give Epic Games a good chance to be a very big store.

Not only that, their revenue share is 88% for developers, which is massive compared to most (better than Steam's). On top of that, if you're using Unreal Engine for your game Epic will even cover the 5% engine royalty in their cut. Although, to be clear, they state their store will be open to any game engine.

This is going to be a massive kick up Valve's backside to do better at everything. I'm all for it, competition is healthy even if I do groan at times at "yet another launcher". Epic have been doing good work with their community, so hopefully we will be able to get in on this next year. Heck, if Fortnite came to Linux—my son and I would be over the moon with joy. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself there…

See their announcement here.

What are your thoughts?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc
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152 comments
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Nevertheless Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoMore competence is coming from ROBOTCACHE, the digital distribution store that allow You to re-sell your games.

Heard anything about Linux support?
wvstolzing Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: Nevertheless
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoMore competence is coming from ROBOTCACHE, the digital distribution store that allow You to re-sell your games.

Heard anything about Linux support?

I just took a peek, and it really looks like everything depends on developer/publisher support*; and needless to say it can only work on drm-free titles**. There's no clue as to cross-platform buying or selling. There's no clue as to whether they have any publishers on board either.

(* That's true for any kind of store, obviously; what I mean is that it depends whether the publishers will be on board with the 'percentages from used sales' model that they're proposing.)

(** That's not true; I should have said: It can only work with titles that do not implement existing types of drm, like steam, uplay, etc.)


Last edited by wvstolzing on 12 December 2018 at 8:41 pm UTC
Nevertheless Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: wvstolzing
Quoting: Nevertheless
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoMore competence is coming from ROBOTCACHE, the digital distribution store that allow You to re-sell your games.

Heard anything about Linux support?

I just took a peek, and it really looks like everything depends on developer/publisher support*; and needless to say it can only work on drm-free titles. There's no clue as to cross-platform buying or selling. There's no clue as to whether they have any publishers on board either.

(* That's true for any kind of store, obviously; what I mean is that it depends whether the publishers will be on board with the 'percentages from used sales' model that they're proposing.)

They will launch with titles from those devs/publishers:

https://twitter.com/RobotCache/status/1072502769679040513?s=20
wvstolzing Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: NeverthelessThey will launch with titles from those devs/publishers:

https://twitter.com/RobotCache/status/1072502769679040513?s=20

That's interesting. I'm really curious about the DRM policy, though. The publishers mentioned in that tweet are all (I think) GOG-friendly publishers. But could they go the exact opposite route this time, implementing some sort of BLOCKCHAIN (yeah they like that term a lot) DRM to keep track of who's buying & selling & keeping what???
Nevertheless Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: wvstolzing
Quoting: NeverthelessThey will launch with titles from those devs/publishers:

https://twitter.com/RobotCache/status/1072502769679040513?s=20

That's interesting. I'm really curious about the DRM policy, though. The publishers mentioned in that tweet are all (I think) GOG-friendly publishers. But could they go the exact opposite route this time, implementing some sort of BLOCKCHAIN (yeah they like that term a lot) DRM to keep track of who's buying & selling & keeping what???

You're right! This would not make sense if you could just keep your games after selling them...
Eike Dec 12, 2018
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Quoting: wvstolzingThat's interesting. I'm really curious about the DRM policy, though. The publishers mentioned in that tweet are all (I think) GOG-friendly publishers. But could they go the exact opposite route this time, implementing some sort of BLOCKCHAIN (yeah they like that term a lot) DRM to keep track of who's buying & selling & keeping what???

Enabling digital reselling of "used" games sounds like a Good Thing (compared to e.g. Steam) to me...
Nevertheless Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: wvstolzingThat's interesting. I'm really curious about the DRM policy, though. The publishers mentioned in that tweet are all (I think) GOG-friendly publishers. But could they go the exact opposite route this time, implementing some sort of BLOCKCHAIN (yeah they like that term a lot) DRM to keep track of who's buying & selling & keeping what???

Enabling digital reselling of "used" games sounds like a Good Thing (compared to e.g. Steam) to me...

Really don't know what to think of it yet.. but have a look at this:
https://help.robotcache.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020575372-Do-we-have-any-updated-information-on-support-for-Linux-

Edit: Use the whole URL


Last edited by Nevertheless on 12 December 2018 at 5:07 pm UTC
Mal Dec 12, 2018
  • Supporter
Ok cool but... what the hell is a "used digital game"?!? A digital game with some scratches on the pixels of the loading screen or the colors of the main character weared down? :D
wvstolzing Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: MalOk cool but... what the hell is a "used digital game"?!? A digital game with some scratches on the pixels of the loading screen or the colors of the main character weared down? :D

With bitrot, maybe?

... so future mint collectors of used digital games will all be ardent ZFS users.
Salvatos Dec 12, 2018
Quoting: MalOk cool but... what the hell is a "used digital game"?!? A digital game with some scratches on the pixels of the loading screen or the colors of the main character weared down? :D
Having not looked into any of this or heard about it until 1 minute ago, I would imagine they use some form of DRM to revoke your access to the game once you've decided you're done with it and resell it.
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