author: Bart Swiatek
Epic Games Store's Share in PC Game Market is Growing
Epic Games Store, a digital distribution platform launched by creators of Fortnite, is doing better and better. According to Tim Sweeney, EGS already controls about 15% of the PC game market. The developer also convinces that giving away free games brings measurable benefits not only to players but also developers.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Epic Games Store controls approximately 15% of the PC gaming market;
- Success is due to a good, aggressive strategy;
- According to Tim Sweeney, giving away free games is beneficial for both his company and the developers.
Tim Sweeney, head of Epic Games, was recently interviewed by GameSpot. One of the topics of the interview was Epic Games Store. It turns out that the platform is doing quite well - it already controls about 15% of the PC game market. According to Tim Sweeney, this is the result of a well thought-out, aggressive strategy.
"We realized early on that we needed to take a really, really bold approach, and a disruptive approach, and so the free game program was launched, exclusives were launched. A lot of things we knew would be controversial in some ways, especially with the hardcore Steam gamers who bought hundreds of games on Steam and want to buy all of their games on Steam," said Sweeney.
Interestingly, Epic Games' boss is convinced that the giveaway program also helps... developers and publishers.
"You're not going to go out and buy if you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory but if you get it for free you realize it's an awesome game. People have discovered a lot of great games that way.
It's been a benefit for game developers. Most developers who launch their games for free on the store found that their sales on Steam and on console platforms actually increased after they went free on Epic because of increased awareness and so it's been a really positive thing and it's brought tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem and that's been a wonderful thing for the company," said Sweeney.
The move wasn't without controversy - for some PC players, Epic Games Store is now the number one enemy, which Sweeney finds quite funny.
""It's funny to be seen that way. "It's like, rawrr! Enemies of them all"," said the boss of Epic Games.