Tim Sweeney Defends Epic Store Exclusives
Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has taken the floor on Reddit and commented that securing exclusive titles for the Epic Games Store platform is not an anti-consumer, but rather a "procompetitive" action.
While initially the idea of Epic Games Store was welcomed by some players with cautious enthusiasm - after all, here came a digital distribution platform that could break the hegemony of Steam and force Valve to make serious improvements - it is difficult to find anyone who would support its creators now. Since the beginning of the year, Epic Games has been aggressively securing exclusive titles, forcing players to constantly juggle between several stores. This policy, combined with the lack of such basic functions as mod support, player reviews and wish lists, has brought accusations of anti-consumer behavior upon the company. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, decided to address the accusations on Reddit, stating that his company's actions serve to improve competition in the market.
"Yes, and the PC remains open, and there is more robust competition among PC stores than ever before. There's Steam offering Valve games, Origin offering EA games, Battle.net offering Activision and Bungie games, Epic Games offering games from many publishers.
I get that you guys don't like store-exclusive games, but that's a completely separate, and PROCOMPETITIVE issue, compared to closing down platforms like Windows to monopolize distribution, as iOS does, and as Microsoft was trying to do with UWP and locked-down versions of Windows -- which failed, and whose proponents are now gone and replaced with great leaders like Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer who are driving Windows forward as an open platform!" - Sweeney's comment on Reddit.
It is not difficult to guess that Sweeney's statement was not warmly received by other forum users. Many users note that the head of Epic Games does not fully understand that being "procompetitive" would rather mean improving your platform, than buying temporary exclusive titles to force the players to use it. Some also accuse the company of focusing on what's for either the company itself or its collaborating developers - but completely forgets about users who do not benefit from the exclusivity of the games. Sweeney also delivered a short tirade about Windows, which constitutes nothing more than whataboutery and does not bring anything constructive to the discussion.
However, Sweeney' message leaves no doubt as to whether the company will continue to follow the current development model - so we can expect more information about temporary exclusivity in the near future, as was the case with Metro Exodus or Phoenix Point. We keep our fingers crossed so that the creators of the platform will add a few new features, so that Epic Games Store that will not look so poor compared to Steam, for example.
