![]() It also helped us to make our brand known to many gamers who probably did not know us." "As a small company that wants to survive and grow, the Epic exclusive deal guaranteed that we would recover costs and continue developing. ![]() "Would we have reached such an audience, being a small and independent studio, even if supported by the great guys of Wired Productions?" asks Semprebene. Suddenly, nearly a year after its initial release, dozens of media outlets, subreddits and deal sites were talking again about Close to the Sun, simply because it was the latest headliner on Epic's famous free games carousel. Roberto Semprebeneīeyond Epic's covering of development and other projected costs, Close to the Sun's stint on the store as a free game of the week gave it an incredible boost, according to Semprebene. Developer Roberto Semprebene says that while sales likely weren't as high as they would have been with a Steam launch, the benefits of exclusivity far outweighed those lost prospective sales.Īs a small company that wants to survive and grow, the Epic exclusive deal guaranteed that we would recover costs and continue developing. Of course, frustrations with the frontend need to be weighed against how developers feel about the platform, and for the most part it seems that those who have worked with both Epic and Steam are very happy with what's on offer.Ĭlose to the Sun is an atmospheric indie game (think Bioshock without the combat) released in May 2019 as an Epic Store exclusive, before coming to Steam a year later. (Image credit: Epic Games) How developers feel about the Epic Store There's no mention of remote play, streaming or family sharing-the kind of features that separate a storefront designed to sell games from a fleshed out platform designed to make gaming convenient and accessible. ![]() Achievements, enabled in July, are being added slowly, while a vaguely worded "social overhaul" and user reviews (that will be opt-in for developers) are still way off. Recently added checkouts, currency localisation, wishlists and growing currency support are useful, but very much storefront-oriented. Sure, the algorithms are inevitably imperfect, but they're at least getting my eyes on a wider selection of indie games, while on Epic the main way to get foregrounded as an indie is via the golden ticket of exclusivity or being the free game of the week.Įpic should be lauded for creating a publicly visible roadmap for Epic Games Store, but it also highlights the company's priorities. A little bit further down, I get a list of indies enjoyed by 'players like me' and daily community recommendations, which again highlights lesser-known games. In contrast, Steam greets me with no less than eight indie titles from the off, using my personal tastes to find games on sale I might be interested in. It's only after that do the indies really start filtering through, appearing in the 'New Releases' section a few scrolls down. The next thing you'll see when you scroll down is a selection of service games with holiday events-most of them already well known and popular-then you have the daily Christmas freebies. Only one of the ten games on display is an indie. At the time of writing, five of the games on the first page of 'Discover' are big Ubisoft titles, sandwiched between Fortnite, Cyberpunk, Star Wars Squadrons and GTA 5.
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