Ever since it launched, the Epic Games Store has been the focal point of controversy. There’s a lot of reasons for that, both irrational and reasonable, with the biggest one being the amount of third party exclusives Epic Games have bought for the storefront, something unprecedented in the PC ecosystem up to this point. But some people are coming to its defense, such as the CEO of Paradox Interactive.
One of the calling cards that Epic Games has used in defense of its store and their exclusive strategy is that it’s the only viable to create competition against Steam, which became the de facto standard on PC over the last 15 or so years. Ebba Ljungerud echoed these sentiments when discussing Surviving the Aftermath, a game in early access exclusively on that storefront, in their Interim Report for the third quarter, saying they felt the competition from Epic Games Store will benefit all aspects of the PC market.
“The PC version of the game is available under the early access period exclusively on the Epic Games store, while the final version will also be available on Steam and other platforms. Through the collaboration with Epic Games, we receive a guaranteed remuneration, an effect we see from the competition among the distributors that has increased over the past year,” she explains. “We believe this competition will continue next year and benefit both players and game publishers.”
While she makes a good argument about why it’s good for publishers and developers, one that other third party publishers have argued. Whether or not it’s a good thing for consumers is something else, and with the lack of features in the store, it’s a hard sell. But you know, it what it is. Epic Games is seemingly not stopping anytime soon, so you might as well get used to it.
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