Steam Vs Epic Question From A Zero-experience Guy

So.....

FFXI has truly been the only online gaming I've ever done. Just never felt the pull away from console until XI, that was purely because it was another FF experience at the time, not the unique aspects of online gaming, that drew me here those years ago.

And now, I face a similar dilemma in being drawn to do more gaming online only because of a pull from a passion in my real life- competitive yachting.

https://www.acsailing.com/

America's Cup is releasing the AC40 Sailing Simulation Software in a racing platform game, with worldwide competitions over the next 2 months leading up to an in-person Regatta in Barcelona during the actual sailing event.

The software is available on both Steam and Epic Games platforms, and I have zero knowledge of either other than Steam's got a helluva lot more games. So I was curious to ask those more familiar with this world- for someone NOT looking for a massive game library or specific titles, what are the pros and cons of either service? I'm thinking initially of things like how much spam will I have to deal with, system resource needs for both in comparison, and working with customer service if/when necessary.

Any and all opinions are greatly appreciated. I know this is not what almost anyone using these platforms will be doing it for, but again, all information right now is new information for me ^^

Steam is a safe bet, Epic gives out free games (to lure people in). If its on both platform and you just want one software, I'm under the impression that either is fine. Personally I'm biased to Steam.

Yeah, as a novice to this aspect of gaming looks pretty even- there's even cross-platform gameplay, so picking Epic wouldn't necessarily assume as smaller group of gamers for this particular thing.

One thing to remember- while there are long-term hopes at full platform release of this software, right now The America's Cup Committee is using this event for publicity and to drive up excitement- its not coming from a proper gaming company but rather an adaptation of their training software. I was mostly just curious if either company had a better overall rep in terms of their platforms and service because other games are of zero concern to me at the moment.

Epic is complete ***. Stick with Steam and ignore any Epic exclusives, they're just bait to get you into a shitty ecosystem.

GOG is acceptable.

Epic Games harvests the heck out of your data. They’re owned by a Chinese company and have similar issues to TikTok. Many college campus won’t let you access the Epic Games store or TikTok on their college WIFI (as an example).

Steam periodically does sales of 50-75% off every few months and is WAY better about data privacy.

More people also use Steam, which will give you easier multiplayer options to play with friends (who also have Steam).

But epic does give free games sometimes.

I recommend Steam.

Epic's free games are the only reason to use EGS. Steam is just an better experience over EGS or GoG. I do own a lot of old games on GoG, that will likely never be on Steam. I am not one to go to the extreme of repurchasing a game, I got for free on EGS, on Steam.

I will note, I was a EGS user from the start and it has gotten somewhat better but is still has a long way to go to catch up to Steam.

I'm really tired and read that as Ascii Sailing and was like "I wonder how they draw the boats?"

You two are my new heroes.

should try gog some of the older games are found there

Steam's primary business is selling games (of which they take 30% of every sale), and is primarily customer first orientated. It is the best platform, offers the best sales and features and has the most users. It also offers Steamdeck, which is a handheld PC that you can use your entire Steam library on too.

Epic Games primary business is Unreal Engine, and their store is (imo) nothing more than trying to get more publishers forcing developers to use Unreal Engine. They offer bailouts for failed games (Borderlands 3 is an example), lower percentage cuts (they take 5% of each sale I think if the game uses UE, so the publisher gets more money) and they are publisher first and not customer. They barely update the store, they barely make any money from it and they don't care if people use it or not, again it's more about pushing publishers into using UE imo than being a serious game selling platform.

That being said, Valve is good because it's a private company. However that also means that when anything happens to Gabe it will be sold off to some money monster, which will almost certainly be Microsoft. Who will then have a tight grip on the chain around the neck of everyone that has a large Steam library.

1) If you care more about convenience, Steam. It is entirely possible that you buy more games in the future and keeping everything in one library is convenient.

2) This doesn't apply to AC sailing software since it is free, but for paid games: If you care about supporting the dev, Epic. Steam takes 30% cut but epic only takes 12%. So every copy sold on steam instead of epic the dev lost 18% of the revenue. It's often a pro-epic point that gamers don't care much. But they matter for the devs.

3) If you don't want anything to do with Chinese owned companies then Steam. Though I don't know if there are enough evidence to support the saying that Epic gives information to Chinese government.

Go with steam. They have countless titles in every genre; many with online play, and countless more fantastic single player experiences. Their library is massive and so many things they offer are downright enjoyable. You can't go wrong with it. It's THE online computer game store.

Nobody said it yet, but be warned about Steam's sales! You'll end up with 500+ unplayed games or so I've heard...

Only if youre a filthy casual

Wait what....

https://sacra.com/c/epic-games/

Unreal revenue in 2018: 124M. Projected revenue in 2023: 275m.


https://www.businessofapps.com/data/fortnite-statistics/


Fortnite revenue in 2018: 5.4 billion. In 2022:4.4 billion.

About 85% of Epic Games total revenue came from Fortnite. It's obvious that their primary business is game department.

You can make an argument about Epic store being worse than Steam. But saying unreal engine is their main business thus *inserts more conspiracy theory* isn't all that correct.....

*** the engine bring back UT! INSTAGIB!

500 Onry? ;p

I've seen people who own more than 4000 games on Steam, more than 3000 of them are unplayed. There are threads on game forums for people who show off their huge library list and unplayed games lol.

Buying games on Steam is more fun than playing them I swear....

Fortnite has a shelf life and they will probably never be able to replicate it, UE is everything and where most of the money fortnite goes into. They are pumping ridiculous amounts of money into that, instead of making new games cause they know that's where their future is.

UE only dominates the engine war cause of fortnite money (many other engines are fundamentally better but can't compete with the millions being pumped into it from other sources) and epic game store pressuring developers to release games on there.

The money to pay for exclusives also comes from the Fortnite bank account. The only PC games that take Epic exclusives are ones that are going to fail to sell well, so it's a safety net companies want to take advantage of. Which is the point, cause it encourages them to use UE.

Here, we say that people who play Fortnite is cuckold.

Or is it FreeFire?

Dang its FreeFire

.....and even that isn't correct......

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/exploring-the-pc-game-engine-landscape#close-modal




Even in AAA game market unreal only has 17.7% of market. It's not even close to the dominating engine in every area. In AA game and mobile scene the market winner is Unity by a landslide.

I am not sure why are you criticizing unreal anyway. Epic putting Fortnite money into an engine=better tools as an option for every studio. I honestly wish unreal has more user base than it currently has.

When you have an engine provider company can't make profit like Unity, that's when they'll start pulling ***moves like changing the license term to charge people more here and there.

Cause Epic are a garbage company.

Epic used their position as the creator of Unreal Engine to rip the code out of PUBG to put a competitor on the market before everyone else, which is how Fortnite blew up when it was a PoS joke before that.

Unreal Engine is bloated asf, the install size of games made with it are stupid, it runs like *** and almost all games made with it look the same.

Many engines are far better (even RE engine is better), but because Fortnite makes so much money they can make hundred million dollar shill videos, pay off publishers for failed games for exclusives that sell next to no copies, to encourage them to use UE and create an entire larp store to give publishers a 97% cut share when that's not even viable business.

Epic store makes no money, it burns money intentionally. Only reason they do what they are doing is to get more publishers to invest in training their developers to use UE, cause of the Epic store benefits. Epic know that once companies train people to use one engine they are far less likely to retrain to another one.

Even Square Enix did it.

Calling BS, seriously, you are complaining about non-existent problems that isn't anywhere close to Unreal problem.

Octopath Traveler is made with Unreal Engine 4, so does FF7 remake. Do they look the same?


If 2 games look the same, it is their decision on art direction. Why blame the engine for it?

Your rant makes absolutely zero sense. The other rant feels like hating for no reason too. Most small studios can't afford to build their own engine from scratch. It is an extremely difficult task. I still remember in the 90s when those engines weren't available, many studios with 10 people or less can't even make a game that runs reliably because they have no money to build good game engines.

Now even 1-5 men team can make realistic 3D graphic games that don't crash every 10 min thanks to Unreal finally being available to everyone. It pushes the industry forward with more games available in the market.

stop ranting about everything for no reason....

In fairness, both will let you launch your game from a dedicated shortcut. As long as you take a few minutes to turn off notifications and other potential annoyances, you aren't likely to notice either one. However, if I had to pick, I'd go with Steam.

At its core, the Steam client feels like a games library with a store and assorted community features tacked on. You can disable most everything via the built-in settings and launch flags(like --nobrowser) if you don't want/need them, or even leave Steam in offline mode indefinitely as long as the game(s) you're playing don't themselves require a connection.

EGS feels more like the MS/Apple/Google app stores - it's first and foremost a store that just happens to let you download and install the things you buy there.

Unless you plan to go wild w/ the Free Game handouts or their exclusive library, I don't see much reason to go with Epic's store. As others have stated, from a pure consumer viewpoint, Steam is just better all around. I have my issues with Valve and Steam, but none of these issues are addressed with the EGS, and just about everything else about that storefront/community hub is worse. If you're a really nice person, maybe that extra cut to the dev matters, but ultimately as far as I'm concerned, my experience as a player and consumer trumps the money you make as a company. If you wanted to make more money by selling on EGS, then maybe you should push Epic to improve their storefront, which they've been operating for over 5 years now with very little improvements to make note of.

If you literally only care about this one game and you'll never see any other parts of these applications, then it doesn't matter. I at least have enough faith in EGS to consistently launch your game.