While Epic has spent much of this year promising a launcher overhaul, including a faster, redesigned storefront with tailored recommendations and quicker ways to browse, one industry analyst has revealed that it might not be enough.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Emmanuel Rosier, director of market intelligence at Newzoo, admitted, “I don’t see how they can recover at this point”.
Rosier’s argument centres on Steam’s unshakeable grip on the market, with Epic’s free game giveaways doing little to build lasting engagement, pointing out that a giveaway can sometimes end up boosting a game’s sales on Steam instead, as players stick to one launcher rather than fragment their collection.
“I don’t really see how they can turn that around because Steam has become so inevitable,” he said. “The Epic Games Store, they get players by giving free games, but people just go, they log in, they get the free games, they don’t even play them. You know, it’s almost like collecting games rather than actually playing them.
“The challenge I think Epic is facing is that they try to win everywhere in the past few years,” Rosier added. “They try to win against Steam, they try to win against Apple, against Google Play, and probably they run out of steam on where they cannot fight all these battles at the same time.”
Rosier was considerably more upbeat about Epic’s prospects as a developer than as a storefront operator, however, pointing to renewed focus on Fortnite as a rare bright spot.
He highlighted the growing use of crossover cosmetics from other publishers’ games, pointing to Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man rubbing shoulders with Kingdom Hearts‘ Sora and Persona 5’s Joker in Fortnite’s current season.
“You can see they put a lot of thought in Fortnite right now,” he said. “They are doing everything they can, and I think it’s working better when you look at the state of Fortnite today compared to six months or one year ago.”
Ultimately, though, Rosier’s assessment of the Epic Games Store itself was less enthusiastic, suggesting it is increasingly unlikely to ever seriously challenge Steam as a storefront.
Earlier this year, Epic Games’ Steve Allison said Xbox had “welcome[d]” the idea of including Epic’s storefront on its hardware, adding “we’re going to be there, like, on day one”.
