The Epic Games Store is nearly 10 years outdated, launching all the method again in 2017. And whereas it is sort of come a good distance since then – it has a search operate now – it is nonetheless exponentially worse than Steam, which it was constructed to dethrone.
To at the present time, Epic’s storefront is sluggish and devoid of the options that remodeled Steam from an annoying piece of DRM you needed to set up with Half-Life 2 into the community-focused storefront that is practically synonymous with “PC gaming” itself. It is little marvel, then, that an Epic worker instructed Polygon that the majority customers “come for the free video games, then go away.” If Epic actually does wish to dethrone Steam, then I can not assist however marvel if it has its priorities utterly backwards.
Publishers Aren’t The Ones Shopping for Games
When the Epic Games Store first launched, quite a bit was stated about how it will lastly be the PC storefront to really pose a problem to Steam. We right here at IGN even stated that Epic’s retailer truly had an opportunity to dethrone Valve. However eight years later, that basically hasn’t occurred, even when it nonetheless will get just a few exclusives right here and there.
Numerous that comes all the way down to Epic’s philosophy round promoting video games. You see, each platform – whether or not it’s Valve, Apple, Google, or every other – takes a slice of income from video games and apps bought on its storefront. Epic’s strategy was to supply a way more favorable income share – simply 12% – in comparison with the bigger margins taken by most different storefronts. (Valve takes a 24% reduce of each recreation bought on Steam, for instance.) The issue is, that doesn’t imply a lot to the common gamer that simply needs to play video games.
If it did, Epic’s market share would account for a a lot greater slice of the pie. However regardless of Valve’s obvious greed right here, Steam was estimated to generate $1.6 billion in December 2025 alone, in accordance with Alinea Analytics – greater than the $1.16 billion that Epic made in the complete of 2025.
It’s no secret why Valve sells so many extra video games than Epic, it has an enormous set up base of loyal customers which were utilizing Steam for years. For as lengthy as it’s existed, Epic has been desperately making an attempt to carve out its personal devoted userbase, principally by giving freely free video games each couple of weeks. And whereas dangling free recreation keys in entrance of individuals’s faces is an effective approach to get folks to obtain the app as soon as, it doesn’t do a lot to maintain folks coming again, particularly when the video games retailer itself is sort of a large number.
Want To Go Sooner
IGN interviewed Steve Allison, VP and GM of the Epic Games Store again in February, the place he instructed us that Epic is investing in making the Epic Games Store a greater expertise for customers. Particularly, the firm is concentrated on making the launcher “really feel quick and snappy and simply be what you anticipate, frankly.” To its credit score, Epic appears to have a finger on the pulse of what makes its platform such a slog to make use of.
To at the present time, the Epic Games Store takes ceaselessly to load, and when you begin scrolling by way of your library, you typically have to attend for a pair seconds for the subsequent batch of video games to load. That might be dangerous sufficient for a model new app, however the Epic Games Store has been round for practically a decade at this level, and despite the fact that computer systems are orders of magnitudes quicker than they had been in 2018, it nonetheless takes method too lengthy to load my library, even when I’ve it set to a listing view.
Epic claims that the new, extra environment friendly retailer will launch in June, and that’ll be superior if it’s true, however the retailer doesn’t precisely have a sterling popularity for bettering its storefront on time. Again in 2019, Epic launched a roadmap of options that will be added to the app, fortunately preserved by Wccftech, and whereas a number of these options did find yourself getting labored in, there are nonetheless options like person critiques which can be nowhere to be discovered.
Taking part in Catch-Up
Whereas Epic runs in circles, making an attempt to enhance its recreation retailer, Valve isn’t precisely sitting on its arms. Steam remains to be extremely snappy, particularly whenever you’re simply scrolling by way of your library, and it continues so as to add truly helpful options. I imply, simply a few weeks in the past, recordsdata had been present in Steam’s beta that means that the platform will assist you determine precisely how properly video games will run in your PC.
It’s this give attention to making PC gaming extra user-friendly that has turned Steam into the juggernaut it’s in the present day. And now, it’s at the level the place you possibly can argue that Steam is extra than simply some program that you just use to purchase video video games. You can simply use it to purchase video games, however there’s a motive that there’s a daring “Group” tab that lives at the prime of the window.
Steam has all the pieces from message boards, to person critiques, to extraordinarily customizable profiles. Hell, I keep in mind again when Buying and selling Playing cards got here out in 2013 – I used to be obsessed, for like six months, on accumulating them and elevating my Steam Degree, simply so I may add extra bullshit to my profile. Options like this are most likely why the Valve brand is commonly proven alongside the Ps and Xbox symbols at any time when a multiplatform recreation is launched. Steam simply sort of is PC gaming.
If Epic needs to compete with that, that’s superior. By all means launch an up to date Epic Games Store that makes folks truly wish to use the platform, as a result of the PC gaming scene completely wants extra competitors. However that competitors wants to really compete. Epic Games can proceed dangling free video games in entrance of individuals, however anticipating that avid gamers are simply going to flock to its retailer, despite the fact that it has a worse UX and no neighborhood options, is simply delusional.
Jackie Thomas is the {Hardware} and Shopping for Guides Editor at IGN and the PC elements queen. You may comply with her @Jackiecobra