For years Valve has dominated the market for PC gaming. Players on the platform could rely on this digital marketplace to not only pick up the latest video game titles but have a dedicated spot for all their PC digital game purchases with Steam. Of course, there were several companies that decided to take on Valve with their digital PC marketplace service, but none were able to make much of a dent. Despite that, some companies popped up to make their games exclusive to a specific dedicated gaming marketplace client.
While none had made much of a dent to Valve with their Steam marketplace, things changed pretty significantly when Epic Games brought out their Epic Games Store digital storefront. Epic Games had the funds to really make a fight against Valve and with it, they were able to bring out two major strategies in my opinion when it comes to bringing in an audience. The more popular option among the online community was the fact that Epic Games Store offered players at least one free video game title each and every week.
These video game titles would range quite drastically. You could find anything from a small indie title, a mega indie hit, to even AAA video game titles. As a result, players were quick to make an account on Epic Games Store and started claiming the free video game titles as they are presented weekly. However, Epic Games other strategy has proven to not be much of a fan favorite. For a good while now Epic Games were able to strike up deal with different game publishers and developers in reserving an exclusivity deal.
This would allow several games to be locked under Epic Games Store for a duration of time. As a result, those that wanted to keep their games under Steam or make use of the different features from Steam would be out of luck. Instead, they would have to purchase the game through Epic Games Store or wait for the game to finally make its way on Steam. If you were hoping things were going to slow down a bit with the exclusives then you’re out of luck.
PC Gamer was able to reach out and get in touch with a spokesperson for Epic Games Store to find out what the future outlook was for their exclusive deals. Apparently, Epic Games Store will have a variety of exclusive deal announcements coming for the next two years. Unfortunately, there’s no word on just what publishers and developers Epic Games Store have secured for a video game release, but it looks like we’ll be seeing the storefront looking to thrive a bit more with exclusive titles throughout the next couple of years.
Source: PC Gamer