We really don’t need to dive back into the battle between Epic Games Store and Steam. The topic has been covered quite a bit and we’ve even made a few videos on the matter, which we’ll, of course, embed in this article. However, to give a short condensed version of what’s going on in case you are out of the loop, Epic Games Store is providing some real competition against Valve’s Steam platform. They’re doing this in a few ways but one particular element that Epic Games is using is gathering up as many exclusives as they can get their hands on. These deals are worked on with the IP owners and essentially makes it to where players need the Epic Games Store client in order to enjoy these video game titles.
We’ve seen a number of titles get swooped up by Epic Games for their marketplace storefront which has made some gamers quite upset if they had wanted to purchase the game on something like the Steam marketplace platform. A good example being used right now is the Shenmue III video game release which got a large portion of its development revenue through crowdfunding. This was also a game that was advertised to be available on the Steam marketplace when launched but was suddenly removed when Epic Games Store offered a deal for a year exclusivity deal.
Now gamers are quite upset that they funded a game that may not be available right away on their desired marketplace. At any rate, this is an oversight apparently for Epic Games Store and the CEO, Tim Sweeney took to Twitter to explain the situation and how the company will be handling it. Apparently, if you want a refund then you will get it through Epic Games as the funding used through sources like Kickstarter is what’s being used to actually created the game. Likewise, going forward, this situation will not happen again. While Epic Games will continue to seek out exclusive deals, they will provide a means to provide either a key to the marketplace that was previously advertised to those who pre-ordered or funded a game. Likewise, there will still be an option available if you rather receive a refund then a store specific key.
