Epic Games Store
Following the launch of the Epic Game Store earlier this month, it’s already quite remarkable what an effect it has had on the market. Attracting many developers exclusively to its store with lower commission rates, it has even made a few cancel their Steam release to opt for them instead.
It will, of course, be hard to break Steams dominance, but from what we’ve seen so far, they’ve certainly made a good start!
With data collection/sharing being a hot topic in 2018 though, the store has gone public with their policy on it. Specifically, in a report via UberGizmo, they promise that they will never share your information.
Terms Of Service
Some concern had been raised due to some rather peculiar wording in their Terms of Service. Wording that many perceived to be a semi-declaration that they may share your information with third-parties. Epic Games‘ founder though, Tim Sweeney, has said: “Epic does not share user data with Tencent or any other company. We don’t share it, sell it, or broker access to it for advertising like so many other companies do. I’m the founder and controlling shareholder of Epic and would never allow this to happen.”
In terms of the wording, he clarified the point by saying: “The language related to sharing data with the parent companies refers to Epic Games Inc. It’s a US-based company. This language exists because when you buy an Epic game in certain territories (like Europe), the seller of record is our local (e.g. European) subsidiary company for tax purposes, but the data is ultimately stored by Epic Games Inc.”
What Do We Think?
As above, the more we see from Epic Games regarding their Store, the more we’ve convinced by it. We fully expect the Epic Games app to be as integral a part of a gaming PCs software as Steam. Perhaps even as quickly as by this time next year. Put simply, they’re getting a lot of things right! Specifically in targeting the areas in which Valve is rather weak.
Admittedly, their interface is a little boring, but it’s all steps in the right direction!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
