According to new announcements from Fortnite giant Epic, Epic Games Store will keep the games flowing in 2020. This comes after months of backlash over the policies that Epic has used to compete with Steam. A huge part of their strategy was to push major AAA and indie titles as Epic Games Store exclusives, causing users on other platforms to lose access or the potential to buy these games. In an interview with GameDaily, Epic’s Sweeney defended the practice a while back. Gamers were rather fed up with having their PC titles suddenly jump to the Epic platform with no real notification. It was especially annoying when Kickstarter games made the switch, undoing promises to fans.
“Securing exclusives for Epic means we can significantly assist developers with product funding and invest in marketing and awareness knowing that these efforts bring in new customers to our store, rather than just sending more business to the incumbent,” he said. The exec also revealed a few of the games that will come to the platform in 2020. Not all of them were shown, but some of the games teased were the likes of Magic: The Gathering Arena, Predator: Hunting Ground, Auto Chess, Rogue Company, and Godfall.
Epic Games Store isn’t just rolling out more exclusive games this year though. Free games are also being brought forward into the new year. CEO and founder Tim Sweeney also announced that more free games will be added to the service, largely as more weekly giveaways. And with the increasing competition from other distribution methods from the likes of Ubisoft, Rockstar Games, and Electronic Arts, Epic needs all the help it can get. So if you’re like me and have been quietly building your PC game library for free in 2019, that practice will continue in 2020.
The company also plans to add more requested features to their online store, but it will still take a fair bit of time. The Epic Games Store doesn’t even have a shopping cart yet. Issues are also being reported with CSS issues on load causing the launcher to stop working properly.
