Epic Games Store now allows self-publishing (opens in new tab); for the same $100 that Valve charges for Steam submissions, anyone can submit games for inclusion in the Epic Games Store library; Epic's system, similar to Valve's 2018 introduction of Steam Direct, and Epic's library will likely swell over the next year.

However, there are some notable differences between Steam and Epic's self-publishing rules. In some ways, Epic's game submission guidelines (opens in new tab) are more permissive than Steam's, but Epic also has two major rules that Steam does not. In other words:

The first of which was expected: while Valve has allowed adult games on Steam since 2018, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in 2019 that pornography on the Epic Games Store would not be sold; Valve struggled with where to draw the line before and after deciding to sell adult games (its current ban is on "sexual images of real people"), and Epic will likely have the same problem: erotic text adventures are pornographic? Is an erotic text adventure pornographic? How erotic is too erotic?

The second rule is a requirement, not a prohibition: if you release a multiplayer game on the Epic Games Store and Steam (or any other PC store), you must make sure that everyone can play it together, regardless of where they purchased it; Epic has a "cross-platform" service called "Epic Online Services. free solution for cross-launch multiplayer called Epic Online Services, but says that developers can use their own online system if they so desire

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Steam has no such requirement for multiplayer games, and its free multiplayer API, Steamworks, will not work on any store other than Steam; Sweeney has complained to Valve about this, and the company has been working with Valve on this issue for years. In a call this week, Epic's CEO said that with Steamworks, "Steam has created a real problem for the industry"

and that the company is "not going to be able to do anything about it.

"Valve has a classic lock-in strategy of building services that only work on their store and using the fact that they have the majority of market share to encourage everyone to ship games that they wouldn't experience on any other store,"

Sweeney said, adding, "They're not going to be able to ship games that are not available on the We ran into this problem early on with a number of multiplayer games that were distributed through the Epic Games Store; Steamworks didn't work in our store, so we either had a reduced set of multiplayer features or none at all. "Call of Duty had a huge failure in that you could only matchmake with other players in the Windows Store. [The Epic Online Services API also supports cross-play between PC and consoles, which is the same technology Epic built for Fortnite, but console cross-play is not an EGS submission requirement, only cross-play between PC stores.

The potential impact for us is that more multiplayer games will use their own friend lists, or Epic's system, rather than fully integrating with Steamworks. However, this is already a common sight: many Steam multiplayer games require separate accounts or only partially use Steam's API. For example, "Rainbow Six Siege" requires Ubisoft Connect. And PC multiplayer capabilities, of course, were not tied to a store of purchase in the pre-Steam era (you couldn't make Command & Conquer: Red Alert play solely on Fry's Electronics).

In addition to these two rules, Epic may also become more stringent in its "quality and functionality" review process: according to Steve Allison, GM of the Epic Games Store, every game submitted is played by someone for 20 minutes, launched successfully All games submitted will be played by someone for 20 minutes to determine if they launch properly and if they are in fact the same as the game shown on the store page. Valve has a similar process, but has stated in the past that they don't want to make judgments about quality or taste in most cases; Epic is less specific, but it sounds to me like they plan to be subjective in their review process. When giving examples of games that might be rejected, Allison used the term "asset flip". This term generally refers to a low-effort clone of a popular game in which the art is replaced with free or low-quality assets.

On the flip side, Valve has some limitations that Epic does not: unlike Steam, the Epic Games Store does not ban blockchain games. Also, while Steam requires the use of Steam Wallet for in-game transactions, Epic allows developers to use their own payment processing for in-game transactions, thus avoiding Epic's revenue reduction. Steam also reduced its revenue cut for its largest publishers to 20%, but not to the 12% cut that Epic made so much noise about when the Epic Games Store was launched in late 2018.

Outside of submission guidelines, the big question for developers and PC gamers is how well the Epic Games Store interface can handle the flood of potential new games. when it introduced Steam Direct, Valve used discovery queues and other prioritized the development of Steam features to help users discover games they might be interested in, and while the Epic Games Store will continue to update its interface, Allison said that as a general rule, Epic tracks user behavior and uses it to algorithmically Epic has said in the past (open in new tab) that it is interested in supporting game discovery that has already taken place outside of the store, such as on Twitch and YouTube.

Epic touched a bit on future EGS functionality in the Epic Games Store 2022 Year in Review blog post (opens in new tab) published today.

In the post, Epic also announced that it will continue its free games program throughout 2023 (opens in new tab).The Epic Games Store has been offering free games for years, including major titles such as "GTA 5" and "Death Stranding," and this is the first time in many years that Epic has offered free games. Sweeney and Allison also discussed Epic's strategy for future exclusives.

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