The Epic Games Store will remain a platform that keeps on giving this 2022, owing to the massive success they had last year.
This illustration picture shows the logo from Epic Games displayed on a laptop and a reflected Apple Logo on an iPhone in Arlington, Virginia on April 30, 2021. - In a court clash with potentially huge repercussions for the world of mobile tech, Fortnite maker Epic Games takes on Apple starting on May 3, 2021, aiming to break the grip of the iPhone maker on its online marketplace.
In their annual Year In Review roundup, Epic Games confirmed that weekly game giveaways will continue this year, writes Polygon. Aside from that, they also confirmed the arrival of other new improvements to the launcher and the store, like user-driven ratings, parties/voice chat, and improved launcher performance, to name a few.
The Year in Review post is up on the Epic Games website, if you'd like to check it out in its entirety.
So far, Epic has done the weekly giveaway thing for two years straight, without slowdowns. They started doing it in an attempt to wrestle control of the market from Steam, who still dominates digital game distribution.
Epic Games laid out the details for their planned launcher and store improvements, which are all coming soon. According to PCGamer, these improvements and new features include the following:
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Game Hubs will stay updated on official game updates straight from publishers/developers, which covers every single game a user owns or follows.
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An expanded Epic Wallet covering more global regions.
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Community features with Ratings and Polls, much like Steam's user review system.
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Social features like voice chats.
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Library and download management, which would be an excellent addition since Epic lacks features such as a button to move installs to different folders.
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Prioritizing and queueing games in the Downloads section.
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Additional filtering and organization options for the game library, alongside being able to view the games outside the Epic Games launcher.
For now, the free game is the giant mech action game "Daemon X Machina," which is available until February 3. Once this offer expires, the next one will be the third-person, open-world platformer "Yooka-Laylee," reports NME.
Read Also: Epic Games Store Finally Adds A Shopping Cart Feature--Will This Be Enough To Compete With Steam?
Epic Games Store's BIG 2021
As previously mentioned, Epic's decision to keep giving out free games every week is likely the result of their massive success in 2021. They shared the numbers in their Year in Review post, and they are absolutely telling.
For instance, the platform reached over 194 million customers on PC, who spent a total of $840 million on the store. As for the free games, a total of 89 were given away last year, resulting in an insane 765 million individual game claims. These free games were also no slouch, as the average score across all of them was a very respectable 76%.
All in all, 2021 proved to be a hugely profitable one for Epic, even if they were embroiled in a legal battle with Apple for a chunk of the year.
An Even Bigger Future
Epic shared several of the most anticipated titles to come to their store this year, and they're filled with some of the biggest ones of the current generation. But one will likely make PC gamers squeal and some avid PlayStation fanboys groan.
That one is "Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection," which now basically brings two current-game "Uncharted" games to PC: "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End," and the standalone expansion story "Lost Legacy."
With this release, "A Thief's End" and "Lost Legacy" are the latest big-name, former PlayStation exclusives to come to Windows (after "Days Gone," "Horizon Zero Dawn," and "God Of War"). This basically confirms Tech Times' report back in May 2021 of "Uncharted 4" coming to PC.
There is no release date for the collection on the Epic Games store yet, but it is probably one of the biggest gaming news stories in recent memory.
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Written by RJ Pierce
