Opinion: The Epic Games Store Will Never Be as Good as Steam

The Epic Games Store is astir 10 years old, launching each the mode backmost successful 2017. And portion it's kind of travel a agelong mode since past – it has a hunt relation present – it's inactive exponentially worse than Steam, which it was built to dethrone.

To this day, Epic's storefront is dilatory and devoid of the features that transformed Steam from an annoying portion of DRM you had to instal with Half-Life 2 into the community-focused storefront that's astir synonymous with "PC gaming” itself. It's small wonder, then, that an Epic worker told Polygon that astir users "come for the escaped games, past leave." If Epic truly does privation to dethrone Steam, past I can't assistance but wonderment if it has its priorities wholly backwards.

Publishers Aren’t The Ones Buying Games

When the Epic Games Store archetypal launched, a batch was said astir however it would yet beryllium the PC storefront to really airs a situation to Steam. We present astatine IGN adjacent said that Epic’s store really had a accidental to dethrone Valve. But 8 years later, that truly hasn’t happened, adjacent if it inactive gets a fewer exclusives present and there.

A batch of that comes down to Epic’s doctrine astir selling games. You see, each level – whether it’s Valve, Apple, Google, oregon immoderate different – takes a portion of gross from games and apps sold connected its storefront. Epic’s attack was to connection a overmuch much favorable gross stock – conscionable 12% – compared to the larger margins taken by astir different storefronts. (Valve takes a 24% chopped of each crippled sold connected Steam, for example.) The occupation is, that doesn’t mean overmuch to the mean gamer that conscionable wants to play games.

If it did, Epic’s marketplace stock would relationship for a overmuch bigger portion of the pie. But contempt Valve’s evident greed here, Steam was estimated to make $1.6 cardinal successful December 2025 alone, according to Alinea Analytics – much than the $1.16 cardinal that Epic made successful the full of 2025.

It’s nary concealed wherefore Valve sells truthful galore much games than Epic, it has a immense instal basal of loyal users that person been utilizing Steam for years. For arsenic agelong arsenic it’s existed, Epic has been desperately trying to carve retired its ain dedicated userbase, mostly by giving distant escaped games each mates of weeks. And portion dangling escaped crippled keys successful beforehand of people’s faces is simply a bully mode to get radical to download the app once, it doesn’t bash overmuch to support radical coming back, particularly erstwhile the games store itself is benignant of a mess.

Need To Go Faster

IGN interviewed Steve Allison, VP and GM of the Epic Games Store backmost successful February, wherever helium told america that Epic is investing successful making the Epic Games Store a amended acquisition for users. Specifically, the institution is focused connected making the launcher “feel accelerated and snappy and conscionable beryllium what you expect, frankly.” To its credit, Epic seems to person a digit connected the pulse of what makes its level specified a slog to use.

To this day, the Epic Games Store takes everlastingly to load, and erstwhile you commencement scrolling done your library, you often person to hold for a mates seconds for the adjacent batch of games to load. That would beryllium atrocious capable for a marque caller app, but the Epic Games Store has been astir for astir a decennary astatine this point, and adjacent though computers are orders of magnitudes faster than they were successful 2018, it inactive takes mode excessively agelong to load my library, adjacent erstwhile I person it acceptable to a database view.

Epic claims that the new, much businesslike store volition motorboat successful June, and that’ll beryllium awesome if it’s true, but the store doesn’t precisely person a sterling estimation for improving its storefront connected time. Back successful 2019, Epic released a roadmap of features that would beryllium added to the app, thankfully preserved by Wccftech, and portion a batch of those features did extremity up getting worked in, determination are inactive features similar idiosyncratic reviews that are obscurity to beryllium found.

Playing Catch-Up

While Epic runs successful circles, trying to amended its crippled store, Valve isn’t precisely sitting connected its hands. Steam is inactive incredibly snappy, particularly erstwhile you’re conscionable scrolling done your library, and it continues to adhd really utile features. I mean, conscionable a mates of weeks ago, files were recovered successful Steam’s beta that suggests that the level volition assistance you fig retired precisely however good games volition tally connected your PC.

It’s this absorption connected making PC gaming much user-friendly that has turned Steam into the juggernaut it is today. And now, it’s astatine the constituent wherever you tin reason that Steam is much than conscionable immoderate programme that you usage to bargain video games. You can conscionable usage it to bargain games, but there’s a crushed that there’s a bold “Community” tab that lives astatine the apical of the window.

Steam has everything from connection boards, to idiosyncratic reviews, to highly customizable profiles. Hell, I retrieve backmost erstwhile Trading Cards came retired successful 2013 – I was obsessed, for similar six months, connected collecting them and raising my Steam Level, conscionable truthful I could adhd much bullshit to my profile. Features similar this are astir apt wherefore the Valve logo is often shown alongside the Playstation and Xbox symbols whenever a multiplatform crippled is released. Steam conscionable benignant of is PC gaming.

If Epic wants to vie with that, that’s awesome. By each means merchandise an updated Epic Games Store that makes radical really privation to usage the platform, due to the fact that the PC gaming country perfectly needs much competition. But that contention needs to really compete. Epic Games tin proceed dangling escaped games successful beforehand of people, but expecting that gamers are conscionable going to flock to its store, adjacent though it has a worse UX and nary assemblage features, is conscionable delusional.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor astatine IGN and the PC components queen. You tin travel her @Jackiecobra