Epic Game Store’s free giveaways just cause a huge spike in Steam sales, reveals New Blood CEO
The Epic Games Store is a pretty poor store compared to Steam, but it is great for free games. As someone who loves a freebie, I actually do play my free Epic games via Epic, but it seems that many gamers see the giveaways as a call to action to buy a game on Steam.
As it turns out, having your game as a free Epic Games Store title may actually lead to more sales for your game. Dave Oshry, CEO of New Blood, revealed that the recent free EGS giveaway for the eldritch FPS game Blood West resulted in a major spike in sales for the game on Steam.
Responding to a meme about gamers not playing their free Epic games, Oshry confirmed that “Blood West was free on EGS over the holidays and sold like 200% more on Steam that day”.
While New Blood publishes Blood West on Steam, the company let the game’s developer self-publish on Epic, giving the devs 100% of the giveaway money for the deal and further purchases. However, Oshry shared data that proved sales considerably jumped on Steam the same day it was free on Epic.
“Epic could give devs 100% of sales and it doesn’t mean sh*t if there’s no sales.”
New Blood CEO Dave Oshry
“I used to think EGS was a Marketing Black Hole,” the New Blood CEO said, “but turns out having your game be free on Epic is great advertising for Steam sales!” Alongside the boost in Steam sales, Blood West also saw a jump in console sales as well while it was free on Epic.
In follow-up comments, Oshry explained that the issues with the Epic Game Store is entirely the fault of Epic, saying “Epic could give devs 100% of sales and it doesn’t mean sh*t if there’s no sales lol. WHAT’S 100% OF $0?”
Oshry is far from the only developer to point out issues with the Epic Games Store. Just recently, in an interview with FRVR, Painkiller and Witchfire creator Adrian Chmielarz explained that Epic doesn’t feel like “home” to players, and that causes many to simply clock out, saying “EGS is a shop, and Steam is a community.”
“I don’t know if it’s deliberate or not but they [EGS] don’t have written reviews,” he said. “They don’t have the forums. There’s nothing to do there but to buy. So that will always lose to a shop that is also emotional and you can basically engage with the shop.”
Nevertheless, Epic Games Store is still going, largely due to the fact that Fortnite requires players to use the storefront. Nevertheless, with Steam still bringing in record-breaking revenue and users, EGS isn’t making the dent Epic wishes it could.
