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Epic Games Store to Get Cloud Saves By February

Epic Games Store to Get Cloud Saves By February

By Rishi Alwani | Updated: 14 January 2019 16:11 IST

Highlights

Social features will be added too
Achievements will be added by the end of the year
Discoverability would leverage influencers

Hot on the heels of the Epic Games Store snagging shared world shooter The Division 2 is a ramp up of the platform's feature set. First, Epic Games announced that the Epic Games Store would get a streamlined refund policy not too dissimilar to what Steam has and now it plans to offer cloud saves by February of this year. Sergey Galyonkin, Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games as well as the person behind Steam Spy — a stat service used to gauge Steam sales, also hosts a podcast in Russian called 'How Games Are Made'. In an episode around the launch of the Epic Games Store he answered questions about it including what users can expect from it in terms of features.

According to a thorough summary of the podcast on popular gaming forum ResetEra, cloud saves will be coming to the Epic Games Store by February with achievements showing up by the end of the year. Reviews will be making it eventually though no date seemed to be mentioned. Guides won't be implemented although developer pages would be implemented at a later date. Social features will be implemented as well although no details were given. Users would also be granted the option to limit download speeds too.

Although if you were expecting the Epic Games Store equivalent of Steam cards, it isn't in the works. Galyonkin states they influence purchasing decisions in ways that are not desired such as people buying games just for cards. Unlocking in-game items such as skins will be possible but not necessarily tradeable. Importing friends lists from platforms that aren't Steam, like GOG won't happen though.

Perhaps the most intriguing part, is Galyonkin shedding light on how Epic views the perennial developer problem of discoverability. There won't be a focus on algorithm-based discovery like Steam due to the limitations of algorithms when a majority of PC gamers only buy a few games a year. Epic will have a curated store front like the App Store though the primary method of discovery would be through influencers.

"Unlike Steam, Galyonkin says that discovery on the EGS will primarily take place outside of the store," the post reads. "He draws parallels to a book store or movie theatre. You usually know what you're going to buy or attend before going there rather than look through what's available to make your decision."

This approach could result in the much touted 88 percent revenue share for developers erode further in an attempt for visibility and will be interesting to see how the Epic Games Store matures in the months to come. That said, the platform has been receiving new features at a steady clip. These include regional pricing that was spotted for The Division 2.

What this means is, if you buy The Division 2 via the Epic Games Store, you may get a price lower than the usual $60 price tag that publishers use depending on your location. Steam has a similar feature, allowing game companies to charge users in some regions less than the usual price tag when considering factors such as standard of living and spending power. While a welcome move for many a budget conscious gamer, it will be interesting to see how many games adopt this approach on Epic's store aside from The Division 2.

Gadgets 360 first spotted the news on a Facebook group for Indian gamers where it was stated that changing the account location for an Epic Games Store account would show different prices for The Division 2. We logged into our Epic Games Store account and were able to verify that this is indeed the case, although we're unsure if users would be able to change their location or spoof it using a VPN just to get a better deal, it's something that's still possible on GOG.

The Division 2 PC's price in India is $42 (close to Rs. 2,960) on the Epic Games Store, making on par with recent Ubisoft releases on Steam like Assassin's Creed Odyssey (although that along with Far Cry 5 and The Crew 2 launched at Rs. 3,499 on Steam). US gamers have to pay $60 (around Rs. 4,225). Those in Singapore would be paying $51 (nearly Rs. 3,591) while Russian users, oddly enough, are the only ones with a pricing in their own currency, would pay RUB 2,000 (roughly Rs. 2,100) for The Division 2. And while Russia has the best pricing, the fine print on the store page states that the game is language locked to Russia, which would explain its lower than average price tag.

If you're a fan of video games, check out Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.

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