Thanks to the obvious advantages, Epic Games Store has become my regular shopping location.
People who have been following this story Epic Game Store Over the past year, changes can cite from memory all the bad things Epic has done to make the nascent PC store emerge. Just looking at the EGS client is enough to prove that it differs from other frequently criticized stores in terms of features and convenience, let alone Steam.
Obviously, more important for Epic than the store's biggest critics is that it desperately needs a lot of work. But between the upsurge of Epic's use of free-market dynamics under capitalism, and the poor feces on forums, few people realize what Epic has been doing quietly to this store.
In two words: regional pricing.
Everyone already understands what this means, but only those of us who do not live in the richest western countries can truly appreciate its benefits. The benefits of regional pricing are unquestionable, but they are often overlooked by people who have never received attention initially. I live in Egypt for a lifetime. I've been playing games and love games since I knew what games. I love games more than most things in life. Of course, I'm not alone, but like many developing countries, Egypt sees gaming as a luxury.
Regardless of platform or social status, piracy is the name of the game here which may surprise you. If you can get it for free (or a fraction of the actual price), then most people can. This is the result of complex economic and social problems that take years to resolve.
Still, many people in this country spend money on video games. FIFA, Call of Duty, and Assassin's Creed sell thousands of physical copies here every year, as they do elsewhere, and thousands of copies online. View stacks of these FIFA versions only from one of the more popular stores. This is just completing the booking. Anyone who ordered COD or FIFA on the day of publication may have to wait a week before receiving it.
I know that many people regularly expect seasonal sales from the Steam / PlayStation / Xbox Store, while others are happy with the cheap, dubious prices on gray market sites (if you have a legitimate copy of the game). There is no doubt that there is a gaming market here, but we are told that its market size is not enough to attract the attention of most people.
PlayStation Store, Xbox Store and Nintendo eShop have never had a regional portal. When creating a PSN account, Egypt was not even on the list of available countries. It can be found on Nintendo's website, but you can't buy anything because there is no local version of eShop. Microsoft is the only company that offers a local portal at a fair regional price, but even so, it's limited to select first-party games and few third-party games for the Windows version.
Xbox Live and Game Pass are not supported here. Neither PlayStation Plus nor Nintendo Switch Online. Everyone I know who owns a PS4 or Xbox One has a US / UK or UAE account. Thanks to gift cards, all your Gold / Plus needs are met. On the PC, no one shit. I have had a Steam account for 12 years and although Steam recognizes Egypt as a country, it does not provide prices in the region. Instead, we get a strange combination of dollar prices, but no US library prices. For example, Max Payne 3 and some Rockstar games are not available here.
This is not limited to larger stores. Inconspicuously, neither Green Man Gaming nor other major digital stores offer regional pricing. Today, a $ 60 game earns about 1,000 EGP, which is about a quarter of what you call a decent monthly salary today. If it is a physical copy, you will pay more for taxes, bargains at the store, delivery, etc.
When you process long enough, you will no longer expect anything else.
Epic for Egypt (and Several other regions) During the first few months of store operation. Players in these regions still see dollar prices, This is slowly changing, But the price of the game is more in line with people's ability to live and work here.
When the system first came online, I received an email from Epic saying that I could get a refund from Ashen, which was the only EGS purchase I made at the time. My initial thought was that my account had been hacked because I knew I would not request a refund. Of course, all of this is made clear in the email. I will soon receive the price difference between the price I originally paid and Ashen's new, regionally adjusted price.
I was stunned. When you browse a digital store, you can see almost nothing but US / EU prices, and you have never heard of a courtesy refund from a company that does not need to provide it in the first place. Egypt is obviously not alone, but the fact remains: most games sold on Egypt's EGS today are reasonably priced.
There are few exceptions, such as Ubisoft, which actually sells games for more than $ 60 on EGS here. To be exact, the full price game is $ 65.99. This may seem strange, but it is about 60 euros (the price of AAA games on Uplay). I don't know why Ubisoft thinks that Egypt is a European country in this case, but I can tell you, as long as I see the Ubisoft game store page on EGS, this is all funny.
Obviously, the publisher has all the say. Some games, such as Cyberpunk 2077, are still priced at $ 60. Game creators have very specific ideas about the perceived value of their work, I understand. But overall, the store's catalog is full of very friendly prices. I bought Control for $ 28 at the press conference and $ 30 for the gold version of the Metro Exodus – thanks to the recent $ 10 coupon, which was $ 13 a few days after it was released The price successfully won Mechwarrior 5. It feels like cheating.
Somehow, Epic solved the problem in just a few weeks. Right now, I have no choice but to check EGS whenever I want to buy a game. Any time before, Epic snatched another exclusive record into a groin and a smile. I still lament that Steam's eye-catching features are not enough, but I can't argue with cold numbers.
For me and others who benefit from it, the conversation around the Epic Store is very different. I may not have access to the extensive features of Steam, but I have not paid the price of Steam. This is essentially competition. For obvious reasons, this does not seem to be the case for someone in the US or Europe, but for me and millions of others, they are now more likely to spend money on games than piracy.
