Epic Games Store still falls short in user experience, CEO admits

Even with the aggressive strategy of distributing free games and discount coupons, the Epic Games Store is still far from winning over the most demanding audience. In an interview with Lex Fridman's podcast, the CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, openly acknowledged that the platform's launcher is poorly designed and still falls short of what players expect - especially compared to Steam, from Valve.

"One of the reasons people say the Epic Games launcher is poorly designed is because it really is poorly designed. We need to improve on that. We didn't emphasize enough on quality of life features. We have clearly recognized this multiple times and gone through multiple refactorings. But, you know, it was definitely a disappointment for us and for many users."

Officially launched in December 2018, the Epic Games Store tries to compete with Steam by offering commercial advantages to developers - such as 88% revenue share for studios - and a continuous schedule of distributing free titles, which has included games like GTA V, Control, and Alan Wake Remastered. However, these advantages are of little use if the basic user experience fails to meet basic standards.

Among the most frequent criticisms from the community are the heavy interface, lack of basic features such as user reviews, inconsistent cloud saving, limited search filters and poor social integration. While Steam has been offering achievements systems, customizable library, mod support via Steam Workshop, and discussion forums for each title for years, the Epic Games Store still owes to its own users.

Sweeney commented that, although they do not intend to replicate all of Steam's features, Epic wants to implement "all the convenient functions that make it easy and fun to use Steam," signaling a more pragmatic stance.

Since its launch, the platform has undergone some technical refactorings and received sporadic updates, but progress has been slow. The CEO himself acknowledged that the lack of focus on "quality of life" features compromised the store's perception. It is a late but relevant recognition.

For a company that has profited billions from the success of Fortnite and its proprietary engine, the Unreal Engine, the investment in the usability of the Epic Games Store remains a weak point. The recognition from Tim Sweeney may indicate that changes are on the way - but after almost seven years of promises, the demand for results will be even higher.