That certainly changes the calculation quite a bit, but how many people can be anticipated to claim a given free game is definitely going to be a point of negotiation on how much to pay the publisher to giveaway a given game, so in a roundabout way it does ultimately cost Epic more money if you do claim the games without downloading them

You're still being an "active user" that they can use to pad their numbers and entice investors. If you want to hurt Epic the best way to do it is to not log into their system at all.

I mean defining "active users" is an inherently political choice in any metric. You're ultimately choosing how to slice the data for analysis, so if you adjust your metrics on customers who only claim free games vs customers who actually spend money on the platform the data can tell completely different stories. I suppose the point is, collecting the free games probably creates non-negligable costs for Epic, and how that looks on their released metrics is entirely up to how the data gets sliced

I disagree with your statement. 20 years of head start could also be seen as 20 years of polishing a previously non-existent service. Today Steam's features are widely known. Just make an app with same or similar features and you're golden. The blueprint is there! As an example of "what-could-have-been" I would present Immich which is an alternative to Google Photos and iCloud. Developed by a tiny group of people. It does lack some features that Google Photos/iCloud has. But for the most part it easily could substitute anyone's photo-storing needs. If bunch of people with no money in their pocket and only free time off work managed to develop a fully functional, well polished photo app that would rival market giants, why cant market giants make something that would rival Steam?

Let’s get those numbers down. We all knew Tim Sweeney was a creep, but he also [just announced that he’s a pedophile and a nazi.](https://lemmy.world/post/41496339)

Its almost like half-assing a store front that runs like shit, lacks the most basic features and is generally perceived to be user-hostile is a bad way to attract business. When the freaking open source Heroic Game Launcher does a better job hooking into Epic's servers than their own damn launcher its time to do something. Take one of those millions of dollars you rake in every year and actually invest in the platform for cripes sake! 1. Reduce auto-signouts. This creates friction and forces users to take extra steps to access the game they wish to play. This causes users to go "nah I didn't really feel like playing that right now anyways" 2. Embed system requirements for games into the launcher. Users want to know if they can even install a game before clicking install 3. Show details about a game that a user has clicked on. Seriously if you're going to give away a hundred free games a year, folks aren't going to know jack shit about 90% of the indie titles you're surfacing. Most of the free titles I've actually played I've played because the marketing screenshots and description sounded cool, and I don't want to cross-reference between a web browser and a web-browser-wrapped-into-an-executable-that-runs-like-shit-but-installs-my-games-sometimes 4. SHOW THE GODDAMN DOWNLOAD SIZE AND INSTALL SIZE BEFORE BEGINNING THE DOWNLOAD!!!! My god this is not rocket science, its barely even computer science. Its literally the most basic feature of any software installer developed in the last 50 years, show an estimate for about how much hard drive space is needed. If I have 50GB free on a laptop with a 256GB drive in it, its just russian roulette for if I'll install a game or have to manually sort out my drive being filled to 0 bytes remaining by a game download that never would've completed anyways. 5. Stop forcing updates. If someone's launching a game that needs an update, let them launch it without updating. Also make it easier to force it to check for updates/apply already released updates. The background polling has entirely missed major game updates for my wife's Fortnite, and since those can be 30+GB downloads we'd really much prefer to run those updates when she isn't sitting down to play a bit of Fortnite. 6. Actually enable user reviews. Yes this requires moderation which requires workhours and therefore money. This is the kind of thing that that 10% cut of all sales you take is supposed to pay for. Users want to know what they're getting into before buying a game and committing to installing it and trying it out, let them! 7. Optimize the crap out of your launcher. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it can't be *gestures wildly at everything* this. Reduce the filesize of the webpages, run a few fewer javascripts, use better image compression, just most importantly make the launcher not run like its full of molasses The part that annoys me the most is Epic could simple reduce the free games to bi-weekly and rebudget those same dollars into platform improvements and actually create a viable platform that people don't hate. Just look at Steam, its got some glaring issues (online DRM, [massive illegal gambling problems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Make_Games#Counter-Strike_skin_gambling), cyberbullying, unclear & inconsistent policies on adult content, rampant shovelware, etc. etc.) but by not being a pain in the butt to use, and having some decent company policies that aren't obviously anti-consumer they have an entire fandom devoted to them. Its just wasted potential. If Tim Sweeney felt like it he could actually build an incredible platform and actually compete with Steam, but instead they just engage in the most disjointed corporate bullshit possible

Comparing a photo app to steam is like comparing basic addition to quantum physics. The sheer amount of complexity that goes into the business side out side of just the app it self is truly immense. Steam is more then just an app. It's entire business empire with years and years of connections, agreements and contracts, secondary services, infrastructure and more. Even if you managed to clone steam 1:1 you would still have nothing. The app alone is honestly the least important aspect of the entire thing.

The developers get paid a flat rate for allowing their game to be free, not per download. You are not sending the developer any money and allowing epic to inflate their user numbers (up 167% !!!) to investors.

I only have an account to accumulate the games they give away for free every week that I never actually play because they aren't on steam.

I really want to see what percentage of 'users' licenses are actually paid, and/or what average percentage of 'users' titles are just free. I have precisely one game I have paid for on Epic (Satisfactory, because I was excited for first person factorio) but I have over 100 titles in my library. I have to wonder how many of those free games I would have to download before the server costs completely eat the profit from that one copy of Satisfactory.