Epic Games Store Mega Sale mix up as publishers remove games

by Mark Tyson on 20 May 2019, 10:11

Tags: Epic Games, 2K Games (NASDAQ:TTWO)

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Just ahead of the weekend the Epic Games Store kicked off its first Epic Mega Sale. On the surface the offer is quite attractive. The headline offer is that on any game priced £13.99 ($14.99) or more the customer can get £10 ($10) off at checkout.

The way the discount works meant some bargains can be had, particularly with games that aren't much more expensive than the qualifying price. Having said that the library of titles available on the Epic Games Store isn't very big compared to more established places like Steam.

Of course there are the more expensive titles, the new breed of (timed) exclusives available on the Epic Games Store. These are typically much more expensive, like £37.99 for Control, £37.49 for Metro Exodus and £28.10 for World War Z. While these highly anticipated titles aren't such bargains with £10 off it is still a decent percentage reduction.

Borderlands 3 - the wrong kind of mayhem

If you search for Borderlands 3 on the Epic Games Store today you won't find the game's pre-order page, it has been pulled and isn't purchasable. However, you will find that the coming soon page for the game is still available.

Interestingly, as the sale began, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford Tweeted to his followers recommending that they enjoy the $10 off in the Epic Mega Sale, to pre-order a copy of Borderlands 3 (Tweet now deleted).

Then, the game's pre-ordering disappeared without explanation. On Saturday a rep from publisher 2K Games responded to a query from Eurogamer, which clears things up, a bit. The brief statement, reproduced below, suggests that 2K Games simply didn't want to participate in the sale, and there was obviously some kind of communication breakdown.

"We are working closely with Epic and have temporarily removed Borderlands 3 from their storefront. We look forward to the game being back on the Epic Games store soon. Games bought during their Mega Sale will be honoured at that price."

At least some people managed to grab their Borderlands 3 pre-order for £39.99, rather than the £49.99 which is the standard edition PC price.

It isn't only 2K Games which has had such an attitude to the Epic Mega Sale. Paradox Interactive's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was also removed some time after the sale started. Kotaku reports that "Paradox chose at the last second—or after the last second, technically—to not participate in the sale". Another game missing, spotted by Kotaku, is space station survival sim Oxygen Not Included.

 


HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Yet another reason not to buy anything from these anti consumer, anti competitive sharks. Can't even organise their own sale properly.

Gamers need to take a bit of a stand here and not buy anything from them - it's the only way their nonsense will stop :(. Every purchase from the epic store hurts games and the entire industry.
Spud1
Yet another reason not to buy anything from these anti consumer, anti competitive sharks. Can't even organise their own sale properly.

Gamers need to take a bit of a stand here and not buy anything from them - it's the only way their nonsense will stop :(. Every purchase from the epic store hurts games and the entire industry.
There must have been a breakdown in communication between Epic and the publishers, but I'm quite surprised at how many people are spinning this as ‘anti-consumer’. It's the publishers that are pulling the games, not Epic.
I guess they can't win, even giving everyone £10 off almost everything in the store (and also applying the discount to people you pre-ordered before the sale began) is getting them grief
Steviepunk
There must have been a breakdown in communication between Epic and the publishers, but I'm quite surprised at how many people are spinning this as ‘anti-consumer’. It's the publishers that are pulling the games, not Epic.
I guess they can't win, even giving everyone £10 off almost everything in the store (and also applying the discount to people you pre-ordered before the sale began) is getting them grief


This particular screw up is just a screw up - as you say a breakdown in communication or whatever. The Anti consumer bit isn't this - it's Epic's practice of buying up exclusives to force users to use their store (paying their set price) rather than allowing them the free choice of buying from whatever store they wished.

They would have a lot of success (and gain a lot of consumer goodwill) if they just offered publishers the opportunity to sell on their store at a reduced royalty rate…which woudl mean they could sell the games $5-$10 cheaper to consumers - everyone wins. Paid exclusives just hurt everyone and that is the anti competitive/anti consumer behaviour that is getting everyone upset :)
Spud1
Can't even organise their own sale properly.

As much as I dislike the way in which Epic have launched and continue to run their new game store, someone else pointed out on Kotaku that even Steam sales when they first started off didn't run smoothly. Don't recall this problem with Origin or Uplay though.
This particular screw up is just a screw up - as you say a breakdown in communication or whatever. The Anti consumer bit isn't this - it's Epic's practice of buying up exclusives to force users to use their store (paying their set price) rather than allowing them the free choice of buying from whatever store they wished.

They would have a lot of success (and gain a lot of consumer goodwill) if they just offered publishers the opportunity to sell on their store at a reduced royalty rate…which woudl mean they could sell the games $5-$10 cheaper to consumers - everyone wins. Paid exclusives just hurt everyone and that is the anti competitive/anti consumer behaviour that is getting everyone upset :)

Don't Epic offer devs a bigger cut from their sales than steam. I believe steam demand 30% a little less for bigger titles I'm not trying to defend epic I'd rather have gog's system but seems to be a lot of hysteria around epic atm