Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by lghh on Thursday December 27, 2018 @03:19PM (#18772291)

While I agree that PUBG is a dumpster heap technically, it really is a legitimately fun game. I enjoy it much more than Fortnite, and if it performed halfway decently it would be one of my favorite games of all time. I think Fortnite's success is great and it is very clear why it is more popular than PUBG could have ever hoped to be, but I will always be partial to the slow, suffocating, horror of feeling alone in that giant world. Not seeing someone for 10 minutes, but always wondering who is around the next corner is thrilling to me and it's something that Fortnite intentionally lacks.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by kaoD on Thursday December 27, 2018 @05:10PM (#18773070)

I'd like to add gun mechanics. PUBG has the best gunplay I've ever played. For me PUBG fights are thrilling, like I was there getting shot at, while Fortnite's (or any other game for that matter) are plain old arcadey. I dislike the building mechanic too.

I'd genuinely love for a developer to step up and do a better milsim BR but so far PUBG is king in that niche.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by elif on Thursday December 27, 2018 @05:42PM (#18773294)

cod blackout is significantly better mechanically, and just as much of a 'milsim.' twitch has largely pivoted already.. CSGO has a BR now, too.

PUBG doesn't have much special left, and its new peers haven't been very successful at unseating fortnite for popularity.

The building mechanic you dislike, seems to me to be a crucial ingredient that makes so many love it [0]. The continually evolving meta-game and diverse game modes also help elevate it above the chaff.

[0] At the time of writing, fornite has ~10x as many twitch viewers as pubg.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by kaoD on Thursday December 27, 2018 @06:37PM (#18773644)

> cod blackout is significantly better mechanically, and just as much of a 'milsim.'

I beg to differ. It has a pretty arcadey gunplay (well... it's CoD). Nowhere near close to PUBG's ballistics. It's pretty much point and click. I can see the appeal, but it's not for me.

Calling it a milsim though...

> twitch has largely pivoted already..

At the time of writing PUBG has more viewers on Twitch.

> PUBG doesn't have much special left

Disagree. It's a niche, but one no game has been able to fill. Every single player I know that left for Blackout ended up coming back to PUBG. It's still its own kind of game.

> The building mechanic you dislike, seems to me to be a crucial ingredient that makes so many love it [0]. The continually evolving meta-game and diverse game modes also help elevate it above the chaff.

Mate, you don't have to defend Fortnite so vehemently. I know it's probably a great game, I just dislike it and no amount of talking will turn it into my type of game.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by gameswithgo on Thursday December 27, 2018 @11:44PM (#18774922)

Fortnite is free, pubg isn’t. Keep that in mind when comparing.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by lwansbrough on Friday December 28, 2018 @02:27AM (#18775327)

Tell that to anyone who has a kid playing Fortnite. They're either spending money or declining to spend money constantly. Fortnite is free in the sense that it's free to walk into a bar.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by daneyh on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:43AM (#18775830)

I've really enjoyed my 20hrs+ playing fortnite without spending any money through the platform. I'm happy for other people to pay for useless items and subsidise my experience.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by gameswithgo on Friday December 28, 2018 @08:56PM (#18781213)

pubg also tries to encourage you to buy cosmetic items, and I know that people's kids feel they have to do this. But I have never paid a dime and I pwn them all the time. The parents should simply tell their kids no, and to git gud. I am a parent too, this isn't at all a hard thing.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by Rebelgecko on Thursday December 27, 2018 @05:31PM (#18773231)

PUBG definitely took a lot of inspiration from Arma's gunplay, although for whatever reason the glitchy jankiness in Arma annoys me less than it does in PUBG. Maybe because the bugs in PUBG tend to have a greater impact on the outcome of fights.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by merlincorey on Thursday December 27, 2018 @06:54PM (#18773729)

Player Unknown (the PU in PUBG) was a well known Arma modder, so this is entirely unsurprising in that light.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by thatoneuser on Thursday December 27, 2018 @07:02PM (#18773776)

PUBG was a truly unique gaming experience. It’s just a shame that they were so slow to rollout maps and make basic mechanical changes early enough. I got oversaturated and haven’t played it in about a year. Just can’t dedicate 15 mins on a single match to die from technical shortcomings.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by ludston on Thursday December 27, 2018 @10:11PM (#18774623)

It was the multiple gigabyte steam updates that ruined this game for my group of friends. Coming home from work to find that someone has four hours worth of downloads before you could all play together? We moved on to more reliable pastures.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by vecter on Thursday December 27, 2018 @10:57PM (#18774789)

Try it again, it's come so far in the past year. They've also just released a new snow map. I've been playing for more than a year now and I've never had more fun than I'm having now. For the first time in a year, its playerbase is starting to grow again also: https://steamcharts.com/app/578080

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by MattRix on Thursday December 27, 2018 @03:46PM (#18772505)

As a big fan of Fortnite I was ready to disagree with you but that's actually spot on. There is a massive difference in the pacing of the two games, and there are audiences for both.

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by ksec on Saturday December 29, 2018 @12:13AM (#18781994)

I play PUBG Mobile, so slightly different to PUBG on Desktop. It is free, and it is fun. And it is one of those rare games you can finish the match in 5 - 10 min times when you are in Arcade Mode. There is no grind, no VIP system, No Pay to win. I actually brought a few items in App because I thought I was enjoying it so much and not paying for it.

I hope Fortnite and PUBG will finally wake Apple up, I mean even Phill Schiller is playing Fortnite [1]. Gaming is driving the PC sales, Mac needs to take notes.

[1] https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/1077319181027004417

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Re:Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018 by Reedx on Thursday December 27, 2018 @04:13PM (#18772684)

Yeah, a lot of it really comes down to personal preference. PUBG, H1Z1, Fortnite, Blackout, CS:GO... gameplay wise they all have significant differences.

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