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Developers and gamers rejoice as the Epic Games Store opens to Chinese users
Epic challenges “overlord” Steam after previously shunning the world's biggest PC game market
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
With more than 312 million PC gamers, China is the world's biggest PC game market. But now gamers and developers alike are anticipating a sea change, as they believe the emerging Epic Games Store could replace Steam as the country's most popular online game store.
After blocking China for the past five months -- drawing ire from many of the country’s gamers -- the Epic Games Store isn’t blocking Chinese users anymore. It’s even gone a step further by incorporating WeChat Pay and Alipay, the dominant forms of digital payments in China.
It’s similar to Steam, which has long been accessible to users inside China -- but unofficially, since it’s not officially licensed to operate in the country. Valve’s service is beloved by Chinese gamers because it gives them access to games otherwise not available to them, free of the censorship normally applied.
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But developers are bullish about Epic’s chances.
"We take Epic Games as the first real competitor for Steam in the PC gaming marketplace,” said Xuan Li, co-founder of game publisher Zodiac Interactive. “For the first time, the Epic Games Store has been able to wobble the overlord status of Steam with its developer-friendly revenue share and exclusives policies.”
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Li’s company has published a slew of games on Steam, including Candleman and Tales of the Neon Sea. Having a viable alternative to Steam could be good news for Zodiac Interactive and other publishers.
"The Epic Games Store will easily obtain a huge amount of users from the world's biggest PC game market," Li said.
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