It is arduous to imagine I am scripting this within the yr 2025 CE, however I’ve double-checked and it certain appears to be proper so right here we go: The Epic Video games Retailer now helps preloading.
“Preloading is now obtainable for PC pre-purchase merchandise on the Epic Video games Retailer!” developer Native Bald wrote within the Epic Video games Retailer boards (through Reddit). “This new characteristic permits gamers to obtain titles they’ve pre-purchased as much as 5 days (120 hours) previous to launch through an encrypted construct. Preloading ensures that gamers can leap into the sport rapidly on day one, which is particularly useful for titles with giant downloads.”
Preloading is a sensible characteristic however not very glamorous as this stuff go; what makes it notable right here is that it has been obtainable for years on Steam. But Epic, regardless of being hell-bent on breaking Steam’s nigh-monopoly on the PC digital market, hasn’t seen match so as to add it till now.
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And it isn’t as if Epic is not conscious that the absence of preloading, and different such mundane however helpful options, is an issue. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and EGS basic supervisor Steve Allison each acknowledged in Might of this yr that the Epic Retailer sucks—or, as Allison put it extra politically, that “there’s nonetheless a ton of labor to be achieved to ship a world-class expertise.”
He is not mistaken, however as PC Gamer’s Joshua Wolens famous on the time, the Epic Retailer went dwell in December 2018, which suggests it is virtually seven years outdated now, but it nonetheless lacks a whole lot of performance that we take with no consideration on Steam. And that does not get into points with the Epic launcher, which Sweeney mentioned is “clunky,” a characterization I might describe as an amazing understatement.
Epic has constructed a person base for its retailer primarily via its extraordinarily beneficiant weekly recreation giveaways, which has value the corporate untold truckloads of money, however I am unable to assist pondering that by now, the fun has worn off and it is time to begin pouring a few of these sources into the shop itself. It is somewhat bizarre to be pondering of preloading performance as a big enchancment, however for the Epic Retailer it’s—and hopefully we’ll be seeing extra such baseline performance following quickly.
