Epic Games has announced partnerships with third-party game sales stores for keyless purchases of Epic Games Store titles. These stores include Fanatical.com, Green Man Gaming (which just celebrated its 10th anniversary), and Genba Digital. These stores join Humble Bundle, who added support for keyless purchases last year, with more third-party stores to come.
"We're thrilled to continue expanding our partnerships to allow for keyless purchases with third-parties,” said Steve Allison, General Manager of the Epic Games Store. “Continuing to find ways to support developers and offering them ways to reach a wider audience, all while receiving a fair share, is important to us.”
The third-party stores will allow players to purchase titles by allowing them to link their Epic Games Store accounts with the retailer(s) of their choice. Once a purchase is made, the game will automatically appear in the player's Epic Games Store library, with no redemption key required. Players will no longer need to redeem a key, and developers and publishers will not have to worry about illegitimate sales dipping into their revenue streams. Like all sales on third parties stores, there is no money that goes to Epic when buying from these stores.
“We are delighted to be working with the Epic team to implement an API for direct access to the extensive Epic Store game catalogue,” said CEO and Founder of Green Man Gaming, Paul Sulyok. “In these difficult times offering choice benefits both the community as well as the many thousands of people who work in the games industry (and their dependents).
At Green Man Gaming we’ve always believed in the magic of games, and it seems that now more than ever we could all use a little interactive distraction.”
The Epic Games Store has also begun to issue partial refunds, which means that if you were to purchase a game shortly before it went on sale, they will refund you the difference. There is no official comment yet, but it's something that has been making the rounds over the past few days.
If all this talk of refunds has gotten you in the mood to purchase some games, why not go and pick up a game or two to spend your hard-earned money on? Fanatical has a Tomb Raider bundle, a hidden object bundle, a Warhammer Vermintide bundle, and more, while Green Man Gaming has a 10th anniversary sale on right now.
Quick Take
While the Epic Games store still have a long way to go, but partial refunds and supporting third-party stores is an excellent start. Also, Epic Games' refusing to pay heed to G2A and similar 'stores' is always a good idea that should continue to be emulated. Now we need support for reviews, forums, and pretty much everything else that makes the Steam Store such a good experience. Baby steps.
Disclosure: Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, and Epic Game Store work with TechRaptor for affiliate partnership, and TechRaptor earns a small commission off purchases made from some links in this article.
What do you think of this news? Are you surprised the Epic Games Store is supporting third-party stores and partial refunds? Let us know in the comments!
