Epic Games Store Finally Adds A Shopping Cart Feature--Will This Be Enough To Compete With Steam?

Epic Games Store users have had to contend with not having a shopping cart feature for so long. But now, that finally ends.

The Verge reports that the feature has at last been implemented into the digital game distribution platform, three years after the store first launched. And perhaps it's been a long time coming.

Epic formally announced the feature in a blog, wherein they said that users can add both their free and paid games into their carts whenever they want.

For the uninitiated, the Epic Games Store regularly gives out free games-some of them being big-name ones, like "Grand Theft Auto V" (which went for free on the store back in May 2020).

Anybody who only wants to buy one game also has the option to not use the cart. Instead, they can just hit the "Buy Now" button. And for those who can't buy games yet, they also have the option to wishlist the titles they want.

Epic's shopping cart works much like how you'd expect one to be. You can review all of the items you put in it using prices in your local currency, as well as pick your preferred payment option at checkout. But that's not all.

A feature called "Support-a-Creator" will let people give 5% of their game purchase price to any creator of their choice. So if you want to personally support a specific developer, you now have the option to do so.

You can now try the shopping cart feature out for yourself, since Epic is actually having a Game Awards 2021 sale that features a lot of popular current-gen titles. Some of the games can be had for as much as 60% off, but only for a limited time.

Furthermore, a total of 15 new free games will be given away for the entire Holiday Season, which starts next week. That should be enough playtime to cover gamers for the holidays.

Will This New Feature Make Epic Games Store Competitive Against Steam?

As of this writing, Epic's biggest rival, Steam, still lords over everything in the digital game distribution market. While this new shopping cart feature might have the potential to turn things around, it still has a mountain to climb.

In terms of monthly active users, Valve's digital game storefront boasted as much as double that of Epic's at 120 million, according to StealthOptional. Daily active users regularly peak over 60 million, and peak concurrent users at around 24.8 million as of last year.

Furthermore, Epic has actually been struggling to turn in a profit for the last two years, despite spending millions of dollars on game exclusivity deals-which was capped by $11.6 million for 38 games given away for free last year.

As per the original StealthOptional writeup, the company lost $181 million in revenue in 2019, $273 million last year, and as much as $139 million when this year ends.

Only time will tell if Epic's new shopping cart feature will turn things around in a major way moving forward.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce