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Epic Games Store has generated $680 million since in its first year, with the platform’s exclusives having “driven the majority of revenue so far”.

Talking to GameDaily.biz, Epic Games Store General Manager, Steve Allison, explained that growth and revenue created by the store is “ ahead of our early expectations”. He noted that exclusives account for 90% of all the store’s new releases, and are the main provider for Epic’s revenue despite strong performance from non-exclusive games.

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“Exclusives have been critical in gaining momentum in the presence of a competitor that began 2019 with more than 90% market share,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told GameDaily.biz. “Securing exclusives for Epic means we can significantly assist developers with product funding and invest in marketing and awareness knowing that these efforts bring in new customers to our store, rather than just sending more business to the incumbent.”

Epic promises that “tons” of exclusives are heading to the Epic Game Store in 2020, indicating that its strategy is here for at least the foreseeable future.

The $680m revenue comes from the 108 million PC customers that use the Epic Games Store. Those users have also claimed more than 200 million free games, thanks to Epic having offered 73 games free of charge over 2019. The company plans to continue offering free games in 2020, too.

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The company’s revenue figures also relate to actual spending by customers, without any discount coupons included. Epic reports that $23 million in discounts was funded by the company in the period.

Last year Tim Sweeney explained that the company’s intentions with EGS exclusives was to disrupt the status quo in games retail. Currently, PC gaming is dominated by Valve’s Steam platform, which takes a higher cut of profit from sales away from developers than Epic does. Sweeney has said that Epic would end exclusivity deals if Valve commits to offering developers a better return on their profits.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

For the past week, the Epic Games Store has been giving away Sundered: Eldritch Edition, but with a new Thursday comes a new free PC game from the Fortnite company. This week’s title is Horace, a story-focused puzzle-platformer about a good-natured robot who’s in with a tough crowd and asked to do some nefarious things.

Horace’s story is funny and full of heart, yet also tragic at times. It’s also a challenging platformer, with some fun surprises along the way. To claim it on the Epic Games Store, all you need to do is head to Horace’s store page, click “Buy Now,” and complete checkout. You won’t be charged, but you will be able to install and play Horace any time you want.

If you want to see some gameplay, be sure to check out GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb and its Horace Quick Look. They show off part of the story, some tricky sections of puzzle-platforming, and one of the surprises you can expect from the genre-blending adventure.

Horace is free to claim until January 23, when it will be replaced by Epic’s next freebie, logic puzzle game The Bridge.

Originally, the Epic Games Store’s free games program was supposed to end last year, but the company recently revealed that it’s extending the free game giveaways through 2020.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s fifth and final Fighters Pass character is Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but there’s still more DLC on the horizon. During today’s big reveal stream, game director Masahiro Sakurai reconfirmed that another wave of DLC fighters are already in development for the title.

Six more characters in total will be released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai revealed–one more than the first wave of DLC. All six will arrive by December 31, 2021. According to Sakurai, the fighters have already been chosen, although he hasn’t shared any hints as to who they’ll be.

The new DLC characters will be bundled in Fighters Pass Vol. 2. Nintendo hasn’t announced pricing details for the pass yet, but it will be available for pre-purchase beginning January 28–the same day that Byleth and the next wave of Mii Fighter costumes arrive. If you do purchase the Fighters Pass, you’ll get a bonus Mii Fighter costume based on the Ancient Soldier gear from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Releasing alongside Byleth is a new stage: Garreg Mach Monastery. Like other DLC fighters, Byleth also comes with an assortment of new Spirits to unlock, as well as 11 additional music tracks taken from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. If you don’t have the first Fighters Pass, you can pick up the Byleth challenger pack individually for $6 USD.

The Mii Fighter costumes, meanwhile, each run for $0.75. Among the new additions is a Mii Gunner costume based on Cuphead, which also comes with a music track taken from that game. The other new Mii Fighter costumes include Assassin’s Creed’s Altair (Swordfighter), a Rabbids hat, and Mega Man X and MegaMan.exe (Gunner).

How many houses are in Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Three. It’s right there in the name. But a new piece of DLC will add a fourth house, because nothing is certain in this topsy-turvy world.

A trailer for the “Cindered Shadows” side story introduces the Ashen Wolves, a group of outcast students secretly living in the Abyss–a dark area below the monastery. The small band of students are eager for a teacher, and consider themselves an unofficial fourth house.

The Ashen Wolves are composed of Balthus, Hapi, Yuri, and Constance. As Balthus explains, “The surface world turned its back on us, and we did the same in return.” The trailer appears to show members of Golden Deer accompanying Byleth when discovering the Ashen Wolves, so it seems likely this side story will add the new faction to your existing campaign rather than replace it.

This is the final piece of the Fire Emblem: Three Houses Expansion Pass, which is available for $25 / €25. The other three waves included alternate officer outfits for Byleth, more Auxiliary battle maps and support items, more quests, and the ability to recruit the recurring Fire Emblem character Anna. The Cindered Shadows DLC will be available on February 13.

The announcement was made right alongside another big Nintendo reveal for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Byleth, the hero of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, is joining as the fifth DLC character in the first Fighters Pass. A new Fire Emblem stage will also be coming to the game, modeled after the Garreg Mach Monastery.

Nintendo’s latest Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation gave fans their first look at Byleth, the Fire Emblem: Three Houses character that rounds out Ultimate’s first batch of DLC fighters, and six new Mii Fighter costumes, including Cuphead. While the new DLC won’t be available until January 28, don’t forget about the pair of new SUper Smash Bros. Amiibos releasing tomorrow, January 17. After being temporarily sold out, Dark Samus and Richter are available to pre-order once again at multiple retailers.

Dark Samus, the major antagonist of the Metroid Prime trilogy, and Richter, the protagonist of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, are the newest Echo fighters in Ultimate. As Echo fighters, Dark Samus and Richter are essentially mirrored images of the character they are based on. Dark Samus is floatier than Samus, and Richter’s Holy Water attack is aura-based rather than fire-based like Simon’s. Like all Smash Bros. series Amiibos, you can scan Dark Samus and Richter into Ultimate and send them off to battle against other Amiibos to level them up and earn rewards.

Nintendo revealed Dark Samus and Richter last November. Pre-orders were sold out up until recently, though Amazon is still currently out of stock. If you’re looking to pick up either Dark Samus or Richter (or both), you’ll probably want to do so sooner rather than later. Amiibos tend to come and go and third-party resellers jack up the prices post-launch once stores run out of stock.

Dark Samus made her first appearance in Metroid Prime

Dark Samus | $16

Richter Belmont is a descendant of Simon Belmont in the Castlevania series

Richter | $16

Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the next DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but that’s not the only new addition coming to the game this month. During the Smash DLC reveal stream, game director Masahiro Sakurai showcased another wave of Mii Fighter costumes, and there are some surprising choices, including Cuphead.

Like the Sans costume that released alongside Banjo and Kazooie last September, the Cuphead costume is for Mii Gunners and looks like the actual character it’s based on. The costume also comes with its own music track: Floral Fury.

In addition to Cuphead, the next wave of Mii Fighter costumes includes Assassin’s Creed’s Altair (Swordfighter), a Rabbids hat, and Mega Man X and MegaMan.exe (Gunner). You can take a look at the new costumes below.

The next wave of Mii Fighter costumes launches on January 28, the same day that the Byleth character pack arrives. Each costume can be purchased for $0.75 USD. The Byleth pack, meanwhile, is included as part of Smash’s $25 Fighters Pass and comes with a new stage–Garreg Mach Monastery–and 11 tracks taken from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. If you don’t have the Fighters Pass, you can also pick up the Byleth character pack individually for $6 USD.

While Byleth is the fifth and final Fighters Pass character, there’s still more DLC on the way. During the stream, Sakurai confirmed that six additional fighters are in development for the game. Sakurai says all six have already been chosen, but hasn’t dropped any hints as to who they’ll be. All six of the characters will be included as part of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2. You can pre-purchase the pass starting January 28, and if you do pick it up, you’ll get a bonus Mii Fighter costume based on the Ancient Armor from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Netherrealm Studios has revealed gameplay for Mortal Kombat 11‘s next guest character, The Joker. First shown last year, along with five other characters including The Terminator, The Joker is the second guest fighter to make his way into Mortal Kombat 11’s in the current Kombat Pack. The character’s debut marks the first time a DC Comics villain has appeared in Mortal Kombat, and he’ll be available to play in early access on January 28 for current owners of the DLC bundle.

In the new gameplay trailer, we see how The Joker’s combat style fits into MK11. His look is unlike any of his other appearances in other games, which makes for a less jarring interpretation of the character’s debut in the ultra-violent Mortal Kombat. For anyone who’s played the Injustice games, also developed by Netherrealm Studios, you’ll see many similarities with how the character fights in MK11. With that said, the Clown Prince of Crime won’t be tethered to Injustice’s teen-rating, and his skills and tricks are far more brutal. In addition to using his cane to bludgeon his foes during his Fatal Blow–recalling his infamous killing of Jason Todd from the comics–he can also use Batman dummy, which conceals a gun.

There’s a lot of regular call outs to DC Comics lore with The Joker’s appearance in MK11, and there are even some jokes made at the expense of the game. For instance, Joker’s fatality brings back the series’ famous Friendship finisher–a non-violent way to conclude a match from classic Mortal Kombat. However, it quickly turns violent when the cake that Joker hands to his opponent are packed with explosives, turning the friendship into a proper fatality.

Much like previous roster updates for MK11, new costumes will also be added to the game. Available on January 28, the new outfits take inspiration from DC’s Elseworlds line–which focuses on alternate-history storylines. Revealed in the trailer, Kitana has a Catwoman inspired costume, Baraka gets a Killer Crock skin and a Darkseid outfit for Garras. However, the one that’s most exciting of all is Noob Saibot’s new costume that turns him into The Batman Who Laughs, an evil alternate universe Batman who takes on the mantle of the Joker.

With the upcoming release of The Joker, there’s only one character that remains in MK11’s Kombat Pack, Image Comics’ Spawn. Set for release in March, Spawn’s debut will mark the end of the first slate of bonus characters coming to MK11. However, there could be the possibility of other characters making an appearance in a future fighter pack. There’s been supposed leaks of Ash from Evil Dead possibly making an appearance, but we’ve yet to see any official word of that at this time.

Nintendo has announced the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character as part of the first Fighter Pass. In a special presentation by game director Masahiro Sakurai showed a short trailer announcing the new character: Byleth, from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

As in Three Houses, you can play as male or female Byleth, and you have access to the powerful Heroes Relics from the game as weapons. Those will change depending on your stick direction, and they serve different purposes. The sword is good for dash attacks, while the whip is a flurry attack, and the axe lends itself to launch power. The bow is used for neutral attacks. Byleth has low mobility, which Sakurai said is slightly better than Robin’s.

Byleth’s Final Smash is called “Progenitor God Ruptured Heaven,” and lets you join forces with Sothis. Byleth also has alternate colors based on Sothis and the House leaders.

Naturally, Byleth will come alongside a new map, the Garreg Mach Monastery. It features different parts of the iconic location, with representatives from each of the houses hanging out together. The Marketplace has members of Blue Lion House (Dimitri, Dedue, and Ingrid), and if you destroy the market booths the stage expands. The Reception Hall houses Black Eagles House members Edelgard, Dorothea, and Petra. The Bridge has Golden Deer House members Claude, Hilda, and Lorenz. The Cathedral includes Seteth, Rhea, and Flayn. Locations cycle about every 2.5 minutes.

Byleth will be available on January 28 for $5.99 individually, or as part of the Fighters Pass. This is the fifth and final character as part of the Fighters Pass, which costs $25 USD / $37 AUD / £20 GBP. The other four have included Joker (Persona 5), Hero (Dragon Quest), Banjo and Kazooie (Banjo Kazooie), and Terry Bogard (Fatal Fury). This marks the end of this pass, but Nintendo has already promised that more characters are coming.

The final trailer for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has arrived ahead of the game’s January 17 launch, and it’s a good reminder that this is a game made with the fans in mind–so much so that it goes ahead and spoils how the game will likely end.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot covers the events of Dragon Ball Z from the Saiyan Saga through to the Buu Saga, as portrayed in the anime series (as well as the manga and the abbreviated Dragon Ball Z Kai). The opening cinematic pays tribute to the original anime’s opening, and now this launch trailer–which is set to We Were Angels, the second outro theme of the original Japanese release–reminds us how it all ended.

The trailer focuses on both the defeat of Kid Buu and Vegeta’s iconic monologue, during which he recognizes Goku’s superiority as a warrior. While there’s a few episodes of the series left after this, it is, essentially, the big final conclusion where the last villain is defeated (assuming Kakarot does not delve into the events of either Super or GT).

The trailer’s willingness to spoil the ending is a solid indicator that the game is assuming some existing investment on the player’s part–DBZ Kakarot might not be a great introduction to the series for newcomers.

It’s not too late to preorder the game, if you want to nab any pre-order bonuses. If you want a taste of the game first, we have gameplay footage of the first 90 minutes.

$50.00 on Walmart
Coming Jan 17, 2020

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