Epic CEO Promises To Stop Exclusives If Steam Changes Revenue Split

B. Simmons April 25, 2019 in Video Games Tagged Epic games, Epic Store, pc, steam - 1 Minute

I know what he’s doing, and it won’t work.

Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney has been taking the opportunity to make some shots at current top PC game platform Steam. Primarily, they’ve been doing it with exclusives; ensuring some games have a period of exclusivity to the Epic Store. But recently, he tweeted out what would end the onslaught of Epic exclusives.

If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019

Such a move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming, and would have a sweeping impact on other platforms for generations to come.

Then stores could go back to just being nice places to buy stuff, rather than the Game Developer IRS.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019

He goes on to explain the caveats to that offer. Namely, in regards to the fact that Steam’s functionality is why it takes more than 12%:

There are solutions for all of the problems of high-overhead payment methods like retail cards. Epic’s approach is just one. Other stores could ask developers and publishers to agree to a rate chart with a variable revenue sharing rate per payment method.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019

The key “no major strings attached” points are: games can use any online systems like friends and accounts they choose, games are free to interoperate across platforms and stores, the store doesn’t tax revenue on other stores or platforms (e.g. if you play Fortnite on iOS+PC)…
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019

More “no major strings attached”: if you play the game on multiple platforms, stuff you’ve bought can be available everywhere; no onerous certification requirements. Essentially, the spirit of an open platform where the store is just a place to find games and pay for stuff.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019

The thing with all of this is, Steam doesn’t seem to really, publicly, care about the exclusives. It’s more that users are genuinely peeved by being forced to add yet another storefront just to play games they’ve been waiting for. There’s also the fact that some of that Steam functionality that Epic Store lacks is, well, fairly useful stuff for both users and developers/publishers. Epic has no game forums, community features; hell, it doesn’t even have a basic review system.

READ: How well do you remember the classic Xbox shooter Halo: Combat Evolved

So, mostly, Sweeney is shooting the breeze with some “wouldn’t it be nice if?” tossed in. Mostly because it’s been pointed out that, at Epic’s vaunted 12%, Steam wouldn’t even be operating at any form of profit.

Just as a bit of a more in depth explanation to completely dispel @TimSweeneyEpic's allegation that developer's make less profit than Valve on a game sold on @steam_games. Bottom line: My educated guess is that Valve makes 8% profit on a game sold on Steam. Let's break this down
— Mortiel (@Mortiel) April 22, 2019

Source: PC Gamer

About Author

B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT’s resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

See author's posts

B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT's resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

Learn More →