Epic Games has been getting a slew of exclusives recently, with many of the big titles moving away fromSteamand partnering with the company to appear on its store instead.
The list of current games that made the move includes the likes ofMetro: Exodus,The Division 2and WWZ. Theupcoming games listis growing too though, with Borderlands 3, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls all starting as exclusives with the store. But why are so many games becoming exclusives? The answer is fairly simple - money.
The Epic Games Store currently has a much more appealing revenue sharing system that sees developers getting an 88 per cent cut of the profits. Epic meanwhile takes 12 per cent, which is a significant amount less than that taken by Steam for games appearing on its platform.
Epic Games seemingly came out of nowhere, to rise to greatness in the last few years. Despite being the creators of the Gears of War franchise, the company is perhaps best known forFortnite - a Battle Royale gamethat’s taken the world by storm. The company has done so well recently that it wasvalued at $15 billionlate last year.
It’s no doubt this success which is enabling the company to undercut Steam and make such generous offers to developers.
Steam has long been the goto storefront for PC gamers and has dominated the market for years.Engadget points outthat the company’s 70/30 revenue split has been the standard for around a decade. That platform is also still the leader and offers more games for purchase, as well as being trusted and regularly used by millions of players around the world.
Steam does actually offera better revenue splitfor some developers, but only if the titles earn over $10 million.
Maybe things could change in future though? Epic Games CEOTim Sweeney recently tweetedsuggesting that:
“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.”
What do you think? Will Valve make such a move and make Steam a more profitable option for developers?
