Epic Games begins offering some developers 100 percent revenue share

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: One of the Epic Games Store's primary incentives for developers is that its revenue share is more generous than Steam's. Epic's latest effort to build up the store's catalog offers developers 100 percent of a game's revenue for a limited period under certain conditions.

The Epic Games Store (EGS) now offers developers two paths to retain all or nearly all sales revenue for six months. The plans could help the storefront acquire more exclusive games and back catalog titles.

Epic initially lured games away from Steam by paying developers to launch exclusively on EGS, the upcoming Alan Wake II being the latest prominent example. Now, the company is combining the monetary incentive with the self-publishing system it introduced in March with the Epic First Run program.

Starting Monday, if a developer chooses to keep a new game exclusive to EGS for six months, they retain between 88 and 100 percent of revenue from all transactions for that title. Afterward, the split reverts to the default (but still uniquely generous) 88 percent. Early Access periods count toward the six-month exclusivity. The program could encourage more independent developers to launch exclusively on EGS.

Epic introduced the 88 percent split as a challenge to the 70 percent that Steam and other digital storefronts traditionally enforce. In 2018, in response to Epic, Valve shifted its developer share to 75 percent of all revenue beyond $10 million and 80 percent for earnings beyond $50 million.

New exclusive titles aren't the only focus of Epic's incentives. One of Steam's most considerable advantages over EGS is its enormous back catalog of games released before EGS existed and retro titles from the 1990s and early 2000s. "Now on Epic" is a new program encouraging third-party companies to bring older titles to EGS.

Like Epic First Run, Now on Epic guarantees developers all sales revenue for six months when bringing previously released games to EGS. Qualifying titles must have launched on another PC client or subscription service before October 31, 2023.

Unlike Epic First Run, Now on Epic is a temporary offer. Developers must enroll before December 31, 2024, and release their games before June 30, 2025. Furthermore, they must port at least three titles to EGS or all of their products if they have fewer than three.

The announcement's timing indicates Epic is trying to rapidly increase the store's appeal and, thus, eventual profits to offset its recent troubles. Last month, Epic confirmed plans to lay off over 800 employees and divest Bandcamp, which it acquired only last year. Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney admitted the company had long been spending more money than it earned.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100511-epic-games-begins-offering-developers-100-percent-revenue.html

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Good. I'm not a fan of Epic's clunky platform (the features are lacking and things like game searches and filters are incredibly slow and insufficient), but STEAM needs more competition instead of just sitting on their *** charging other devs 1/3 of their revenue to put games on their platform and not making the 3rd game to any of their game series.

 

[brucek]

This could backfire for devs. I'm still pissed I bought Borderlands 3 on EGS, where it sits apart from all my other games, and doesn't have achievements. I won't make that mistake again.

So in my case devs who go for this will be getting 100% of zero revenue from me, and worse, they will further ensure I wait to buy their game until it is past this exclusivity period which probably coincides with no longer being at full retail price either.

Devs may feel that Steam is charging too much but the reality is it provides a significant chunk of the game's total value to the consumer and the game is just worth less, or nothing, on a platform that can't adequately support it.

 

[yRaz]

This could backfire for devs. I'm still pissed I bought Borderlands 3 on EGS, where it sits apart from all my other games, and doesn't have achievements. I won't make that mistake again.

So in my case devs who go for this will be getting 100% of zero revenue from me, and worse, they will further ensure I wait to buy their game until it is past this exclusivity period which probably coincides with no longer being at full retail price either.

Devs may feel that Steam is charging too much but the reality is it provides a significant chunk of the game's total value to the consumer and the game is just worth less, or nothing, on a platform that can't adequately support it.

Well, Steam also provides services beyond just selling games. This is something that EGS has not done well at all. Epic basically just says "buy games from us" and then leaves stuff to the user to figure out. Valve is spending Millions on Linux compatibility, they have massive communities, features like "checking integrity of game cache" so you don't have to download the entire game again. Something that is a huge deal in the era of 100GB games and 1TB data caps(looking at you, Comcast).

 

[Burty117]

If I buy from EGS, I won’t be able to play said game on my Steam Deck, Tim Sweeney seems very against Linux for someone who’s “all for Linux”.

Big Screen mode is something I do use thanks to having a gaming rig hooked up to the TV with a couple of controllers.

Being able to stream games from my most powerful rig to my Steam Deck has also come in handy.

Sorry Epic, it’s not that I don’t want competition, it’s that just selling games isn’t really very competitive. How about you start spending some of that bribe money to making EGs better and compete on a feature level? Even just big picture mode and controller support would go a long way to convincing me to buy the odd game or two.

 

[ET3D]

If I buy from EGS, I won’t be able to play said game on my Steam Deck

You can install the Epic Games launcher on your Steam Deck and run the games from there.

You can in general add non-Steam games to Steam and this should solve your problems. Granted it's not as convenient as having the games on Steam or having the features in the Epic Games launcher, but if all you want is to buy the odd game at the EGS, this doesn't seem to me like too much work.

 

[dangh]

If I buy from EGS, I won’t be able to play said game on my Steam Deck, Tim Sweeney seems very against Linux for someone who’s “all for Linux”.

... That is absolutely false. There is absolutely no issues with Epic, GoG or Amazon games on Linux - simply, install Heroic and you're set. You can as well install just Epic launcher using Lutris or Bottles.
I'm buying most of new games on GoG or Epic just to support competition and I have Linux gaming PC. No issues whatsoever.
I do appreciate Steam work and effort towards Linux gaming, and appreciate their work in general, but they have a monopolistic position and absolute control over the market, and that is never good for us as a users. Gabe wont live forever and we have no idea what will happen when he wont be decision maker, so who knows if next in charge wont be tempted by another microsoft deal...

 

[Burty117]

You can install the Epic Games launcher on your Steam Deck and run the games from there.

Not a native client you can't, Epic haven't made a linux version of EGS.
You can emulate the Windows version through Proton, but that's not feature parity with Steam though is it? That's a work around.

... That is absolutely false. There is absolutely no issues with Epic, GoG or Amazon games on Linux - simply, install Heroic and you're set. You can as well install just Epic launcher using Lutris or Bottles.

As I said above, those are all work arounds, there is no reason for these stores to actually natively support Linux, there hasn't been a reason for years now.

I'm buying most of new games on GoG or Epic just to support competition and I have Linux gaming PC. No issues whatsoever.

So you're actively handing over your money to companies that refuse to support the platform you use (Linux)? Interesting strategy cotton...

I do appreciate Steam work and effort towards Linux gaming, and appreciate their work in general, but they have a monopolistic position and absolute control over the market, and that is never good for us as a users. Gabe wont live forever and we have no idea what will happen when he wont be decision maker, so who knows if next in charge wont be tempted by another microsoft deal...

Oh I agree, competition is severely lacking against Steam, but buying games from EGS doesn't help anyone, it just gives them the nod that bribing developers to release on their platform first is a good strategy.

I don't really know why nobody wants to compete with Steam, It'll be a lot of work, creating native clients, big screen modes, Mod Store, cloud storage sync, but it's been many MANY years now all these other stores have had to make something competitive and the best we got today is bribery and Cloud Storage Sync... Wow...

 

[Watzupken]

I fail to see how this will change anything. The downside of EPIC is clearly the lack of traffic in the store. So even if game developers can keep 100% revenue, they probably are not going to sell close to what they can on Steam. 6 months later if developers then decide to open up on Steam store, they would have missed the opportunity to sell at the price of a new game. Hence, I don't think it will be effective.

 

[dangh]

I don't really know why nobody wants to compete with Steam, It'll be a lot of work, creating native clients, big screen modes, Mod Store, cloud storage sync, but it's been many MANY years now all these other stores have had to make something competitive and the best we got today is bribery and Cloud Storage Sync... Wow...

I surely see why you do not know that. Why there is no competition on the OS market? Why no small players successfully create alternative search engine?

but then you start talking about 'a lot of work'. A lot of work require a lot of money. Not time, but money first. Have you seen the revenue reports of GoG and Epic Store? do you think this is good enough to make up for decade of technological debt? And you know that the only way to make money consistently for years is to create bigger user base, and this can be done only by reducing revenue? Resigning from the sale cut or paying for timed exclusivity is the only way to build that base, but that reducing money for investment.

That is exactly why buying games from EGS helps everyone. This is the only way EGS increase revenue. Only high revenue can lead to proper budget for new features. Only then we can expect they will focus on a 1.5% market.
Even GoG, which offer native Linux games, do not have resources to make Linux client. They are even better for consumers, which directly translate to even worse revenue. Who knows how long will the y be able to operate.

And yes, I actively spend money on non-monopolistics companies in hope they will get more and more users. That is as well the reason I have only linux PC's at home - I use it, even if Microsoft spend a lot of resources on improving linux distributions.

And while I'm on the Gnu/Linux,, Steam support is actually worse than Heroic support. I have access to Heroic code for any purpose, while Valve's steam is just a binary blob having nothing to do with Linux philosophy. Heroic is much more viable option, and a right tool to use.

 

[Burty117]

I surely see why you do not know that. Why there is no competition on the OS market? Why no small players successfully create alternative search engine?

but then you start talking about 'a lot of work'. A lot of work require a lot of money. Not time, but money first. Have you seen the revenue reports of GoG and Epic Store? do you think this is good enough to make up for decade of technological debt? And you know that the only way to make money consistently for years is to create bigger user base, and this can be done only by reducing revenue? Resigning from the sale cut or paying for timed exclusivity is the only way to build that base, but that reducing money for investment.

That is exactly why buying games from EGS helps everyone. This is the only way EGS increase revenue. Only high revenue can lead to proper budget for new features. Only then we can expect they will focus on a 1.5% market.
Even GoG, which offer native Linux games, do not have resources to make Linux client. They are even better for consumers, which directly translate to even worse revenue. Who knows how long will the y be able to operate.

And yes, I actively spend money on non-monopolistics companies in hope they will get more and more users. That is as well the reason I have only linux PC's at home - I use it, even if Microsoft spend a lot of resources on improving linux distributions.

And while I'm on the Gnu/Linux,, Steam support is actually worse than Heroic support. I have access to Heroic code for any purpose, while Valve's steam is just a binary blob having nothing to do with Linux philosophy. Heroic is much more viable option, and a right tool to use.

Ah I see, you're in the camp of "adding a shopping cart took so long because it cost them $500,000,000 to program" camp.

Fair enough, if you genuinely think giving money to EGS will bring about any change, good for you I guess.

 

[ET3D]

Not a native client you can't, Epic haven't made a linux version of EGS.
You can emulate the Windows version through Proton, but that's not feature parity with Steam though is it? That's a work around.

Just get off your high horse. Pretty much the entire point of the Steam Deck is to run Windows games. Sure, you can limit yourself only to games that have native Linux ports or storefronts with native Linux clients, but then the problem is with you, not with the combination of Steam Deck and that software.

 

[Burty117]

Just get off your high horse. Pretty much the entire point of the Steam Deck is to run Windows games. Sure, you can limit yourself only to games that have native Linux ports or storefronts with native Linux clients, but then the problem is with you, not with the combination of Steam Deck and that software.

I love the fact your expectations are so low for these multibillion dollar company's, you actually think I'm "on my high horse" for expecting native ports of basic storefronts

I wasn't even talking about games yet, The proton layer has done wonders for backwards compatibility for sure, More effort needs to be put into making native Linux ports though. Considering these multibillion dollar companies port to Switch, PS5, Xbox, iOS, MacOS, Android, you'd think half the work needed to port to at least a specific Linux distro is already more than half done already.

 

[ET3D]

I love the fact your expectations are so low for these multibillion dollar company's, you actually think I'm "on my high horse" for expecting native ports of basic storefronts

Has nothing to do with my expectations. If you can technically do something, but choose not to do it out of principle, and then complain about it, then you're on a high horse.

I'm sure that Epic could do what you want, and then personally come to your house and gift you an Epic Deck running its version of Linux, but you see, it would be a waste of time and money for Epic with absolutely no justification.