Epic says its exclusivity deals will continue, regardless of a game's Steam plans

[midian182]

A hot potato: A few weeks after suggesting that its exclusivity deals would eventually stop, Epic Games has just said that won’t be the case. CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that it would continue to secure exclusive games for its store, even if previous plans for a Steam launch had been announced.

During a Game Developers Conference Q&A last month, Epic Games Store head Steve Allison said he didn’t think the company planned to negotiate exclusives forever, adding that “we'll probably do it for a while.”

Since then, Epic signed a deal with the developer of upcoming Sci-Fi thriller Observation, which, as was the case with Metro Exodus and Phoenix Point, was already set to appear on Steam.

Responding to tweets from fans who are angry about the situation, Sweeney wrote: “We’ve had a lot of discussions about this since GDC. Epic is open to continuing to sign funding/exclusivity deals with willing developers and publishers regardless of their previous plans or announcements around Steam.”

We've had a lot of discussions about this since GDC. Epic is open to continuing to sign funding / exclusivity deals with willing developers and publishers regardless of their previous plans or announcements around Steam.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 1, 2019

Epic said the Metro Exodus controversy, in which the game was removed from Steam and could only be played on Valve’s platform by those who preordered, was something it wanted to avoid in the future.

Referring to Allison’s comments about Metro Exodus, Sweeney said “This prompted further discussions at Epic, leading to the realization that these calls must be up to developers and publishers, and Epic wouldn’t tell them “no” on account of existing statements made about Steam.”

It was confirmed yesterday that Borderlands 3 would also be a timed Epic Games Store exclusive. We can expect to see plenty more games follow this same path, despite the deals costing Epic a lot of money.

The Epic Games store earns a net profit on each transaction from its 12% store fee. Our average cost of transactions is under 12%.

Our up-front investments in exclusives and free games are significant and may exceed net profits from third-party games in 2019.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 3, 2019

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79506-epic-exclusivity-deals-continue-even-if-game-already.html

 

[JamesJamesJames]

Seeing as I don't buy PC games unless they are on sale this won't affect me. Though I do much prefer Steam.... That said Steam should just get on with it and match the share of profits Epic is offering.. As soon as they do this crap will end...

 

[Fearghast]

I do not mind, I have around 1000 games I have to play on Steam already. I do not mind waiting.
I hope Epic can force Steam to make some changes to its store and player support as it's pretty much a wild west when it comes to crap in Steam store.
I probably won't ever buy something on Epic, but I still hope it can bring something good as an influence (like more money to developers).

 

[RedGuard]

I don't care either way. The only thing I'm using within Steam is the play button. As long as any other store app has a "Play game" button, I'm good.

 

[TomSEA]

I think they're digging themselves a grave. As the article mentioned, they're going to lose a lot of money using this route. I'm not sure what's driving their train of thought.

 

[Puiu]

They'll just see an influx of users early and then once they stop doing so many exclusives people will abandon the platform. This is not sustainable.

 

[MaitieS]

I think they're digging themselves a grave. As the article mentioned, they're going to lose a lot of money using this route. I'm not sure what's driving their train of thought.

I think that Epic Store deal is really a good one because we already saw Metro Exodus boycott and they still accepted deal. I am not protecting Epic Store but I hope that Steam will do something too. With good competition we can only win-win but people are acting like we are losing... With only Valve on the market Valve would stick with 30% TAX etc. when Epic Store announced their TAX price Valve in less than 1-2 week(s) changed tax too. With Epic Store, Steam can evolve to even greater gaming platform. Till now Steam was just afking... check on redesign. They were working on it for 3 years and it is pure garbage and needs another one. Steam Mobile app still didn't receive any updates and I am not even talking about first version which didn't receive update for YEARS. etc. etc. Steam/Valve has a lot of errors but everyone is ignoring it...

 

[hahahanoobs]

Seeing as I don't buy PC games unless they are on sale this won't affect me. Though I do much prefer Steam.... That said Steam should just get on with it and match the share of profits Epic is offering.. As soon as they do this crap will end...

Competition is great isn't it?

 

[m4a4]

If it's announced (and preorders are up) for Steam, then they should follow through for the players. I fault both Epic for the anti-player practice, and the pubs/devs for taking them up on it.
If it wasn't up on other platforms already, then I don't care.

 

[indiferenc]

Get that forced platform exclusivity OUT OF PC GAMING. save that for the console peasants. fuq epic and fuq tim sweeney

 

[Nobina]

This might not be a good idea in the long run. Epic looks like the bad guy to the public and I've already heard many people on the internet saying they won't buy a game if it's on Epic. There's that spyware fiasco and now this.

 

[brucek]

So Epic is flushing their own money down the drain, so that I won't be willing to buy a game until six months later once it is on my preferred portal, by which time it will be at a discounted price.

So Epic loses cash, the publisher loses cash, and the game is delayed.

Thanks a lot Epic.

 

[ghostf1re]

I've got no problem waiting for a game. I have no interest in the Epic Games Launcher.

 

[Lew Zealand]

So no Forza Horizon 4 players here, then?

 

[dogofwars]

Oh well they can take their game with a big cactus up in the Sweeney. There is always the "free" market.

 

[fadingfool]

Doesn't sound like Epic are doing this so developers get to keep more of their income - this is now becoming a direct attempt to force customers onto their platform. I would like to see some actual figures for Metro Exodus v Last light (including total unit sales and player base) - and I hope devs (well publishing houses) remember 70% of a lot is more than 85% of f'all.
I probably would have bought BL3 on day 1 (or even pre-ordered) but instead I think I'll wait.

 

[gamerk2]

Not touching the Epic launcher ever; there's already evidence its scanning local PCs to find out whats installed.

This is nothing more then Epic throwing Fortnite money around to try and build a platform through exclusivity.

 

[Lounds]

Doesn't sound like Epic are doing this so developers get to keep more of their income - this is now becoming a direct attempt to force customers onto their platform. I would like to see some actual figures for Metro Exodus v Last light (including total unit sales and player base) - and I hope devs (well publishing houses) remember 70% of a lot is more than 85% of f'all.
I probably would have bought BL3 on day 1 (or even pre-ordered) but instead I think I'll wait.

Agreed they will just up their prices to appease shareholders and investors once they gain majority share of the market. Meanwhile Steam is for the PC community and games developers in general if you ask me, Steam is a free platform and that 30% pays for the up keep and expansion of their services in my opinion.

 

[JamesJamesJames]

Seeing as I don't buy PC games unless they are on sale this won't affect me. Though I do much prefer Steam.... That said Steam should just get on with it and match the share of profits Epic is offering.. As soon as they do this crap will end...

Competition is great isn't it?

It is when it's done correctly

 

[hahahanoobs]

It is when it's done correctly

Be patient. Give it time.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

And my friends wonder why I dont trust Epic or tim sweeny with my CC info or game purchases.

They cant keep any of their stances. Who knows what they are mining on you, how poor their security systems are, or what shady **** Tim is doing int he background? This is, of course, ignoring the anti-competitive nature of paid exclusives and cutting margins and profits in the name of "competition".

Seeing as I don't buy PC games unless they are on sale this won't affect me. Though I do much prefer Steam.... That said Steam should just get on with it and match the share of profits Epic is offering.. As soon as they do this crap will end...

Competition is great isn't it?

It's interesting, somebody comes into a market and uses slimy underhanded tactics, and the consumers call it "competition".

If valve came in and gave a 100% cut to all developers, would you call this competition, even though it is completely unsustainable and only serves to take control of a market?

This is called predatory pricing, and it is what Epic is doing, offering their services while not making money or even loosing money in an attempt to take a majority share of the market. It is also, by definition, a anti-competitive action. Watch, once EPIC cuts out a big enough piece of the pie, those prices will shoot back up.

 

[hahahanoobs]

And my friends wonder why I dont trust Epic or tim sweeny with my CC info or game purchases.

They cant keep any of their stances. Who knows what they are mining on you, how poor their security systems are, or what shady **** Tim is doing int he background? This is, of course, ignoring the anti-competitive nature of paid exclusives and cutting margins and profits in the name of "competition".

It's interesting, somebody comes into a market and uses slimy underhanded tactics, and the consumers call it "competition".

If valve came in and gave a 100% cut to all developers, would you call this competition, even though it is completely unsustainable and only serves to take control of a market?

This is called predatory pricing, and it is what Epic is doing, offering their services while not making money or even loosing money in an attempt to take a majority share of the market. It is also, by definition, a anti-competitive action. Watch, once EPIC cuts out a big enough piece of the pie, those prices will shoot back up.

I think their tactics are exciting to be honest. Something good will come out of it. Give it time.

 

[DubiousFishHook]

I have 8 launcher stores = gog galaxy, steam, epic, bethesda, paradox, ea origin, uplay, battle.net (and RIP Stardock Impulse) I also have games on gamersgate & humblebundle but they have no launcher. it works out fine for me even tho im poor & a half-pirate.

 

[Duke Sparrow]

Steam should really step up and do something about this. The 30 percent cut seems fine to me since it's pretty much industry standard. If 30 percent is way out of line for Steam, then why does no one complain about Apple and others charging the same if not more to host apps, services, and games? Regardless of the percentage though, Steam can't allow this to go on as it is. Maybe they should write up some kind of agreement/contract that imposes penalties on a company if they put their game up on Steam in a pre-release state and then later decide to move it over onto Epic store exclusively. I mean, these game publishers are really abusing the Steam platform to generate buzz about their games, then taking them down and moving to Epic before launch. In some cases, technical issues people encounter with games they downloaded through Epic are being discussed and solved on Steam's platform/forums because Steam allows it. Then these companies complain to Steam about so-called "review-bombs." Maybe the publishers would happier if Steam simply removed their games from the service altogether....