Epic Games has defended its PC exclusive strategy. The publisher — which has launched the likes of Fortnite and Gears of War — has been paying for exclusive titles and taking on Steam with its own digital store, and now founder Tim Sweeney has had his say.
“We believe exclusives are the only strategy that will change the 70/30 status quo at a large enough scale to permanently affect the whole game industry,” he wrote on a Twitter thread.
“For example, after years of great work by independent stores (excluding big publishers like EA-Activision-Ubi), none seem to have reached 5% of Steam’s scale. Nearly all have more features than Epic; and the ability to discount games is limited by various external pressures.
Here’s a tweet storm on the topic of “Why Exclusives”? https://t.co/SZgD6OhuiQ
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 26, 2019
“This leads to the strategy of exclusives which, though unpopular with dedicated Steam gamers, do work, as established by the major publisher storefronts and by the key Epic Games store releases compared to their former Steam revenue projections and their actual console sales.”
The current revenue split is considered to be the standard in the industry, but Epic’s store only takes 12%, meaning 88% goes to publishers and developers.
He added that while he sees a benefit to gamers too, there are “challenges” ahead when it comes to working on the details.
“So I believe this approach passes the test of ultimately benefitting gamers after game storefronts have rebalanced and developers have reinvested more of the fruits of their labour into creation rather than taxation,” he continued.
“Of course, there are LOTS of challenges along the way, and Epic is fully committed to solving all problems that arise for gamers are for our partners as the Epic Games store grows.”
