Epic Games has announced that they are launching their own online store where the developers will get 88% share on game sales. Epic Games will keep the remaining 12% for themselves.
No other details about the store have been revealed so far such as the release date but Epic Games says that the store will launch soon. Initially, a limited number of games will be included in the store for PC and MAC however further games and more platform support will be added in 2019.
Epic Games founder and CEO, Tim Sweeny said
As a developer ourselves, we have always wanted a platform with great economics that connects us directly with our players. Thanks to the success of Fortnite, we now have this and are ready to share it with other developers
The store will be built into a new launcher for Fortnite which remains to be the only client which allows PC players to play Fortnite so PC Players will already get access to it. Apart from this, Epic Games will allow games of all platforms to be sold on their store. However, early titles to be made available on the store will be based on Unreal, Unity and other major engines.
Epic Games also stated that they will not take any profit from games that use Unreal Engine. Earlier, Epic Games also reduced its cut from sales of Unreal Store Assets which shows that Epic Games is trying its best to support the gaming industry. The 5% royalty fee for all game built in Unreal Engine will be waived off if the titles are sold through Epic Games’ store.
The store will also include Support-A-Creator program allowing developers to connect with creators and to bring exposure to smaller developers and creators. Epic Games is all set to close the gaps between the creators, developers and players through its store. According to Sweeney, Epic believes that developers should be rewarded accordingly for their efforts which is why they are going to give 88% revenue share back to them.
Epic Games’ store will directly compete with Steam which is currently the king of PC stores. However, Steam takes 30% cut from each sale and gives 70% back to the developers. This is a huge difference when compared directly with Epic Games Store’s 12% revenue share. Steam’s current revenue policy is also favoring bigger developers and indie developers are not happy about it.
Seems like Steam is about to be overthrown by Epic Game’s store when it comes out as it will be more developer friendly in many ways. Currently Steam will have the upper hand in terms of more games and a trusted brand establishment in the field but Fortnite has pushed Epic Games to the top and now Epic Games enjoys a very good reputation in the video game industry.
Currently a release date for the store is not known however it might not be too far away since Epic Games said that the store will launched soon. We will update the story when the release date is announced.
