Fortnite developer Epic Games just revealed its own digital storefront, favorably comparing its 12 percent cut to Steam’s 30 percent.<\/b>
\nEpic Games, the company behind the wildly successful Fortnite, today revealed it\u2019s opening its own digital game storefront. The new store will offer developers an 88 percent share of revenue, in contrast to Valve\u2019s industry-standard 70 percent.
Calling it a \u201cSteam rival\u201d would be more than just a trite comparison, as Epic\u2019s own announcement features a chart directly comparing the price cuts of its store vs Steam\u2018s. Epic is essentially pulling an \u201cAnything you can do, I can do better\u201d to the same store it scorned. Considering Fortnite is probably the most successful PC game to avoid Valve\u2019s store, Epic would probably know better than anyone what kind of grievances would make developers turn away from it.
As Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney points out, the company isn\u2019t exactly a novice when it comes to running a complex gaming economy:
Sweeney has gone on record to say the 30 percent cut was too much for both Valve and the Google Play Store, which is why he didn\u2019t release his game on either storefront. That seemed slightly self-serving when it was the profits of his own wildly successful game they would have been cutting into \u2014 \u201cOh really, you need more money, Tim?\u201d Now that his company is using that dissatisfaction to make a haven for Steam escapees, it looks slightly more principled in retrospect.
This time three or four years ago, I\u2019d have said the idea of anyone dethroning Valve would have been a little absurd, but that\u2019s no longer the daunting prospect it sounds like. Epic\u2019s not the only company chipping away at Valve\u2019s lead with a new storefront \u2014 Discord also launched one on its popular chat client. Blizzard\u2019s Battle.net is also starting to look like a viable alternative, as Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 are cleaning house on that platform.
That said, there are already cautionary tales about the importance of abandoning Steam\u2019s tools when you don\u2019t exactly have a great alternative in your own launcher \u2014 or at least that\u2019s what I think Fallout 76 is. Steam has also been tweaking its revenue-sharing metric, allowing games that bring in $10 million or more to share less of their profits. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if that move came in response to the successful franchises migrating away from Steam \u2014 though it\u2019s not without its problems, as indie developers who aren\u2019t likely to see that level of profit aren\u2019t pleased with the shift.
The first games available on the store have been curated by Epic, though it\u2019s being close-mouthed about what the games are. The store will be open to other developers sometime next year. In addition to its 12 percent cut, Epic\u2019s also offering to cover the 5 percent royalty for games that use the Unreal Engine, which it owns. It\u2019s also facilitating relationships with \u201ccreators,\u201d a.k.a. Twitch streamers and YouTubers, via a revenue sharing program that would let said creators keep a 5 percent cut of games sold via their promotion.
The store is set to launch on PC and Mac sometime soon, with more details coming at the Game Awards in a few days.
Announcing the Epic Games Store on Unreal Engine
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