Valve recently updated its Steam revenue sharing terms to give more to developers – provided they were bringing in millions and millions of Dollars to Valve’s ubiquitous platform. That new split gives Valve between 30 and 20 percent of the game’s income – meaning developers and publishers get between 70 and 80 percent.
Fortnite and Gears of War developer Epic Games is launching its own digital platform that’ll see devs walk away with 88% of the revenue.
“As a developer ourselves, we have always wanted a platform with great economics that connects us directly with our players,” Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement. “Thanks to the success of Fortnite, we now have this and are ready to share it with other developers.”
It’ll see every developer on their store – whether indie or mega publisher – get 88% of the revenue. On top of that, developers who release games on the store built using Epic’s own Unreal Engine 4 will have a portion of their engine licencing fees covered, out of Epic’s 12%.
“Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%.”
While developers are incentivised to use Unreal Engine, the store will be open to all engines.
“We’ve built this store and its economic model so that Epic’s interests are aligned with your interests. Because of the high volume of Fortnite transactions, we can process store payments, serve bandwidth, and support customers very efficiently. From Epic’s 12% store fee, we’ll have a profitable business we’ll grow and reinvest in for years to come!”
While the last thing PC gamers need is a new store and launcher, one that’s so developer-friendly might just be what the industry needs to shake up Valve’s dominance. That’s a company putting that Fortnite money to good use.
Last Updated: December 4, 2018
HvR
December 4, 2018 at 18:37
I hope this takes off because we know what this means.
STEAM VS EPIC STORE SALES WAR!!!!!!!!!
https://gph.is/2RVGS5D
Mark Treloar
December 5, 2018 at 06:13
Problem is EPIC’s launcher is terrible. There is no proper backup system in place for games so re-installing means downloading the entire game from scratch
HvR
December 5, 2018 at 10:13
Agree there also it can be slow AF when it wants to be.
But I expect it to get a complete overhaul since it is an Epic Games launcher not a open store client.
Captain JJ
December 5, 2018 at 13:09
And Steam is a community, not just a store front. That makes all the difference to me. I get all the info and support right there in one place. Hell, there’s even support for games that aren’t even on Steam.
Honestly, EPIC’s launcher does nothing for me but fall into a bin of “extra useless clients” that I’ll never install or use.
Pariah
December 5, 2018 at 13:24
Steam’s user reviews ensure that I don’t want to take part in that community. I rather find the specific communities I want to engage with via other methods. Find references on reddit, then move to the better places from there. Twitch is another great place for info and support in a close-knit community. Just don’t go watch those idiot large streamers like Ninja.
10/10 times it’s better than Steam.
Captain JJ
December 5, 2018 at 16:38
Yea well the reviews is a different story altogether. I get that.
Streamers don’t interest me much. I prefer to read the details and specs of a game into the finest details before I invest in it.
Pariah
December 5, 2018 at 17:35
Fair enough 🙂
Mark Treloar
December 5, 2018 at 14:01
Ease of use is more important for me, I don’t really engage with the community side of things. While I hate to say it Steam can learn a lot about ease of use from both uPlay and Blizzard.
Captain JJ
December 5, 2018 at 16:41
For me all those features of steam is part of ease of use. Because it makes my buying decisions easier.
I’m not interested in using the blizz app, they have nothing that interests me. Uplay is fine, I have no issues, but it’s just a big storefront with some space for your games in the back. Nothing impressive, nothing helpful.
I’d say GOG goes second for me after Steam.
Developer clients don’t mean much to me because it’s just extra clutter for one or two exclusive games.
HvR
December 6, 2018 at 08:57
GOG is fine for Old game, GOG games still receiving updates are a HUGE PITA.
Updates are only available weeks after release, lots of the times there isn’t patches available or there are patches they do not work or break your installation so it means a complete download and re-installation.
Also GOG’s support from the GOG itself is close to non-existent
Also had to uninstall Galaxy since it causes crashes in 2 of my GOG games
HvR
December 6, 2018 at 08:57
GOG is fine for Old game, GOG games still receiving updates are a HUGE PITA.
Updates are only available weeks after release, lots of the times there isn’t patches available or there are patches they do not work or break your installation so it means a complete download and re-installation.
Also GOG’s support from the GOG itself is close to non-existent
Also had to uninstall Galaxy since it causes crashes in 2 of my GOG games
Captain JJ
December 6, 2018 at 10:40
I’ve never actually needed to use gog support, so I really don’t know, but that sucks.
Most of my gog games are old ones. I buy everything else on Steam. So they’re mostly small and if an update does require a full download it’s only two or three minutes to wait. But I can understand the frustration if it’s a big new game.
Though I haven’t had these issues…which could of course also just be because I don’t use gog very often.
G8crasha
December 5, 2018 at 09:32
I was thinking along the same lines!!! More competition generally leads to better prices for us as the consumer!
Skittle
December 5, 2018 at 07:13
FFS, another store!
Kromas
December 5, 2018 at 07:29
Store has been there since before Origin but mainly for Unreal engine assets.
Pariah
December 5, 2018 at 08:30
Yeah the client has been around forever. It’s been better than Uplay since inception. Still holds true.
Kromas
December 5, 2018 at 07:31
This is why I keep saying screw CDPR. Epic is the best dev/publisher out there.
Pariah
December 5, 2018 at 08:30
It’s in their name, after all. Epic. ;P
Brian
December 5, 2018 at 07:42
Will there be any AAA games to sell besides their own if every publisher makes their own client? It’s developer friendly, but not consumer friendly. We now have launchers for; Epic, Steam, Origin, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Microsoft, Discord, Twitch, itch.io, Humble Bundle and Bethesda. This is a good preview of what streaming services are going to look like in a few years.
Geoffrey Tim
December 5, 2018 at 07:53
you’re damned right, with regards to streaming. It’s getting ugly – and I know I sure as hell can;t afford to sub to a million different services.
HvR
December 5, 2018 at 10:17
What gets me excited that it is an new open store and client. It can potentially lead to reduction in publisher clients and stores
Captain JJ
December 5, 2018 at 13:02
There are a lot of games I don’t play and never will thanks to the stupid amount of clients. And honestly it doesn’t bother me.
Pariah
December 5, 2018 at 13:29
What I find a little funny about this argument is how games used to be before Steam. We used to run each game separately. If we wanted anything organised, we’d have to make a folder, add shortcuts, and then add a shortcut to the shortcut folder. Or clog up our desktop. Every single game was its own client. 20 games? 20 separate shortcuts. Or 100 games and 5 clients. I don’t know, which is worse?
Having a few clients to run a multitude more games seems reasonable to me. Steam has dominated the market for too long, so I for one will be glad to see games on Epic’s client.
CrAiGiSh
December 5, 2018 at 13:47
Time to develop a Battle Royale that will hook kids for days … XD
G8crasha
December 5, 2018 at 09:32
So, do we have Fortnite to thank for this?
“Because of the high volume of Fortnite transactions, we can process store payments, serve bandwidth, and support customers very efficiently.”
Craig Lotter
December 5, 2018 at 10:28
Yup, I would think very much so. In any event, it is exactly what Valve did, building on Half Life’s big popularity to launch Steam back in the day.
Captain JJ
December 5, 2018 at 13:04
I had to google to see what games Epic has. So this means nothing to me.
The whole income thing is also bs. That’s a simple contract with Steam. Nothing’s set in stone. These things can change at year-end in an instant if Steam feels like burying Epic.
Geoffrey Tim
December 5, 2018 at 17:36
Valve couldn’t remotely afford to buy Epic. Valve is estimated to be worth between 4 and 10 billion us. by the end of this year, Epic will reportedly be worth 8.5bn.
Captain JJ
December 6, 2018 at 08:00
Impressive. Yea, look I’m not saying Epic isn’t a big deal. For a lot of gamers they are. I wouldn’t think Valve would bother buying someone like Epic.
But I get what you’re saying.
I just don’t think that difference in dev income split is such a game changer (puns aside), though of course to some bigger guys it could mean a lot. But if it does put pressure on Valve, they can always adjust theirs. I think people saying this is going to be a big knock to Steam are overreacting a bit.
CrAiGiSh
December 5, 2018 at 13:47
Time to develop a Battle Royale that will hook kids for days … XD