Epic’s $115 million gamble on Borderlands 3’s timed PC exclusivity paid off handsomely

I’ve got a feeling that more video game companies should sue one another because the details coming out of the current Epic V Apple: Dawn of Legal Ruckus has been nothing but a goldmine for juicy stories. Here’s an interesting one for you, born from court documents that reveal just how serious Epic is about putting its money where its mouth is.

In the lasciviously-titled document “Epic Games Store: Review of Performance and Strategy, October 25, 2019”, it was revealed that the company paid Take Two Interactive and Gearbox a staggering $115 million for the timed exclusivity PC launch of Borderlands 3 on the Epic Games Store. As part of this deal, there was a minimum guarantee of $80 million for the game that Epic would pay, regardless of whether the game flopped on launch.

It obviously didn’t, and even though the grand total went up to $115 million due to Civilization and the HD collection of the older Borderlands games being bundled in as free games on the store, it was still a ballsy move for Epic that resulted in more handsome gains than a homicidal CEO named Jack. Epic recouped its $80 million investment just two weeks after Borderlands 3 launched, with 53% of buyers being brand-new visitors to its store. That meant that half of the Steam audience that would have bought the game on that platform, jumped ship to Epic for Borderlands 3.

Now that’s clever investment with long-term planning in mind.

It’s a huge figure in an industry that has had no shortage of mega-deals made lately, but one that Epic could easily afford. As revealed during the current court case that started with screaming children interrupting the proceedings, Fortnite alone made Epic Games more than $9 billion from 2018-2019. With its fingers in many other pies as well, such as a recent acquisition of Artstation, Epic’s able to easily fund its game store even though it knows that it won’t be profitable for a good number of years still.

Last Updated: May 5, 2021