In a somewhat surprising move, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said that the Epic Games Store is willing to stop aggressively pursuing exclusivity deals… if Steam agrees to one condition. Throughout 2019, the Epic Games Store has already arranged numerous exclusive deals; ensuring that many new or upcoming games will be sold exclusively on their platform. (Usually for a minimum of one year.) If Steam wants them to stop, however, it seems that they only need to do one thing.
Epic Games Store Will Stop Going After Exclusives if Steam Matches Them
“If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached,” Tweeted Tim Sweeney; “Epic would hastily organise a retreat from exclusives (while honouring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam.”
The statement came as quite a surprise to many. Epic’s policy of pursuing exclusivity deals was a clear attempt to compete with Steam for the PC gaming market; a market which has become swiftly divided in the last six months. With even more upcoming games already pledged to exclusivity, that trend looks likely to continue. Steam, meanwhile, seems to have done very little to combat this tactic. The reason why Epic is so attractive to developers is that the company only takes a 12% cut of all game sales on their platform. Steam, on the other hand, takes anywhere from 20 – 30%.
“Such a move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming,” said Sweeney; “and would have a sweeping impact on other platforms for generations to come. Then stores could go back to just being nice places to buy stuff, rather than the Game Developer IRS.”
Fans may be surprised to see Sweeney taking this stance. The perception among many has been that the Epic Games Store was looking to undercut and displace Steam’s monopoly. However, this new statement suggests that the Store is happy to coexist with Steam, rather than supplant it, and is putting development studios first. It’s an interesting strategy, and it does make sense; after all, online retail platforms need a thriving games market to function. That market could theoretically thrive more if less of its revenue was being taken by those same retailers. Steam has yet to issue any sort of response, so fans will have to wait and see whether Steam is willing to change, or whether it will continue to do things as it always has.