The Epic Chef Tim Sweeney explains that in the future, they would forgo exclusive deals in the Epic Store, but Steam must cooperate. If Valve lowers their share from 30% to 12%, Epic is even considering bringing their own games, like Fortnite, to Steam.
What does the Epic Chef say? Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, tweeted that Epic would stop pursuing exclusive deals for the Epic Games Store if Steam provided developers and publishers on the platform with 88% of the revenue. And that without major conditions.
Then they would even bring their own games to the Steam Store.
This move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming and would have a significant impact on other platforms in the coming generations.
Source: Tim Sweeney on Twitter
The addition “without major conditions” means for Sweeney that
- the games have access to all online systems like friends or accounts
- games can interact across different platforms and stores
- the store does not receive revenue from other platform stores
- purchases made in a platform’s store can be used anywhere
What is it about? On Twitter, the topic of exclusive deals in the Epic Store came up again. Therefore, certain games are (temporarily) only available for purchase in the Epic Store and not on Steam, for example. Like Borderlands 3.
Sweeney says that these deals would stop if Steam did not collect 30% of the revenue from publishers and developers in the Steam Store, but only 12%, with the remaining 88% going to the creators. Just like it’s done in the Epic Store.
At Steam, it is structured. Developers receive at least 70% of the revenue from sales of their content. If certain sales figures are reached, 75% or even up to 80% of the revenue goes to the developers.
That Steam collects 30% of the revenue from sales in the Steam Store is the “#1 problem for PC developers, publishers and anyone who uses these businesses for their livelihood,” says Sweeney on Twitter. “We are determined to fix this and this is the only approach that will bring about significant change.”
According to him, Valve is currently like the tax authority for developers.
A major insider report on Epic Games and Fortnite has now made the rounds. It’s about 100-hour weeks
