Game developer Mike Rose stated on Twitter which platform his game “Let’s Build a Zoo” is sold on: According to him, a large part of the sales comes through Steam. The Epic Games Store accounts for only 1% of the sales. It has always been like this for him: Other PC platforms than Steam are not worth the effort.
What kind of game is it? Let’s Build a Zoo is a simulation game where you build a zoo. Its release was on November 5 for PC and Epic Games Store. It costs around €17 on Steam. The reviews are “very positive” – 89% of the written review reports praise the game.
Developer speaks openly about numbers and problems
This is what makes it special: The developer of the game, Mike Rose, deals openly and generously with the numbers of the game. Rose provides insights that we wouldn’t otherwise get:
- After just 7 days, the game has recouped its development costs – which is extremely pleasing for him
- He mentions that he thought his game would do better in Germany because the Germans love simulations. However, the Germans apparently have a problem with “pixel art” and would prefer more realistic graphics.
- Rose also mentions a problem: The game is very popular in Argentina, apparently because it is offered there at a low price and people from other countries can buy it cheaply as “Argentinians” via VPN.
“No PC platform other than Steam has ever been worth it for us”
What does he say about Steam? The most exciting statement for many is that he says: Only 1% of the sales came through the Epic Games Store.
When asked if it is worth developing for 1% of the user base, Rose replies:
“To be honest: No PC store other than Steam has ever been worth it for us to continue supporting the game there. That’s why we have dropped them in the past (like GoG) – It’s just too much stress to maintain a store with updates when sales inevitably go down.”
Mike Rose
Friends of Steam like to hear that.
This is how it’s discussed: With this statement, Rose captures the sentiment of many dedicated PC gamers. For a long time, there has been resentment against the Epic Games Store – for example, in forums like reddit.
They consider the store of the Fortnite developer to be problematic, as it only encourages players to play something there when he gives away games:
- “I would probably spend more time dealing with the Epic client if it weren’t so terrible. It just hurts me,” says a user on reddit.
- “Outer Wilds was the only game I ever bought on the Epic Store. And the day it came out on Steam, I bought it again and haven’t touched that terrible platform ever since,” says another reddit user.
- One on Twitter says: “Everyone only uses the Epic Store for the free games.”
One user also says that developer Rose is only advertising the Steam version of his game on social media. After that, he can’t complain that “Let’s build a Zoo” is performing so poorly in the Epic Store.
Epic Games Store struggles with exclusive titles against the “30%” problem
What’s behind this: Open rejection is an attitude towards the Epic Games Store that you often read. The Epic Games Store is criticized for not offering the many features of Steam and instead of improving the platform, it only lures with free games.
For many Steam fans, the Epic store is apparently an annoyance because Epic, through exclusive deals, partially keeps games from Steam away for months. They want to play their PC games on Steam, where they have their game collection, their achievements, and the familiar processes.
The head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, believes he can only challenge a dominant player like Steam through exclusive titles. He accuses platform providers like Valve, Apple, and Google of taking too high a share of revenue at 30%. Sweeney thinks this money is missing from gaming studios and hinders innovation.
Sweeney considers 12% shares for platform providers to be reasonable.
The discussion around exclusive titles that keep games away from Steam continues to boil up:
Game of the Year 2020 on Steam is really bitter for Epic Games Store
