The Epic Game Store should Steam be undercut. That costs the company behind Fortnite millions. Is that profitable? Apparently not, as the CEO revealed on the witness stand.
What is the situation? The Epic Game Store launched on December 6, 2018. Since then, no expense has been spared to snatch a piece of the PC gaming pie from the leading platform Steam:
- Epic invests a lot of money in exclusive titles, like currently Alan Wake 2
- In August, the program
Epic First Run
was launched, which was quite a clear attack on Steam - Additionally, there are weekly free games – until November 9, 2023, you can currently secure Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
All these efforts seem to not pay off so far, as The Verge reports, the Epic Game Store is still in the red almost 5 years later.
Alan Wake 2 is the current blockbuster that Epic managed to secure exclusively.
CEO testifies under oath that the store is not doing well
Where does the information come from? Epic, the company behind Fortnite and the Epic Game Store, is currently in a legal battle with Google regarding fees on in-game purchases in the Google Play Store. At the start of the trial on Monday, November 6, 2023, both sides delivered opening statements.
Subsequently, the first witnesses were heard. Steve Allison, the head of the Epic Game Store, testified under oath that the Steam competitor is still not profitable even 5 years after launch. The goal remains growth.
In 2021, during a similar legal battle with Apple, a document from October 2019 became known. According to it, they had hoped through an aggressive strategy (“Aggressive Pursuit Model”) to secure a market share of 50% in PC games, should Steam not respond.
According to Allison’s statement, Epic seems far from that goal at the moment.
The lack of profit seems to be having an effect on Epic. While they were optimistic about making a profit in 2023 in 2021, the situation now appears more tense. At the end of September, there was a major wave of layoffs, accompanied by a completely inappropriate emote:
Steam rival Epic lays off 830 employees, sells a money shower in Fortnite on the same day
