Why a PC developer refused the security of Epic's exclusive offer

If you've followed the PC gaming space in recent months, you know that Epic has invested a lot of money to secure small and large exclusives for its Epic Games Store (EGS) on PC. But there is also a weak and growing trend of developers who publicly reject Epic's money and exclusivity conditions for a variety of reasons.

Rise of the industry The creator Alex Mochi, for example, said in a discordist conversation about Discord that "the agreement with Epic did not interest me" because "I want the greatest number of people to have access to the game" . SkateBIRD developer Megan Fox tweeted that Epic told him that they "focused on exclusives, and SkateBIRD Steam keys promised in his [KickStarter]so nah [on Epic Games Store availability]. " Factorio The Wube Software developers said in a blog post that any potential exclusivity deal would be considered a "big business sale that would use the game as a money grab while destroying the brand". Etc.

Independent developer Unfold Games is the latest to publicly deny an exclusive Epic offer for its dreamlike adventure game. DARQ. The team explained in more detail the decision made in a Medium article this weekend, explaining why "getting an upfront payment in addition to Guaranteed Income" from Epic was not enough to seduce them.

The main reason given by Unfold for rejecting this offer is quite simple: the game had just been listed on Steam at the time of Epic's offer and had already attracted much attention on the lists. wishes of Steam users. This kind of thing has not prevented games like Metro: Exodus, Division 2, and Shenmue III to jump to Epic long after the Steam ads were released. Still, Unfold said that "taking out the Steam game, especially so close to the release date, would surely make a lot of DARQ the unfortunate fans ".

The other reason for rejecting Unfold's exclusivity is more interesting, from the point of view of competition between platforms. According to the studio, Epic "has made it clear that the release of DARQ not exclusively [on the Epic Game Store] is not an option. "In other words, the only way to DARQ To enter EGS at this point was to sign an exclusive deal and stop offering the game on other PC platforms.

Unfolded shared screenshots of e-mail correspondence in which Epic proposed a one-year exclusivity term stating directly that "we are not yet able to open the store up to # 39, to [simultaneous shipment]"Epic representatives were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

The path of the epic or the highway

This type of "exclusive or nothing" offer for access to Epic Games Store is a little surprising, in this case. After all, there are many other games available on EGS and other stores, although many of them were available on Steam or other platforms well before the addition of games. an EGS option (often as a free gift sponsored by Epic). Great headlines coming as Cyberpunk 2077 will also launch on Epic Games Store alongside Steam and GOG next year, thus showing that exclusivity is not a strict requirement for access to EGS assets.

Epic has been pretty clear about his explicit strategy of keeping his selection of Games Store small and organized until now. This should change only later this year, when the company says it will open bids to all developers, rather than just the hand-picked partners it is currently reaching out to. Epic was apparently ready to make Unfold Games one of those handpicked partners, but only if the studio agreed to exclusive terms.

There is no doubt that many developers and publishers would be interested in listing their games on Epic Games Store alongside other platforms, if they could. After all, all the sales that the EGS list has cost to a showcase like Steam would leave more money to the video game maker, thanks to Epic's more generous revenue sharing terms.

The problem from Epic's point of view, however, is that there are currently not many reasons for players who have the choice to buy a game through Epic Games Store rather than through competition. Steam has the network effects that come with a near-monopoly of fact in the space, and a number of features that EGS does not offer yet. Competitors like GOG and Itch.io offer games to players without any digital rights management. New players such as the Kongregate Kartridge platform have unique features, such as the ability to win free games through in-game achievements.

On an equal footing, Epic does not offer many similar reasons for choosing its store rather than another. Lower prices could be one of the reasons, especially if multi-store developers decided to transfer some of Epic's revenue-sharing savings to customers. And while Epic says these low prices are coming, there is little sign that this is happening up to now.

Epic seems to be aware of all this and has been relatively straightforward with its strategy of using free games and exclusive deals to create a base of EGS players that can take on the Steam monster. "There are two ways to get users to something," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told Ars in March. "You can run Google and Facebook ads and pay them huge amounts of money, but we actually found that it was cheaper to pay the developers. [a lump sum] to distribute their game for free for two weeks … "Sweeney also said that Epic would stop buying exclusives if Steam felt compelled to start offering developers a better discount.

This is not a problem, and Epic deserves credit for not hiding his intentions. But DARQThis situation highlights how Epic considers exclusivity as the main differentiator of EGS at the moment. For many games, at least, if Epic can not have all the rights to himself, he does not want them at all.