Epic Games Store changes approach to exclusives

From the outside, it looks like the pace of exclusive games has slowed down to Epic Games Store. In principle, the company confirms this, but does not stop at this strategy. She just focused on quality, not quantity. According to CEO Tim Sweeney, he’s after big fish.

Epic has evaluated the strategy for now. He found out that a few exclusive games have the potential to change the market and force players to sign up for the Epic Games Store., i.e. buy the game there. But it doesn’t work for small games.

One of the successful exclusives was a comic shooter Borderlands 3. The result had to exceed the expectations of the developers and the publisher. Epic promises a lot from the projects it funds. Specifically from psychological horror Alan Wake 2 from the Finnish studio Remedy, a new game from the authors of the studio Limba play dead and a mysterious name from the studio GenDesignwhich was created by The Last Guardian.

These games will be exclusive for a long time to come, said Steve Ellison, general manager of Epic Games, in an interview with PC Gamer. From this we can conclude that it will be more than a year. Among them there will be other names. Epic is preparing about 14 of them.

Allison revealed another interesting fact. He wasn’t specific but he said yes some publishers grant games exclusivity on the Epic Games Store without any agreement.. They say they just want to make more money and release the game later on Steam. That’s why Rockstar had to introduce Red Dead Redemption 2 on Epic a few weeks before Steam.

They will be added to the big exclusive games. free games. Epic intends to continue giving them away until at least the end of 2023. She launched this strategy in 2019 and intends to keep it weekly. Last year alone, he gave away 99 games worth $2,240. Players have activated 700 million copies.

This is a big news for this year. tools that will allow developers to self-publish games on the Epic Games Store. The tools have been in beta for a long time and should now be available to all stakeholders. At the same time, more games should appear in the store. Epic continues to take only 12% commission, with the remaining 88% going to developers/publishers. Rival Valve usually takes 30% on Steam and lowers the commission when the game reaches certain sales milestones.

Epic Games Store presents attractiveness, especially for free games with microtransactionsi. If they use their own payment system, they don’t have to pay anything to Epic. This is used, among others, by Riot Games.

The registration fee for one game is $100. Steam also requires the same amount. If the game has multiplayer, it must support it. cross play with all stores that sell the PC version. They are also needed epic achievementsif the game has achievements on other platforms.

Epic prohibits the publishing of games that infringe copyright, contain illegal content, and contain malware. As well as hateful or discriminatory content, pornography, and adult-rated games only.

• In 2022, the number of PC users on the Epic Games Store exceeded 230 million.
• As of December 2022, there were 68 million active users.
• Epic has 725 million accounts across all platforms.
• PC gamers spent $820 million in the store (2% less than last year).
• $355 million spent by gamers on partner PC games (up 18% year over year)
• In 2022, 99 games were given away, worth $2,240, and were activated 700 million times.
• The average rating of all free games was 75%.

Mythical

• Genshin Impact
• rocket league
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderland
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Fortnite

Legendary

• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• autumn boys
• Sifu
• saints row

Epic

• valiant
• Borderlands 3
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Evil Dead: The Game
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Dying Light 2 Stay Human
• FIFA 23
• Far Cry 6
• Dead by daylight

More highlights in a clear infographic here.