Epic Games Launches Steam Competitor with Huge Dev Payouts and Free Games
Epic Games has been the talk of the town with their larger than life gaming sensation, Fortnite. Huge streamers are featuring it on their streams alongside actors, athletes, and other superstars. Parents are also spending big bucks on Fortnite coaches for their kids, further feeding into the hype beast that Epic Games has created. Gamers just can’t get enough Fortnite content. But even after a year where Epic Games saw profits top out at more than $3 billion, the company continues to push for the next big thing. With a ton of talk about how Steam either needs a complete overhaul or needs a competitor to knock them off their pedestal, Epic Games capped off 2018 with their announcement to launch the Epic Games Store and compete directly with Steam. Learn more about how Epic plans to outplay Steam at their own game by reading the article below.
Epic Games Store Launch
Epic Games’ Billionaire Founder Tim Sweeney made the stunning announcement of the Epic Games Store on December 4th, 2018, detailing a new platform that is focused on putting indie developers who use Unity and Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) front and center, paying them handsomely in the process. The new model that the Epic Games Store operates under is highly lucrative for developers as the revenue split is much higher in their favor (88% for Developers vs 12% for Epic) compared to Steam (70% for Developers vs 30% for Steam). This 18% revenue increase might be enough to sway indie developers with a sizeable social following to the platform, thereby taking market value away from Steam little by little.
But Epic isn’t stopping with developers. No siree Bob. They’re doubling down on gamers looking to sample free games on their platform. The Epic Games Store gave away alien ocean survival adventure Subnautica for free up until December 27 and now they’re offering up the 2010 classic indie title, Super Meat Boy. You’re probably asking “Ok, where’s the catch?” There is none. Seriously, you don’t have to sign up for a subscription or anything.
So, what’s in it for the developers who offer their game for free? Well, visibility for one. Which, in the case of Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat’s free game offering on the Epic Games Store, it is. This massive hit crossed the one million game sales threshold roughly 15 months after its release (that was 7 years ago so do the math on that one). What this giveaway does for Team Meat is give them a chance to plug the long-awaited, upcoming release of its sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever.
Wrap Up
Currently, the Epic Games Store is set up to promote only PC and Mac games, but recent reports revealed that the platform will start selling Android games in 2019. This move makes more sense for Epic’s long-term sustainability as the margins are much higher due to in-app monetization features that most apps have built into their design. With app stores accounting for roughly 5% of Apple and Google’s total revenue, it might be difficult to rub shoulders with these giants, but Epic is definitely digging in its heels for the long-term, while they continue to use Fortnite’s success as their harpoon to slay the mighty Moby Dick (Steam).
