Epic Games' "throw everything at the wall until something sticks" approach continues as it tries to throw money at its problems to compete with Steam.
In a revolutionary new strategy, the Epic First Run, the Epic Games Store is now offering developers, not just a slice of the pie, but the entire cake - 100% of a game's sales revenue for the first six months. The only catch? All they have to do is to launch their game exclusively on the platform.
Between Steam's 30% cut on sales on games with less than $10 million in revenue and Epic Games Store's normal 12% revenue cut, this seems like a no-brainer, or is it?
Epic Games' new program isn't just about the financial allure. Developers who launch their products under the First Run umbrella will also bask in promotional support, including but not limited to "exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections." These products will find themselves highlighted in Epic's storefront campaigns, from sales and events to relevant editorial features.
To qualify, the game mustn't launch (or have already launched) on any other third-party PC storefront or any streaming service. Console releases, however, remain exempt from this clause. After the golden period of six months, Epic will then revert to its original 88/12% revenue split. Notably, developers can still parallelly release their products on in-house launchers or platforms that support Epic's keyless redemption program.
