Where revenue goes to when it comes to game development and digital retailers has often been a point of contention. Epic Games, the people behind behemoth moneymakerFortnite, is making it a focus with the launch of their own storefront.The company confirmed todaythat they are going forward with launching their own Epic Games Store.
The online store from Epic, which will compete alongside Valve’s Steam and EA’s Origin in offering third-party PC and Mac games, will have an 88/12 percent split between developers and Epic Games. This about matches a similar 88/12 split that Epicoffered over the summerfor the Unreal Engine Marketplace, which itself was an increase from the original 70/30 split.
In comparison, Steam has Valve take around 20 to 30 percent of revenue from developers. Epic’s recent philosophy may just give competitors a run for their money, quite literally. That philosophy extended to the company’s Support-A-Creator program forFortnite, which recently gota permanent extension. This program will expand to the Epic Games Store as a whole, allowing players to directly support creators from YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms.
Per Epic’s blog:
YouTube content creators, Twitch streamers, bloggers, and others are at the leading edge of game discovery. The 10,000-strong Epic Games Support-A-Creator program helps you reach creators, so they can help you reach players. If you opt to participate, creators who refer players to buy your game will receive a share of the revenue that you set (tracked by code or affiliate marketing link). To jumpstart the creator economy, Epic will cover the first 5% of creator revenue-sharing for the first 24 months.
Epic Games started off with a games launcher, but the company is hoping now to provide a marketplace that is friendly to developers, content creators, and players alike. Developers can directly reach out to players, players can support content creators, and developers can reward content creators for promoting their games to players.
It’s a symbiotic relationship that Epic Games is attempting to cultivate—and it’s all thanks to that sweet, sweetFortnitemoney. Speaking of, expectseason 7 ofFortniteto launch this week.
