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After the Steam War, Epic Games Challenges Publishers
Butcher79
Epic Games Publishing appears to be striving to have "the most developer-friendly environment in the game dev industry."
Epic is now a multi-platform publisher, announcing a new label, Epic Games Publishing, today. Just as it did when it was revealed that they were cramming into the digital store business, the company promises to do things a little differently, so it can be extremely attractive to developers.
Under the new publishing label, Epic is already planning to release games from the developers of The Last Guardian, Limbo and Control. Remedy has already worked with Epic since Control is exclusive to its store until at least August, but as a publisher, it will be responsible for more than just distribution.
According to Epic, it will cover up to 100 percent of development costs, including salaries, quality control, localization and marketing, but developers won't have to give up ownership of their games or creative control in a deal. In terms of profit sharing, developers will receive at least 50 percent after Epic recoups the costs.
Publishing deals come in all sorts of flavors these days, especially with the advent of "independent publishers," but Epic's terms seem very generous. The promise of full creative control over developers, along with the preservation of their intellectual property, should look pretty enticing, and even more so if Epic offers to potentially cover all development and publishing costs. While some publishers may offer profit sharing that favors developers more, otherwise it looks like developers will come out on top.
"We're building the publishing model we've always wanted for ourselves when we've worked with publishers," said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. This is similar to what Sweeney said about the Epic Games Store, which is also being called a more developer-friendly deal.
However, as with Epic's store strategy, there is the question of sustainability. Epic spends money on exclusive launches and weekly free games to encourage people to install another platform, and last April Sweeney predicted that investments in freebies and exclusives will exceed the store's net income for the year. And that seems to have happened. In January, Epic announced that $680 million was spent on the store , but if you take into account Epic's 12 percent revenue split and the cost of exclusive deals, including over $10 million for Control , it doesn't look good.
Since Epic recoups its costs before splitting the profits with the developer, it may not be as much of a thrill as in the store, but the initial cost will be large. Also, it will be quite a while before he sees that payback, depending on how long development takes. I think it's good that they have all this Fortnite money.
Launching a publishing label probably won't be as frustrating or annoying as opening a competitor to Steam, but it still has the potential to shake things up. Epic absolutely makes a statement by showing off its terms, putting them front and center, and is sure to get a reaction.
Remedy also offered a few details about what he's working on with Epic. The agreement is actually for two games, the first of which is a "AAA multi-platform game" for which Remedy has already started pre-production. The second is set in the same universe, but will be smaller in scale. Both use Remedy's Northlight engine.
"The partnership expands Remedy's strategy to create and develop its own IP into long-term franchises," it says. statement . And we'll be able to get them on consoles and PC "in the next few years."
Expect more information about the publishing label, as well as its development and gaming partners, in the coming months. I'm especially interested to see how this will deal with PC platforms. Will Epic games only appear on their own store or will we see them on Steam, GOG and other places? At the very least, more likely exclusives seem likely, but Epic hasn't said anything about that yet.
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