The Epic Games Store is doubling down on exclusive deals with game developers and publishers to expand its PC platform. "We have more exclusives coming in the next two years than we have published to date," a company representative told PC Gamer.
The platform has continued to expand its list of exclusive games to compete with Steam by giving developers 88% of the revenue from sales. Notable exclusives on the platform include Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Fortnight, Hitman 3, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Rocket League, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, World War Z and Zombie Army 4: Dead War.
In 2019, Ubisoft announced that it planned to distribute its games via the Epic Games Store rather than Steam, becoming the first major third-party publisher to use the Epic Games Store. In a statement, Chris Early, Ubisoft's vice president for partnerships and revenue, described Steam as "unrealistic, the current business model that they have...It doesn't reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution."
In 2020, the Epic Games Store had over 160 million customers in 2020, up from 108 million the year before. Despite these numbers, spending on the platform remained flat with gamers shelling out $700 million, $265 million of which was for third-party titles.
In 2019, customers spent $680 million, with $251 million on third-party games. 90% of the sales on the platform came from time-limited exclusives. Even though Epic added 52 million new customers last year, overall spending only increased by $20 million, or $14 million for third-party games.
This year, Epic plans to add new features to its platform, including player profiles, game achievements, and a social overhaul, to improve the storefront’s efficiency. The platform also plans to continue giving away games for free each week, for the remainder of 2021.
"Much of the development work this year is centered on opening the store to developers that want to publish titles on the store. We want a smooth, seamless experience for developers looking to bring their titles to the Epic Games Store," a company spokesperson said.
Source: VG247