Following the news that Epic Games was launching their own store, more games have been announced as coming exclusively to their store, or are quietly delaying and or canceling their Steam release.
While some games like Genesis Alpha One and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw will be timed exclusive on the Epic Games store, others are dropping Steam entirely for a totally exclusive release. Satisfactory, a game from Coffee Stain Studios, is now only coming to the Epic Games store.
Coffee Stain Studios dev Jace Varley noted in an update video that they did remove the Steam page, and that the Epic Store will be “the only place you’ll be able to get it”. He pledged to answer more questions in a later Q&A.
In comparison, Genesis Alpha One developer Team17 made a Steam post where they said the game will launch exclusive on the Epic Store next January. However, they did say the game “will not be launching on Steam on January 29th 2019”, leading us to think it’ll come to Steam later.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw developer Double Damage flat out confirmed the game will be exclusive to the Epic Games store for a year, after which it will become available “elsewhere.” Their decision to launch on Epic first was naturally the smaller cut they take, 12% compared to Valve’s 30% on Steam.
Double Damage said they hope Epic’s new 88/12 cut will be the “new standard,” and that as more developers do timed exclusive releases or full exclusive ones, it will make other digital distributors follow suit.
“We hope this is the start of establishing a new standard,” the developer said in a blog post. “Before Valve and the 70/30 split it was pretty darn rough to be an indie, both in terms of royalty share and in terms of the ability to sell things without a publisher. We can all thank Valve for using their leverage to make that happen, and usher in the era we have now. We think it’s safe to say that a large percentage of the games made today wouldn’t exist without it.
“Epic is using their leverage to push that even farther, to 88/12. That’s another whole strata of developers who can survive. The only way this gets any traction is with some exclusive content and we’re willing to be one of the canaries in the mineshaft.”
The list of games coming exclusively to the Epic Games store has been seemingly increasing with titles like Ashen, as well as the latest title from Supergiant Games, Hades. The former has a Steam page with a TBD release while the latter is available in Early Access, and only on the Epic store.
It remains to be seen how many games will delay or outright cancel their Steam releases. We’ll likely only get real clarification on a handful of titles, as the initial push for games on the Epic Games store will likely be a hush hush type of ordeal.
How do you guys feel about the Epic Games store? The current state of the Steam store? Do you think Epic will gain a lot of traction? Sound off in the comments below!
