Following the news that MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is being delayed and will be a one year exclusive to the Epic Games Store, many fans were upset that the game will be exclusive to the Epic Store. Piranha Games president Russ Bullock talked up why they decided to go exclusive to Epic, for a year.

Bullock noted the cut Valve gets by hosting games on Steam has been 30%, which combined with the 5% Piranha would have to give to Epic for using Unreal Engine, would in total mean they’re losing 35% of their revenue from the get-go, in a recent No Guts No Galaxy Podcast (via Polygon).

In comparison, going with an Epic Games Store-exclusive release means they will only have to give Epic the 12% revenue cut as per all games released on their Store, without the extra 5% they’d have to pay for licensing Unreal Engine separately on a Steam release. Bullock noted if they hit their goal of 1 million sales, releasing on Epic first, exclusively, would rake in an extra $9 million.

Another note Bullock made was that due to the popularity and volume of games on Steam, it’s easy to get buried in their store and new releases. While a new release on Steam can be buried in a day or even hours, Bullock hopes to see MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries highlighted on the smaller, less crowded Epic Games Store for an entire month.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is launching for Windows PC on December 10th. via the Epic Games Store.