The news that has surprised us all is that Epic Games increases its ecosystem of services by launching its own game store . In this way they enter into direct competition with Steam. Recall that Epic Games is behind games as famous as Fortnite and owns the Unreal Engine.
We do not know if your store will be able to compete with Steam, as it is already well established among users. But the truth is that the launch of the Epic Games Store can be a before and after for players and developers.
The formula of the Epic Games Store to attract developers and customers is to improve their profit margin.
It seems a risky move the launch of an online game store, but charging only a commission of 12% is an improvement over other stores . We do not know if it is chance, but there are several factors that have led to the launch of this store. First of all it will be backed by Fortnite, one of the most successful games of 2018 with over 200 million users.
The second factor is related to Steam, who has decided to modify its commission policies to publish games on its platform. In general terms the commissions have fallen on Steam, but depending on the volume of sales affect very negatively indie developers. This decision has caused quite a stir and many have already shown their dissatisfaction.
What benefits does a developer carry in Epic Games Store?
They have made it very easy to understand, in Epic Games Store the developer will take 88% of the revenue generated by the game's sales . In this way the commission they would take is 12%. The most interesting part is that this percentage of profit is constant, it does not depend on whether a game has more or less sales.
You can see the following comparison image that shows the differences with Steam.
Can Fortnite be responsible for this decision?
Behind the great success of Fornite may be that is one of the reasons that has driven Epic Games to launch its own store. Recall that when the version of Fortnite for mobile was released, they totally dispensed with Google Play to avoid paying Google for each purchase made within the app .
Despite this risky decision, the game was and remains a success. This has been a turning point for the company, encouraging the team to launch this new online store.
Features of the Epic Games Store.
This new proposal, in addition to better profit margins, offers new features to both users and developers . First of all there is the use of DRM in the games, which will be totally optional . It will be the developer himself who will decide whether to implement it or not.
Youtubers and streamers will be an important part of the project.
We can no longer ignore that there are very influential people with millions of followers on their YouTube channels or during the broadcasts of their streaming games. For a new project Epic Games has wanted to have your collaboration to get in touch with the developers. This will allow to expose worldwide new games that arrive at the store.
The videogame pages will be managed by the developer himself.
Within the platform each video game will have a dedicated page that will be managed by the developer. An important note is that there will be no ads for other games or advertising on these pages .