Not content with just fighting Apple in courts, Epic continues to battle Valve in the PC gaming storefront arena – which, you may have noticed, is still dominated by Steam.
Epic boss Tim Sweeney admitted last month that "the Epic Games launcher is clunky." In the company's Unreal Fest demonstration today, Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison agreed that "even after years of building the store on PC, we know there's still a ton of work to be done to deliver a world-class experience."
"Long overdue" features are on their way, Allison said. Years after launch, the Epic Games Store is "finally" getting game preloading in September. Epic is also looking to add gifting "in time for the holidays."
New Epic Games Store social features coming this year also promise "game-independent voice chat, text chat, and parties, along with robust game invites for third-party games." Yes, the store has not had all of these features for several years.
"We're also putting great focus on ongoing launcher improvements that will make the store feel great to use," Allison added (my hottest tip: remember my freakin' login!).
When and how Epic may finally deliver these improvements, or better address the gulf in game discoverability, which is one of Steam's biggest advantages, remains to be seen.
I'll tell you one thing Epic can definitely do better than Valve: light money on fire.
I say that cynically, but Epic's 'money is going out of fashion' strategy is great for game developers, as well as PC gamers who enjoy collecting free games like Pokemon, and it's demonstrably offering a better cut than Steam's revenue share model. To bring you up to speed on all the rules, recently announced changes, and offers:
- Devs pay 0% in store fees on the first $1 million of revenue per year, per game (app) as of this month
- Epic First Run also gives devs 100% of their first six months of revenue if they agree to Epic exclusivity for that period
- After these windows close, devs return to Epic's standard 88/12 revenue split (Steam is still 70/30 at base, with better splits for higher-earning games)
- Through the end of 2025, devs also keep the first six months of revenue for "back catalog" games brought to the Epic Games Store
- Shipping an Unreal Engine game "day-and-date on the Epic Games Store" cuts the Unreal royalty from 5% to 3.5%
- Devs working in Unreal Engine pay 0% royalties on "all Epic Game Store sales where we process payment"
- Never missing a dig at apple, Epic stresses that devs can use any in-app purchase payment solution you want
Epic owns Unreal, as a reminder, which is part of the reason it has so much money to burn. Of course, the main reason is Fortnite. Allison says Epic has paid out over $2.1 billion to developer and publisher partners to date; in its 2024 reflection, Epic said it gave out nearly 595 million free games last year.
