Why don't publishers make games available for both Steam and Epic Store?

[Wyvernyx]

Won't they get more money this way?

[Wolf Knight]

steam and epic take different size cuts from the sale of games. also, epic is throwing money at game developers to get them to sell exclusively on epic for a time.

[Wyvernyx]

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

steam and epic take different size cuts from the sale of games. also, epic is throwing money at game developers to get them to sell exclusively on epic for a time.

Yes I know, but if they would make games available for both stores than they would get more money

[Deagle Trainee]

Originally posted by Juggy:

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

steam and epic take different size cuts from the sale of games. also, epic is throwing money at game developers to get them to sell exclusively on epic for a time.

Yes I know, but if they would make games available for both stores than they would get more money

That would depend on the gamers though. A lot of us dislike timed exclusives and/or are not interested in another launcher/store.

[Aachen]

Originally posted by Juggy:

Yes I know, but if they would make games available for both stores than they would get more money

That may not be the case in all circumstances.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Juggy:

Won't they get more money this way?

Many do. MOst do in fact.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by Juggy:

Won't they get more money this way?

Epic are bribing them not to and publishers are gambling on that bribe being enough to make up for the losses from only being on one store.

So far the signs are not looking good for how well those bets have paid off.

[BossGalaga]

Originally posted by Juggy:

Why don't publishers make games available for both Steam and Epic Store?

Won't they get more money this way?

It's because Epic doesn't want gamers to have more choice. They're trying to cement their crappy store by paying companies to *only* sell on Epic. Valve on the other hand doesn't force exclusivity on game publishers/developers. In fact, Valve lets devs/pubs generate their own keys and even sell them on their own websites and through third-parties like humblebundle, fanatical, etc. where they take no commission.

And Epic isn't helping out the little guy. They're only helping out a handful of select developers and publishers that are already well known. This pretty much tells you all you need to know about Epic. They can't even support their own games.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/forum-sunset

[Andrei]

And where would people buy the games ? right on Steam they have to do that to force people to use Epic store it makes no sense to make it avaiable on both stores maybe in the future but not now

[Rens Agatha ⁧【レンス】]

If they release in both side no one buy it from epic

[wuddih]

quantic got millions upfront so that their not-yet-pc-releases will be pretty much beta tested on epic and if there are heavy problems, they can just shove it on sweeny or wait until they take the pr bullet for them.
and all for a year of exclusivity on that store of which the majority audience consists of little fortnite kids that make highly questionable purchase decisions with their parents credit card?

that's a win-win-win for quantic, they would be dumb to not get that deal.

[Start_Running]

Lets take this from a financial perspective. pricing. Why does a developer sell a game for $60 when they know more people would by it for $50, $40, or even $30? To extract maximum profit. Say your maximum lmarket size is 1000 people.

You sell at $30 and you'll hit all of the buyers and get $30,000
However. Say you wind up with a sales breakdown like this.

$60 * 50 = 3000
$50 * 150 = 7500
$40 * 300 = 12000
$30 * 500 = 15000

That totals up to $37500 a 25% increase in revenue over the previous one. Just by staggering the prices you have made 25% more money from the same number of sales and lest be honest.
From the publisher perspective. The EGS is essentially the equivalent of another premium price tier. Sure. They know they won'tr make as many sales , but they knbow they will make more from those sales than they would if on steam. Hence why pretty much all these exclusives are timed. The Advances, guaranteed revenue, and upfront payment from Epic are basically icing on the cake.

Of course the plan backfires if...if no one is interested in buying the game a year later.

[Rockets]

I like both
I used to only buy from Steam

[Wraith99]

@OP
In theory yes, but contrary to popular belief Epic AND Steam are both fighting against this. Epic has been taking a lot of flak for cutting timed exclusive deals with developers. But the fact is that Steam is doing the same thing, but in a much sneakier and underhanded way. Let me break it down for you...

Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales made on the platform. But if you can hit $10 million in sales, then they will reduce their cut to 25%. If you can reach the $50 million sale mark, then they will reduce it to 20%. This all sounds great, but since Steam naturally only tallies sales made on their platform it creates a natural barrier against developers to launch their titles across multiple platforms, since doing that will spread their income and thus reduce their chance to hit those marks. At least until they hit that $50 million mark, and just like that Steam gets at timed exclusive without paying a dime.

Indie developers will never hit either of the marks so they're stuck with the 30% cut for life. Hardly surprising that they're cutting deals with Epic for an instant cash infusion as well as a chance to get more cash per sale before they put it on Steam. It's okay to hate on EGS, but please, don't try to pretend that Steam is some angel because they're pulling the same shady sh!t as Epic, they just aren't paying anyone for it.

[BossGalaga]

Originally posted by Wraith99:

@OP
In theory yes, but contrary to popular belief Epic AND Steam are both fighting against this. Epic has been taking a lot of flak for cutting timed exclusive deals with developers. But the fact is that Steam is doing the same thing, but in a much sneakier and underhanded way. Let me break it down for you...

Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales made on the platform. But if you can hit $10 million in sales, then they will reduce their cut to 25%. If you can reach the $50 million sale mark, then they will reduce it to 20%. This all sounds great, but since Steam naturally only tallies sales made on their platform it creates a natural barrier against developers to launch their titles across multiple platforms, since doing that will spread their income and thus reduce their chance to hit those marks. At least until they hit that $50 million mark, and just like that Steam gets at timed exclusive without paying a dime.

Indie developers will never hit either of the marks so they're stuck with the 30% cut for life. Hardly surprising that they're cutting deals with Epic for a instant cash infusion as well as a chance to get more cash per sale before they put it on Steam. It's okay to hate on EGS, but please, don't try to pretend that Steam is some angel because they're pulling the same shady sh!t as Epic, they just aren't paying anyone for it.

Oh well golly gee whiz, the way you put it, it sounds like Valve is mean and greedy and "sneaky and underhanded" like you said. I mean heck, what do indie developers get for that 30% cut anyway besides unlimited global distribution, marketing, promotions, automated patch/update system, online storefront and payment processing, integrated user workshop & mod support, integrated cloud saving, player market, item management system and numerous other features all in a fully integrated social gaming platform. I mean besides that, what do they really get amirite?

I mean heck, what could it possibly cost an indie developer to host unlimited bandwidth to a worldwide audience out of their own pocket?

Not like Epic who obviously super cares about the indie gamedev community, you know, as long as it consists only of the handful of already successful developers and publishers that they have offered these fabulous deals to. Hey, I'm an indie developer, can I get my game on Epic? Nope. I know other indie developers on Steam, can they get their games on Epic? Nope.

And just to reiterate, this is how Epic supports their own games...sad.
https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/forum-sunset

[Garou]

This topic has been chewed to the last atom of the bone. Almost 15000 comments in the locked thread. Just wait until Epic Store is no longer able to buy exclusivity.