Epic Games has thrown a gauntleted challenge at the feet of Valve, offering to stop paying developers to support them through development with the promise of a timed or limited Epic Store exclusive. But Valve will have to do something first.
In a tweet from Epic Games head Tim Sweeney, the Fortnite developer pledged to end exclusives on the Epic Store if Valve would commit to matching its revenue sharing scheme with developers and leave no strings attached for future releases. As it stands Valve demands a third of all revenue generated on Steam while Epic takes just 12 percent, leaving almost 90 percent of earning to developers. This has proved a major reason that some developers have begun releasing on Epic's Store, even if it might hurt their sales numbers in the short term.
Gamers don't particularly like the console-like exclusives program that Epic is employing with some games though and they have put repeat pressure on Epic to open up and rescind this idea. Tim Sweeney has now suggested Epic would, if Valve will play ball. He even suggested that new Epic games might end up on Steam if that were the case — though we'd imagine he'll be keeping Fortnite to himself for now.
If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019
He went on to say such a move by Valve would be a "glorious moment" for PC gaming and would improve other platforms for generations to come. "Then stores could go back to just being nice places to buy stuff, rather than the game developer IRS," he said.
Gamers aren't convinced though. They remember how Epic abandoned PC gaming a decade ago and point out that they wouldn't mind using Epic's store if it had half the features Steam had.
How do you feel about Tim's demands?
