Developers get to Retain Full Revenue for Six Months
With the launch of a new program, Epic Games will let developers retain all of their net profits from game launches on the platform.
Epic Games has just debuted the “Epic First Run” program, an “opt-in exclusivity program” for outside developers, as announced in a blog post. Developers receive 88% of their income outside of the program, with Epic keeping 12%. However, within the program, developers will receive 100% as long as they make their games exclusive to the platform for the first half of a year. Following the six months, they will resume generating 88% of their revenue.
Alongside this additional revenue, developers will get a range of other benefits too, including having their games “presented to those users on-store with new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections.” As well as this, Epic First Run games will also be “featured in relevant store campaigns” (including sales events and editorial) and will benefit from continued exposure throughout its time in the program.
Publishers and developers “of any scale” are welcome to apply for the new program, provided they have an active Epic Games developer account and their upcoming project is scheduled to release on or before October 16, 2023.
In order for a title to be considered “eligible” for the program, it must also be a recent release that hasn’t been available on any other third-party PC platform or included in a subscription service (like Xbox Game Pass). It’s also important to note that “Program eligibility is not available for games or apps with an existing exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store.”
For game developers hoping to see a little increase in revenue from their releases, this is fantastic news. While this doesn’t really affect players, it does imply that certain future PC games might only be available for purchase for the first six months of their existence on the Epic Game Store rather than, say, Steam or the Microsoft Store.