I’m sure you’ve seem many headlines about certain titles being Epic Games exclusive and the subsequent outrage among PC gamers. We knew Epic was throwing around cash for games to become exclusive, but it was uncertain how much and the whole structure of the deal. Well it now appears more clear as an Italian earnings report from 505 Games highlights that the developers received a lump, $10.5 million upfront from Epic to serve Control exclusively on PC on the Epic Games Store.
According to the report, “Revenue comes from the computer version of Control (…) The game was released on August 27 but the structure of the marketplace who requested the PC exclusivity has made possible to gain the revenue starting from this quarter.” It looks as if Epic is offering a sort of safety-net for developers in exchange for the exclusivity deals and are willing to pay upfront for the amount of revenue developers expect to receive from the games sales through the platform. For 505 Games and Control this ended up being $10.5 million, which corresponds to a total of 200,000 individual sales of Control.
Now until 200,000 sales are made Epic keeps the full revenue from each sale. Any sales after the initial 200,000 sales are made the revenue is split between the developer and Epic. This sort of system is a win-win for both sides, Epic gets more people on their platform and publicity from the games being exclusive to their store, and developers are guaranteed that they get the amount they expect to earn by selling the game across multiple PC marketplaces.
Via Ars Technica
