DARQ developer turned down Epic Games exclusivity – Here’s Why

On July 30th, Unfold Games, the indie developer behind DARQ, was contacted by Epic Games, three days after the company released their game’s “release announcement trailer”. When contacted, Epic Games offered the developer an exclusivity agreement, an offer that was later rejected by Unfold Games. 
 
In their email, Epic Games asked for exclusivity, despite the fact that the game’s recent “release announcement trailer” promised that the game would release on Steam. Furthermore, the game has been listed on Steam since 2018. Unfold Games rejected Epic’s proposal before finances could be discussed, though the prospect of shipping the game on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store was discussed. 

Responding to Unfold Games’ rejection of Epic’s exclusivity offer, the company stated that “we aren’t in a position yet to open the store up to games that simship”. Basically, if you game ships on several platforms simultaneously, Epic Games isn’t interested. That said, Epic Games is selling pre-orders for Cyberpunk 2077, despite its presence on both Steam and GOG. In addition to this, Ubisoft’s PC games are now being sold on both the Epic Games Store and via Uplay. It seems the Epic Games Store has different standards for AAA developers/publishers and indie developers. 

So why did Unfold Games reject Epic Games’ exclusivity proposal? On Medium the studio stated that it was due to “credibility”. The company didn’t want to anger fans and go back on their promise to release their game on both GOG and Steam. It’s as simple as that. “I would like for my customers to have confidence that my word means something,” said a developer. 

In their Medium post, Unfold Games made the following wish; asking for Epic Games to allow indie games on their platform non-exclusively.