Developers delay or cancel Steam releases to bring their PC games to the Epic Games Store

When Epic Games revealed their new gaming storefront, they promised developers that they would be given a larger chunk of the revenue generated by their PC releases, promising devs 88% of their game’s income instead of Steam’s basic rate of 70%. 

This increase in revenue is not an insignificant number, representing a 25% increase in revenue for developers, though games on the Epic Store will need to be approved by the website’s curators.  

Coffee Stains Studios has confirmed that Satisfactory will no longer be releasing on Steam, with the Epic Games Store acting as the “only place” where PC gamers will be able to access the first-person factory builder. 

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and Genesis Alpha One have also been moved to the Epic Games store, acting as timed exclusives for the platform. This showcases the willingness of developers to move away from Steam for the sake of additional revenue, though it must be said that the crowded nature of Steam could also be a contributing factor in these decisions. It will be a lot easier for PC gamers to notice these upcoming games on the heavily curated Epic Games Store than on the saturated Steam platform. 

Double Damage, the developer behind Rebel Galaxy, hopes that the 88/12 revenue split will become the “new standard” for PC releases. Part of the developer’s reasoning for moving to Epic’s storefront is that they hope to create the “momentum” that will push the industry in this direction.