Rebellion’s CEO explains why Epic Games exclusivity works for them on PC
Rebellion’s CEO explains why Epic Games exclusivity works for them on PC
In a recent interview with PC gamer, Rebellion’s CEO Jason Kingsley revealed why his company has opted to make Zombie Army 4: Dead War a 12-month Epic Games exclusive, making the advantages of Epic Games’ backing a lot clearer.Â
“They offered us a ton more support than we were going to be able to give the game ourselves in terms of marketing,” explained Kingsley, highlighting that Epic Games offers developers more discoverability, aiding developers with their marketing efforts to ensure that as many gamers know about their title as possible. These efforts work to benefit both the PC and console versions of Epic Games Store exclusives, with a recent highlight being World War Z, which shattered Saber Interactive’s sales expectations on both PC and other platforms.Â
The negatives of Epic Games Store exclusivity aren’t a major concern for Rebellion, stating that “It comes with some downsides. Some people don’t like what Epic is doing, and I understand why, but it’s been very good for the project. It’s been very good for us.”
Kingsley also expressed his general opinions on the Epic Games Store, stating that “they’re being very smart in what they’re doing”. A more complete statement is available below.Â
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  They’re great guys. Steam are great as well. And I think that Epic, from their perspective, they’ve got to fight against someone who’s incredibly dominant in the market space. One of the ways they can do that is by offering something exclusive.
It makes sense from their perspective, and it upsets a few people. And maybe upsetting a few people isn’t necessarily bad, because it gets you attention as well. And one of the challenges for us making games, and a challenge for any indie studio, anybody that doesn’t have a huge amount of money to spend on marketing, is discovery. How do you get people to even know your great game exists? Before they can buy it, they’ve got to encounter it. If they encounter it, they [might] like it. If they haven’t encountered it, they don’t know whether they like it or not. So discovery is an interesting thing, and that’s exactly the same for Epic. [They’ve got to] work super hard to build up that market share to get to the point where they’re competitive. So I think they’re being very smart in what they’re doing.
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Zombie Army 4: Dead War will release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and as a 12-month Epic Games Store exclusive on PC.Â
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