It should be no secret by now that Epic Games is willing to shell out tons of money for exclusive games for its own Store. In fact, it could be assumed that the company was willing to take a few losses in the name of building its own user base. A new report shows that the losses are indeed extensive, as of all of the Epic Games Store’s “first wave” of exclusives, only one resulted in actual profit for the company.
PC Gamer reports that a partially redacted document shows that only one game released between December 2018 and June 2019 made Epic Games money. The titles of the games, as well as their studios, were the part that were redacted. But Reddit user MrBubbaJ matched up games to their corresponding release dates. And from that, it was revealed that the one game that resulted in profit for Epic Games is Satisfactory, which launched on 19 march 2019.
Epic Games paid US$11.5 million (~RM48.49 million) as the minimum guarantee to keep Satisfactory off of Steam. The title earned US$11.6 million within its first year, which PC Gamer notes as still being in early access by this point.
As you’d expect, Epic Games isn’t exactly fazed by this. It has all the Fortnite money to burn as it continues its crusade against Steam and the 30% revenue cut status quo. But what is actually surprising is that Satisfactory, of all games would be the one to actually earn the company money via the exclusivity deal. You’d think that a larger title like Metro Exodus or Control would be the one to do it.
(Source: GameDiscoverCo, MrBubbaJ / Reddit via PC Gamer)
