Developers jump ship from Steam in favour of the Epic Store

Epic launched its own video game store last week, sporting an industry leading revenue split that significantly undercut its established rival. It seems as though this is causing waves among developers and publishers, as some have delayed and even outright cancelled their Steam launch in favour of the Epic Store.

Similar to Discord’s Store, Epic has managed to bag itself some timed exclusives for its brand new storefront. While Team17’s Genesis Alpha One was set to land on Steam on January 29^th, 2019, the title will no longer be coming to the platform on that date. It’s possible that the studio could bring the game to alternative platforms in the future, but it will instead remain an Epic Store exclusive in the meantime.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and Super Meat Boy Forever are in the same boat, both confirmed to have 12-month Epic Store exclusivity. Team Meat confirmed that Steam users will be able to get their hands on the Super Meat Boy sequel come April 2020, while Double Damage’s space adventure only has PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch variants currently announced.

Perhaps the biggest shock comes from Coffee Stain Studios’ Satisfactory. Community manager Jace Varley confirmed on Friday that the upcoming factory building game would no longer be debuting on Valve’s platform, with its Steam page entirely removed.

Varley states that this change was not influenced by Steam revenue changes announced last week, or THQ Nordic’s acquisition of Coffee Stain. That being said, his apology towards his silence despite knowing of the change for months does suggest that the developer had to wait until the official announcement of the Epic Store to come forward.

With the newly released RPG Ashen from developer A44 Games and upcoming rogue-like Hades, from Bastion masterminds Supergiant, the Epic Store has no shortage of exclusive games to draw in a large crowd.

KitGuru Says: I know that the comments will once again be filled with people reluctant to download another free launcher, but the benefits outweigh the cons here. Not only will publishers and developers receive more, this will encourage more games in the future. Overall it seems like a small price to pay. What do you think of the Epic Store?

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