Tim Sweeney discussed the topic of Epic Games Store (EGS) exclusive games on Twitter, providing an excellent series of answers on why this is happening and why even Steam “dedicated” players should not be disappointed about that.

The founder of Epic Games said that if this strategy succeeds, the entire industry benefits. The current model would have developers and publishers reinvesting the money they save from paying taxes to Steam (the revenue split on the EGS is 88/12, instead of 70/30) to make their titles better and have them less expensive on the market.

“We believe exclusives are the only strategy that will change the 70/30 status quo at a large enough scale to permanently affect the whole game industry,” Sweeney said. “For example, after years of great work by independent stores (excluding big publishers like EA-Activision-Ubi), none seem to have reached 5% of Steam’s scale. Nearly all have more features than Epic, and various external pressures limit the ability to discount games. This strategy of exclusives which, though unpopular with dedicated Steam gamers, do work, as established by the major publisher storefronts and by the key Epic Games store releases compared to their recent Steam revenue projections and their actual console sales.”

He commented that this strategy does work for the time being, but it’s going to take a little more time to see the fruits of developers and publishers saving on store taxes.

“Will the resulting 18% increase in developer and publisher revenue benefit gamers?” Sweeney added. “Such gains are generally split among (1) reinvestment, (2) profit, and (3) price reduction. The more games are competing with each other; the more likely the proceeds are to go to (1) and (3).”

Notable Epic Games Store exclusive games now feature the incoming Borderlands 3 and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, the just launched The Sinking City, as well as all three of the latest games by Quantic Dream that had previously released only on PlayStation consoles.

This leads to the strategy of exclusives which, though unpopular with dedicated Steam gamers, do work, as established by the major publisher storefronts and by the key Epic Games store releases compared to their former Steam revenue projections and their actual console sales.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) 26 giugno 2019