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[Bullet Club]

Tim Sweeney: “If Valve commits to a permanent 88% revenue share, we’ll stop making new exclusive deals”

Now here is something really interesting. Epic Games’ CEO, Tim Sweeney, has just stated that if Steam commits to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic Games will hastily organize a retreat from exclusives and consider putting its own games on Steam.



Sweeney claimed that 30% store dominance is the number 1 problem for PC developers, publishers, and everyone who relies on those businesses for their livelihood, and that Epic Games is trying to address this issues with its own store.



Still, and as Sweeney claimed, Epic Games is open to abandon the hunt for new exclusives once – and if – Valve decides to drop its revenue share.



Sweeney then went ahead and explained the key “no major strings attached” points (which I’m pretty sure most PC gamers can agree with).





To be honest, it would be truly awesome if Valve dropped its revenue share and Tim Sweeney does have a point. However, the reason I’d love to see such a thing is because it would be interesting to see whether Tim Sweeney would honour this public statement or not.

Source: DSOG

 

[FranXico]

That would be great... if he is being sincere.

 

[Tupinambis_WOT]

I'm not a businessman, but that seems completely fair. I wonder what the bigger drive towards EGS even is, the bettter revenue share or just not depending on Steam's completely uncurated disaster of a new releases list. Its certainly not the quality of the EGS storefront.

 

[MrHeisenbird]

So Epic will stop competing with Valve if Valve does better?

 

[Lucumo]

Essentially, the spirit of an open platform where the store is just a place to find games and pay for stuff.

That's on the publishers as well as the platforms though. Valve, EGS etc offer no DRM (aka client)-free alternatives and some publishers like it that way and won't go for anything else.

 

[Hudo]

If that "no strings attached" policy basically means (as I understand it from his tweets) that games are more decoupled from fucking online stores, then yes, by all means, Tim is right. It has become a major annoyance that I have to create and log in to some bullshit store account just so I can access/play my games. I really would love for digital stores to fuck off after I have bought a game. And even if I don't agree with some practices of the Epic Games Store, I like that they try to get Valve moving (again).

 

[Solomeena]

He is trolling.

 

[CrustyBritches]

So all the moneyhatting was Valve's fault?

 

[A.Romero]

This is BS. Basically Tim is using something that sounds pro-consumer to lower Steam's edge.

I bet Valve spends more in support services for Steam that Epic does.

Also as long as the other stores don't match Steam's features being able to transfer licenses is moot. Why would anyone transfer out of steam and lose features?

If what Steam charges was unfair then Epic wouldn't need to money hat anyone to have their games in their platform? I mean, if Steam is such a cancer and Epic takes a lower cut, why would any dev would sell in Steam?

Tim should elevate it's service instead of trying to have the market leader (and essentially creator) to have a handicap. If he is so pro consumer why not pass along the savings to consumers or just let us chose instead of paying for exclusivity.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: fuck off, Tim.

 

[Graciaus]

That would be great for everyone if true.

But even if steam did that all epic would have to do is not honor what he is saying. Then steam raises their cut again and looks like the bad guys. I don't see steam doing anything. They just have to wait this out and everyone will come back when they see low sales.

 

[Dada55000]

I'm not a businessman, but that seems completely fair. I wonder what the bigger drive towards EGS even is, the bettter revenue share or just not depending on Steam's completely uncurated disaster of a new releases list. Its certainly not the quality of the EGS storefront.

Neither.
Moneyhats. They literally just pay cash, upfront. In the millions.
Thank you Fortnite.

88% cut is PR. You fell for it.

 

[petran79]

Epic gets from developers much more if you count UE license fees

 

[The Pleasure]

Yes, when you get game cards and sell them where retailers expect their cut I'll start believing you. You'll either raise your cut from 12%, or you will put all the burden on the consumers. Either way you're gonna fuck yourself or fuck the consumers. I wonder which way this will go? Knowing Epic, maybe both!

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Yes, when you get game cards and sell them where retailers expect their cut I'll start believing you. You'll either raise your cut from 12%, or you will put all the burden on the consumers. Either way you're gonna fuck yourself or fuck the consumers. I wonder which way this will go? Knowing Epic, maybe both!

He's already laid out that it's unsustainable and he places regional costs and fees at the consumers feet whereas Valve eats them.

Sweeney has created an unsustainable business model (buying up temporary exclusivity) and an unsustainable platform with external costs laid at the feet of consumers. He's a snake oil salesman trying to last as long as he can hoping Valve bends, they not only won't bend they're not even acknowledging him, his platform or anything else he's doing.

Him and his platform are a fart in the wind.

 

[KonradLaw]

12% cut would lead to severe degradation of many elements of Steam, so it's not worth it. And Valve won't lower their fees to that level as long as the loss of sales from exclusivity deals doesn't outweight the loss of revenues such cut would make.

 

[Virex]

Fuck this guy

 

[Barakov]

He's already laid out that it's unsustainable and he places regional costs and fees at the consumers feet whereas Valve eats them.

Sweeney has created an unsustainable business model (buying up temporary exclusivity) and an unsustainable platform with external costs laid at the feet of consumers. He's a snake oil salesman trying to last as long as he can hoping Valve bends, they not only won't bend they're not even acknowledging him, his platform or anything else he's doing.

Him and his platform are a fart in the wind.

Yeah, that's words from a desperate man.

 

[CyberPanda]

He's adorable.

 

[Orpheum]

Yeah, never in 5 lifetimes.

 

[Fuz]

 

[EviLore]

 

[Ogbert]

He’s so full of shit. Phony sincerity.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Tim Sweeney > Gabe Newell

 

[Sentenza]

This is BS. Basically Tim is using something that sounds pro-consumer to lower Steam's edge.

He's well aware he's bullshitting people. See this twitter chain:


And please note how he keeps singling out Steam among all the other stores who take a similar percentage.
That's because If he had to talk about other stores he would be forced to address the elephant in the room: the reality that Valve matching Epic in the 12% cut would mean just Epic (for very short) and Valve as the two forces wrestling on the market and every other minor store competitor dragged into bankrupt.

 

[Gamezone]

Valve should just do it. Not because of Tim Sweeney or EGS, but publishers started to pull out before EGS entered the store business.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

So epic, with absolutely no comparative store or consumer and developer-side features to that of valve (forums, server hosting, mod hosting), will stop poaching games if the competition only cripples itself and takes billions in revenue losses in order to match Epic's barebones, clumsy store in revenue share. LOL.

 

[Jack Videogames]

If Valve did that the EGS would not last til the end of the year. Devs would pass on the Fornite money in favour of the giant install base Steam has. And Tim knows that - he's just taking the moral high ground.

 

[Tesseract]

honestly i hope gabe calls his bluff

not that he should, but it'd be pretty funny

 

[bati]

If Valve did that the EGS would not last til the end of the year. Devs would pass on the Fornite money in favour of the giant install base Steam has. And Tim knows that - he's just taking the moral high ground.

I doubt that. I know of quite a few severely underrated indie RPGs that barely managed to break 30-50k copies sold and I'm sure they'd love to get the kind of check Phoenix Point devs got. Sadly, quality is no longer assurance of good sales on Steam, the market saturation is real and if you don't market your game or strike gold with the journalists to give you some coverage then it's very likely that your game will be overlooked.

If I was in their position I'd go to go EGS first.

 

[Three]

Part of why EGS gets these exclusives is because of this percentage cut so he is not wrong or even being altruistic. The publishers would rather people move to the EGS than buy on steam because there they will have to pay the store keeper less for every purchase.

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

Bullshit, fucking bullshit.

This is their way of shifting the fucking blame, I was someone who did not care about this whole store war but the more this prick spouts shit the more I'm done with that store.

 

[Spukc]

If you gonna act like a wolf don't fucking behave like a sheep.

What bullshit xD

 

[down 2 orth]

Why give money to this man and load your computer up with Chinese spyware, when you could easily acquire Epic exclusives by *alternative means*?

 

[Jack Videogames]

I doubt that. I know of quite a few severely underrated indie RPGs that barely managed to break 30-50k copies sold and I'm sure they'd love to get the kind of check Phoenix Point devs got. Sadly, quality is no longer assurance of good sales on Steam, the market saturation is real and if you don't market your game or strike gold with the journalists to give you some coverage then it's very likely that your game will be overlooked.

If I was in their position I'd go to go EGS first.

Yes, but indies don't make or break a store, AAA publishers do. And since with those high sales are all but assured, in equal conditions they're going to choose the storefront that gives them the most benefit.

If anything, the EGS might survive because Steam doesn't usually push for exclusivity.

 

[Majukun]

well the guy lied already once, so i wouldn't take this claim at face value.

 

[Gamezone]

So Epic isn't doing this to stay in business, but to prove a point against Valve?

 

[Sentenza]

I doubt that. I know of quite a few severely underrated indie RPGs that barely managed to break 30-50k copies sold and I'm sure they'd love to get the kind of check Phoenix Point devs got.

I'm sure they would. But they are also the sort of low profile indie games that wouldn't even be accepted on the EGS.
While games like Phoenix Point on the other hand were high profile enough to hope for far better sales on Steam.

 

[888]

That’s a very odd thing for a business to say.

 

[KonradLaw]

I doubt that. I know of quite a few severely underrated indie RPGs that barely managed to break 30-50k copies sold and I'm sure they'd love to get the kind of check Phoenix Point devs got. Sadly, quality is no longer assurance of good sales on Steam, the market saturation is real and if you don't market your game or strike gold with the journalists to give you some coverage then it's very likely that your game will be overlooked.

If I was in their position I'd go to go EGS first.

If a game sold 30-50K on Steam Epic wouldn't likelly bother paying it's developers off. They want popular games that bring in users. They're not doing it to help indies.

 

[Teslerum]

Who eats it though? Loss in revenue means Valve has to compensate. Which will most likely land on the feet of the consumer.
Meaning either:

- Higher Prices/Less Discounts
- Less features/Even less customer support

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. Great for everyone.

 

[Catphish]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if Valve lowered their take that significantly, wouldn't that more or less wipe out the entire justification for the existence of the Epic store in the first place?

If both stores take the same cut, and developers no longer see an advantage to publish on the Epic store vs Steam, then what use does anyone, dev or consumer, have for the Epic store?

If Valve went even with Epic, it seems to me that'd be the end of Tim's Weinie.

 

[Woo-Fu]

The reason he is saying this is because they already plan to wind down the moneyhatting. This is just laying the groundwork to make it look like they're doing it out of the good of their heart instead of $$$. Another transparent ploy to deflect the negativity of their own actions onto somebody else.

Not sure Tim is fooling anybody but himself.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

100% nonsense.

What happened to "competition", Mr. Sweeny? You'll stop "competing" with Steam if they arbitrarily raise their revenue share?

Good Guy Sweeny...

 

[Gamezone]

The reason he is saying this is because they already plan to wind down the moneyhatting. This is just laying the groundwork to make it look like they're doing it out of the good of their heart instead of $$$. Another transparent ploy to deflect the negativity of their own actions onto somebody else.

Not sure Tim is fooling anybody but himself.

Sure, but why even say that? There would be no reason for customers or developers to use EGS if Steam would offer the same revenue.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Sure, but why even say that? There would be no reason for customers or developers to use EGS if Steam would offer the same revenue.

So when you eventually stop moneyhatting you can blame Valve, again.

Epic is in the position where they want to do everything Valve has ever done while pretending it was bad when Valve did it and good when Epic does it. That requires some pretty serious bullshitting on any available social media platform that'll reach your audience.

 

[Gamezone]

So when you eventually stop moneyhatting you can blame Valve, again.

Epic is in the position where they want to do everything Valve has ever done while pretending it was bad when Valve did it and good when Epic does it. That requires some pretty serious bullshitting on any available social media platform that'll reach your audience.

You could be right, but if you are, Tim Sweeney doesn't seem very committed to this.

 

[iNvid02]

It's a weird statement. But shit like this is keeping them in the news so I guess its some strategy to maximise visibility and growth as quick as they can

 

[Solarstrike]

Hey Sweeney? You forgot to mention how Steam gives it's product a forum(s) for customers to interact, Holiday Sales and activities, Steam Market to buy, sell, or trade gaming related items, in-game photography capability; screenshots.Also, a far and wide horizon of games to choose from. Tens of thousands of games to be exact, whereas the end-user can socially interact with other plays and game developers from all over the world, almost instantly. There's also capability to Live stream games as well as a Steam/Social feed, client/user end music program (Steam Music), game/product review capabilities. And more. It took nearly 20 years to build Steam and it's still building, every day with the input of the end-user.

Take all of those things away and what remains is not unlike the Epic Games Store. Add them and you have to raise the cost ultimately to the client/publisher in order to update and maintain these various layers of infrastructure. It probably costs close to 1/2 billion dollars a year (guessing) to run all of Steams servers/farms, including maintenance personnel, bandwidth usage (Steam doesn't own the landlines they use. ISP's do). Steam has also invested in a lot of technology for gaming including but not limited to, the Steam Controller and HTC/Vive VR systems. It's should be easy for Sweeney to do the math if he looked at the entire picture of how something works instead of assuming they way it's built.

 

[Fuz]

Valve should just do it.

No, they shouldn't.

 

[Gamezone]

No, they shouldn't.

Why not? Less big publishers will probably pull out if they do.