Epic’s new program lets developers keep revenue in exchange for exclusivity | Hacker News Reader

Epic’s new program lets developers keep revenue in exchange for exclusivity

theverge.com

22 pointsdoppp10 comments

Alright. As before, I'll still wait for any such game to come out on Steam since Epic Games Store is a poor replacement for it. No Linux support is a big one since I don't install Windows anymore, and it's also missing many other features like forums and guides and built in mods.

https://heroicgameslauncher.com/

This is a Linux launcher for Epic (and others). It’s very popular with the SteamDeck community.

Until Epic changes something and breaks it for the sake of anti-piracy, or something. I'd rather support the company that is wholeheartedly supporting Linux than the one that deprecates Linux support after buying games like Rocket League

Yeah, pretty much this. Valve is putting in the work to make Linux gaming actually viable, so I'll send them my business. If Epic wants to catch up, more power to them. Until their launcher at a minimum actually works on Linux, I won't be sending them any money. As I said, I'll just wait for the games to come to Steam or, worst case, never buy them if they're permanently exclusive. I have plenty of backlog!

That only mitigates the problem of the official launcher not existing for Linux. Games are still installed with Proton.

For example, I was trying to install Into The Breach, which is available on both Steam and Epic. Steam has builds for all platforms, while Epic only has the Windows build. If I install the game using Heroic, it installs it with Proton, resulting in worse battery life and performance compared to the native build. Which is what you want to avoid with handhelds like the Steam Deck.

Comments on the Verge point out that Epic Store exclusives have mostly stopped because (indie) developers have said that sales on the Epic Store represent such a small portion of overall PC games sales that the it wasn't worth it to be exclusive on Epic without significantly higher guaranteed payments than Epic was willing to provide.

One of the comments by an indie developer claimed they sold less through the Epic store than they did through the Microsoft Store.

This makes the offer a non-starter for developers, since the additional 12% of revenue they would get for being exclusive isn't enough to make up for the 80-90% of potential revenue they would lose during the 6-months of exclusivity.

This is the most raw deal for a developer.

Epic gets: Free exclusivity rights

You, the developer get: Little to no additional sales, disdain from at least one vocal minority of users that boycott/refuse to support Epic, negative PR all around.

It's not "free" exclusively rights. Epic is paying the developer for them by offering a more favorable revenue split. Don't like the exclusive or non-exclusive offers? You don't have to publish your game with epic. You can get pretty far with steam and GoG

You also get 12% more money from the sales on Epic, and some more advertising. But I agree this seems unlikely to be worth it, just being on Steam alone seems like it'd be worth more. Maybe the advertising is worth it for indie devs that can't afford much/any advertising themselves?

The problem is that their software is trash. The new Steam update is so nice. On Epic you need to reinstall your games when you reinstall windows, you can't just point it at a directory. Steam has had that for like 15 years.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com