Epic Games just announced another incentive to try and take on Steam’s massive market share
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Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, took to X to announce some pretty big changes to the Epic Games Store that game developers in particular are going to be pleased with. The biggest news is that the company will no longer charge any commission on the first $1,000,000 in revenue from an app per year. Once that threshold is crossed, Epic will then begin taking its standard rate of 12 percent.
This is a big win for game developers, especially compared to go-to digital distribution platforms like Steam, which takes 30% of sales as commission. This means that for every dollar earned, Steam keeps 30 cents, while the remaining 70 cents goes to the developers. Apple, while not a direct competitor in the PC gaming space, charges 15 percent on the first million and then jumps to 30 percent after that.
Enough to derail Steam?
While this is great news for game developers, particularly small or indie companies, we’re not convinced it will help reclaim market share from Steam. After all, plenty of PC gamers stick to Valve’s popular platform, even with Epic giving out free games every single week of the year.
There are simply more eyes on Steam, holding 75% of the US market share, according to DemandSafe, which is why it continues to attract developers despite a less favorable revenue split. Of course, there’s (usually) nothing stopping devs from utilizing both platforms, but it feels like Steam will always attract more customers.
There’s also Epic’s new webshops feature for EGS
And that's not all, as Epic also announced that the Epic Games Store will allow developers to open webshops, which serve as a workaround to avoid Apple's App Store fees. These shops are powered by the Epic Games Store and offer customers “out-of-app purchases as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases, where Apple, Google, and others charge exorbitant fees.”
The company also plans to offer a five percent bonus in Epic Rewards to encourage customers to make purchases through these webshops, though it's not clear whether this is a limited-time offer. These stores will be available next month “on any platform that allows it,” which now includes iOS devices in both the EU and the US.
That said, Epic taking these swipes at other game distribution platforms and especially Apple comes shortly after the company won its long-standing legal battle against the tech giant. A California court ordered Apple to stop collecting fees for purchases made outside of the App Store. This also means that, after nearly five years, Fortnite will be making its return to Apple devices in the US next week.
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