Epic Games has been fighting the hard fight with Valve for PC client supremacy, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as a shock that it took its toll. Epic is currently involved in a massive lawsuit with Apple and Google, and that has resulted in a lot of information going public that was normally kept under wraps. Steam has, of course, been dominating the PC digital marketplace space since its inception, and while stores like Epic Games and GOG have given it some solid competition, no one has come close to surpassing the Steam Marketplace.
The Epic Store launched almost five years ago, and to this day has still been unable to turn a profit. Not to say that Epic has done anything wrong here, not only has it given a comparable level of quality, barring some technical issues, but it has gone above and beyond in some ways. The free games every month akin to PlayStation Plus or Game Pass are clearly an expensive endeavor.
It doesn’t stop there, as Epic has been spending a pretty penny in making sure that some of the biggest titles remain exclusive to the store. The most recent one being the immaculate Alan Wake 2. To top it all off, Epic has been giving game developers even bigger cuts than Steam, enticing developers to jump ship to Team Epic. The developers working on Epic’s store are offered a 88/12 revenue split, compared to Steam’s 75/25.
Epic Store Working Overtime Without Making a Profit
In December of 2023, the Epic Store will be officially five years old, and the likelihood of it turning a profit is still fairly low. Epic’s CEO said that the aim of the company is still to grow, not to make money at this point. Emails revealed during the Epic v Apple case revealed the company’s aims and the fact that it was still working as a loss leader.
Epic has suffered a wave of lay-offs, as has most of the gaming industry, with hundreds of people losing their jobs within Epic and its subsidiaries like Mediatonic, known for Fall Guys.
Hopefully Epic will continue to offer stiff competition in the PC gaming space in the future, and the Apple and Google lawsuits conclude with Fortnite making it back onto the PlayStore and the AppStore.
