The creator behind the Unreal Engine and the massively popular Fortnite, Epic Games, announced today that it is launching a new digital game store that focuses on providing developers with "fair economics, and a direct relationship with players."
The main talking point of this is that the Epic Games Store will be handing 88% of all revenue from games over to the developer, only taking a flat 12% to itself. Steam and other distributors, in comparison, usually take a 30% cut. Although Steam recently announced a revenue share tier system that can lower the fee to 20%, it is geared towards games that bring in tens of millions of dollars.
The Epic store won"t be exclusive to just Unreal Engine built games either, with the company emphasizing that "All Engines Are Welcome." However, games on the store that do use Unreal won"t have to pay the 5% royalty fee that"s normally attached to them, giving developers even more incentive to choose Epic"s engine and store for their crafts.
The Epic Games Support-A-Creator program will also be a part of the store, giving developers the option of letting content creators on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms that are partnered with Epic to promote their games and reach a bigger audience.
The store will be PC and Mac centered at first, offering a "hand-curated set of games." There are plans to expand this to Android and other platforms in 2019. A release date hasn"t been announced just yet, but some of the games that will launch on the platform are slated to be revealed during The Game Awards on December 6.