Epic Games today announced that it now has a publishing wing. The creator of Fortnite and the Epic Games Store has established the Epic Games Publishing label to offer a "developer-first approach" to studios.
Much like when the company entered the digital games store market aiming to disrupt the norms, Epic Games Publishing is planning to make fundamental changes to the developer and publisher relationship "so that creators can focus on making great games."
“We’re building the publishing model we always wanted for ourselves when we worked with publishers,” claimed Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Here are the primary terms Epic Games Publishing is offering to developers:
- Full creative freedom and ownership. Developers retain 100% of all intellectual property and full creative control of their work.
- Fully-funded projects. Epic Games Publishing will cover up to 100% of development costs, from developer salaries to go-to-market expenses such as QA, localization, marketing, and all publishing costs.
- 50/50 profit sharing. Developers earn a fair share for their work - once costs are recouped, developers earn at least 50% of all profits.
The company revealed three game development studios that it has already struck deals with for future games. They include Remedy Entertainment, makers of Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control; Playdead, developers of Limbo and Insider; as well as GenDesign, the architect behind The Last Guardian.
The Remedy deal was already announced by the studio earlier today, but only now do we know the mystery publisher to be Epic Games.