Epic detail plans for Epic Games Store improvements - and how they're going to tempt more devs from Steam

It’s all about the third parties

Originally announced at Gamescom, andlive as of last night, the Epic First Run program allows developers who release their games exclusively on the Epic Games Store to receive 100% of their revenue from sales for the first six months. After that, Epic will take its 12% cut of revenues.

“Currently 67% of our player base is playing third party games,” he said. “And 50% of them are exclusively playing third party games. These numbers, for me, highlight the significance of the third party games ecosystem and the importance of fostering that growth.”

You can watch the full videohere- 48 minutes of graphs, bullet points and magical phrases like “expanded merchandising surfaces”. Don’t say I never treat you to anything.

All of this follows in the wake of Epiclaying off around 800-900 people, totalling 16 per cent of their workforce, after a period of heavy investment. Announcing the job losses, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney (who hasn’t been laid off) noted that Fortnite isn’t quite the cash cow it used to be, which I guess is why Epic are especially keen at present to get more people playing a wider selection of games on the Epic Games Store.

“While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had whenFortnite Battle Royaletook off and began funding our expansion,” he said. “Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.”