We’ve been hearing about this PC marketplace war for months now as Epic Games have swooped in and gathered as many exclusive deals as they can with upcoming titles. This has left plenty of gamers upset that certain titles may not release on Valve’s Steam marketplace or at least not until the timed exclusivity deal is over with. We’re not going to pick sides here but we will report that Paradox Interactive executive chairman, Fredrik Wester, has spoken up against Valve and their revenue split with Steam. For years Valve has had essentially a monopoly with PC game marketplace sells and as a result of the revenue split to offer video game titles to the consumer was pretty much set in stone. Now that a new competitor has really started to make waves for the PC marketplace, it could mean Valve will have to shake things up on their end.
Epic Games Store only takes twelve percent of the revenue when a video game title is purchased on their marketplace. This is quite lower than what Valve requires on the Steam marketplace. For game developers who are interested in purchasing a game on the Steam marketplace, a thirty percent revenue split will be going to Valve. This is a rather large chunk of profit that the developer will not get and it could potentially make it tough for the studio to continue on developing new titles. As a result, more developers are using Epic Games Store not only as a means to avoid having to lose out on the revenue split with Valve but to gain more of a profit to deliver a new IP or game installment for their fan base.
As we mentioned above, Fredrik Wester of Paradox Interactive stated that the revenue split with Valve is outrageous and the platform is making too much money from the deal. For now, it doesn’t look like Valve will be making any changes either despite the criticism from the development and publishers.
Of course, with that said, there could potentially be a change in the future if the trend of Epic Games Store continues to thrive with acquiring more exclusive deals with developers looking to make a bit more money from their work rather than handing it over to Valve. What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think the revenue split should lower on Valve’s marketplace or should developers continue to throw their titles at Epic Games Store?
Source: GamesIndustry
