I’m referring to the deal that was made (between Mobius and Epic) to exclusively sell the game via Epic (on PC). As in other cases it’s very much likely ‘sales are guaranteed’ / money was paid to Mobius to take this route, isn’t it? That’s more or less selling the product somehow, so to speak. Epic bought it off the PC market/the exclusive distribution rights, costs involved as supposed, and now makes sure you only can buy it from the EGS. Hence I said your money helps Epic first. Mobius already got something for being exclusive on the EGS with their game. If the game doesn’t sell well, the 88% is no help to them. But Epic will make up for it. I doubt those developers releasing exclusively on EGS need the customers as much as was indicated by Lunarstorm.
(Maybe I’m plain wrong or my English sucks…again :). I hope I could made myself clearer now.)
Reemul
4327
I do wonder if say Epic gives a company a million dollars to be exclusive to their store whether they give the cut straight away or wait till they get their money back before giving them their cut.
You mean like how it works with Authors. An advance?
You would still make more money if people bought it on Epic, because eventually, you would pay off the advance.
My point was simple: to emphasize that Epic currently gives a greater share of sales to developers than Steam. AFAIK, nuances of an exclusivity arrangement are not publicly available and although we can guesstimate/speculate and factor those into a discussion, it is an obvious fact that Epic’s terms currently give more money to devs vs Steam.
Edit: thank you for splitting that topic into this thread, where it is more appropriate! Keeping game-centric discussions in that thread makes total sense to me.
It depends on if the deal is X guaranteed sales on EGS or X guaranteed sales across all distribution channels. In the former case, they’d do better selling copies on Microsoft Store up to a certain point, and then the rest on EGS… but it heavily depends on the agreement, how the guaranteed sales amount is calculated, and the timeframe to hit that number.
If it’s the latter then they’re better off selling every copy on EGS, barring some weird calculations for the guaranteed payout.
Yep! We don’t know.
Right. More money. But thanks to whom? How exactly? You can support the broad strategy/idea with your purchase, but if sales really matter (and hence the 88%) for the developer below a certain number… we don’t know? E.g. Epic guarantees 10.000 sales but only 4.000 copies are sold, Epic will make up for the difference and Mobius will get the money anyhow. The customer’s purchase did nothing but finance the deal / Epic’s strategy. The 88% don’t really matter in a scenario like this. (It’s unlikely but not impossible. Therefore I said you don’t necessarily directly support the developers; we don’t know the deal’s details.)
Sure, but if they sold more than 10,000 sales, wouldn’t it be a good thing.
The speculation on minimum guarantees may or may not be accurate, but unless you’re privy to inside information we can’t ensure accuracy and once you eliminate speculation, the fact is that Epic gives more sales money to devs compared to Steam.
Understandably, some consumers don’t give a hoot about sales agreements or dev/publisher/store business arrangements, while others prefer to ensure the developers get more $ and are able to better pursue their endeavors (sequels, expansions, retention of talent, etc. etc.)
Reemul
4334
No it doesn’t it just means we don’t know
That’s only true if they will only gain the minimum amount, the amount that Epic is covering. Which can be around $2M. If a game with the quality and the praise of Outer Wilds only gets that revenue, in a year, then it would be pretty bad for the developer. So yes, if you buy the game you will support the developers.
I do not disagree. Related to Lunarstorm’s posting I just thought it was important to highlight that it isn’t that easy and one should mention that by buying Outer Wilds you also (and maybe - see the other postings above - first and foremost) support Epic/Epic’s strategy - that is among other things, like the 88%, using money power to buy market share, that is operating with distribution monopolies.
Buying from Epic - considering all deals being made - clearly isn’t like buying from the developers themselves/donating/supporting them the humble-widget-way. First and foremost you buy from Epic because there’s no choice. I’d buy Outer Wilds for 30$ from the developers immediately. I just can’t. And they can’t sell it to me anymore. And no one else can. The only choice that is left is to buy from Epic or not. But it sounded like I’d could decide between supporting the developers or… waiting for Steam. That’s bogus.
I didn’t mean to give that impression, devs are supported via either platform. One just gives more money to devs than the other.
This is idiotic. Either you buy the game and helping them get over the sales guarantee threshold, or you buy the game and they are already over the guarantee threshold. Both are better for the devs than Steam’s less favorable split. The fact that Epic benefits at the same time doesn’t nullify the developer’s benefit.
Well, there’s a ton of speculating going on here, which is fine as far as it goes. But it means we don’t really know if the deals are so-so, good, or great for the devs. Given how many devs and publishers have decided to go exclusive, I have to assume it at least mitigated the risk of releasing a new game, which probably is (or should be) the primary interest of anyone in the video game business. It’s possible almost any game could be a big hit; it’s far more certain it’ll be a big or small failure. Epic is probably making that gamble a little less scary. How exactly, none of us knows. Is it benefiting Epic? Yeah, probably, although there’s also the question of how much it’s costing them.
(Sorry if I’m just repeating things others have said. I haven’t been able to keep up with the thread.)
LeeAbe
4340
If we’re all about supporting the developers here, we probably shouldn’t be buying games on sale either. Does Epic allow you to buy games directly from the developer and give you a key for the Epic store as well?
LK has convinced me that “Outer Wilds” will be better next year… grumble fine.
STEAM allowing keys people get from other stores to be used is one of its best features.
Thats right! Every game is better a year later!
#patientgamer
I might wait a year and still buy it from Epic.
Of course not. I wrote about the impact of the customer’s purchase.
As it was stated many times before… we don’t know how all this works. Epic could have guaranteed sales way above what’s realistic for the game. (There must be some incentive, not?) Then there would be no real helping them get over the threshold. Again, in that case you’d primarily support Epic and finance the deal, make the new distribution monoply worthwhile. I don’t say it’s the most realistic outcome, I’d just mention that Epic’s paid exclusivity might have led to a situation where Epic’s the one who needs sales the most and in which it remains unclear how exactly/when developers (in case of paid exclusivity, arrangements/guarantees) additionally profit from the customer’s choice. That’s all.
