Though primarily known among players for keeping some games exclusive for a year, Epic has recently made news by creating a digital platform that promises to be more developer-friendly. Epic Games Store Gives Developers and Publishers More Choices For In-Game Payment Options.
The USP of Epic is that it strives to keep both gamers as well as the developers satisfied. To meet that end, every week, Epic releases one or two free games for players. Often, the games thus launched are popular titles which can be downloaded by gamers, and enjoyed through the launcher.
Making a significant change in the realm of usage of payment platform for in-game purchases, Epic recently gave the developers and publishers the liberty to make a choice regarding payment platform. Earlier, the developers and publishers could only use Epic’s payment service.
Speaking about the latest decision, Tim Sweeney, the Co-founder and CEO of Epic Games said: “We support developers’ right to choose among the best stores, in-app payment processors, online services, and engines, and to mix and match these components as they wish.”
Following the incorporation of these latest changes, the developers and publishers who decide to process their payments on some other payment platform would not have to share the revenue from those transactions. Thus, the money will remain with the makers of the game, which will provide them with the resources required by one to work and live.
Elaborating on its policies regarding revenue, Epic Games Store explains it on the site’s About page thus: “Keep 88% of the revenue from your games instead of 70%. If your game is built using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover your engine royalties on Epic Games store revenue.
The general operating costs of Epic are incurred by its 12% shares plus a small profit. When compared to other platforms, it is definitely a small cost. Hence, it is quite evident why Epic Games Store is becoming a popular choice among many developers and publishers right now.
Although the digital platform is not as large as Steam, yet many players opt to use the Epic Game Store owing to the fact that making an account on it comes free of cost. Epic enables the developers and publishers to reach out to millions of players, connect with more than 10,000 content creators via the “Support-A Creator” program, besides keeping more control over their store pages. Gamers also have the option of choosing to receive emails from the developers when they make a purchase.
The “Support-A-Creator” program also assists developers and publishers to work with the creators to ensure further promotion of their game. Developers have the liberty to set the rate of their revenue share, while Epic pays 5% to them for the first two years.
However, this change is not of much consequence to the gamers. The increase in the number of options now indicates that the developers and publishers would be retaining more revenue from the in-game sales, which hopefully suggests more content for players in the coming days.
