Steam better watch out. Developer of the worldwide phenomenon that is Fortnite, Epic Games announces the opening of their very own online gaming store. Though Steam is much more than just an online market for independent and triple-A status titles, since they host a mod hub and developer-friendly features, it looks like Epic is looking to get in on the hustle with a store that lends support to developers as well.

On the official Unreal Engine blog, the company reveals their plans and motto as they move forward with the Epic Games Store. The release is as follows:

For the past five years, we’ve been building tools enabling Epic to bring our games directly to players. We built the Epic Games launcher on PC and Mac featuring Fortnite and Unreal Engine; we built a worldwide digital commerce ecosystem supporting dozens of payment methods; and we gained great economies of scale thanks to Fortnite’s growth.

As developers ourselves, we wanted two things: a store with fair economics, and a direct relationship with players. And we’ve heard that many of you want this too! Soon we’ll launch the Epic Games store, and begin a long journey to advance the cause of all developers. The store will launch with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac, then it will open up more broadly to other games and to Android and other open platforms throughout 2019.”

The store will operate along the following six principles: all developers earn 88%, there will be a direct relationship with player, content creators can connect with their community, developers control their game pages, all engines are welcome, and “when you succeed, we succeed” as their motto. That’s certainly an appetizing selling point, especially so for indie studios. Here are the policies in their entirety:

• All Developers Earn 88%
  • Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%.
• Have a Direct Relationship With Players
  • People who buy your games automatically subscribe to your newsfeed so you can reach them with game updates and news about upcoming releases. The newsfeed is front-and-center.  You’ll also be able to reach your players through email, if they choose to share it.
• Connect with Creators
  • YouTube content creators, Twitch streamers, bloggers, and others are at the leading edge of game discovery. The 10,000-strong Epic Games Support-A-Creator program helps you reach creators, so they can help you reach players. If you opt to participate, creators who refer players to buy your game will receive a share of the revenue that you set (tracked by code or affiliate marketing link). To jumpstart the creator economy, Epic will cover the first 5% of creator revenue-sharing for the first 24 months.
• Developers Control Their Game Pages
  • As a developer, you control your game page and your newsfeed. There will be no store-placed ads or cross-marketing of competing games on your page, and no paid ads in search results.
• All Engines Are Welcome
  • The Epic Games store is open to games built with any engine, and the first releases span Unreal, Unity and internal engines.
• When You Succeed, We Succeed
  • We’ve built this store and its economic model so that Epic’s interests are aligned with your interests.  Because of the high volume of Fortnite transactions, we can process store payments, serve bandwidth, and support customers very efficiently. From Epic’s 12% store fee, we’ll have a profitable business we’ll grow and reinvest in for years to come!

At this point, companies like Valve are seen as an entity since their operations are based largely on sales. With recent policy revisions that incentivize “big game” developers, they’re straying farther from assisting independent developers achieve their dreams. At least, that’s what it seems like anyway.

Passing on a question to you, do you think this will affect Valve’s revenue with their online gaming market Steam and should they be wary of Epic Games Store as competition? Or do you think Epic Games is aiming toward a particular demographic of gamers and developers with their system? Let us know what you think in the comments section below or start a conversation on DFTG Facebook page. To stay up to date on gaming news as it happens, follow us on Twitter! Here’s some of our latest to catch up on:

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