Epic versus Steam; the Battle is on!

Epic Games

The title says it all; Epic versus Steam. Valve’s Steam has found a competitor in Epic Games and since then both have locked horns in an ugly battle in the gaming industry.

Steam

Steam, a long time leading distributor of PC games, is facing a considerable challenge from a strong competitor; Epic Games, the developers of blockbuster Fortnite, has established its own PC gaming store. To let you understand the magnitude of this war, think about the generations-old war between PC gamers and console gamers. Steam reined and single-handedly dominated the PC games distribution for almost 15 years but now its throne is being challenged by the Epic Games Store.

Valve is the parent company of Steam and has gained enormous success, fame, and serious bucks via games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, and Half-Life series. But Valve’s main fortune-maker has been Steam, a market place for PC games. Valve has had the gaming kingdom to itself for over a long period but thanks to Fortnite’s swift and spectacular rise as one of the most successful online games, Epic games earned respect, finances as well as clout in the industry.

Tim Sweeny, Epic’s CEO has decided to bring a lot of changes especially the revenue cut that a platform like Valve has imposed on game developers.

Epic versus Steam; When compared to Steam, Epic Games Store is charging only 12 percent cut from the developers instead of Steam’s 30 percent. In addition to this discount, Epic Games Store is also waiving off the 5 percent royalty fee payable to Unreal Engine 5 if your game is built using the software. This showdown between these two platforms can bring forth a lot of changes and betterment for game distribution in the future.

Epic Games is reaching out to big game developers, like GearBox and others, to secure exclusivity deals. Whether it is ethical or not but one thing is for sure that this battle will impact the PC gaming industry especially its funding and distribution model. But the real question is how much of a threat Epic will pose to Steam in the coming future? What do you guys think?

About PodcastGameConsultant.com;

Reinout is a games investor and strategic business consultant specializing in the games industry. Reinout established his credentials through his own successful investments, start-ups, consulting and (advisory) board positions that led through time to strong bonds with key stakeholders in this fast paced industry. He is known for his outstanding results in the gaming industry. He has worked with many game studios around the globe and is therefore well known in the international gaming industry.

With over 20+ years of experience, well known publishers, AAA+ game developers, serial gaming entrepreneurs and management teams of gaming corporations consult him on matters that behold financial, technical, operational, strategic and commercial.

I am observing and overseeing several boards of gaming companies. My trademark is to listen, strategize and give feedback to the stakeholders involved. I also represent management/founders towards shareholders and vice versa.