Embracer CEO Praises Epic Games for Fostering Competition with Steam

Steam, established in 2003, has evolved into the foremost choice for acquiring and enjoying PC video games. Its impact on the expansion of PC gaming has been substantial, solidifying its position as a paramount influence in the gaming industry.

In 2018, the Epic Games Store emerged as a competitor to other digital game distribution platforms, particularly Steam. It garnered significant attention within the industry due to its exclusive deals and the financial incentives provided to game developers.

Recently, Embracer Group convened its annual general meeting with investors for the current fiscal year. During the meeting, the CEO of Embracer Group was queried about his perspective on Epic Games’ newly introduced program, Epic First Run.

The CEO expressed admiration for Epic Games Store’s initiative, highlighting its positive impact on the competitive landscape by motivating Steam to continually enhance the user experience.

This program provides developers with the opportunity to receive 100 percent of the revenue share for a six-month period by making their games exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Furthermore, Epic Games employs a revenue-sharing model of 88/12, whereby 88 percent of the profits are allocated to the developer, with the remaining 12 percent going to the storefront. In contrast, Steam offers game developers 70 percent of the revenue. Consequently, Epic Games provides a more favorable profit-sharing structure for developers.

CEO acknowledged that reducing platform fees would be advantageous, especially given Embracer’s current expenditure on these fees surpasses its investment in game development.

He further said that they could spend some of those platform-related costs on creating more games and achieving better profit margins. Nonetheless, it’s commendable that Epic is actively working to establish a competitive platform in the industry.

He went on to say that consumers may have different perspectives on this matter as they have their own preferences. But he remains concerned about platform costs and Epic Games serves good solution in this regard.

Embracer has already leveraged the offerings of the Epic storefront by securing exclusivity for its titles such as Metro Exodus and Dead Island 2 for a specified period. It’s likely that we can anticipate additional games from Embracer in the future to follow a similar pattern of being exclusive to the Epic Games Store.