Epic Games launches digital store to compete with Steam

Epic Games is closing out 2018 with the release of their very own online store meant to rival the likes of Steam.

The store was officially announced in an online press release on December 4. Epic directly compares the Steam store to their own by contrasting the revenue that game companies will receive from products sold between the two stores. The announcement stated that developers would earn 18-25% more revenue on the Epic store than on Steam. Epic Games claims the store’s objective is to further the cause of game developers.

“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,” Epic Games said.

Epic is hoping to achieve these goals by asking for only 12% of game sales and having customers who purchase a specific game automatically subscribe to that developer’s news feed. Developers are also encouraged to use Epic Games’ “Support-A-Creator” program, which works to connect game developers with YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and bloggers to help promote their products.

Epic has been at the forefront of game development long before the massive success of Fortnite. The company developed the Unreal Tournament series, one of the earlier competitive FPS series, and is the proprietor of the Unreal Engine, which is one of the core development engines in the gaming industry.

The concept of the Epic Games store is similar to Valve’s Steam store. Both companies are game developers and publishers who used their accomplishments and experience as developers to create digital marketplaces. Whether or not Epic will see the same success as Valve remains a question.

The Epic Games store went live December 6 and currently has a brief catalogue of games including Epic’s most popular titles.