Epic Games paid over $10 million for Control exclusivity

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Published 22/09/2019

According to a report by Destructoid, Epic Games spent over $10 million in order to make Control an Epic Games Store exclusive. This nearly covered the entire cost of the game’s development.

Control is an action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment, the studio of Quantum Break and Alan Wake fame. The game’s combat engine combines gunslinging with hard-hitting telekinetic powers, while the story combines fantasy and science fiction elements in a way that hearkens back to Remedy’s previous titles.

While the $10 million sum guarantees Epic the game’s exclusivity on PC, it has also launched on both the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Control has received favorable reviews across all three platforms.

Control is the latest high-profile title that Epic Games has gained exclusive PC rights for.

Epic has been actively trying to establish the Epic Games Store as a rival to Steam, which has long stood as the world’s largest digital distribution service for video games. Their primary strategy has been obtaining the exclusive PC distribution rights for a number of prominent titles, while also offering publishers better revenue splits on the Epic Games Store than they would have on Steam.

Game developers like Remedy Entertainment have been reaping the rewards from Epic’s lavish spending. However, some gamers have taken umbrage with this approach and claim PC exclusivity rights harms the industry as a whole.

Epic Games Store exclusivity comes with the minor inconvenience of gamers needing to install a second DRM. Announcements of exclusivity are often accompanied by review bombings for other titles by the publisher, social media backlash, and threats of a boycott.

Those words haven’t translated into a hit to publishers’ bottom lines, though. The biggest Epic Games Store acquisition to this point has been Borderlands 3 and GameSpot recently reported its PC performance has exceeded the developer’s expectations.

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