Now it’s much easier for game studios to publish their work on the Epic Games Store. Epic has introduced the long-awaited self-publishing tools that allow anyone to publish games through their storefront. They’ll have to pay $100 per title and meet certain requirements (more on that in a bit), but they won’t have to deal with the handpicked selection of before.
Self-published games cannot contain discriminatory content, pornography or illegal material. Titles with online play must support cross-play on all PC stores and must include Epic Games Store achievements if there are achievements on other PC stores. Releases must also meet a reference quality level that matches the description customers see, and will need (free) age ratings in countries where they are required.
As with usual Epic Games Store practices, the main draw is the bulk of the revenue. Epic takes a relatively modest 12 percent cut where its main rival Steam can take up to 30 percent depending on sales figures. The company also does not require a portion of in-app purchases if they are made with a payment system other than Epic. While potentially more lucrative for most developers, it’s particularly beneficial for smaller studios that may want to reach a large audience without giving up a large portion of their revenue.
The self-publishing mechanism has been a long time coming to this point. Epic began testing the beta feature for the first time in August 2021 ahead of an expected 2022 debut. The delay is because “developing software is hard,” says CEO Tim Sweeney. the edge.
Whether or not developers flock to the Epic Games Store as a result is not certain. While Epic claims its store has over 230 million total users, Steam had 69 million daily active users in 2021. It remains the largest multi-developer gaming portal on PC. Epic’s requirements are also stricter than Valve’s, which really only prohibit illegal content and “trolling” attempts. Regardless, this drastically lowers the barriers to getting to the Epic store – you might see a boost to your catalog in no time.
