Tim Sweeney, Epic Games head honcho, has said in a tweet that if Valve were to commit to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers, without any major strings attached, that Epic would pull back from the idea of Epic Game Store exclusives, and would even consider putting their own titles on Steam.
The tweet was made in reply to a Twitter user who asked if Epic would still chase exclusive titles if Valve were to change their revenue split with developers.
If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 25, 2019
While the apparent war between Steam and Epic Games Stores has actually just been pretty mild, gamers have not been too happy about the idea of games becoming exclusive to certain stores. While Epic snapping up titles like Borderlands 3 for limited periods of store exclusivity are certainly a valid way to try and get users onto the platform, lots of gamers are quite vocal about their refusal to bite.
Many people see the Epic Game Store as simply not offering them a good reason to purchase games there, as it lacks a host of features that Steam now has, and that they enjoy using. At the moment it is unlikely that Epic Games have enough power to force any change from Valve, even with all that Fortnite and Unreal Engine 4 money behind them.
The simple fact is that stores like Origin, Uplay, and others all exist because publishers have been trying to lever some of the market dominance away from Steam, and now Epic Games are attempting to do the same by getting other publishers and developers on their side. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen, as Valve can be a very slow moving company at times, and are not prone to rapid changes.
