Epic Games Introduces First Run Program, Offers 100% Revenue to Developers for Exclusivity

[GFreeman]

Today, we're introducing the Epic First Run program: an opt-in exclusivity program for third-party developers on the Epic Games Store. The new Epic First Run program gives participants the opportunity to boost their net revenue from user spending on eligible products from 88% to 100% in their first six months on the Epic Games Store. After their six-month run, participants will continue to benefit from Epic's 88%/12% revenue split.

The Epic Games Store is home to a huge, rapidly growing global audience with over 230 million players and 68 million monthly active users. Participating products in the Epic First Run program will be presented to those users on-store with new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections. In addition, products will be featured in relevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable. Once a product joins the program, it will benefit from continued exposure throughout its Epic First Run.



The new program gives developers of any scale the opportunity to activate our global audience right at launch. While this is a major part of the release journey, that's not all of it. For this program to reach peak efficiency, developers must promote their products early and often with their target audience. Learn more about publishing best practices by reading our marketing tips found in our Developer Resources Documentation.

The Epic First Run program is open to developers and publishers on the Epic Games Store with eligible new releases launching on or after October 16, 2023. For more information, visit our information page.

What is the Epic First Run program?
Epic First Run is an opt-in exclusivity program that offers third-party developers 100% net revenue of user spending on eligible products in their first six months of exclusivity on the Epic Games Store. When the exclusivity period ends, the revenue share captured from user spending will revert to 88%/12%.

Who can participate?
This program is open to developers and publishers with registered Epic Games developer accounts and eligible products launching on or after October 16, 2023.

What products are eligible for the program?
A new release game or app which has not been previously released on another third-party PC store or included in a subscription service available on another third-party PC store.

Games or apps with a pre-existing exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store are not eligible for the program.

How do I get an Epic Developer account?
To create an account, go to the Developer Portal website at dev.epicgames.com/portal and follow the instructions to sign in then register your organization and products. For more information, please see our Developer Portal account creation guide.

Can I still release a product on my first-party store or website?
Yes. Products in the Epic First Run program can also be released simultaneously on publishers' and developers' own stores or launchers with direct sales, sale of an Epic digital redemption code, or integration with our keyless redemption program. Please note, keyless distribution will require technical work to implement for developer or publisher's launcher and/or store.

Developers and publishers can also use the Epic Games Store's keyless redemption program to sell on other stores including Green Man Gaming, Humble Store and several others. After the six-month exclusivity period ends, developers are welcome to release their products on other third-party stores, while continuing to benefit from Epic's 88%12% revenue share.

How do I sign up for the Epic First Run program?
We will open registration through our self-publishing flow in the Epic Developer portal in October 2023. Check our information page for updates!

General questions about the program? Head over to the Epic Games Store Developer Community to connect with our staff and other developers on this topic and more. If you have a confidential question, please log in and start a private discussion with the topic Epic Games Store and the subject "Epic First Run". If you're already a partner, please reach out to your Epic Games Store account manager directly.

How do I release my product on the Epic Games Store?
It has never been easier to bring your games to the Epic Games Store. In March this year, we launched our self-service publishing tools to streamline the onboarding and release process. The tools allow developers to register, set up, test and distribute their games all directly through the Epic Developer Portal.

Read more about the benefits and requirements of self-publishing on the Epic Games Store in our self-publishing tools announce blog, and visit our distribution page to sign up. For more on the Store's current player numbers and trends, visit our 2022 Year in Review.

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[natr0n]

Awesome for devs who make quality games.

 

[evernessince]

My question is why are they using different terminology?

"offers third-party developers 100% net revenue"

and after the first 6 months it's

"the revenue share captured from user spending will revert to 88%/12%. "

Either net revenue and user spending aren't the same or they are and it's worded extremely poorly. Net revenue is revenue less expenses. Technically speaking, devs always get 100% net revenue as net revenue already has EPIC's cut taken out in addition to any other expenses. Why they didn't just say "offers third-party developers 100% user spending" makes me think they are trying to pull a fast one. Plus you have to consider that at the very least some of that money will go to payment processing fees so maybe what they meant something akin to user spending less any payment processing fees.

 

[Assimilator]

As long as Epic offers exclusivity deals, I won't use their store.

 

[rv8000]

Never will I give Epic Game a cent, between Tencent and paying devs for exclusivity, nope.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

Makes me wonder if they're starting to tire of losing money on exclusives or something. Basically switching to a system where, instead of an upfront bribe for exclusivity, they're promising a 100% revenue share during the exclusivity period. Not too many devs are going to want to take that I don't think as it removes the risk for Epic and puts all the risk on the developer / publisher. All the while they know they can launch on a real store like Steam where people actually buy games.

But yeah I'm with the two posters above me - not doing business with Epic.

 

[noel_fs]

if only they put some effort into their client

 

[AGlezB]

I felt like EGS was pimping me out to hCaptcha to train their AIs when they started asking me to solve CAPTCHAs at every turn.
They give away 2 games every week but I already own the games I want and the rest I'm never going to play so as far as I'm concerned they can keep their CAPTCHAs and I'll spend my money somewhere else.

 

[chrcoluk]

Interesting so gamers, can now recognise dev's who buy into the exclusivity nonsense more easily. Will EPIC ever do something that doesnt require exclusivity on their platform?

 

[Hyrel]

You take 100% of the revenue but sell 1/3 of the copies than if you released it on Steam.

 

[Imouto]

They keep appealing to distributors and should be focusing on customers. The subsidized strategy failed but they seem unable to steer and are doubling down on a dead end.

 

[Crackong]

Such an aggressive approach.
Clearly their current exclusivity deals aren't doing so well.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

100% of considerably less sales is probably not the best deal. Also, I'm bummed that Alan Wake II is probably trapped on EGS.

 

[TechLurker]

Eh, EPIC's just spicing up the deals for a 6 month exclusivity period, which works out for them. Sony also has been using that playbook for awhile to very little negative effects. Xbox doesn't get the same luxury as most games for Xbox are now dual PC/Xbox releases, although there's a few times where a game was Xbox/MS Store-exclusive for a period of time (as opposed to Steam or EGS). As seen with other games that were EPIC-first or Playstation-first then released on Steam 6 months later, sales will still quickly occur. Heck, the FFVII Remake was PS-first, then a temporary EPIC-exclusive, then finally made it to Steam, and still made bank, as one notable example.

They're just capitalizing on that FOMO feeling. If anything, the other way to look at it is that it'll be a 6 month live-test period, and initial reviews of the games will either make or break them. Although one would certainly hope that with some time live, the devs would fix any glaring errors.

As for me, I don't owe any real loyalty to any storefront, so I'll buy it on whatever front has the games I'm interested in available on sale first, whether it's GOG, Steam, or EGS.

 

[ir_cow]

As long as Epic offers exclusivity deals, I won't use their store.

Tell that to the 300+ games i've gotten for free over the years. I'm at 340 as of today. I would say I bought about 5 games in total.

 

[claylomax]

As long as Epic offers exclusivity deals, I won't use their store.

As long as Epic offers exclusivity deals, I will use their store.

 

[mukumi]

I don't care of the store. I purchase where it's less expensive and I don't care of so-called exclusivity. Epic runs on any computer.

 

[watzupken]

Makes me wonder if they're starting to tire of losing money on exclusives or something. Basically switching to a system where, instead of an upfront bribe for exclusivity, they're promising a 100% revenue share during the exclusivity period. Not too many devs are going to want to take that I don't think as it removes the risk for Epic and puts all the risk on the developer / publisher. All the while they know they can launch on a real store like Steam where people actually buy games.

But yeah I'm with the two posters above me - not doing business with Epic.

It is not because they are tired of losing money, but rather they cannot afford to throw money now. Credit is not cheap like it used to when interest rates are very low. And given interest is high, there is little reason people or companies will still want to throw money at a money losing company. So I suspect they are trying to avoid throwing money, and go with the revenue cut instead. I am not sure if it will change anything, given that EPIC have bought exclusive titles and throwing free games, and it’s just not working. Their tactic to sue for the “sake of gamers” is not working either.

 

[zlobby]

Lol, this $hit is still online?

Awesome for devs who make quality games.

Devs who make quality games won't need to bother where they will sell. CoD, BF (not that these are quality, but hey) and many more are selling like crazy on PC and all consoles, even without epic.

 

[Haziza]

If it's not on Steam, I won't buy it; it's that simple.

 

[zlobby]

If it's not on Steam, I won't buy it; it's that simple.

Steam is a failover for me. GOG and its no-DRM policy is a sure winner!

 

[AGlezB]

GOG and its no-DRM policy is a sure winner!

GOG is very lacking as a gaming platform:
- Cannot edit you reviews. Just last week I had to contact GOG Support to fix a typo in the title of a review.
- Their forum sucks.
- When I buy a game via web with Galaxy running I have to close it run it again for the game to appear in the library.
- They have an idea voting feature and you can guess how good it works from the lack of review editing.

For me the only valuable thing GOG has is the no-DRM policy, but they will die in a matter of months if Steam or any other store ever decides to adopt the same policy.
Just look at how many players bought CP2077 on Steam even if GOG had it at a lower price.

 

[basco]

i can remember a time when some users said they will never buy something on steam !

 

[zlobby]

GOG is very lacking as a gaming platform:
- Cannot edit you reviews. Just last week I had to contact GOG Support to fix a typo in the title of a review.
- Their forum sucks.
- When I buy a game via web with Galaxy running I have to close it run it again for the game to appear in the library.
- They have an idea voting feature and you can guess how good it works from the lack of review editing.

For me the only valuable thing GOG has is the no-DRM policy, but they will die in a matter of months if Steam or any other store ever decides to adopt the same policy.
Just look at how many players bought CP2077 on Steam even if GOG had it at a lower price.

All that I personally care about is DRM. But I can imagine the other things you mentioned are off-putting to others.

 

[AGlezB]

All that I personally care about is DRM. But I can imagine the other things you mentioned are off-putting to others.

DRM seems to be just a "minor inconvenience" for most people so the decision usually favors familiarity, features and ease of use of the platform.
I'm kind of angry at GOG for putting so much effort into making Galaxy the one launcher to rule them all while basic functionality (like review editing) is completely missing.