Epic would back away from exclusives if Steam changed rev share, says CEO

When the Epic Games Store was announced a few months back, one of its most apparent departures from the norm was stepping away from the typical 70/30 revenue split favored by digital storefronts like Valve, Google Play, Apple's App Store, and others.

In a string of tweets from last night, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says that he believes the PC would be an all-around better game platform if other storefronts adopted more developer-friendly revenue splits and backed away from that 30 percent platform cut standard.

“30 percent store dominance is the #1 problem for PC developers, publishers, and everyone who relies on those businesses for their livelihood,” said Sweeney. “We’re determined to fix it and this is the one approach that will effect major change.”

It's something he says he backs to the point that Epic would end the string of exclusivity deals that have seen the developers and publishers of games like Borderlands 3, Metro Exodus, and Anno 1880 skip Steam initially for an Epic-exclusive launch.

He specifically calls out Steam in a tweet, offering that Epic would “hastily organize a retreat from exclusives” and even consider bringing its own games to Valve’s storefront “if Steam committed to a permanent 88 percent revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached."

“Such a move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming, and would have a sweeping impact on other platforms for generations to come,” tweeted Sweeney. “Then stores could go back to just being nice places to buy stuff, rather than the Game Developer IRS.”