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Epic Games no longer offers revenue guarantees for exclusivity deals
Epic Games have offered studios a minimum revenue guarantee in exchange for Epic Game Store exclusivity, but those days might be over as the return on investment has been underwhelming.
The new model will look more like publishing than distribution deals, and it is safe to assume that the ‘minimum guarantee’ deals were a way to attract attention, establish relationships and assure the industry that Epic Games were serious about competing with Valve and Steam.
- Much fewer minimum guarantee deals signed from late 2019
- Tier 1 guaranteed over $30 million and had biggest ROI of 70%
- Tier 2 between $10 million and $30 million with lower ROI of 36%
- Tier 3 guaranteed under $10 million with lowest ROI of 20%
- Each tier has only had a single title hit its minimum revenue guarantee target
Unsealed: The sales data was found in documents from the Epic vs Apple lawsuit, which included fairly detailed information about the Epic Games Store and revealed that smaller exclusives provided a particularly bad return on investment.
Publisher: Epic Games Publishing launched in March 2020, and deals would often include limited exclusivity for Epic Game Store, while still allowing Epic to make real money on Steam.