Epic Games, the developer of the popular shooting game Fortnite, opens its own online game store. There are not only own games, but games from other developers sold.
The online game store will be available “soon” on PC and Mac, writes Epic Games on its website . According to the developer, “small numbers” of games for PCs and Macs will be available first. The games are selected by employees of Epic Games.
Later the platform will be expanded with more titles. The developer also wants to offer games for open platforms, such as the mobile operating system Android. On iOS, the store will probably not come because Apple has its own App Store.
It is not known which games will be available at the launch of the store. Epic Games reveals the titles on Thursday during the game event The Game Awards in Los Angeles.
Lower rates than with competitor
Epic gets 12 percent of the proceeds after a sold game. The developers receive the remaining 88 percent of the amount. In this way, Epic Games wants to compete vigorously with Valve, the company that manages the Steam store. Valve previously accounted for 30 percent of the revenue. This also applies to the app stores of Apple and Google.
Valve recently announced its policy to adjust. For example, developers now contribute 25 percent of the revenue. After a game has raised 50 million dollars, makers pay 20 percent per sold copy.
According to Epic Games director Tim Sweeney, the Epic Store is “available in most countries in the world”. That writes The Verge . The store will automatically refund money if a game is exchanged within two weeks, although no conditions have yet been announced.
Fortnite, Epic’s most popular game, is available for free on consoles and PC. The game raises money through in-app purchases, for example when a player purchases new clothes for his character. On Android phones the app is only available outside Google ‘s app store , partly because Epic Games has to give 30 percent of the revenue to Google.