Epic’s First Run offers 100% revenue share to game devs in exchange for exclusivity

techcrunch.com:

Epic’s ongoing quest to dethrone Steam as the PC gaming storefront of note has taken a new turn with First Run, an option for developers to get 100% of their game’s sales revenue in exchange for being an exclusive on the platform for six months. But is this really a good choice?

First Run, which will be available starting in mid-October, is seemingly an attempt to woo developers who are getting tired of paying Steam’s 30% share, an industry standard rate but nevertheless one many feel is excessive. The Epic Games Store already offers a more generous 12% cut, but creators can and do list their game elsewhere at that tier.

In addition to getting all the net sales revenue, games in First Run will get “exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections. In addition, products will be featured in relevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable.” So they’ll push it harder.

Though it sounds nice, the deal may not be a good one for as many as you’d think. Steam, for all its shortcomings and 30% off the top, is the de facto platform for PC gamers, and developers have shared that when their game is available on both Steam and Epic, the latter makes up only a small fraction of sales.

True, many developers took exclusivity offers — but those were because Epic paid cash up front depending on what they felt they might earn from that exclusivity. For some independent developers, getting (say) $150K guaranteed was far superior than a chance at twice or ten times that. Small dev teams have bills to pay and the Epic exclusivity buyouts were a good way to hedge bets and keep the lights on — after a while, they’d head to Steam anyway.

But the fact remains that Epic is asking them to trade 70% of a big