The creators of Fortnite are moving further into the business of publishing other people’s games, and not just as PC exclusives.
The furore over Epic Games Store’s PC exclusive deals has been much reduced in recent months, not least because Epic appears to have switched focus, by signing up some of gaming’s most respected developers.
The names of the new games haven’t been revealed yet, but Epic will publish new titles from GenDesign (The Last Guardian), Playdead (Inside and Limbo), and Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake and Control).
The deal is described as a new ‘multi-platform publishing effort with a developer-first approach’, which implies the games will also be released on consoles, although the PC versions will presumably be lifetime Epic Games Store exclusives.
Epic boss Time Sweeny describes the deals as the ‘publishing model we always wanted for ourselves when we worked with publishers’ and it certainly does seem more generous than the industry norm.
Developers will be able to keep all rights to their games and its IP, as well as at least 50% of the profits after development costs have been recouped.
If that last sounds like a tricky bit of small print, it’s because Epic is offering to cover ‘up to’ 100% of development costs.
In other words, Epic is offering to fund new games but at the same time let the developers keep the rights, and then get 50% of the profits once they’ve earned back what was spent making the game.
According to Epic, it ‘fundamentally changes the developer/publisher model’ and for once that doesn’t sound like hyperbole.
There’s no clue as to when the new games will be announced, but Epic says more will be revealed in the coming months. Which may imply it was something they were planning to unveil at E3 in June, before it got cancelled.
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