Epic Games recently made a bombshell announcement that it was creating its own digital store to directly rival Valve's Steam, with a highly attractive revenue model, to boot. It seems things are on the up and up for the studio behind Fortnite now that it's reportedly poaching games from its rival store and making them exclusives.
Epic Games Store On The Lookout For Exclusives
Satisfactory, one of the upcoming games players will be able to buy from the Epic Games store, will no longer be available on Steam. Two more, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and Genesis Alpha One, will be timed exclusives — meaning exclusive only for a limited period — the developers have announced.
Losing Steam
Satisfactory, a first-person factory simulation title, has had its Steam page removed entirely as of writing. Developer Jace Varley from Coffee Stain Studios also posted a video confirming the transition to Epic Games' store, saying it's "the only place you'll be able to get [Satisfactory]." Varley will offer more details in a forthcoming Q&A.
Genesis Alpha One, a space disaster simulation title, will launch exclusively on the Epic Games store in January, publisher Team17 has confirmed. It didn't explicitly announce whether or not the title would eventually make it to Steam at a later date, but the wording "we can confirm that Genesis Alpha One will not be launching on Steam on January 29th 2019" suggests it'll arrive at some point.
A Matter Of Cuts
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, a prequel to Rebel Galaxy, a Western-styled space trading and combat simulation, will launch exclusively on the Epic Games Store and will be available elsewhere after a year. Double Damage, the developer, has confirmed that a big part of this decision was to reduce the cut that stores such as Steam take away from sales. Valve takes 30 percent, whereas Epic Games says it'll only take 12 percent.
Double Damage said it hoped this new revenue model becomes the new standard across all digital stores and that offering exclusive content to the Epic Games store helps create momentum so that other stores will follow suit.
"The only way this gets any traction is with some exclusive content and we're willing to be one of the canaries in the mineshaft."
Other upcoming games that are either available now or will become available on the Epic Games store include Ashen, Hades, Outer Wilds, Maneater, and of course, Fortnite. Epic Games store is live.
