Devolver Digital’s Graeme Struthers Regrets the Steam vs Epic Games War
During PAX Australia, Devolver Digital co-founder, Graeme Struthers said the Steam versus Epic Games Store war needs to be reset. Apparently, the conversation never properly took place as it should have. Struthers expresses that though competition is a great thing for developers and publishers but that Steam and other platforms should be respected. The Epic Games Store and Steam are competing over the PC install base but in Epic’s efforts, they’re alienating some fans from their favorite franchises such as Shenmue or Borderlands.
“I feel like this conversation needs to be reset. The conversation never really took place properly in my opinion,” said Graeme Struthers. “To be in a 70/30 relationship, it was transformative in every sense. And that led to realignment with relationships with developers.” Apparently Steam is reluctant to match the Epic Games Store revenue sharing and it seems like Struthers wishes revenue options and exclusivity were discussed between both parties before solidifying deals with developers and publishers. “Epic have taken a view that their way of bringing content to their platform is far more generous revenue share and obviously they’ve been pushing exclusives–that’s great.”
“Steam has invested I don’t know how many hundreds of millions of dollars in their platform; Epic have yet to do that,” said Graeme Struthers. “The rise about developers and publishers going to Epic and exclusivity, it doesn’t really hold up. I play games on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, and Devolver–we’ve done console exclusives with Sony, with Microsoft–I think it’s good, but I think we have to respect Steam for what they’ve done. Without them, none of this would have been a conversation in the first place.”
What’s your favorite Epic Games Store exclusive and why? Are you a gamer who isn’t interested in downloading the storefront just to play Borderlands 3 or World War Z? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: wccftech