A lot of documents leaked at night Epic Games as part of an ongoing lawsuit with Apple, which has revealed many interesting details regarding Epic’s strategy and Epic Games Store metrics.
There is a lot of interesting data – we will tell you about everything, but briefly:
Epic tried to negotiate with Sony for the release of 4-6 PlayStation games in EGS for $ 200 million. Apparently, however, the deal did not take place or it was revised, since Horizon zero dawn and Days gone are released simultaneously in several stores on PC, including Steam.
Heavy rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human originally came out in EGS, however, they were published not by Sony itself, but by the developer Quantic Dreams… From the games of Sony itself in the store, only Readyset heroes and Predator: Hunting Grounds…
Epic also considered collaborating with MicrosoftHowever, there was competition here – the owners of the Xbox developed the Xbox Game Pass for PC and fought for the same content as Epic. In addition, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer met with the CEO from time to time. Valve Gabe Newell.
In addition, the studio thought to negotiate with Nintendo, but the likelihood of such an outcome is very small.
A small team inside Epic Games wanted to update Unreal Tournament 3 and make the game free on EGS and Steam with a shared online. Initially, the surprise was prepared for May, but either the plans changed, or the release had to be postponed.
The most successful distributions of games to attract new users were:
- Grand Theft Auto V – 7.2 million accounts
- Civilization VI – 2.5 million accounts
- Subnautica – 900 thousand accounts
- Total War: Troy and Remnant: From the Ashes – 700 thousand accounts
- World War Z – 650 thousand accounts
- Batman: Arkham – 500 thousand accounts.
Red dead redemption 2 actually showed a disastrous launch on the Epic Games Store, where it was available a full month ahead of Steam, with sales of less than $ 2 million on launch day.
For comparison
- Borderlands 3 – $ 14 million
- The outer worlds – $ 4 million
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 – $ 2.5 million
- Metro: Exodus – $ 2.2 million
- World war z – $ 1.8 million.
Using Borderlands 3 as an example, we know that in the first couple of weeks, the shooter’s turnover in the Epic Games Store was about $ 77 million. The sales volume per day takes into account not only one game, but the entire store.
If we talk about the store’s revenue from a particular game at its start, then the situation is as follows:
- The Outer Worlds – $ 18 million
- Red Dead Redemption 2 – $ 13.5 million
- Borderlands 3 – $ 75 million
- World War Z – $ 8 million
- Metro: Exodus – $ 11 million
The most popular games on the Epic Games Store are mostly either shareware releases like Dauntless, Spellbreak or Rocket League, or giveaways like World War Z, Civilization VI, Football Manager 2019 and Remnant: From the Ashes.
The key exception was Borderlands 3.
Some exclusive releases like SnowRunner and Rogue Company failed to immediately earn guaranteed revenue – in the first six months, the first managed to achieve only 62% of the required amount, and the second – about 44% of the amount.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Mortal Shell and Among Trees fought back quickly.
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