Epic Games has announced its new program that will financially incentivize developers to bring their old titles to the Epic Games Store.
Epic Games has announced ina blog post that it plans to create a new program titled “Now On Epic” to give developers the chance to bring their older titles to its store. The program is targeted at developers who wish to give games from their back catalog a chance to reach a new audience. To help promote this initiative, Epic Games Store has offered the developers 100% of the net revenue on games they add for the first six months. Afterward, they will still receive 88% of the profit from their games. Registration is open through the Epic Developer Portal and will be available until December 31, 2024.
Why Has Epic Games Started this Incentive?
The main reason that Epic Games started this initiative was so it could use older games to draw in a new audience on the 230 million user Epic Games Store. The blog post states “Releasing back-catalog content on the Epic Games Store helps reach new, incremental audiences and ensures that the content that our players are looking for can be consistently discovered.” However, there are still criteria for developers who wish to participate in the program. For example, the developer must release at least three games before October 31, 2023, and they must be currently available on another digital storefront.
In the past few years, Epic Games and its resident flagship franchise Fortnite have both been involved in various legal battles against other big distributors and publishers. The two biggest cases are against Apple and Google over distribution and profits as well as their recent half-billion dollar loss against the FTC for deceptive microtransactions. Additionally, Epic Games has come under fire for failing to pay royalties to the developer of the dating sim Hatoful Boyfriend.
The Future of Epic Games
This initiative also comes right after Epic Games laid off over 800 employees to preserve its financial stability, meaning that many of the projects from the company have been delayed. In light of all of these recent stories, one can only hope that this new initiative will mean a brighter future for both Epic Games and the developers who partner with them.
Source: Epic Games
