Epic Games Publishing came into formal existence on Wednesday by announcing plans to fund, launch, and promote new multi-platform video games. The announcement hinged on two key points: which studios had already signed to EGP and what financial terms EGP games developers can expect.
While most game publishing deals aren't typically laid bare for the public, Epic has already chosen to confirm some of EGP's financial nitty-gritty. In addition to letting studios retain "100%" control of their intellectual property (an increasingly popular term for game-publishing contracts), EGP also promises to fund "up to 100%" of all game development costs. "Once costs are recouped," Epic says, developers will earn "at least 50% of profits." (That mix of "up to" and "at least" in the last two points may imply that those figures vary as a pair—meaning, if a developer pays for more of its dev costs, it might stand to claim more profit-sharing in the long term. Epic has not clarified that point.)
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Three notable studios have already signed on, and Epic says that each studio will launch its "next" game through its EGP partnership.
Remedy Entertainment first rose to popularity with 2001's
Max Payne, and its latest game,
Control, won Ars Technica's 2019 Game of the Year honors (and marked its first game as an independent developer after a 12-year deal with Microsoft).
Playdead launched both of its previous games, the indie darlings Limbo and
Inside, with timed exclusivity deals on Xbox consoles. And
genDESIGN is led by Fumito Ueda, the director responsible for PlayStation-exclusive classics
Ico and
Shadow of the Colossus.
M$!
