Remedy defends Epic Games publishing deal against criticism from Baldur's Gate 3 dev

Epic's exclusivity deals have received criticism across the industry, and recent comments from a Baldur's Gate 3 developer have prompted a response from one of Epic's key partners--Remedy Entertainment.

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Epic has made multiple exclusivity deals, and the co-financing deal with Remedy was noteworthy.. Epic funded 100% of Alan Wake 2's development and publishing costs, a typically rare opportunity. In exchange, Alan Wake 2 would be exclusive to the Epic Store and not launch on Steam, and be digital-only on consoles. Restricting sales from PC's biggest storefront leads to less sales, yet the game has sold 2 million copies as of February 2025 and finally started turning a profit, leading to royalties for Remedy.

Epic exclusives have been controversial in the past, and this time, Larian publishing director Michael Douse to openly call out one of Tim Sweeney's Tweets about "altruistic pro-developer talk." The exchange was an interesting back-and-forth that doesn't often happen in the games industry.

"I understand Epic entirely funded Alan Wake 2, but this altruistic pro-developer talk doesn't sit well when Remedy seemingly went into financial crisis because they couldn't tap Steam for AW2 sales suffering potentially hundreds of millions in lost revenue," Douse said.

Insofar as sales potential, Douse's words have kernels of truth, given Remedy's current financial situation. Although Alan Wake 2 is now providing royalties, it took years to get there, and it's unclear how much copies of Alan Wake 2 could have sold if it were also available on Steam.

However, Remedy says that there wouldn't even be an Alan Wake 2 if it weren't for Epic Games.

The Finnish game developer went on to explain further, saying that Epic was and is a great partner to the group:

"There would be no Alan Wake 2 without Epic Publishing. The publishing deal with Epic was very fair to Remedy.

"While these complex deals can often take even a year to reach their conclusion, and may not always be fair to the developer, this one was. And it only took months to get done. Epic Games was, and is, an excellent partner to us. Steam or no Steam."