Epic has kicked off a new scheme whereby game developers are having a huge carrot dangled in front of them in order to encourage them to bring older titles to the Epic Games Store.
It's called 'Now On Epic' and is described as a back catalog incentive program. The incentive is that the developer keeps all revenue made from any eligible previously released game, with Epic taking no cut, for the first six months of sales on the store.
After that, the contract reverts to the normal deal whereby Epic takes a 12% slice of the pie (with the dev getting 88%).
Steam obviously has a whole bunch of older games on its store, and far more depth in its roster, what with Valve's platform having been around for the last twenty years, whereas Epic is a relative newcomer to the scene.
There is one main stipulation from Epic, namely that any dev wishing to avail themselves of 'Now On Epic' must commit to releasing three games that are currently sold at another digital store. (Early Access releases are considered good to go, as well).
Although in the case that a developer has only made one or two games, it's good enough for Epic that the dev commits to bringing those across.
In a press release, Epic says:
"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. Participants can leverage publisher and franchise sale opportunities to maximize this unique opportunity during their participating titles' first six months on the Epic Games Store."
It's a win for gamers who use the Epic Games Store, clearly, as they will have a lot more choice going forward (at least in theory). And for those who don't, well, maybe in the future they might be a bit more tempted...
