Epic Games Is Now The Ethical Steam Alternative... Kinda

Epic Games has announced that developers will now pay no “revenue share on their first $1,000,000 in revenue per app per year” on the Epic Games Store, and anything over that figure will be subject to the regular 88/12 percent revenue share. It is also releasing a new feature that allows developers to launch webshops hosted by EGS, which will give players a more cost-effective alternative to Apple and Google’s in-app purchases, which at the time of writing charge a high extra fee.

This announcement comes after it was ruled in the United States last week that Apple failed to comply with a previous injunction order imposed in an antitrust lawsuit brought by Epic Games. Apple and its vice president of finance have been referred to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the order “forces Apple to compete with other payment services rather than blocking them”. Apple is appealing the ruling.

In comparison, Steam – EGS’ main competitor, and the PC digital storefront frontrunner by a long shot – takes about 30 percent of a developer’s revenue, though its tiers were revised in 2018 so that it will then take 25 percent of revenues beyond $10 million, and 20 percent on earnings beyond $50 million.

This means that if you care about supporting developers, especially independent studios, with your hard earned gamer dollars, it makes far more sense for you to buy games through EGS instead of Steam. Developers will get far more money from an EGS purchase than a Steam one.

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Epic Games Store Is More Ethical… Ish

Stop typing angrily into the comment section, I know. Nobody wants to use EGS, it’s a worse user experience to Steam in basically every conceivable way. Even I, the person telling you that EGS is a better alternative, don't use the platform unless I’m claiming a free game that I’ll immediately forget I have because I never open it unless I’m claiming free stuff.

And it’s not like EGS is exactly a completely moral alternative. This is a company that’s had to settle with the Federal Trade Commission for $72 million dollars because of anti-consumer practices. It bought, gutted and subsequently sold Bandcamp after laying off half its staff. Also, CEO Tim Sweeney threw a tantrum about people making fun of him for buying a blue check on Twitter. But hey, it raised millions of dollars for Ukrainian refugees!

But Steam isn’t all that great either – it’s just the most popular, longest-standing option, and therefore the default platform for PC players and developers. It’s practically undisruptable, even by bigger companies. And yet, as my colleague Ben Sledge so tactfully put it, Steam’s recommendation algorithm is “dogpoop”. The platform has delisted games without warning or communication (some of which are Chinese-made or Chinese-linked), but doesn’t delist other games that are obvious grifts, like that viral Banana clicker game from last year. So many games are released on it in a single day that countless independent developers have their years of work crushed by the algorithm, never to be seen or played by anyone.

So, fine, it’s a bit difficult to say one is more moral, but when it comes to the specific issue of supporting developers you love, EGS is the better choice. Unfortunately, nobody wants to use it, because it sucks.

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What Else Is There?

There are arguably less unethical platforms and services that you could use. Good Old Games, or GOG, has a worse revenue share scheme – newer titles have a 70/30 split on revenue, or developers can take an upfront payment with GOG taking 40 percent of sales until the payment is covered, with the cost then reverting back to 30 percent. That money does go towards the company hard carrying the game preservation movement, to be fair. But this isn’t really an option, since the platform mostly carries retro games and a narrower selection of newer indie games.

Humble Games used to be a good option as it gives part of your purchase to charity and splits the rest between developers, but owner Ziff Davis laid all its staff off last year while “restructuring”, and it just gives you keys for other platforms anyway as opposed to being a platform of its own. There’s also itch.io, but that’s really for smaller indie games that might not be accepted on Steam – it’s a great place to find experimental games or the products of game jams, but not so much mainstream games.

So like… is there really another alternative but Epic that supports developers in a more tangible way? Not really! I know nobody wants to move over, especially considering some people (me included) have had their Steam account for over a decade. But maybe consider buying that hot new indie game on EGS instead, if you can. It might help a promising developer out a little more.

Epic Games Store