Epic First Run Program Offers Devs 100% of Revenue for Six Months in Exchange for Exclusivity

Epic Games announced yesterday a new initiative to get more developers to release their apps and games on its Epic Games Store. With the new Epic First Run program, Epic Games will allow developers to keep 100% of the revenue (instead of the usual 88%/12% revenue split) from their apps and games in their first six months on the Store in exchange for exclusivity.

After six months, developers who opt in for the program will keep 88% of the revenue from their apps and games, while Epic Games will keep its usual 12% cut. “After the six-month exclusivity period ends, developers are welcome to release their products on other third-party stores, while continuing to benefit from Epic’s 88%/12% revenue share,” the company explained.

Notably, the new program will still allow participating developers to keep distributing eligible products in their first-party stores. Epic Games’s keyless redemption program will also allow them to sell keys on other stores such as Green Man Gaming, Humble Store, and others.

“Participating products in the Epic First Run program will be presented to those users on-store with new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections. In addition, products will be featured in relevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable. Once a product joins the program, it will benefit from continued exposure throughout its Epic First Run,” Epic Games also emphasized.

Since its launch back in December 2018, the Epic Games Store managed to shake up the digital storefront ecosystem with a more advantageous revenue-sharing agreement, a selection of free PC games offered throughout the year, and some high-profile exclusivity deals with developers. Back in 2019, the Epic Games Store was really put under the spotlight thanks to a six-month exclusivity deal for the PC version of Borderlands 3, which at the time disappointed many Steam users.

With 68 million monthly active users as of today, the Epic Games Store still isn’t as big as Steam, which had 132 million monthly active users and 69 million daily active users back in 2021. Still, the benefits of the Epic First Run program may be hard to ignore for developers, especially since Steam’s revenue-sharing agreement isn’t as generous as Epic’s.

Speaking about this new Epic First Run program on X/Twitter, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney pledged that the new initiative should be a win-win proposition. “Devs earn more money, Epic reaches new customers, everyone wins,” the exec wrote.