As revealed in recent court documents, Epic Games has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars in its battle against Steam and other competitors due to its obsession with securing exclusives for its digital storefront, which requires truck loads of cash paid out to publishers. While losing $330 million isn’t something any company should be happy about, CEO Tim Sweeney has amusingly gone on record about Epic’s financial losses and described it as a “fantastic success” that has resulted in increased market share and growth of the Epic Games Store. According to Sweeney, losing money is an incorrect way of looking this—he considers this an investment that will ultimately result in a “great, profitable business.”
Apple spins this as “losing money”, but spending now in order to build a great, profitable business in the future is exactly what investment is! It’s equally true whether you’re building a factory, a store, or a game.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 10, 2021
Epic spent $444 million on grabbing up exclusives and free games for the store. This money went towards a bunch of “minimum guarantees” for publishers and devs. These minimums were paid out to publishers regardless if a game sells well enough to cover it, which is why so many companies took Epic Game Store deals. A guaranteed bit of cash is better than a possible loss. For example, to get Control on the Epic Game Store as an exclusive Epic paid out $10.5 million.
Sources: Tim Sweeney, Kotaku