Of all the last-minute Epic Exclusivity deals, the ones for Metro Exodus and Phoenix Point faced the most community backlash. While Exodus was moved from Steam to Epic while pre-ordering was going on, the XCOM inspired Phoenix Point, despite its crowdfunded status secured a timed exclusive deal on Epic Games Store to the dismay of backers.
Resetera members worked out that Epic Games paid more than $2 million to Phoenix Point developer Snapshot Games to secure a timed exclusive on its Epic Games Store. Apparently, a backer who supported the game on Fig – a platform that enables backers to financially kickstart a game and also to buy in at an investor level, ultimately sharing in revenues from games- confirmed the game had already seen a 191 percent return on investment thanks to a “cash advance” raised by “Snapshot’s distribution agreement” with Epic Games.
“Snapshot’s distribution agreement has brought in significant resources and we are excited to share that this has benefitted investors in addition to raising the quality of the final game,” stated an email from Fig distributed to all investors. “Since the received cash advance contributes to the game’s revenue, it will be shared with investors as per our licensing agreement with Snapshot. Additionally, investment returns will continue to accrue with sales of the game.”
Using SEC filings and already-published information on breakeven points and revenue splits, Resetera users figured out that, in order to break even for investors, the game would have to generate sales of $588,235. To return at 191 percent after Fig takes its own stake, the game would have to make $2.25m in sales.
If Epic Paid that much to secure an indie game, you can imagine how much they threw around to secure AAA titles like The Division 2 or Borderlands 3 to their store.
Credits: PCGamesN