Tim Sweeney, co-founder of the studio behind Fornite and aggressive pursuant of the title of top dog in the PC games distribution market, released a statement via twitter announcing that his company will provide compensation for publishers who abandon other marketplaces in lieu of Epic Store exclusivity.
This comes at the heels of Epic's most recent debacle regarding exclusivity, where Shenmue 3 - a mostly-crowdfunded game that received countless contributions on the basis of it being released for Steam, suddenly abandoned its commitments to backers by signing on as a timed exclusive for the Epic Store.
Naturally, the decision to break promises was met with considerable contention amongst those who were hoping for their Steam copy upon release. So much so that it prompted the publisher to offer alternative options or refunds for backers. Additionally, it has since come to light that Epic will be footing the bill for those refunds, and that their strategy going forward will be to do the same for any game that swears fealty -- I mean, goes exclusive -- for the Epic Store.
While some might see this as a bold, new strategy for disrupting the status quo, in actuality it sets a dangerous precedent that encourages publishers and developers to solicit backers for platforms that they don't intend to service. When it comes to multi-billion dollar companies such as Valve and Epic participating in Game of Thrones-esque subversion and otherwise unsavory tactics to get a leg up on the competition, all is fair in love and war. However, a strategy that actively seeks to compromise the transparency between those raising funds and those contributing only serves to instill distrust and resentment in would-be backers.
With Epic's wealth of resources continuing to grow exponentially, only time will tell what shady maneuvers the company will employ next to coerce games over to their platform.
