The Buzz: Epic Games cuts its revenue sharing from 70/30 to 88/12

This week's "The Buzz" rounds up reactions to Epic Games' decision to slice Unreal Engine licensing revenue sharing by over half (favoring creators), as well as Nintendo's plans on releasing 20-30 indie games a week on Switch.

Epic Games shares the love with its Unreal Engine creative community

Epic Games shocked the industry with its incredibly generous rev-share slash in favor of Unreal Engine's creators. And Twitter couldn't be happier.

Epic is shifting the Unreal store from 70/30 revenue split to 88/12, and it is going to set that retroactively, so people get that rate for all sales from the last 4 years. https://t.co/8Zm2NFKnNq
— Jeffrey Grubb (@JeffGrubb) July 12, 2018

That Epic thing is the best announcement that’s ever been announced in games. Find me a better announcement in the last 20 years.
— Roll The Garbage (@AgentTinsley) July 12, 2018

WOW. This is a massive break from industry standard. Not only is Epic redefining its financial relationship with creators moving forward, it’s leveraging its recent success to make this retroactive for FOUR years.

Unless I’m missing something, this is a huge feel-good story. https://t.co/yxO8vCUxsL
— Mike Futter (@Futterish) July 12, 2018

Hey, let's all applaud Epic for giving developers an 88/12 split on revenue. Good on you, Epic.

Then let's talk about how Valve's 30% cut is absolutely ludicrous for a digital marketplace. Just completely outsized and unfair.
— Skatin' Dingman (@haydencd) July 12, 2018

But not only 12%: they also included four years backpay. FOUR. YEARS. https://t.co/RLiJDJjP97
— Roll The Garbage (@AgentTinsley) July 12, 2018

Nintendo opens the indie flood gates on Switch

Nintendo, on the other hand, has decided to make discoverability worse on the Switch by announcing that it will be releasing 20-30 games... a week.

I am all in favor of (1) indie games (2) on Switch, but I just can't conceive of a scenario in which 30 indie games launch every week without compromising quality and cannibalizing sales from worthy games. Haven't we done this dance a dozen times already?
— Jeremy Parish did not invent the word metroidvania (@gamespite) July 10, 2018

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders Nintendo Co. Q&A Summary

"In the future, we are looking to release around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week, and we definitely expect to see some great games among them."

You'll need another 0 in your marketing budget.
— Shams Jorjani (@ShamsJorjani) July 10, 2018

I like the idea of Nintendo Switch getting more indie games...but 20-30 per WEEK? Talk about a danger of oversaturation.
— Robert “The DCD" Workman- Hey, it's summer! (@thedcd) July 10, 2018

For more stories like this one delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe to the GameDailyBiz Digest!

Amanda Farough

Editor-in-Chief

Amanda has been meandering around the game journosphere since 2010, mostly covering indie games, culture, and industry news. These days, she talks about the business of making games through a critical cultural lens. She adores RPGs, weird narrative indie games, and strategy games that take forever to learn. Amanda is also the editor-in-chief of SuperParent. You can find her on Twitter as @AmandaFarough or you can email her at amanda.farough@gamedaily.biz.