‘Control,’ ‘Outer Worlds,’ ‘Ancestors’ Among Dozen Games Coming to Epic Games Store

By Brian Crecente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The blossoming success of Epic Games Store is proving enticing to a growing number of developers and publishers, including Take-Two’s Private Division, Remedy, and Ubisoft, which Wednesday announced it’s extending its agreement with the store.

The agreement will see Ubisoft bringing “several major PC releases” to the store, and additional back catalog titles are coming to Epic’s free games program. Take-Two Interactive’s Private Division is bringing “The Outer Worlds” from Obsidian Entertainment and “Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey” from Panache Digital Games to the Epic Store. And Quantic Dream is bringing its last three titles to PC for the first time through the store.

Steve Allison, head of Epic Games Store, detailed the news at the company’s GDC keynote after walking through some of the store’s recent successes. He noted that games in the store now reach the 85 million players signed up for Epic’s services through the store and games like “Fortnite,” and he reminded the audience of developers that Epic only takes 12% of sales.

“You deserve 88% from the sale of your game,” he said.

A key to the store’s draw, beyond that high cut from every sale, is that it has a big user base, something that Epic continues to stoke with its free game giveaways. Every two weeks, the company gives away a game to everyone with a free account. The first free game was “Subnautica,” which Allison said had 4.5 million downloads in the two weeks it was available. Most recently, “Slime Rancher,” which has a day or two left before it’s no longer available, has already had more than 4.5 million downloads, he said.

Next, Allison noted that “Metro Exodus” a major game exclusive that Epic seemingly plucked away from competitor Valve and its Steam store, has already had 2.5 times the sales of the previous game, “Metro: Last Light,” which was sold on Steam.

“We are super stoked to see this result,” he said.

Allison wrapped up his talk by running through a list of other games now coming exclusively to the Epic Games store:

• “Afterparty” from Night School Studios
• “Control” from Remedy Entertainment and 505 Games
• “The Cycle” from YAGER
• “Dauntless” from Phoenix Labs
• “Industries of Titan” from Brace Yourself Games
• “Journey to the Savage Planet” from Typhoon Studios and 505 Games
• “Kine” from Chump Squad
• “Phoenix Point” from Snapshot Games
• “The Sinking City” from Frogwares and Bigben
• “Spellbreak” from Proletariat Inc
• “Solar Ash” from Heart Machine and Annapurna Interactive