Ubisoft/ValveAs the battle between Steam and the Epic Games Store rages on, publisher Ubisoft has spoken out once again about why it disagrees with the 30 percent cut that Valve’s platform takes, citing it as a key reason for keeping most of its new games off of Steam.
While Ubisoft games had previously appeared on Steam, the publisher was never happy about the business model that Steam offered. Unsurprisingly then, when Epic came along with an alternative (a 12 percent cut), the company behind hits like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry were more than okay with making the jump.
ValveUbisoft’s Vice President for Partnerships and Revenue, Chris Early, recently told The New York Times that he believes Valve’s cut is no longer realistic, arguing that it’s not reflective of where the industry is at today.
Early explained:
It’s unrealistic, the current business model that they have. It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution.
Ubisoft was one of the first AAA publishers to throw its lot in with Epic, causing something of a stir when it announced in early 2019 that The Division 2 would be skipping steam, and instead would only be available via Epic or the Ubisoft-owned Uplay storefront.
Given that Ubisoft gets 100 percent of all earnings from Uplay, it’d make sense that directing all sales to its own storefront would be the company’s endgame. Ubisoft also confirmed a few months back that the upcoming Ghost Recon: Breakpoint would not be available on Steam
UbisoftIn the same article, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is quoted as saying that game stores “extract an enormous portion of game industry profits”, and are “ripe for disruption” as a result.
Basically then, don’t expect the Epic Games Store to go anywhere anytime soon. Other big upcoming and currently available titles that Epic has bagged exclusivity for include Borderlands 3, Metro Exodus, Control, and The Outer Worlds.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.