With the new Epic Games Store looking to outperform Steam in as many ways as possible, its founder has promised that transparency with developers is a priority for the site. The Epic Games Store was announced earlier this week and has already offered better rates to developers.
Sergey Gaylonkin, Epic Game’s director of publisher, is the same man who once ran SteamSpy. The site was managed in his spare time and delivered sales data taken from Steam before it was closed down after Valve removed the main source of data that Gaylonkin used for the site. It was a move that’s ultimately led to the creation of the new Epic Games Store and Gaylonkin is hoping that he can use what he’s learned from SteamSpy to better serve developers that use the site.
Speaking with Kotaku, Gaylonkin said that the store is “aiming to provide developers with as much information to make good decisions as legally possible,” Of course, as Gaylonkin goes on to say, this doesn’t mean sharing data from one developer with another. Though it does suggest that developers will gain a better understanding of what type of game is selling and where in the world it’s proving more successful, as Gaylonkin notes that statistics in “aggregated format” will be available for developers.
But it seems like that will take some time to be utilized properly. Gaylonkin said that when the store launches, it will do so with a “very barebone backend dashboard” but will eventually be able to “give developers way more information about their games than SteamSpy ever could.”
Epic’s announcement of its new store has already garnered a reaction from Steam, with the store increasing the revenue that best-selling games earn to 80 percent. Though, it’s a move that’s fallen flat with indie developers, who suggest that the move only serves to benefit the wealthier developers rather than everyone who adds to the Steam Store.
The Epic Games Store will launch sometime in 2019, offering increased returns to all developers compared to the return Valve is offering to a section of developers on Steam.
