Shenmue 3 becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive caused a bit of controversy when Deep Silver originally refused to provide refunds. Now, in response to this, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney stated that Epic Store refunds will be in order for players for Kickstarter games that go exclusive to the controversial storefront.
Following the backlash on their decision, Deep Silver and Ys Net eventually decided to offer refunds. Sweeney has now come out and stated that it’s the one paying for these refunds so that Ys Net can finish the game. Sweeney also added that Epic Games will be doing the same for any crowdfunded game that goes exclusive on its store.
“When future games go Epic-exclusive after offering crowdfunding rewards on other PC stores, we’ll either coordinate with colleagues at the other stores to ensure key availability in advance, or guarantee refunds at announcement time,” Sweeney stated in his tweet.
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In addition to paying for the refunds, Epic Games will make sure that the same drama over them that happened with Shenmue 3 doesn’t happen again and that the refunds are available as soon as the Epic Games Store exclusivity is announced. Epic Games doesn’t seem like it’ll stop anytime soon in its quest to gain more exclusives. Recently, Sweeney made a statement saying that he believed getting more exclusives for the store was good for the gamers in the long run.
Specifically, Sweeney singled out the 30% cut Valve takes from every game sold on Steam, and compared it to the much lower 12% cut that Epic takes. By encouraging more players to go to the Epic Games Store with exclusives, Sweeney stated that Valve should eventually lower their own cut on Steam as well. The resulting increase in revenue for publishers and developers would then result in better games being made.
Of course, players are still wary of of the Epic Games Store. Whether due to its lack of features, or simply not wanting to have to use a second service, most seem to prefer sticking to Steam. Only time will tell if all that Epic is doing will pan out.
