Since the Epic Games Store launched in 2018, one of the most talked about features is Epic Games Store's revenue share terms for developers. Game developers keep 88% of the money earned from their game and pay just 12% to Epic Games, compared to the 30% cut taken by Steam. Now, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has revealed why his company takes such a small cut of the revenue created by the sale of a game.

On Twitter, Sweeney explains that Epic Games chose the 12% number to provide "super-competitive deals for partners" while making sure that the Epic Games Store is a "profitable" business for the company. Sweeney also said that Epic Games makes approximately 5% profit from that 12%, and this could grow to 6-7% as the store grows. Epic Games' costs are for running Fortnite, payment processing, and customer service.

The Epic Games founder also criticized Steam without naming the Valve-owned storefront. "It's way more profitable" to create your own launcher than to give 30% to a store (such as Steam) as 30% is an "enormous markup." This is why EA has Origin and why Ubisoft has UPlay. Comparatively, grocery stores selling digital gift cards for platforms like iTunes, Steam, or Amazon have a markup of 10-15% in part because of employee costs and credit card companies take 2.5-3.5% to process transactions to cover the cost of banking and customer service.

This isn't the first time that Sweeney has slammed the high rates taken by some storefronts. The 30% cut that Google takes for Google Play microtransactions is why Epic Games chose to release Fortnite on its own launcher, and not on Google Play. The move did lead to some confusion among fans, and there were security fears as phishing scams targeted users looking for the real version of the game. However, the removal of the 30% Google Play fee will have likely made up for any profit losses over this.

Sweeney's tweets may also help to put things in perspective for players who have criticized Epic Games for creating yet another launcher to play PC games. With Epic Games paying big money for exclusive games like Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3, they have no choice but to use the new platform. However, when looking at the difference in revenue and understanding how developers could use that extra cash (for job security and to create new content for a game) some gamers may have less negative opinions about the Epic Games Store.

Source: Twitter - Tim Sweeney