Epic Games has already found success in several areas of the games industry. It has a hugely successful multiplayer game with Fortnite, which has made more than $1 billion and it also helps developers make games with its game engine, Unreal Engine (UE). That's not all though, as Epic has now announced that it's going to be selling games too.

Today, Epic Games confirmed that it will soon be selling its own digital PC game storefront. Called the "Epic Games Store," the storefront is being considered as a major rival to Valve's Steam. Like Steam, the Epic Store will feature third-party titles so expect to see games like Fortnite alongside titles from other publishers and developers. Epic has yet to confirm exactly which games will be available at first, but it says that announcements will be made at The Game Awards 2018, which takes place later this week.

Epic Games has also said that the Epic Store will offer one free game every two weeks during 2019, and Epic is funding these free releases. Epic isn't the only publisher that has opted to ditch Steam. For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launched on Battle.net, as did Destiny 2 when that released last year, but Epic's announcement just gives gamers an added incentive to leave Steam and its other competitors behind.

Epic Games Store revenue split chart

There's also something in it for developers. With the Epic Store, developers will get to keep 88% of their revenue, as Epic will take a cut of just 12% of sales. For those who have developed their games with Unreal Engine, Epic will still take a 12% cut, but it will also absorb the 5% cut it would usually take for games made with UE, just taking it out of the 12%.

This revenue split stands in stark contrast to Steam's revenue ratio which takes 30% of game revenue. For games made with UE and released on Steam, developers have to pay 30% to Steam and an additional 5% to Epic Games, leaving devs with just 65% of revenue. Valve recently announced changes to Steam's revenue system, with devs having to pay a smaller cut if their game makes more than $10 million. Nevertheless, many indies have noted that this will not affect many of them.

Moreover, content creators will stand to benefit from the Epic Store. Epic Games will be expanding the Support-A-Creator program it introduced with Fortnite, allowing content creators to get a cut of the sales they make happen.

Fortnite is available now for Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: Epic Games