Epic Games Store will cover Kickstarter refund costs for exclusive titles

We reported earlier today that Kickstarter backers of Shenmue 3 will be able to request refunds after all, as developer Ys Net reached an understanding with the Epic Games Store and Deep Silver. While the developer did also offer plenty of options for backers to redeem the games on PC and PlayStation 4, it will still allow refund requests at a later date. Now, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has taken to Twitter to affirm his commitment to cover the costs of all Kickstarter refunds of future exclusive games.

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.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) July 2, 2019

Epic Games Store and revenue share

Since the introduction of the Epic Games Store, we’ve seen a fair share of controversial statements coming from Tim Sweeney. For instance, as we reported, he told a Twitter user that, if Valve matched the Steam revenue share with the 88-12% that is unique to the Epic Games Store, he would drop exclusives as a market strategy. He also told another user that exclusivity is the only way to fix the revenue problem.

It’s difficult to deny that a bigger revenue share for developers is a noble purpose. We can’t argue with Sweeney on that. However, the impression is that Steam is the only storefront pushing a 70-30% revenue share, which is patently false. And Valve actually introduced a new revenue share tiered system in November last year, which makes matters more nuanced than that. Apple Store, Google Play, Amazon, PlayStation Network, and Microsoft Store never introduced a tiered system into their storefronts. The 70-30% revenue is unchallenged in those platforms.

The incentives that the Epic Games Store is providing to indie developers are highly commendable, no doubt. The problem is that there’s just not enough nuance in the discussion of revenue share yet. But it’s definitely a discussion worth having, and we’ll probably be having it for a very long time.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Will the Epic Games Store change revenue share on the PC market while things stay the same on other platforms? Drop your comments below — we’d love to hear your thoughts!