Report: Epic gave $2m to Snapshot Games for Phoenix Point exclusivity - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.pcgamesn.com/phoenix-point/epic-paid-2-million-for-phoenix-point-exclusivity 🎵Here comes the money🎵

While as a small business I can understand not being able to pass up on such an offer, it is still a shit deal for the players, and people who had expectations provided to them by the devs themselves about how they would be able to use the game.

Not that I agree with any of the exclusive stuff but this is probably the worst case of it, considering it was kickstarter backed and mainly aimed at a steam release, they got funded then obviously did this, so a shitty move

Would be awesome to see a class action lawsuit by everyone who funded this game. Sue them for Fraud and False Advertising.

Literally "throw money at the problem".

2 fucking million dollars? That's not 'continued development past release', that's 'fuck you' money. And Snapshot approached them.

This can't be a sustainable business practice, surely they'll realise this isn't benefitting them sooner or later.

chump change for Epic who makes 8 million in profits per day can't really say no to this amount of money

I mean, I really can't fault these small guys for taking the money. Yes, it's scummy for epic, but if you're a small group, 2m is a lot, and it's guaranteed. Maybe they thought losing a sizable portion of their playerbase was worth it... Oh well. Another one down the drain. This looked really good too .

Now imagine what they likely threw at companies like Ubisoft and Take-Two for their exclusivity.

as if Ubisofts games are truly "exclusive" since they're always available on their own store, they took the money and anyone that doesnt like EGS would buy it from their store ensuring they get all the profits

Steam and DRM free on GOG as well.

Two million is nothing, they're gonna lose way more than that by not being on Steam...

Fuck Snapshot Games for taking the money, and Fuck Epic Games for their shit exclusivity deals. Snapshot Games had a successful kickstarter campaign, and decide to fuck the backers and fans who were promised Steam or GOG keys with Epic's exclusivity deal. Maybe Snapshot Games weren't confident if this game was going to be successful, but seeing as their kickstarter was successful. It showed that there was a demand for this game otherwise it would not have gotten funded in the first place, but they still decided to screw their backers over by treating their investment as an interest free loan.

so anticompetitive but the government won't go after it because its not been in the business of preventing monopolies for some time now and games are still seen as a fringe industry by the old farts in power.

I don't know what the fuck Epic's long-term plan is. I mean obviously the idea is "throw money at exclusives until steam dies" but it's not sustainable, their Fortnite money will run out eventually and simply bribing everybody into exclusivity can't last. The 12% cut, the covering of losses if the game doesn't sell, all this absurd amount of money that's being splashed around works now, but when the money dries up and you start charging that 30% cut like everybody else without the money safety net, there is no reason to pick Epic over Steam. What I think is going to happen is that people will just wait the whole thing out and in a few years when the money runs out everybody will just mosey on back to Steam where the money is.

this is old news, but its backers on kickstarter were pissed. the devs refunded everyone who requested it and they still made profit from the epic deal.

Previous estimations were around 1 mil iirc. I know I previously said it simply isn't sustainable, but since then I recognized a pattern: they are targeting non-Steam users: Next-gen players, developer relations (people go where the games are) and most importantly, compulsive buyers.

Not a monopoly everyone, unlike Steam over there. /s

Uh. They won't go after it because as shifty as all of this is, it's also not illegal. You can debate the ethics of this all you want, but it will still shine through.

I don't understand why they couldn't just give the Kickstarter backers their copies on Steam if they wanted, then just keep selling it on the Epic store until the timed exclusivity deal ran out. They did the same thing with Metro for people who pre-ordered it, why not this game? I feel like if they did it that way they could've avoided a lot of this negative press.

Fraudulently collecting money and then going back on your promises is illegal though

It sounds like they're refunding people who are (rightfully) angry

April 12th was the deadline.

monopolies aren't strictly illegal, there are standards that have to be met to determine if a monopoly should be broken up, one of those standards is whether the monopoly's practice hurts consumers, which epic games is getting closer and closer to crossing. Right now they aren't a monopoly but if they get their way they could become a monopoly

They're a long, long, long way from that point. Steam in its heyday was closer. Google today is even closer then that.

so they trade customer trust on you for 2 mil dollar? for me it's not worth it, since it really hurt your game in a long run

Crashing these funds with no survivors.

It's a timed exclusive, not a total exclusive, and it's also supposed to be on Microsoft gamepass as well. But this also isn't a good look for Fig, the crowdfunding platform Snapshot used. Fig is a crowdfunding platform that allows backers to go beyond the usual model of backing game development. It allows backers to buy in at an investor level, ultimately sharing in revenues from games they support financially. In a Resetera thread, one of these investors shared the latest information they’ve received from Fig, which includes news of a 191% return. The investor believes this reflects the influx of cash from the deal with Epic Games for one year of exclusivity for Phoenix Point. For investors to break even on Phoenix Point, Fig would have needed to pull in $588,235. However, the new email from Fig says the total return now is at 191%, or $955,000. That’s 85% of Fig’s 50% cut with Snapshot on new revenues – which means Fig’s half of the deal is $1,123,529. Double that to get the full figure, which the investor reckons means the total amount gained in the deal with Epic is about $2,247,058. Well, for people who look at Fig as an investment vehicle and a profit source, it's probably a good look. It's not good at people who look to Fig as a crowdfunding platform that won't promote unethical behaviour like selling out to Epic's thirsty exclusive bonanza.

The question really isn't "Is what they are doing fair?" rather, "Is this sustainable for developers going forward?" So lets say the developers get 2 million for timed exclusivity. Is that a cash advance against profit or just on top of revenue? In either case will a potential lack of interest from players on release get epic to front the bill the next time? If they don't will the lack of relevance and poor goodwill mean anything when (if) it does release on steam? People invest in a game like this based on expectations established by what the developer says they can do with various levels of funding, doesn't it stand to reason that an extra 2mill on a game should increase its scope as well? If epic really believes in the potential of a game studio to over fund it by orders of magnitude, why didn't they elect to simple purchase the studio outright? The millions they got need not necessary fund future Epic games right? Or did they sign a contract saying exactly that? This tweet chain from a friend seems especially relevant now. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/197903/f45d8d4f-1a38-4022-b7b5-c8253acfbb94/CIRC.PNG