Epic Games has announced a bold new scheme offering developers 100% of a game’s revenue in return for 6-months of exclusivity.

The Epic First Run programme will allow any developer of any size to sign up provided their game releases on October 16 or later and has not appeared on any other PC store prior. After six months, the revenue split will return to the standard Epic Games split, which is 88% for the developer and 12% to Epic.

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During this six-month exclusivity period, the game cannot be released on any other PC store, but can be released on consoles since the Epic Games Store doesn’t compete in that market.

Developers won’t be completely locked out from other stores, though. According to the program’s page, games can be sold via a developer or publisher’s own storefront or launcher, and can be put on sites such as Green Man Gaming using the Epic Games Store’s keyless redemption programme.

“Participating products in the Epic First Run program will be presented to those users on-store with new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections,” Epic says.

“In addition, products will be featured in relevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable. Once a product joins the program, it will benefit from continued exposure throughout its Epic First Run.”

Epic Games have been extremely aggressive when it comes to their store, heavily pushing the revenue split which benefits the developers more than Steam’s standard 70/30 split while also snagging timed exclusivity on dozens and dozens of games.

This new scheme will surely be tempting since games typically make the majority of their money in the first few days and weeks of sale, meaning the developers could pocket all of the cash while Epic only get the dribs and drabs after the six-month period expires.

And while Steam continues to be the biggest PC storefront, developers can treat a game coming to Steam after six months on the Epic Games Store like a second launch.

What do you guys think? Is Epic’s latest assault going to tempt developers to sign up?

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