Epic Games takes aim at Apple and Steam with zero-commission policy for developers

Epic Games just announced some changes to its store that should please budding developers. The company will not charge a commission of any kind for the first $1,000,000 in revenue from an app per year. Once a piece of software goes past that threshold, Epic will begin taking its standard rate of 12 percent. The policy goes into effect in June.

This sounds like a real boon for smaller devs, especially when you consider that Steam takes 30 percent of sales as commission. Apple isn’t a direct competitor here, but the App Store takes 15 percent on the first million in revenue. This increases to 30 percent once that metric is met.

Epic also announced something called webshops, which sounds like a way for developers to avoid Apple’s App Store fees. These shops are powered by the Epic Games Store and offer customers "out-of-app purchases, as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases." These stores will be available next month "on any platform that allows it," though that now includes iOS devices in both the EU and the US.

The company will begin offering a bonus of five percent in Epic Rewards to lure customers to these webshops. This will be applicable to all purchases, though the company hasn’t said if it's a limited time offer.

Epic is able to do this whole webshop thing because it just won a case against long-time foe Apple. A California court just ordered Apple to stop collecting fees for purchases made outside of the App Store.

The ruling also means that Fortnite is coming back to Apple devices in the US next week. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has stated that the company would return the game to the App Store worldwide, so long as Apple extends the court’s ruling across all countries. The company will also drop all pending litigation on the topic. He’s calling it a "peace plan," but Apple has yet to respond.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-games-takes-aim-at-apple-and-steam-with-zero-commission-policy-for-developers-183956940.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-games-takes-aim-at-apple-and-steam-with-zero-commission-policy-for-developers-183956940.html?src=rss