Epic Games offered $ 200 million for the exclusivity of Sony games

Epic Games and Sony have a close relationship. Sony invests in Epic Games, Kratos, and Aloy dance at Fortnite, Unreal Engine 5 demonstrates on PlayStation 5. This relationship could have been even more liquid because, as we learn from court documents in the case of Epic Games v. Apple, Epic offered Sony $ 200 million to make their games in PC versions temporarily exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

It is mentioned that this amount was offered for 4-6 Sony games, although it is unclear whether $ 200 million was earmarked for the exclusivity of each of those games individually, or all in the package. By comparison, six months of Borderlands 3 exclusivity Epic paid $ 115 million, court documents revealed.

The outcome of this offer is unknown, so we can only judge by the current situation. Sony's two prominent PC platform games - Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone - did not end up as temporary EEC exclusives, but were launched on Steam at the same time. However, there were games funded by Sony so they were exclusive to EEC - for example, Predator: Hunting Grounds and ReadySet Heroes.

In any case, Epic's $ 200 million offer is not pure charity. This is a kind of guarantee to the game publisher who gets $ 200 million in advance regardless of the game’s sales results. In case the game doesn’t sell enough to cover that $ 200 million, Epic Games absorbs the cost. But while the game doesn’t make that $ 200 million by selling on the EEC, Epic takes full revenue from each sale. Only after they cover their investment does the game publisher continue to make money on it.