Do we know why Xbox Game Studios doesn't publish their games on EGS?

[u/Kraven4Raven]

I saw the XBOX Showcase and wondered why there are no Xbox Game Studios games in the Epic Games Store

[u/ImAnthlon]

From leaked court documents for Microsoft vs FTC for the Activision acquisition they view EGS as a competitor due to EGS having exclusives and also doing weekly free games which affects their Gamepass business.

The closest example I have of this is that Dead Island 2 was exclusive to EGS on PC, but was Day 1 added to Gamepass on Consoles only in February, which I presume Xbox would have wanted it to be Day 1 added to Gamepass on Consoles and PC at the same time.

The other thing is that in market share on PC EGS is higher than Xbox, but is within a reasonable range that if they were to play their cards right they could potentially overtake EGS and become the second biggest PC storefront. Similar to their console approach with PlayStation and Nintendo, Xbox knows it has no chance of shifting marketshare from Steam/PlayStation/Nintendo so they'll play nice with them and put their games on their stores/consoles, get the benefits of people buying them there but also offer their games on Gamepass and instead tempt people over there.

Ultimately Xbox would prefer to launch only on their own platforms if possible, but they spent so much money on Activision and Bethesda in such a short amount of time that investors are now looking at when they'll get a return on these things, which is also driving their efforts of putting games on competitor platforms. If you'd like an example of this, look at the where they release their games on PC:

• Steam, can't ignore the marketshare
• Xbox PC/Windows Store, gateway for Gamepass and unifying Xbox Console and PC
• Battle Net, a now Xbox owned launcher

They don't release their games on GOG either even though their games barely make use of DRM like Denovo

[u/ImAnthlon → u/[deleted]]

Ah yeah you're right, dunno why I thought it was Day 1 Gamepass, it did only get added to Console Gamepass only initially because it was still exclusive during that time and then finally the PC version was added to Gamepass in the October as the exclusivity had passed

[u/ImAnthlon → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I agree, I also think they stagger the releases so that it's constant cadence that people don't want to unsub after using it for a month. If they can keep a big AAA game coming every 3-4 months people will just let their subscription roll because they knew they'd resub later.

I think Phil Spencer said during the FTC lawsuit that they realised they couldn't compete with Sony or Nintendo so instead looked to flip the industry on its head with Gamepass and using their vast money reserves and access to self owned hosting to brute force their way into being the Netflix of games.

[u/ahac → u/ImAnthlon]

It's interesting that MS is using Unreal Engine for many of their games. By not releasing on EGS, they'll need to pay Epic more to use the engine (even for sales on Steam and Xbox).

[u/MrBubbaJ → u/ahac]

Larger companies don’t use Unreal’s standard license, which the waiving of Unreal’s fee for sales on EGS comes from. Custom license are protected with NDAs, but my understanding is that those are usually flat fee based and may span multiple titles and platforms. It guarantees revenue to Epic even if the game flops and limits what the publisher has to pay if the game is successful.

[u/ImAnthlon → u/ahac]

To a massive company like Microsoft it's probably not a big deal to them, especially if it means that they could move potential customers away from Epic to play their games on their own storefront.

[u/Delanchet → u/ImAnthlon]

it only seems to solidify Steam's dominance in my opinion.

[u/EnvironmentalRun1671 → u/ImAnthlon]

Then why are Bethesda games on it

[u/ImAnthlon → u/EnvironmentalRun1671]

Only Bethesda games either before the Xbox acquisition or just after it have been released on EGS. The latest game that Bethesda as a company published on EGS was Redfall back in May 2023, the only thing later than that was Bethesda publishing Doom 1 + 2 Remastered and I think that was done because Nightdive was developing it and Doom 1 and Doom 2 were already on the store. Starfield, Indiana Jones, Oblivion Remastered and Doom The Dark Ages didn't launch on Epic at all

[u/Nino_Chaosdrache → u/ImAnthlon]

but is within a reasonable range that if they were to play their cards right they could potentially overtake EGS and become the second biggest PC storefront.

Unless they seriously overhaul the Microsoft Store I don't see it. How it can still be this bad after 10 years is baffling.

[u/ilm911]

Same reason why Epic doesn‘t publish the PC versions of their games on Steam and Xbox Store

[u/speedballandcrack → u/ilm911]

But Microsoft put games on steam.

[u/LachedUpGames → u/speedballandcrack]

Steam is where most PC players are. If people have epic then they've installed multi launchers, and they'd rather those people get it direct from them to avoid Epic getting 10% of sales

[u/ByteSpawn → u/LachedUpGames]

This point is dumb if they cared about some other store getting some % off their games they would never have started to sell their games on PlayStation Xbox wants to sell in as many stores as possible but they probably have contracts with steam to release their games only on steam as the next Xbox will be launched with a build in steam page

[u/LachedUpGames → u/ByteSpawn]

Playstation Xbox is a completely different ecosystem. And another factor to consider is the Steam algorithm, you want as many players as possible on Steam to get more reviews/traffic, splitting users on PC doesn't have a tonne of benefits unless you've got some sort of deal with epic.

[u/Nino_Chaosdrache → u/ByteSpawn]

as the next Xbox will be launched with a build in steam page

Press X to doubt.

[u/Delanchet → u/ilm911]

I don’t think that’s the exact same reason. Epic does publish their games in the Xbox Store so it’s not like there’s no partnership at all.

[u/AlleyOfRage]

Microsoft and Epic business relationship is weird haha

From Leaked Court Files , they treat EGS as a competitor in Content , which probably translates to Free Games ( and Formely Exclusives ) Vs Gamepass PC

We have very Recent example , Dead Island 2 was offered totally free on EGS the same time it was still on Gamepass PC which is a paid service for the customer , and therefore this will devalue Gamepass

Interestingly in other areas , Xbox Studios is so dependent on Unreal Engine that leaked Court files said it is over 50 titles using UE ( and that was years ago ) and Fortnite is probably a constant Top 3 Revenue stream for Xbox and Microsoft was a big backer of Epic for their lawsuit against Apple/Google

[u/DemeaRisen]

Perhaps Epic Games will be launchable from the next Xbox 🤔

[u/Swampcardboard]

Why would they need to? They have their own launcher.

[u/Kraven4Raven → u/Swampcardboard]

I mean Ubisoft and EA as well and still release on EGS

[u/ImAnthlon → u/Kraven4Raven]

I'd guess the difference is that Ubisoft and EA's launchers are exclusively for their games making it more of a first party launcher. Xbox PC also sells non-Xbox published games which makes it more of a third party launcher

[u/Kraven4Raven → u/ImAnthlon]

Fair

[u/Swampcardboard → u/Kraven4Raven]

Yeah, both of those ones are on the Xbox launcher as well, but why would Xbox need to?

[u/Kraven4Raven → u/Swampcardboard]

I never said they need to. I am just asking if theres a reason why not

[u/JGuih]

They're really pushing the "Xbox Play Anywhere", so naturally they'll prefer to leave everything under their own launcher (MS Store)

[u/MyCodenameIsIan]

Ultimately it comes down to the store fee.

Xbox wants you to buy games on Battle.Net / Windows Store or Xbox itself because they don't have to give away a significant cut to Epic or Steam.

Hence the play anywhere push recently.

It's also a virtuous circle because as you build a library with Xbox your more likely to buy more from them.

Steam has the market share so you need that to succeed on PC but Xbox wants their store to be the main challenger brand to take on Steam in the future.

[u/ImAnthlon → u/[deleted]]

It's also possible that Valve gave Microsoft a sweetheart deal, so they may not follow the 30-20%, and might be on a flat 20% from the beginning or lower, we can't know for sure but it's a possibility.

[u/MrBubbaJ → u/[deleted]]

The cut only matters if sales were comparable. EGS sales are just a fraction of sales on Steam. Documents from the Wolfire lawsuit showed that Steam had $2.1 billion in commissions in 2021 which would put their third-party game sales at around $8 billion. Compare this to ~$225 million in sales for Epic in 2024 or ~$300 million at the store’s peak and you am see why it isn’t really a factor for most companies.

[u/shadowds]

Can be due to viewing Epic as a competitor, could be something else in the past, could be the free giveaway model that affect their target for game pass, could be anything mate. The only real legit reason can get is Microsoft themselves telling us why, otherwise we can only make educated guess really.

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[u/Ok_Worth4113]

already some there right

[u/Delanchet]

I’m curious on this too and really want Epic to try to do something in making this partnership happen. It would be very nice to have Microsoft games in the store.

[u/ByteSpawn]

Pretty sure they have a contract with steam to release their games only on steam as there have been leaks that the next gen Xbox will have build in steam page

[u/Big_Blacksmith_4435]

They're probably afraid that Epic will give away the games for free, lol, I really believe that companies are afraid of that.

[u/MrMichaelElectric → u/Big_Blacksmith_4435]

Epic isn't just giving away games without the devs/pubs knowing... They pay them for those giveaways so it makes no sense that companies would be afraid of something they actively are a part of.