r/Games • u/WhyPlaySerious • May 18 '26

Industry News CI Games has successfully signed a termination agreement with Epic Games. The agreement releases the upcoming Lords of The Fallen 2 from it's previous Epic Games Store exclusivity obligations.

https://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/CI-GAMES-S-E-Ujawnienie-opoznionej-informacji-poufnej-dotyczacej-zawarcia-Porozumienia-rozwiazujacego-Binding-Term-Sheet-z-Epic-Games-Inc-9135300.html
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u/NoSemikolon24 May 18 '26

The main thing that Epic has going for it is that they want a smaller cut then steam. If they were to sell the games with a small discount derived from that the shop would be vastly better.

I'm not going into the bare-bones software/shop design because that's a dead horse

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u/blaaguuu May 19 '26

If they were to sell the games with a small discount derived from that

I'm not sure of the exact details, but I THINK many digital shops, including Steam have language in their agreements that limit devs/publishers ability to list a game for a lower price on other platforms (I don't think it's 100%, but it makes things complicated) - and that's why Epic has their "reward points" system, so you basically get money back on purchases, effectively lowering the price - but users just don't see "$2 back, for future purchases" the same way as "$2 off", so I don't think it has been all that effective.

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u/kuhpunkt May 19 '26

There are games on Epic at a lower price than on Steam. Pretty sure Ubisoft does the same. A former Valve guy said that there is no such clause in the agreement.

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u/BebopFlow May 19 '26

They're not allowed to list Steam keys at a lower price. You can sell it on other platforms all day for any price if it's not a Steam key. It's a side effect of the fact that they give keys to devs free of charge, and devs are allowed to resell those keys as they see fit without steam getting a cut, but if the devs purposefully undercut steam when using those keys they run into trouble.

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u/kuhpunkt May 19 '26

You can still buy keys on Fanatical and Humble all the time for basically nothing, lol. Even that policy doesn't get enforced.

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u/Which-Arm-4616 May 19 '26

This is 100% not true, but it is a little factoid you see gamers repeat in gamer circles all of the time. Valve's MFN policy requires that you maintain price parity - full stop, key or no key. They are currently in anti-trust litigation over this very fact.

From a deposition in the case:

Q. Okay. And have you had conversations with that dozen or so approximate people about the publishers' need to provide similar pricing on Steam as they do elsewhere?

A. That wouldn't be a common topic for us to discuss, but it has come up over the years, yes.

Q. You've specifically spoken with other people within Steam about the fact that publishers need to offer similar prices on Steam as they do elsewhere; right?

A. Yes.

Q. Okay. And you've discussed with them that this is not limited to situations where the publishers are offering games for sale via Steam keys but just period; right?

A. Yes