The trial between Apple and Epic Games is serving, among other things, to bring out insides and dirty laundry of both technologies , partly because of the statements that each one makes about their opponent, but in other cases also because of the documentation that they are having to contribute the two companies to the process. And while waiting for the heads of both, Tim Cook and Tim Sweeney to make their expected statements, it is very interesting to take a look at everything that is transcending.
And today we have found a very interesting piece of information, which does not take us by surprise but which allows us to quantify the hole that its online game store represents for Epic Games. And it is no small feat, because in the last two years the deficit generated by this business division was 453 million dollars , about 380 million euros at the current exchange rate, 181 million dollars in 2019 and 273 last year. And even more striking is their forecast for 2021, a year they hope to close with a loss of 139 million dollars (just over 116 million euros).
Specifically, according to the documentation presented by Epic Games, their plans suggest that the Epic Games Store business unit will not be profitable until 2023 , at which time they expect their model, based on charging 12% for the sales of the published games, become sustainable. A forecast that, I’m sorry to say, but to this day, and in the absence of knowing what future plans Epic has for its store, they seem excessively optimistic.
And it is that, in 2020 alone, Epic Games invested 444 million dollars to achieve exclusive titles , according to TechPowerUp , an amount to which should be added the enormous investment that its policy of giving away games every week must entail, and that in sometimes offers titles not recognized, but also surprised us by giving away some triple A as GTA V . In 2020 alone, the Epic Games Store gave away 749 million copies of games , which, at least from what you told us , has not encouraged most of you to buy games in it.
Smarter is undoubtedly the move to bet on exclusives . Like it or not, and in the absence of offering greater appeal to players, the key to generating income is to guarantee it via exclusives . For example, with the gift of GTA V, it was speculated that the highly anticipated GTA VI would come to PC, exclusively, through the Epic Games Store. It does not seem likely that Rockstar is willing to close other doors, but this sector is so peculiar that we cannot rule out anything.
The best example so far is found in the arrival of the Kingdom Hearts saga on PC . It is true that the prices are somewhat excessive, but we are talking about a collection of games with a legion of followers, and that for many years seemed very far from the PC world. That, more than giving away games, is the way that could make its numbers go green, and that the company can diversify its sources of income a bit and not depend so much on Fornite.