World War Z developer, Saber Interactive, revealed last December that its upcoming zombie shooter would not be released on Steam and instead would be available through the Epic Games Store.
Unfortunately for them, a lot of gamers were unhappy with their decision to snub Steam, which has now led Saber Interactive’s CEO, Matthew Karch, to release a statement explaining why they made the decision to switch to the Epic Games Store.
Simply put, Saber Interactive believe that the Epic Games Store provides the best deal for both players and developers. Unlike Steam, which charges developers 30% of their sale price, Epic only take a 12% cut, leaving the developer with 88%. For Karch, that’s a big deal as he says the move allows them to invest more into making World War Z.
Not only that, but it has allowed them to lower the price of the game to consumers, meaning that players will be able to purchase the game cheaper than if it had been released on Steam.
“We chose the Epic Games store because we believe it’s the best deal for players and developers,” said CEO Matthew Karch.
He continued, “First of all, building games is costly, and so to receive 88% instead of 70% means we can invest more into making World War Z.
Second, we’re passing along much of the savings to you as gamers. The price of World War Z on the Epic Games store is being dropped to $34.99 starting now and continuing through our April 16 launch and beyond. Any players who have already pre-purchased the game for $39.99 will get the $5 refunded back to them. We are thrilled to be able to share the developer-friendly benefits of the Epic Games store with you all, and can’t wait for you to play our game.”
One of the main reasons given by publishers and developers for switching to the Epic Games Store is that it enables them to pass on savings to the consumer. Unfortunately, this only seems to apply to customers in North America, with other regions not benefitting from the same price savings due to regional pricing.
Last month, publisher Deep Silver made the decision to remove Metro Exodus from sale on Steam and opted to make it available exclusively on the Epic Games Store, resulting in a large amount of backlash from gamers. Although in that case, most of the anger seemed to come from the fact that Deep Silver had previously made Metro Exodus available on Steam for pre-order before removing it from the store with short notice a few weeks before launch.
World War Z is set to release on April 16th, 2019.