As of September 2019, Epic Games had signed up 105 exclusives for the Epic Games Store, amounting to a total of just over $1 billion spent securing them. That’s according to documents released as part of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial, which is unearthing some very interesting business dealings indeed.
In its October 2019 ‘Review of Performance and Strategy’ document (hosted here as a .pdf), it’s reiterated that Epic spent $444 million on its 2019 exclusive launches: we already knew that. But it also confirms that $542 million was spent on 2019 launch exclusives, while—as of September 2019—it had already spent $52 million securing four exclusives for 2021. Naturally, that number will have increased since.
It’s hardly breaking news that Epic Games is throwing a heck of a lot of money at its PC storefront, but $1 billion on exclusive launches—most of them timed, as they usually come to Steam after 12 months—is a startling number. Far more startling than the $11 million it spent between December 2018 and September 2019 on its free games offerings, which seems fairly miniscule given how many new account sign-ups it cultivated.
The exclusives will likely continue, too. According to Epic’s “Aggressive Pursuit Model”—that is, the model they’ll follow if things are going well—it’ll aim for 52 exclusives in 2021, 36 in 2022, 34 in 2023 and 34 in 2024. Given that Epic told us earlier this year that it’s doubling down on exclusive launches, it looks like they’re following that model.
