Earlier in the month, Epic Games announced they would be expanding their crossplay services for developers to consoles, bringing its free PC crossplay overlay to other platforms giving developers everything they need to connect their game and community across platforms and stores. Recently, Epic Games announced a new program for third-party developers, the Epic First Run program.
per Epic Games, the Epic First Run program is an opt-in exclusivity program for third-party developers on the Epic Games Store that gives participants the opportunity to boost their net revenue from user spending on eligible products from 88% to 100% for the first six months on the Epic Games Store. After the six months, those enrolled in the program will continue to benefit from Epic’s 88/12 revenue split.
Participating products within the Epic First Run program will have new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections. In addition, titles involved in the program will be featured in relevant store campaigns including sales, events, and editorial as applicable.
“Once a product joins the program, it will benefit from continued exposure throughout its Epic First Run,” Epic Games said.
“The new program gives developers of any scale the opportunity to activate our global audience right at launch. While this is a major part of the release journey, that’s not all of it,” Epic Games notes. “For this program to reach peak efficiency, developers must promote their products early and often with their target audience.”
The Epic First Run Program is open to developers and publishers on the Epic Games Store with eligible new releases launching on or after October 16, 2023.