Phoenix Point investor calculates Epic's exclusivity bung

The first financial details of Epic Games' timed exclusivity contracts appear to have been made public, courtesy of an investor in XCOM spiritual successor Phoenix Point: Around £1.73 million.

Epic Games' entry into the digital distribution market came with a splash: After pulling in $1.25 billion in investment last last year the company announced the Epic Games Store with a view to dethroning Valve's Steam platform. The launch, which came with the promise of a free game every fortnight, was followed by a string of exclusivity deals: The Division 2, Metro Exodus, and Borderlands 3 are among the big-name titles which have agreed to a twelve- or six-month exclusivity period on the Epic Games Store - in some cases even after accepting pre-orders via Steam.

None of the exclusivity deals thus revealed, however, came with information on exactly how much cash Epic was offering - until now. In a discussion on Reset Era first spotted by PC Gamer, a backer of Julian Gollop's Phoenix Point on crowd-equity service Fig used information provided on the platform plus the company's filings with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to calculate just how much Epic had thrown at developer Snapshot Games for the timed exclusivity agreement: $2.25 million (around £1.71 million.)

There are still questions up in the air surrounding the calculation, which has been neither confirmed nor denied by Epic and Snapshot Games. Key among these is whether the money is a cash advance against royalties made through sales on the Epic Games Store, in which case Snapshot will see either no revenue or a reduced revenue until it has been paid back. It does, however, offer a clue as to just how much money Epic is willing to throw around in order to take on Steam - and hints at more exclusives to come.