Epic Games Store lowers predicted spending and profits until 2024

Epic predicted it would recoup the cost of launching the Epic Games Store by 2024, according to a strategy meeting in June 2020. Now it has reconsidered this, claiming it will only recoup 87 percent of its costs in this time frame.

Yesterday (December 6) Reddit user u/alwaysbunnyhopping searched through Epic’s updated information to find the discrepancies in its financial documents. Even though in 2019 and 2021 the online storefront made $20 million (£15 million) and $27 million (£20 million) respectively, it still lowered its predicted earnings for the years up to 2024.

The documents were made public following the Apple lawsuit. In it Apple claimed that Epic was trying to monopolize the market by adding its own payment method to its free-to-play title Fortnite, subverting the app store costs. The addition of this method led both Apple and Google to remove Fortnite from their platforms. While Apple largely won the lawsuit, the court refuted the claims that Epic was attempting to create a monopoly for its game.

Epic has said it will spend around $30 million (£23 million) less than previously predicted and additionally has reduced assumed profits for the following 3 years. The future reductions to their predicted gross earnings are as follows:

• 2022: $744 million (£560 million) to $658 million (£497 million)
• 2023: $1 billion (£759 million)  to $748 million (£566 million)
• 2024: $1.2 billion (£890 million)  to $838 million (£634 million)

If the storefront matches its predictions it will no longer recoup its losses by 2024 as previously assumed. Currently, the Epic Games Store is funded via profits from other Epic products such Fortnite, and the Unreal Engine. Following these predictions, it may take several more years for it to break even.

In other news, following layoffs at development studio Raven Software, owned by Activision Blizzard, many employees have staged a walkout. This is the third stoppage since the company was accused of abuse and sexual harassment.