Tim Sweeney says many exclusive contracts in the Epic Games Store were “not good investments”

Exclusive games have apparently not done anything for the Epic Games Store. In fact, according to Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, most of them weren’t even smart investments. What has worked for the company instead is providing free games.

PC Gamer reports that Sweeney revealed this strategy assessment to reporters earlier this week when discussing user acquisition for the Epic Games Store. “We spent a lot of money on exclusives,” Sweeney said. “Some of them did very well. Many were not good investments, but the free games program was just magical.”

Sweeney did not elaborate on which “few” worked. Arguably the last major exclusive on the Epic Games Store was Alan Wake 2, whose development costs had not yet been recouped earlier this year, according to developer Remedy. Alan Wake 2 was one of the 10 best games of 2023, according to GameSpot. Other examples of previous exclusives on the Epic Games Store include Metro Exodus, Outer Wilds, and Hades.

Meanwhile, Sweeney seems to be fully behind the free games initiative for the Epic Games Store. “Giving away free games seems like a counterintuitive strategy, but companies spend money to acquire users for games,” the Fortnite boss explained. “For about a quarter of the price it costs to acquire users through Facebook ads or Google search ads, we can pay a game developer a lot of money for the right to distribute their game to our users, and we can acquire new users for the Epic Games Store at a very reasonable price.”

Currently, the Epic Games Store is giving away Death’s Gambit: Afterlife and World of Warships, with The Callisto Protocol due out soon. Last year, Epic offered 86 free titles, of which 586 million were claimed by store users. In 2022, nearly 700 million free games were claimed by Epic Games Store customers.