While it's a side of the industry that is rarely discussed, this past weekend we heard news regarding the details of Control's exclusivity deal with Epic Games.
It was recently reported that the Epic Games Store paid 505Games' parent company, Digital Bros, over 9.49 million euros for exclusivity rights to Control for the PC digital space.
The information came from Digital Bros' financial report, which was translated by analyst Daniel Ahmad (at Niko Partners).
While other developers have made similar details, the exact numbers have been hidden from the public, but they were believed to be quite sizable investments from the digital marketplace for timed-exclusivity.
While other developers have made similar details, the exact numbers have been hidden from the public, but they were believed to be quite sizable investments from the digital marketplace for timed-exclusivity.
For Control, the amount received was quite significant, especially as, at his Devcom Talk last month, Remedy's CEO, Tero Virtala revealed that the budget for the game was between €20 million to €30 million over the course of the three years. While the full amount won't be going to the developer, even a portion would be a heavy cut off the development costs.
Like Digital Bros, Remedy also published their financial report marking the first half of 2019, but reviewing the documents released, there doesn't seem to be a mention of the amount received as part of this transaction. The only mention of the Epic Games Store came in Virtala's statement, "Marketing of Control is handled by its publisher 505 Games, who also entered into an agreement to release the PC version of the game as an Epic Games Store exclusive. Control will receive significant visibility on PlayStation marketing channels and the Epic Games Store, thanks to agreements made with respective parties. " Although it could have been combined as part of 505Games' development fees.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
