Epic Games partners with makers of The Last Guardian, Inside, and Control
Epic Games Publishing has been busy, announcing that it will publish the next games from the makers of The Last Guardian, Inside, and Control.
Epic Games has been very busy with its own lineup of games, as well as its efforts with the Unreal Engine. However, Epic's publishing arm has also been hard at work keeping Epic's library of games filled up. Thursday marks one of Epic Games Publishing's biggest days so far, as they announced a partnership deal with developers gen DESIGN (The Last Guardian), Playdead (Inside, Limbo), and Remedy Entertainment (Control, Alan Wake) for future game releases.
"gen DESIGN, Remedy, and Playdead are among the most innovative and talented studios in the industry, with strong visions for their next games," said Head of Epic Games Publishing Hector Sanchez said via press release. "They will have full creative control, while Epic will provide a solid foundation of project funding and services."
One of the most noteworthy items in this announcement is that this is specifically being called a multiplatform publishing effort, which means these games will go beyond PC. This likely means plans to bring these new efforts to the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, though it sounds like any PC release would at least start off as an Epic Games Store exclusive. Epic notes that this deal will line up like its other publishing deals, meaning the developers will retain full creative control and intellectual property rights. Epic will fully fund all development costs in exchange for 50/50 profits after initial costs are recouped.
For Remedy, this continues their incredible comeback story following the success of last year's Control. For Playdead, this is the first sign that there's a new project in the works following 2017's Inside. And for gen DESIGN, this not only marks the first sign that they're working on their first new project since 2016's The Last Guardian, but it also means that they'll be going forward without Sony. So whatever gen DESIGN has lined up, it will not be a PlayStation exclusive, though it will likely be released on the PS5.
Look for more information on what these seasoned developers have in the works in the weeks and months ahead. Shacknews will monitor this story and report on any news regarding these new Epic Games Publishing partnerships as it arises.
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Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Epic Games partners with makers of The Last Guardian, Inside, and Control
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This is actually rather big news (after getting all the updates to Wikipedia from it :P
Epic's launched a third-party publishing label, Epic Games Publishing, with these three as their first.
EGP provides 100% of dev costs, but dev keeps 100% creative control/IP
EGP takes all revenue from top until that dev cost is covered , then they split 50/50
It is implicit that this requires a time-exclusive period on the EGS but not confirmed yet.
That's a preeeeetty nice deal. I will point out that in all 3 cases, there was some type of initial funding/work in place on the title. Playdead had Game 3 already going, GenDesign had been working with an investment on the next game since Last Guardian, and same with Remedy based on Control's sales. So EGP is likely going to be selective to projects that have a good chance of completion and quality at the end of the day.