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Epic Games Head of Publishing Strategy Sergiy Galyonkin leaves company

Sergiy Galyonkin created player analytics progam SteamSpy, and would go on to use that knowledge to help develop and launch Epic Games Store.

TJ Denzer

October 2, 2023 10:48 AM

Image via Epic Games

Following the announcement of mass layoffs at Epic Games, another major player is leaving the company. Sergiy Galyonkin had been with the company for just under 8 years, having helped develop and launch Epic Games Store. He was the Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games, and was working to make the platform more prominent in Eastern Europe, but this week Galyonkin announced that his time with Epic Games is up. He officially resigned and is vacating his position with the company.

Sergiy Galyonkin would share official word of his resignation on his personal Twitter on October 2, 2023. Although the mass layoffs reported at Epic Games last week were not mentioned in the statement, Galyonkin shared he did not feel he was a good fit for the direction the company was headed. His full statement can be seen below:

Sergiy Galyonkin's statement on his exit from Epic Games — Sergiy Galyonkin shared his statement of resignation from Epic Games on his personal Twitter, claiming he wouldn't be a good fit in the company's latest era.
Source: Sergiy Galyonkin

Today is officially my last day at Epic Games. These eight years have been some of the most exciting of my career, and I am deeply grateful to my former Epic Games colleagues and Tim Sweeney for allowing me to help build Epic 4.0.

I am also immensely thankful for the generous $144M donation Epic Games sent to various charities to help Ukraine in the early days of the Russian invasion of 2022. At that time, Epic Games was ahead of some G7 countries in providing support. It means the world to me, and while I wasn’t always polite during those discussions, I will forever be grateful.

We launched Fortnite, which later became one of those self-reinforcing cultural phenomena I wrote about just a year prior. We proved that free-to-play without pay-to-win can work at scale. We challenged the status quo in game distribution with the 88/12 revenue share.

Now, Epic Games is on its way to transforming from a game developer, engine creator, and publisher, into a platform - Epic 5.0. I am not a good fit for this new version of Epic; it requires people of a different kind.

I plan to remain in the gaming industry. I also hope to be more vocal now that I don’t have to worry about the PR department knocking on my DMs.

Again, thank you to everyone I worked with at Epic Games - it was an incredible journey, and I will always cherish it.

Sergiy Galyonkin began work at Epic Games in 2016 when he was hired as the Eastern Europe-focused Head of Publishing. Before that, he created SteamSpy, which was instrumental in automatically gathering player data and breaking said down into stats such as unit sales and aggregate play-time on a given game. Galyonkin used his knowledge from work on SteamSpy to develop similar analytic systems for the Epic Games Store. In doing so, he was instrumental in EGS’s official launch back in 2018.

Galyonkin didn’t signal where he might end up following his resignation from Epic Games, but claimed he’d still be working in the games industry. As such, we may see him show up elsewhere in the very near future. Stay tuned for further updates on this story.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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October 2, 2023 10:48 AM

TJ Denzer posted a new article, Epic Games Head of Publishing Strategy Sergiy Galyonkin leaves company
- baron calamity
  
   reply
  October 2, 2023 10:50 AM
  
  Epic 5.0? That gives me "synergy" vibes and not in a good way.
- Chandler55
  
   reply
  October 2, 2023 11:09 AM
  
  epic should let developers attach steam keys to the store. so a egs purchase gives you an egs copy and steam copy .
  - Chandler55
    
     reply
    October 2, 2023 11:11 AM
    
    i accidentally posted, it woudl never happen cause epic dont want to funnel users to steam, but itd be neat if egs become the place for ppl to buy games and ends up giving devs higher cut since steam keys are free for developer to make
  - qwpeoriu
    
     reply
    October 2, 2023 11:11 AM
    
    is that something steam actually allows?
    - Conan
      
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      October 2, 2023 11:14 AM
      
      Steam allows third party sales; Humble and GMG both do. The game would have to be available on Steam, though, and they won't allow a price disparity.
      
      So people would just buy it on Steam anyway.
      - Chandler55
        
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        October 2, 2023 1:31 PM
        
        im surprised the devs dont at least setup a little eshop to claw back some of the 30%. seems like bandai namco does that for elden ring. many indies just link to steam directly
        
        though if everyone started doing this maybe valve says fu no more free keys
        
        Junktown
        
         reply
        October 2, 2023 1:36 PM
        
        That would violate the Most Favored Nation clause in their agreement. They’re not allowed to offer something cheaper than they offer it on Steam.
        
        Chandler55
        
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        October 2, 2023 1:38 PM
        
        itd still be the full price. just they get to keep more of the dev royalty cut! theyre not allowed to offer anything extra but i wonder if they coudl be like hey buy from here pls cause we're poor
        
        Conan
        
         reply
        October 2, 2023 1:53 PM
        
        I mean indies do offer their games on Steam and Itch or other platforms, but Valve provides a fair bit for that 30%; it's not like it's just wasted money.
    - Masem
      
       reply
      October 2, 2023 1:08 PM
      
      Klei did it for Griftlands, but I think this might have been on their own dime