Earnings report shows Epic Games paid $10.5 million to secure Control as a PC exclusive
In recent months, Epic Games has attempted to bring attention to their Epic Games Store by obtaining high-profile games as timed exclusives to their platform. Publishers of titles like Metro Exodus, Borderlands 3, Shenmue III, Detroit: Become Human, and many, many more, agreed to six-to-twelve-month-long contracts with Epic, ensuring that their games would launch first on the EGS. Securing games would obviously cost Epic some amount of money, and considering their success with Fortnite, it's clear that the company has copious amounts of cash to throw around, but the finer details as to just how much Epic was spending has never been officially divulged.
But, thanks to a newly published earnings report, we might have some insight into the lengths Epic is willing to go to, to bolster the exclusive content for their storefront. Digital Bros, the Italian parent company of 505 Games, and publisher of the recent Remedy-developed Control, disclosed in the report that Epic had paid them 9.49 million Euros for timed exclusivity rights to Control. The payment took place back in June, prior to the August 27th release date of the game. Considering that it was officially stated by Remedy that their budget for Control was in the ballpark of 20-30 million Euros, this is a significant amount of money paid for the game.
Source