Division 2 Steam Release
Steam Community:: Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. Refusing to release the game on Steam. But still feeling entitled and privileged to use their community features I'm going to use this as an example when some epic clown tries to claim that Steam does not offer anything to deserve a 30% cut.
The Epic Games Store is already starting to leave its mark. VentureBeat is reporting that Ubisoft's The Division 2 will be skipping a Steam release entirely, and will instead sell on Ubisoft's own Uplay Store and the Epic Games Store, which opened late last year.
Steel Division 2. Standard Edition $23.57. Deluxe Edition $46.28. GeForce Now Action Indies Simulation Strategy. Wargame Multiplayer Cooperation World War II RTS Military Singleplayer Historical Realistic Tactical Turn-Based Strategy Real-Time with Pause Moddable Replay Value Real Time Tactics. Tom Clancy's The Division 2 will not be released on Steam, as publisher Ubisoft has opted to make the PC version of the title a semi-exclusive release on the Epic Games Store. According to a report.
'We entrust Epic to deliver a smooth journey for our fans, from preordering the game and enjoying our Beta to the launch of Tom Clancy's The Division 2 on March 15,' Ubisoft's Chris Early said in a statement. 'Epic continues to disrupt the video game industry, and their third party distribution model is the latest example, and something Ubisoft wants to support.'
Of course, a lot of that disruption Ubisoft is talking about is likely to do with the amount of profit Epic takes from developers. Steam, in most cases, takes a 30% cut from all sales in its digital store. But Epic is shaking things up by giving developers a far better deal. Epic is content with taking 12% of sales in the Epic Games Store, claiming that's all it really needs to keep the storefront profitable.
It's simple math. Ubisoft keeps 100% of the money by selling in Uplay, and 88% by selling in the Epic Games Store. That's a whole lot more money than the company would make selling The Division 2 in Steam, where it would only get 70% of the revenue.
It's hard not to imagine Epic stealing more major publishers away with the promise of a bigger payday. There are already millions upon millions of users that have the Epic Games Store installed, thanks to its presence inside the Epic Launcher, and the fact that you need the Epic Launcher to play Fortnite. If Epic can convince another big company — say, a Take-Two or a Square Enix — to leave Steam behind in favor of the Epic Games Store, all of those doomsday predictions may actually be worth paying attention to.
You can at least count on Steam losing more business from indies. Epic looks to be targeting them for exclusivity, and with the more generous revenue split, it'll be tough for many to resist.
As Meja once said, 'It's all 'bout the money.'
Epic has stepped up its battle with Valve for PC video game sales by cutting a deal with Ubisoft to pull The Division 2 from Steam and instead bring it to its own store.
It means the high-profile, triple-A release will not be available to buy on Steam, unlike its predecessor and previous Ubisoft PC titles.
The Division 2, due out 15th March, will also be sold on Ubisoft's own Uplay platform, as you'd expect.
It sounds like other future Ubisoft games will be sold on the Epic Games store, too, although it seems this deal comes too late to affect the sale of Far Cry New Dawn, which remains available to pre-purchase on Valve's platform.
Epic recently launched the Epic Games store offering a bigger cut of sales to developers than Valve currently offers through Steam. It's also made a game free to download every fortnight since.
In December, Epic signed a deal with Skybound to bring Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season on PC to the Epic Games store, but this deal with Ubisoft is a significant step-up. The Division 2 is expected to shift millions of copies, so Valve will miss out on some serious cash.
Prior to today, 9th January, all pre-orders for The Division 2 were offered directly through the Ubisoft Store. After today, PC players can pre-order The Division 2 on both the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store (pre-ordering guarantees access to the upcoming beta). Then, on 15th March, PC players can buy the game on both the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store only.
Ubisoft's Chris Early said: 'Epic continues to disrupt the videogame industry, and their third party digital distribution model is the latest example, and something Ubisoft wants to support.'
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Steam
At the time of publication, The Division 2's Steam store page is still live.