Epic Games Store is still not profitable

The Epic Games Store, despite being about five years after its launch, is still not profitable. This information came from Steve Allison, the general manager of the Epic Games Store, during the first day of the lawsuit between Epic Games and Google.

The digital store was introduced in December 2018, acting as a rival to Valve's Steam. Originally, Valve took a 30% cut from developers' profits, however, Epic Games only required a 12% contribution since its inception. The Epic Games Store has heavily invested in acquiring exclusive PC games and offers free games weekly.

In August, Epic Games announced a program where developers can keep all their revenue if their game remains exclusive on the Epic Games Store for half a year. The lawsuit between Epic Games and Google started recently, with Epic suing Google in 2020 due to a dispute about in-app purchases. Epic Games has argued that the Google Play Store has an unfair monopoly in the market, and third-party stores should be allowed on Android devices.

This lawsuit is primarily to ensure Epic Games can retain all revenue from in-game purchases in Fortnite. A similar legal battle took place between Epic Games and Apple in 2021, which resulted in Fortnite being removed from iOS devices, before being reintroduced later.