During the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, Epic reveals how much it paid out to developers and publishers to offer free games between December 2018 and September 2019. A new document shows the exact price Epic paid to list dozens of titles ranging from triple-As to indies.
Every week, the Epic Games Store gives away at least one free game. Currently, free games release each Thursday at 11:00 a.m. E.T., sometimes adding two or three additional free titles to the list. With fierce competition like Valve's online storefront Steam, this is one way for Epic Games to attract consumers, but not without a hefty price as revealed during the Epic v. Apple lawsuit that could potentially last years. In 2019, Epic gave away 73 free games in total, but a legal document reveals the price Epic paid to feature 38 of them on its store in the first nine months of 2019.
This legal document was "accidentally published early" according to Simon Carless, a gaming historian who has been reporting on the lawsuit and posted the list of games to Twitter. The games during this nine-month period includes indie titles such as Slime Rancher and Oxenfree, as well as more commercially successful titles such as the Batman: Arkham series and Subnautica. For the latter games, Epic paid out $1.5 million and $1.4 million respectively, with the Batman: Arkham games being the highest price.
In total, for the list of games that is mostly comprised of indies, Epic paid over $11.5 million. Consequently, Subnautica brought in 613,912 new Epic users and Batman brought in 804,052, according to the document. However, many Twitter commenters are concerned about the price that Epic paid out to small indie developers, feeling they may have been low-balled for the sake of exposure.
One column shows that Metro: 2033 Redux cost Epic Games $0, but some theorize this could be due to the one-year exclusivity deal made in 2019. Other details were revealed during the first day of Epic v. Apple in court, such as the fact that Fornite made Epic Games over $9 billion in 2019 alone, as well as revealing that Metroid's Samus and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson could get Fortnite skins in the future.
The legal battle between Epic Games and Apple began when Apple took Fornite off of the App Store in a response to Epic's attempt to bypass Apple's payment process by offering discounts to users that chose to purchase directly through Epic Games. Apple was taking 30 percent of the commission from purchases, and by kicking Fornite off its store and intentionally keeping iPhone users from the game, the courts will determine if Apple is using its power to manipulate consumers.