Rebellion boss Jason Kingsley (OBE) participated in a fireside chat at Develop: Brighton 2019 earlier this week.
As reported by GamesIndustry, he talked about the timed exclusive deal that will bring Zombie Army 4: Dead War on the Epic Games Store first on PC. Not too long before that got announced at PC Gamer's E3 2019 show, Kingsley had stated an exclusive deal was not likely to happen, but clearly the offer was simply too good to pass on.
Generally I think I would prefer not to do exclusives but I understand Epic's position with it, and quite frankly they are paying through the nose to build their store. All credit to them, it's fantastic, and we'll take some of their money, thank you very much. [With Zombie Army 4: Dead War] it was a pure business case.
I was aware that Epic was doing exclusives, [but] we hadn't been offered at the time. I didn't really think they would, because typically they go for the super big.
Obviously they count our new title Zombie Army 4 as a big title, which is great, it's a really nice bonus for us. I was quite impressed by the numbers they offered.
Sometimes, as an independent developer, you've gotta take your chances. When something like that is offered... you sort of share the risk and share the reward.
Kingsley thinks the Epic Games Store might be a wake-up call of sorts for Valve's Steam, too.
I think partly it's also a bit of a kick up the backside for anybody whenever a new [competitor] comes into the marketplace. It makes you reflect. I mean, developers turn up with a brilliant game and... it makes you focus on your game as well. It's exactly the same for multinationals.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War doesn't have an exact release date yet, but Rebellion confirmed it will be available at some point in early 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Given the usual Epic Games Store exclusive window, Steam users should see the game release there in early 2021.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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