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Ubisoft says Steam’s business model is “unrealistic”

Ubisoft's vice president for partnerships and revenue has spoken to the New York Times about Steam

Following Ubisoft’s decision earlier this year to release The Division 2 on the Epic Games store rather than Steam, opting for the greater revenue share offered by Epic, it doesn’t look like the studio will be selling any of its future games through Valve’s platform any time soon. The vice president for partnerships and revenue at Ubisoft has said that the business model Valve uses is not realistic.

Ubisoft’s Chris Early has told the New York Times (via VG24/7) that the decision to make The Division 2 available through the Epic Games store and its own platform, Uplay, was part of a wider business consideration the studio was having about putting its games on Steam. He said that the studio made the decision not to release The Division 2 on Steam because Valve wouldn’t make adjustments its model for revenue sharing.

Early said to the site “it’s unrealistic, the current business model that they have.” He added, “it doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution.”

Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney also told the site, “stores extract an enormous portion of game industry profits and are ripe for disruption.”

Epic’s cut of game revenue from its platform is 12%, meaning that titles’ developers and publishers are left with the remaining 88%, whereas Steam’s cut is 30%. Since the store’s launch in December last year, Epic has acquired multiple titles as Epic exclusives – though some only timed – such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Borderlands 3, Auto Chess, and more.